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Uptown—Downtown |
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. . . The tenderloin district in New Orleans was considered the second to France, meaning the second greatest in the world, with extensions for blocks and blocks on the North side of Canal Street. Downtown was supposed to be the high-class part, although, fact of the business, the highest caliber district ran from the highest to the lowest in price and caliber alike. We also had an Uptown side in the District, which was considered very big, but the price was pretty much even all the way around.
They turned out many different artists Uptown, but never first-class artists because the money wasn't there.
Eveiy place in New Orleans had a gambling house, and I don't know of any time that the racetracks were ever closed —a hundred days of races at City Park, then they would be at the Fair Grounds for another hundred days—and so they would go on continuously for three hundred and sixty-five days a year.
Im telling you this tenderloin district was like something that nobody has ever seen before or since. The doors were taken off the saloons there from one year to the next. Hundreds of men were passing through the streets day and night. The chippies in their little-girl dresses were standing in the crib doors singing the blues. Then you could observe the fancy Dans, dressed fit to kill, wearing their big diamonds-sports like Willie the Pleaser, Bob Rowe (the kingpin of the District), Clark Wade (who took over after Rowe went to California), Chinee Morris (the best-looking guy in the District), Okey
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