Boys Town or Boy's Town or Boys' Town (Mexican brothels near Texas border)

[Wilson Gray]

Probably the most-famous "Boys' - or however else you want to
punctuate it; I've never seen this particular usage of the term
written before now - Town" is (or was?) the one in Ciudad Juarez,
Mexico, across the river from El Paso. I first heard of this one as
*the* Boys' Town, in 1962. I met a fellow ex-GI who had been a
"cannon-cocker" (artilleryman) at Fort Sill, "Home of the Artillery,"
Oklahoma. He and his buddies used to travel all the way from Fort Sill
to Juarez's Boys' Town to revel in the pleasures of debauchery.

When he first started to tell me his war stories, I'd freak, since I'd
grown up Catholic in the heyday of Father Flanagan's Boys' Town. There
was even a movie, which I saw, made about the place. It took a while
for me to adjust to the slang usage.

-Wilson

On 8/28/07, Barry Popik <bapopik at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Barry Popik <bapopik at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Boys Town or Boy's Town or Boys' Town (Mexican brothels near
>               Texas border)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Anyone remember a "boys town"? Not in OED?
> ...
> HDAS has "boys town" and it's "_Navy_, the junior officers' quarters on
> shipboard"? How do you speak to the editor of HDAS and invite him to Texas?
> ...
> ...
>
> http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/boys_town_or_boys_town_zona=
> _de_tolerancia_zona_roja_zona_rosa/
> ...
>
>  Entry from August 28, 2007
> Boy's Town or Boys Town (Zona de Tolerancia; Zona Roja; Zona Rosa)
>
> "Boy's Town" or "Boys Town" is a place in Mexico near the Texas border wher=
> e
> "boys" go to find "girls." These places of prostitution are also called
> "Zona de Tolerancia" (Zone of Tolerance) and "Zona Roja" (Red Zone) and
> "Zona Rosa" (Rose Zone or Pink Zone). The term was popular by at least the
> 1950s.
>
> The term has nothing to do with the Boys Town (now Girls and Boys Town) in
> Nebraska that was founded by Edward J. Flanagan in the 1920s for at-risk
> children. However, it is possible that the prostitution sense borrowed from
> this established term.
>
>
> Wikipedia: Boy's
> Town<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy%27s_Town%2C_prostitution>
> *Boy's Towns*, also known as *Zonas de Tolerancia*, *Zonas Rojas* or *Zonas
> Rosas*, are formally designated zones within several Mexican cities where
> legalized prostitution exists. These normally walled compounds, most of
> which are located along the U.S.-Mexico border, operate as red light
> districts. Notorious Boy's Towns are located in Ciudad Acu=F1a, Nuevo Lared=
> o,
> Piedras Negras, and Reynosa.
>
> Wikipedia: Girls and Boys
> Town<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girls_and_Boys_Town>
> *Girls and Boys Town*, formerly *Boys Town* and *Father Flanagan's Boys'
> Home*, is a non-profit organization dedicated to the care of at-risk
> children, with national headquarters in the village of Boys Town, Nebraska.
> The property was listed as a National Historic Landmark on February 04,
> 1985.
>
> The original Boys Town was founded as a boys orphanage in 1921 by Edward J.
> Flanagan, a Roman Catholic priest working in Omaha. The "City of Little Men=
> "
> pioneered development of new juvenile care methods in 20th century America,
> emphasizing social preparation as a model for public boys' homes worldwide.
>
>
> 20 December 1957, Brownsville (TX) *Herald*, "U.S. Ambassador To Probe
> Matamoros Vice Industry," pg. 1, col. 2:
> Recurrent rumors in this area frequently refer to a section of Matamoros
> known as "Boys Town" where Mexican officials are reported to take a somewha=
> t
> easy-going attitude toward prostitution.
>
> 9 March 1961, Corpus Christi (TX) *Times*, "Reynosa: Old, New Mingle in 'Si=
> n
> City'" by B. F. Kellum, pg. 18:
> Just about everyone on both sides of the Rio Grande agrees most tourists wh=
> o
> get into trouble do so because they wander about a mile west of the
