Let's hear it for the YMCA! Hayden is selling brothel Tokens for one of his clients, nice ones! He's got them from all over the world, most are shell card Tokens but this one isn't, it's a regular one. Just posted to share, I won't be bidding on any as that's not really what I collect. https://www.ebay.com/itm/224820289088?hash=item3458555e40:g:9lMAAOSwCndh-vGG
I picked up another last month. TC-44118. Is there a catalog devoted to Brothel shellcards & advertising tokens? Here's the story of the Applegate "Palace of Flying Animals" tokens c1889-1890: https://therescuedphoto.wordpress.com/2024/10/30/palace-of-flying-animals/ Essentially, the proprietor of a high-end photography business operated a family friendly wooden carousel by day as a front - with a circus themed boudoir taking over in the evenings. It's likely that many of the women he employed were models he met through his photography business.
I wonder if this was the inspiration behind the carousel scene in The Sting where Gondorff is running a carousel as a front for a brothel and fires up the carousel so the girls can have some fun.
I forgot about the scene in the Sting. Much of the movie was based on real-life cons & paid homage to actual events, so I would say that the connection is probable. https://www.kurtfstone.com/new-blog/2019/9/7/behind-the-screen-the-sting
The movie extensively used information from the book "The Big Con" by David W. Maurier. He actually sued them and settled out of court. I bought a signed, autographed first edition from a used book store when I was in college.
