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"Madder Jazz and stronger hooch! Let's show 'em the Charleston AIN'T made in Carolina!"

...A glance back 90 years ago to Prohibition-Era Artopolis and Mess County...I realize color photos back then were nothing as vibrant as this, but we're talking fantasy here...

Meet Irene O'Hara (a.k.a. "Madamme Boo-Yah"), an extremely popular Flapper Lady and Founder, Propietor, and Grand Madamme of the Bantam Club, the swankiest private nightclub and cathouse in Artopolis (and the whole of Mess County) back in the day...Many a prominent local (and out-of-town) politician, lawyer, police officer, doctor, businessman, entertainer, and major crime figure frequented this opulently decorated palace of debauchery and indulged in the variety of unique "services" provided by Mme. Boo-Yah and the "Fee-Line-Up", as she always gleefully referred to her girls...Quality (ditto discretion) was of the essence, and If you couldn't afford it, you certainly weren't coming through the front doors!

However like anything else, Prohibition didn't last, and neither did the Bantam Club, which closed not too long after the 18th Amendment had been repealed in late 1933...With the legit liquor industry back up and serving its thirsty public, as well as the Great Depression tightening up a good many wallets - lavish venues such as the Bantam just weren't in vogue anymore...The empty converted Victorian mansion had stood in disrepair and decay for another 30 years until squatters and vandals finally burned the place to the ground...The site stood vacant for another decade before a modern office building was constructed there...

As for Irene O'Hara? After the gentlemen's club folded, nobody ever was quite sure of the whereabouts of Madamme Boo-Yah...Some say she split town with some mobster-at-large (she certainly had been with quite a few criminal types in her time), and that rivals eventually had caught up with and quietly disposed of both of them...Others say that she ran off with an entertainer bound for Hollywood, and settled there...Still others claim she never left the area at all... Instead, they suggest that she fell into sheer loneliness and alcoholic depression when booze became legal once again, and on one overcast and densely foggy night, simply walked from the confines of her big empty home and committed suicide by jumping off the Artopolis Memorial Bridge (constructed right after WW1) into the Harbor below...This particular epitaph seems to be the most popular told and accepted...Whatever the case, Madamme Boo-Yah just sort of faded out of the picture...The Roaring 20's images and legends of her are all that live on now...

See Also: Chast11A Red...