> international bridge to "Boys Town," a sprawling community of neon signs,
> cantinas, dope pushers and prostitutes.
>
> Conservative estimates place the number of prostitutes in "Boys Town" at
> 800, ranging from 14 years up.
>
> Prostitution is legal and government-regulated in Mexico. The girls even
> have a sort of social security that pays them a few pesos a day when they
> are unable to work.
>
> The tourist usually gets cheated=97but most expect it when they venture int=
> o
> this town-within-a-town.
>
> 24 June 1977, San Antonio *Light*, "Prostitutes Protest In Nuevo Laredo,"
> pg. 8A:
> NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico (UPI) Protesting prostitutes are complaining city
> officials are allowing harlots to work in the normally off-limits downtown
> area, and they want the mayor to put a stop to the practice.
> (...)
> "Mr. Mayor. We believe everything has a place: You in your office and
> prostitutes in the red light district," said one sign carried by the group
> of prostitutes who were joined in the protest march by waiters and the
> owners of eight nightclubs in the "Zone of Tolerance," which Americans refe=
> r
> to as "Boy's Town."
>
> Mexican law permits prostitution in supervised zones located away from the
> city. The prostitutes are required to register and undergo periodic medical
> examinations.
>
> 1 May 1990, *Pacific Stars and Stripes* (Tokyo, Japan), "Border town
> brothels still lure Americans," pg. 7:
> CIUDAD ACUNA, Mexico (AP)=97In a handful of cities on the Mexican border,
> American men still throng to the brothels of "boys' towns," legal
> prostitution zones little changed by fear of sexual disease or campaigns fo=
> r
> more wholesome tourism.
>
> At least five Mexican border cities have flourishing boys' towns, and thoug=
> h
> some have been moved away from central tourist districts, they remain
> popular attractions for businessmen, hunters and teen-agers.
>
> They're accepted with little controversy, although Texas' Republican
> gubernatorial candidate, Clayton Williams, drew heat after admitting
> recently that he frequented border brothels during his college years more
> than 30 years ago because they were the only place to get "serviced."
>
> Visiting the prostitutes, Williams said, was just "part of growing up in
> West Texas."
> (...)
> OUTSIDE along the dusty streets of boys' town=97also known as La Zona de
> Tolerancia or Zone of Tolerance=97scattered groups of men from nearby Air
> Force installations, teen-agers and other Americans wander to bars like the
> Rio Club and La Camelia.
>
> 3 November 1981, Frederick (MD) *Post*, "Maverick mayor: 'Jorge is the
> change,'" pg. B4, col. 1:
> MATAMOROS, Mexico (AP)=97A radio station owner with a grandfatherly face, a
> handlebar mustache and an easy smile is turning this border city upside dow=
> n
> with his maverick brand of populist politics.
>
> Since taking office Jan. 1, Mayor Jorge Cardenas Gonzalez has closed
> cantinas on Sundays, donated his $12,000 salary to illuminate crime-plagued
> neighborhoods and told barkeeps in the infamous "Boys' Town" redlight
> district to move out or shut down.
> (...)
> Shootings and knifings within the "zona roja" have alarmed the surrounding
> residential areas.
>
> "We're going to run a socially moral city, that is my aim," he said.
>
> (Trademark)
> Word Mark BOYS TOWN TIMES
> Goods and Services (EXPIRED) IC 016. US 038. G & S: SEMI-MONTHLY NEWSPAPER
> PUBLISHED IN THE INTEREST OF THE HOMELESS BOY. FIRST USE: 19381024. FIRST
> USE IN COMMERCE: 19381024
> Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING
> Serial Number 71449479
> Filing Date December 15, 1941
> Current Filing Basis 1A
> Original Filing Basis 1A
> Registration Number 0398772
> Registration Date November 24, 1942
> Owner (LAST LISTED OWNER) FATHER FLANAGAN'S BOYS' HOME UNKNOWN BOYS TOWN,
> NEBR.
> Type of Mark TRADEMARK
> Register PRINCIPAL
> Live/Dead Indicator DEAD
>
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