Lethbridge doesn’t talk about “Those Women,” — you know the ones I’m talking about. Prostitutes — the seedy underbelly of Lethbridge which nobody wants to talk about.
Well, local author Belinda Crowson, thinks the time has come to talk about them, so she wrote a book — “We Don’t Talk About those Women— Lethbridge’s Red Light District— 1880s to 1944.”
“I’m not tying to glorify prostitution. I’m trying to personalize it,” Crowson said adding she put two years of research into her second book trying to give a face to “those women.” It will be released this Thursday night with a Reader’s Theatre at the Galt Museum. Seven local actors including community members (including me) as well as Galt Museum volunteers and university students will be reading excerpts from the book and fictionalized accounts of what Crowson envisioned happening at the time.
I’m playing Northwest Mounted Police, Superintendent R Burton Deane writing the 1894 annual report, which includes his observations about the issue. As well, other actors are playing Madame Madeleine having a discussion with a local minister as well as another Madame, Miss Miller discussing the issue with one of her staff, Pearl writing an angry letter to the editor defending prostitution against Octave Ursenbach as well as Mayor W.D.L Hardie and Alderman Dr. James Lovering in the midst of a pre-election debate.
“I think I wrote it just because I kept hearing so many questions which lead to a lot of people wanting to know more,” Crowson continued adding research began with James Gray’s book “Red Lights on The Prairies,” which was followed by newspapers which had accounts of these women’s court cases followed by accounts from people who actually lived in the Red Light District with the women.
“There was a lot of oral history. People who grew up with the children of these women, and I spoke to people whose dads were police officers who remember what their dads said, she continued adding the project was a challenge, because even through these women had cases in court and wrote letters to the editor, often they used fake names.
“ A lot of it was like detective work, getting little pieces of information from a lot of different sources and putting them together into a story,” she said adding the completed puzzle painted a fascinating pictures.
“None of the stereotypes seemed to fit. These women were as unique and individual as any other woman you’d meet. They were wives and mothers and taxpayers and they gave to charity,” she observed.
“Their husbands knew what they were doing. Lethbridge is actually one of the last cities in North America to have an open red light district. I think that will surprise some people,” she said the women also faced a lot of the same social issues women face today like alcohol and drug abuse, the strict social class system of the day as well as underlying racism plus a lack of opportunity for women in general.
“A woman could be abandoned by her husband but she would still be considered to be married, which meant they didn’t have a lot of opportunities. And respectable professions were very low paying,” Crowson continued.
“The people then were quick to lay blame on other people and issues like the poor, lax American morals, foreigners in general,” she said adding the social system and policing has changed a lot since then.
“ I was also surprised by how politically aware these women were. When women couldn’t go to a meeting and vote, they’d hire a lawyer to go for them,” she observed.
The book launch and readers theatre take place at 7 p.m., Sept. 16, speeches will follow that followed by a meet and greet and autograph and discussion session with Crowson.
“I’m quite looking forward to it,” she said adding she hasn’t seen the completed, published book yet, which was done through the Lethbridge Historical Society. She is working on three other books already.
