Dateline>City of Angels

Take a walk through the tombstones in Section 5 of Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery, and you’ll find this witty epitaph for a once highly popular lady:

Cora May Phillips
1872 - 1912
Gone But Not Forgotten

Yes, how could the City of Angels ever forget Cora May Phillips, one of its most notorious madams?

In the late 1800s, Los Angeles turned a blind eye toward vice laws, leaving enterprising women like Phillips free to operate brazenly glitzy brothels in front of God and everyone.

The sheer elegance of her Golden Lion Parlor on Alameda Street was said to be second only to Pearl Morton’s downtown bordello, which featured not one but two Steinway pianos, lavishly decadent furnishings, richly appointed mirrors and paintings, and of course, plenty of plush red carpet and drapes. After all, both ladies knew that when it came to attracting a steady clientele of civic leaders, court officers and wealthy businessmen, nothing but the best would do.

Mixing Business and Pleasure

Competitive as they were for the attentions of L.A.’s elite, however, Phillips and Morton apparently enjoyed a friendly rivalry. According to local history writer Cecilia Rasmussen, the two liked to let their hair down together at present-day Exposition Park, where they publicly flaunted themselves and their courtesans while wagering on races of those newfangled contraptions known as automobiles.

When the motorsporting ended, “the girls would climb into their carriages and race one another back Downtown, whooping and yelling and good-naturedly calling one another names.”

Even in early Los Angeles, it seems, girls just wanted to have fun.

But the laughs didn’t last. In 1909 citizen pressure finally prevailed on the city to close down Phillips, Morton and their lesser-known counterparts.

Morton went on to gain fresh notoriety in San Francisco, while Phillips, who died just three years later, literally remained planted here in Los Angeles.