A retrospective portrait of the life of a Peoria prostitute and madam, with attention to her travails in the business and her struggles with the law.
Peoria
A digital companion to the biography Becoming Richard Pryor
“Retired Peoria Madam: ‘I look back and wonder how I did it all'”
Date: 10/3/98
Citation:
Bill Mitchell, "Retired Peoria Madam: 'I look back and wonder how I did it all,'" Peoria Journal Star, Oct. 3, 1998.
-
1. The Pryors and Peoria — Between Two Worlds
-
An Exceptional Spectacle
–c. 1946–Two snappily dressed interracial couples enjoy a night at the Famous Door
-
Gertrude Pryor v. LeRoy Pryor
–1/1946–The divorce papers of Richard Pryor's parents
-
Famous Door Exterior
–c. 1947–An unidentified group — perhaps from the extended Pryor family — standing outside The Famous Door
-
The Cities of America: Peoria
–2/12/1949–The Saturday Evening Post's panoramic view of Peoria, from its “valley” to its “bluff”
-
Richard’s School Record
–1945-1955–Richard struggled to find his way through Peoria's schools
-
Ann Pryor and Friend
–1950s–Ann Pryor and a friend in 1950s Peoria
-
Ann and Buck Drinking With Friends
–1950s–Richard's father and stepmother, on the town with some sharp-dressed friends
-
Ann Stepping Out On the Town
–1950s–Richard's stepmother Ann, in a happy time and a sophisticated place
-
Deal With Teacher Gave Pryor First Audience
–12/26/82–Sixth-grade teacher Mrs. Yingst offered a stage of sorts to the young Richard
-
-
2. The Battle for City Hall
-
State Names 2 to War on Crime, Vice
–9/13/1948–As violence rose amongst Peoria's criminal elements, the state moved to rein the town in
-
Bomb Blasts Peoria Home of Prosecutor
–12/16/49–When he refused to let Peoria be an “open town,” the state's attorney had his life threatened
-
Ad Club Joins Fight on ‘Red Lights’
–6/5/1951–A new partner in the coalition against vice: the Advertising and Selling Club
-
Which Side Are You On?
–1951-1952–Peoria's reformers imagined they were pitted against bossism and corruption
-
The Town That Reformed
–10/1/1955–Reform meant a new, professionalized city management, but did not go uncontested
-
Old Peoria Was ‘Right’ for Sheltons…
–4/16/1957–The killing of the head of a gambling syndicate, in 1948, gave a huge boost to Peoria's reformers
-
-
3. Vice in the Era of Reform
-
Aiken Alley in the Early 1950s
–4/3/1951–A Happy Family in Aiken Alley
-
Collins Gets Year, Day On Money Count
–7/2/1954–After 3 years and 2 hung juries, Collins was given the minimum sentence
-
Bris Collins Surrenders to Serve Term
–9/11/1954–Collins, labeled as the “racket boss of Peoria,” took a one-year prison term
-
Survey Shows Prostitution On Rise
–05/07/1959–Prostitution was tightly monitored, and even more tightly controlled, in 1950s Peoria
-
‘The Good Old Woodruff Days’
–6/26/76–Three decades after the decline of Roarin' Peoria, some still missed “the Good Old Days”
-
“Retired Peoria Madam: ‘I look back and wonder how I did it all'”
–10/3/98–Karen Connally, one of Peoria’s last madams, reflects.
-
-
4. A More Lonely Crusade: Paul Robeson, Blackballed
-
Peoria Bans Robeson; He Vows to Sing
–04/18/1947–The Cold War heated up in Peoria when radical singer Paul Robeson came to town
-
Edward Robb Ellis Interview with Paul Robeson
–04/19/1947–An in-depth interview of Paul Robeson, freshly banned from Peoria
-
Paul Robeson Defies Peoria Ban
–04/26/1947–The Chicago Defender sympathetically reported on Robeson's defiance of Peoria's conservatives
-
Story Behind the Barring of Robeson
–05/03/1947–A detailed autopsy of the banning of Paul Robeson in Peoria, from the Baltimore Afro-American
-
From Fred Douglass to Robeson, Peoria Hasn’t Improved
–05/03/1947–Peoria's ban of Paul Robeson echoed its chilly reception of Frederick Douglass 65 years before
-
Peoria Legion Post Charter Revoked
–08/14/1947–After the Robeson incident, the hammer came down on Peoria's black American Legion post
-
-
5. The Black Community's Parallel March
-
Pursuit of Freedom
–11/1949–The mural, a mix of uplift and militancy, that faced Richard onstage at the Carver Center
-
Unveil Mural At Carver Center Today
–11/13/1949–“We must help each other” was the theme of the Carver Center's mural, “The Pursuit of Freedom”
-
Mural At Carver Center Unveiled Sunday
–11/14/1949–The Carver Center's mural was taken to be a significant work of public art in Peoria.
-
Blues in Cuba
–04/27/1950–Juliette Whittaker's first original work for the Carver Center -- a lively musical set in the Cuba of 1950
-
John Clark Discovers Negroes Now Talking
–10/11/1952–A reporter dropped into Bris Collins's tavern to take black America's pulse — and met Richard's “Uncle Dickie”
-
Red Feather Agency Builds Useful Life
–10/15/1952–The Carver Center was thriving in 1952 — and would-be juvenile delinquent “Bob” was proof
-