HISTORY · HISTORICAL MARKER
The Bawdy Side of Town
Victor, Colorado
· South Third Street
History
7
Victor’s bawdy district included the Fortune Club, a famous gambling house and saloon that was also reported to house one of the area’s most talked about red light social clubs, with rooms for rent on the second floor. Harry Land built the Fortune Club in 1899 with financial assistance from Adolph Coors, and it operated until 1916, when prohibition came to Colorado and Harry Lang disappeared from Victor. Nearby on South 3rd Street, the building later known as the Isis Theater became a popular theater location soon after 1899 and is the last surviving original theater in the entire Gold Camp, with its ticket booth, stage, screen, projection equipment, and seats still largely intact. As early as 1896, Frank Monroe managed the infamous Union Theater on the west side of South 3rd Street, though it is unclear whether that theater stood on the present Isis site. The building briefly served as the Union Steam Laundry from 1902 to 1903, then became the Crystal Theater in 1904 to 1905 under S.M. Burtis, the Grand Theater in 1907 under Lowell Marvin and A.A. Shell for vaudeville and other live entertainment, and the Ideal Theater in 1912 to 1913 for silent movies and other dalliances. Since the 1920s it has been known as the Isis Theater, continuing under that name even after becoming an antiques and movie memorabilia shop in the 1980s. Women associated with the Fortune Club included Hattie May Jordan, the madam; Violet Long, who later opened a cafe in Cripple Creek; Cleo and Hattie Fay, whose burlesque act led to their being run out of town; Chicago Rose, who was buried in Victor’s Sunnyside Cemetery; Red Stocking Lee, who was sent to Kansas City in 1903 after an affair with Mayor Harry Clayton and later opened the Red Stocking Lee Saloon there; Goldfield Lil, who came from Goldfield, Nevada, and was killed in a brawl at the Senate Bar; and Hazel Vernon Wright, who played piano in the Fortune Club Saloon when she was not occupied elsewhere in the club.
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Victor, Colorado
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