Excerpt from White Rock, The Novel, Chapter 16
The entrance to the back corridor of the opulent Hilton, Mockingbird Hotel is barricaded and guarded by men in plain clothes who are obviously not policemen. The only way into the series of private suites is through a single door at the back of the hotel facing the railroad tracks. A group of A-List gentlemen sit at cocktail tables in the courtyard next to the pool smoking cigarettes and awaiting admission while scantily-dressed cocktail waitresses serve them. An unseasonal chill is in the air tonight.
Within the suite there is a private hidden room. A beautiful blonde European woman puts a handful of cash into a lock-box, places it in the safe in the wall, and closes the hatch. She knocks in a pattern on the metal door and it opens allowing her out of the room. A tall young Italian boy hands her the keys, admiring her with dark lustful eyes. She locks the door behind her then slowly pulls back her dress at the slit. He watches her high-heeled foot rise up on the top of stool he’d been occupying, the milk-white skin of her muscular thigh taunt in pale nylons. She attaches the keys to her garter and lowers her leg staring past him, feigning indifference.
There is a patterned knock on the door across the hall. The blonde woman answers and Rose Davis saunters in wearing a sheer gown with a black bustier underneath, silk stockings and garters. The room is dark and smoky; people are everywhere languishing in the haze. The older woman smiles and closes the door behind her. She hugs little Rose in the shadows and slips a pill in her hand.
“What is this, Belle?” Rose looks at the white pill in her palm.
“It’s called ‘Quaalude’,” the woman purrs in a thick Scandinavian accent. “It will help, believe me. Don’t be afraid. These men are all VIP’s, very wealthy. They will take care of you. Just be your beautiful self…”
She leans over and kisses the side of Roses’ face, a little too tenderly. Rose turns towards the din. Belle pats her on the ass and gently pushes her into the thick of the crowd.
Men and women are everywhere in various states of undress, touching, breathing, watching everyone and themselves. She wonders how long it will take for the pill to take effect.
The stripper phenomena of the 1960’s didn’t necessarily start in Dallas, Tx, but it definitely thrived within it’s supposedly-conservative city limits. Though there were numerous venues, the most memorable was a dive bar owned by a hustler named Jack Rubenstein, or rather, Jack Ruby. Though Ruby will forever be remembered as the black-suited patriot who gunned down Lee Harvey Oswald after the JFK assassination, it was in one of his clubs, the Carousel Club, where some of the most celebrated adult and burlesque entertainers of their time got their start. Here the names of Candy Barr, Terre’ Tale, Tuesday Nite, and Baby LeGrand became nightlife legends.
Stag parties became the newest form of executive entertainment, giving rise to the standing slogan ‘for gentlemen only’. Being half-way between Los Angeles and New York, Dallas became the southern epicenter for a sub-culture defined by cheap booze, high-stakes gambling, organized crime and gorgeous women on display. American night life would be forever transformed…
Dallas native J. Rene Guerrero published his debut novel, White Rock in 2017. It is the first in the Thin Veil Series.