Their collective bank accounts helped finance the building of Mahogany Hall at forty thousand Dollars - which equals to about a cool $1 million dollars in today's economy. Whatever anyone thought of her, she was certainly fascinating enough to attract the attentions of various well-to-do men about town, including an oil man, a railroad baron and a department store magnate. West's alias, "Diamond Lil" (clearly a prostitute) became known on film as Lady Lu, and was obviously inspired by Miss White. ![]() It is said that Mae West, the Hollywood star, based her iconic turn in the film, The Belle of the Nineties, soley on Lulu White. Attired in elaborately beaded gowns, and diamonds on every finger, up both arms, on her neck and every other place imaginable, White was an unforgettable presence. She was said to be short, plump and unattractive (though I beg to differ on that assessment). She immediately embarked on a career of vice and became the darling of the local police precinct having been arrested countless times on charges of prostitution, disorderly conduct, and numerous other infractions that included white slavery. Loud, rude and obnoxious, Lulu arrived in New Orleans in the 1880's, accompanied by a very dark-skinned man who was said to be her stepfather. Interviewed by a local newspaper in 1894, Miss Lulu wanted everyone to know that she was born and raised in the West Indies, and that there wasn't a drop of American Negro in her. The fact that her parents were slaves and that she was born on a farm in Selma, Alabama must have escaped Lulu White's memory when she declared that she should be exempt from the extreme racism that other women who looked like her endured on a daily basis. Williams and White were said to be tight, but as we shall see, he must have been one of the few men of his complexion to even get past the front door. These are the people and this is the place that Spencer Williams was feeling when he wrote Mahogany Hall Stomp - the early instrumental jazz classic of the same name. the opulent pleasure palace known as Mahogany Hall, located in the red-light district of Storyville in New Orleans. ![]() I gots my two dollahs and I'm ready to go down to Lulu's and do the Mahogany Hall Stomp! I'm talking about the notorious madam, Lulu White, and the beautiful, light, bright, damn near white prostitutes who resided at No.
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