
Get around don’t I ? I just showed you my shop in Hong Kong, now here’s my Alaskan Boudoir. Sarah Palin? I chucked her in the Creek…
Dolly of the title, was Dolly Arthur, and yes, she was a lady of the boudoir too!
All the best dolls are…
I got this book a while ago as a gift (thanks B!) and found a write up online.
”Dolly’s House, 24 Creek Street, Ketchikan, is a residuum of the lusty past of a frontier Alaska town. Here “the Creek” was another name for the “line” where fishermen, miners–and some more genteel characters found entertainment and feminine companionship. Wonderful historical photographs and stories.” (June Allen)
I read it in one night, it’s an easy read.
June Allen met Dolly 3yrs before she died, to interview her for the book.
” Dolly Arthur, nee Thelma Copeland of rural Idaho mining country, was a Ketchikan resident from 1919 until her death in July 1975. She is probably Ketchikan’s most famous person today. She lies at peace in plot 4949 in Bayview Cemetery with men, strangers, buried next to her on either side. She would like that. Dolly said her attraction for men was one of her best traits. “I just liked men and they liked me, too!”
Her house on Creek Street is now a museum visited by thousands of tourists every summer. In her lifetime, however, there was nothing much to distinguish it from other small houses of ill repute along the boardwalk. There was always a temporary look to those little rain-scoured houses tottering atop piling, whose residents used the cleansing tides to serve as sewer, plus bottle (and occasionally body) disposal.
Dolly’s house, however, was not only her business but also her longtime home. Her claim to present fame was simply because of the more than 50 years she spent on Creek Street. She bought the house in 1919 and was still living there, alone, in the early ’70s. She became the last of the former ladies of the line to remain in residence on the creek until her death, which was 20 years after the red-light district was finally closed for good in 1954. ” (June Allen)