Josie Arlington's Storyville: The Life and Times of a New Orleans Madam

Marita Woywod Crandle

Nov 2014 · Arcadia Publishing

About this ebook

A colorful account of a nineteenth-century Big Easy icon—entrepreneur, pioneer, caretaker, philanthropist, and owner of the most dangerous brothel in the city. At a time when women were denied opportunity, the lavish parlors of Storyville offered advancement for women who welcomed the vice. Mary Deubler, the Storyville madam who called herself Josie Arlington, more than welcomed carnal enterprise. A turbulent childhood forced her into a life of prostitution at an early age, but fueled by ambition, she opened a brothel that soon developed a dangerous reputation in a city famous for competitive iniquity. Devastating circumstances spun her into a new path lined with luxury. Her palace, the brothel she named the Arlington, cemented her legacy. An establishment filled with exotic girls, who added a rare air of refinement to its proffered debauchery, it allowed Josie to become something even rarer for her time: a self-made woman of vast wealth and influence. Author Marita Woywod Crandle charts Josie's rise while painting a vivid picture of New Orleans's red-light district.

About the author

Marita Woywod Crandle, originally from Germany, moved to California with her parents at a young age. She became a marketing executive in California for several organizations, including Coldwell Banker, Home Savings of America and a product-driven company, Ashten. On a business trip to New Orleans, the city enchanted her, and she moved almost immediately to the French Quarter. She lives both in the French Quarter and by the lake with her husband, Steven Crandle, of New Orleans. Marita and her husband own Boutique du Vampyre, a vampire-themed gift shop, and they manage Potions, their vampire-themed speakeasy, both in the French Quarter. Other books she has written include New Orleans Vampires: History and Legend and Johnny White's Sports Bar: The Tiny Joint that Never Closed Until It Did, both for The History Press. She is currently writing a historical fiction vampire novel, The Carter Brothers, in which Josie Arlington is a featured character.