Last year (or was it maybe 2 years ago), I devoured The Devil in the White City. WOW!!! This is a 2-fer: there are 2 stories in one here. It is alot of reading ... very wordy ~~ I LOVED IT!!!. The World's Fair in Chicago paired with a gruesome serial killer ~~ okay, sure! I live near Chicago and am very interested in its history. Cracker Jacks, the Ferris Wheel and Tesla's electric current all made debuts at the Chicago World's Fair ... who knew? Certainly not me.
It seems the book is going to be made into a movie starring Leonardo Dicaprio as the nefarious doctor/serial killer.
Curious side note: last year, while on a haunted tour in the Irvington section of Indianapolis, we stood right in front of one of the houses the "good doctor" briefly occupied and where the bones of child victims were found. How surprised was I??!!
Another Chicago history book, Sin in the Second City tells the tale of the Everleigh Club and other "houses of ill repute". Still ringing true today, Chicago politics played a HUGE part in the "success" of the red-light operations. The buildings that housed the Everleigh Club still stand today and I think I will have to make a point to detour in that direction on one of our next Chicago trips. Just to stand there and look to my left and to my right and know that reformers, prostitutes, madams, "johns" and the boys in blue, sometimes side-by-side, paraded up and down this very street!
Currently, I am reading American Rose, the story of Rose Louise Hovick as she becomes Gypsy Rose Lee. I know a movie, Gypsy, was made some time ago and I have no idea how close to her real story it is, but I now want to give it a watch. (Gonna have to see if our library has a copy...)
And I would love to learn the art of burlesque. Yep, I said ART ... if you don't believe me, then maybe you should check out Dita Von Teese, probably the most well-known burlesque performer today. Good fun!!
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