Chicken Ranch (1972) (a.k.a. The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas)

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Does anyone have an earlier "chicken ranch"? Why is it so much later than  
"hog ranch"?
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tle_whorehouse_in_texas/_ 
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Entry from August 03, 2007 
Chicken Ranch (or, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas)
 
The La Grange, Texas “chicken ranch” was a house of prostitution since about 
 the 1840s; it closed in 1973. The story was fictionalized into the 1978 
Broadway  musical and 1982 movie (starring Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds) The 
Best  Little Whorehouse in Texas. 

The term “hog ranch” for a place of  disrepute has been in American slang 
since the 1860s. The La Grange institution  seems to have started (or at least 
popularized) the “chicken ranch” slang.  


_Wikipedia: Chicken  Ranch (Texas)_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_Ranch_(Texas))  
The Chicken Ranch operated as an illegal but  tolerated brothel from 1905 
until 1973 and was located in Fayette County, just  outside the city limits of La 
Grange. It was established by Miss Jessie  Williams. 

The brothel that became the Chicken Ranch opened in La Grange  in 1844. Run 
by a widow known as “Mrs. Swine,” the brothel operated out of a  hotel near 
the saloon and featured three young women from New Orleans,  Louisiana. The 
ladies used the hotel lobby for entertaining and rented a room  upstairs for 
conducting their business. The brothel was successful for over a  decade, but was 
forced to close during the Civil War, when Swine and one of her  prostitutes 
were forced to leave town by the Yankees. After the war,  prostitution was 
endemic in the local saloons, but no official records were  kept. 

In 1905, Jessie Williams, known as “Miss Jessie,” bought a small  house 
along the banks of the Colorado River and opened a brothel.  (...)  During the 
Great Depression, Williams was forced to lower the prices she  charged. As the 
Depression lingered, the number of customers dwindled, and  Williams had 
difficulty making ends meet for her employees. She implemented the  “poultry standard,
” charging one chicken for each sexual act. The number of  chickens at the 
brothel exploded, and soon the place became known as the Chicken  Ranch. 
Williams supplemented her income by selling surplus chickens and eggs.  
(...) 
Prostitution is not legal in Texas. In November 1972, the Texas  Department 
of Public Safety surveilled the Chicken Ranch for two days,  documenting 484 
people entering the Chicken Ranch. At the request of a member of  the Texas DPS 
intelligence team, local law enforcement closed the Chicken Ranch  down for a 
short time. It reopened, and in July 1973 Houston television reporter  Marvin 
Zindler began an investigation of the Chicken Ranch. Zindler claimed for  many 
years that he began the investigation because of an anonymous tip.  
Twenty-five years later he admitted that the tip he received was from the office  of 
Texas Attorney General John Hill, who believed that the Chicken Ranch was  part 
of an organized crime ring of houses of prostitution 

_Wikipedia:  The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Best_Little_Whorehouse_in_Texas)  
The Best Little Whorehouse in  Texas is a stage and film musical, based on a 
story by Larry L. King.  Drawing from the true-life Chicken Ranch in La 
Grange, Texas, the original play  addresses the issue of private behavior in 
conflict with public law. The real  events adapted for the musical involved a zealous 
reporter (Marvin Zindler),  whose coverage led to the closing of the Chicken 
Ranch. 
(...) 
The stage  musical, co-directed by Peter Masterson and Tommy Tune and 
co-choreographed by  Tune and Thommie Walsh, opened on Broadway in 1978, with songs 
by Carol Hall;  the original cast starred Carlin Glynn and Henderson Forsythe. 
Released in 1982,  the movie version—which starred Dolly Parton, Burt 
Reynolds, Jim Nabors, Charles  Durning, and Dom DeLuise—retained some of Hall’s songs 
and also added two others  by Parton herself, most notably a two-stanza 
version of the immensely popular  number “I Will Always Love You”. 

_New  York Times_ 
(http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/02/us/02zindler.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries&oref=slogin)  
Marvin Zindler, 85, Crusader in ‘Whorehouse in Texas’  Case, Is Dead 
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL 
Published: August 2, 2007  
HOUSTON, July 30 — Marvin Zindler, an antic and a populist television  
crusader here who became known nationally when he had “the best little  whorehouse 
in Texas” closed on corruption grounds, died here on Sunday. He was  85. 
The cause was pancreatic cancer, according to his station, KTRK-TV, an  ABC 
affiliate. 

Mr. Zindler, with his cheerfully admitted plastic  surgery, closet of peacock 
fashions, blatant hairpieces and blue-tinted glasses,  was best known for his 
first foray into investigative journalism, in 1973. He  exposed a widely 
tolerated bawdyhouse known as the Chicken Ranch in La Grange.  The case was the 
basis for the musical and movie “Best Little Whorehouse in  Texas.” 
(...) 
In 1973, at the age of 51, Mr. Zindler began his career at  KTRK. Exposing 
the La Grange brothel quickly caught his interest, he later  recounted, because 
the local authorities allowed it to operate and Texas  officials deferred to 
them. But he had an ally in the state attorney general,  John Hill, who slipped 
Mr. Zindler investigative reports. 

Gov. Dolph  Briscoe then moved swiftly to close the Chicken Ranch, making Mr. 
Zindler a  star, although, he said, he did not much care for his film 
portrayal by Dom  DeLuise, as Melvin P. Thorpe. Eventually, Mr. Zindler earned $1 
million a year  as the KTRK celebrity newshound. 

(Historical Dictionary of American  Slang) 
chicken ranch n. Orig. S.W. a house of prostitution.  {Allegedly first 
applied to a brothel in La Grange, Tex., the subject of the  Broadway musical The 
Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.] Cf. HOG RANCH,  SNAKE RANCH. 
1973 in Playboy (Jan. 1974) 58: Theso-called La Grange  Chicken Ranch, an 
east-central Texas house of ill-repute whose lineage stretches  back to the 
1840s,...was practically a state shrine, like the Alamo. 

28  February 1972, San Antonio Express, pg. 7B, col. 1: 
And the Feb. 11  “Star” devotes almost a full page of copy to the La Grange 
chicken ranch, Texas’  oldest and most famed house of ill repute. 

STAR WRITERS Bill Boe and  Peggy Meek interviewed the people of La Grange, 
and came forth with some breezy  and interesting copy. 

Boe and Meek write that, for the most part, the  citizens of La Grange 
support the chick farm and consider it an integral part of  the community. 

Other observations: The ranch discriminates, since blacks  are not allowed. 
La Grange citizens do not know who owns the house, which has  been in operation 
since 1900. They say it could be owned by a syndicate or  someone from the 
city. 

The ranch is noted for its lack of violence. No  booze is allowed. And La 
Grange citizens say “the folks” out at the ranch have  contributed to many 
worthy causes. They don’t know the madam, but suspect that  she is the “Mother 
Goose” who donated $10,000 to the town hospital fund.  

2 August 1973, Dallas Morning News, news summary, section A, pg.  2: 
Sheriff T. J. Flournoy of La Grange, Texas, reacts to  gubernatorial pressure 
and closes Texas’ oldest bawdy house, the “Chicken Ranch”  42A 




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