Let's Go To The Longbranch

As I've mentioned before, Diva Stacy and I are huge Gunsmoke fans.  We watch at least one episode every Sunday afternoon.  We're not content to just sit back and watch; there's usually extensive commentary.  This Sunday's episode raised the question about saloon girls and prostitution in the Old West:  Why didn't Marshall Dillon bust Miss Kitty for having prostitution at the Longbranch Saloon?  Matt Dillon was in the Longbranch at least two or three times every episode, so you know he saw the saloon girls in there hanging all over the men and even taking some of the men up to their rooms.  I did some research and was very surprised at my findings. 

As we all know, Gunsmoke was set in Dodge City, Kansas in the 1870's.  During that time period in America, Dodge City was known as "The Wickedest Little City In America" - a distinction that was not portrayed in the TV series.  In the real Dodge City, I was very surprised to find that it did have a Longbranch Saloon.  It wasn't owned and operated by a woman named Miss Kitty, but there was in deed a Longbranch in Dodge. 

As mentioned above, we saw Miss Kitty and some of the saloon girls in almost every episode of Gunsmoke.  The saloon girls were hired by the saloon owner to serve drinks and offer companionship to the men that patronized the saloon.  Contrary to what we have been led to believe, research shows that saloon girls were rarely ever prostitutes.  This occurred only in the shabbiest of saloons.  Even though "respectable" ladies considered the saloon girls to be "fallen", most of the saloon girls wouldn't have been caught dead with an actual prostitute.  Their job was to entertain the guests, sing for them, dance with them, talk to them and flirt with them -- inducing them to stay in the saloon, buying drinks and playing poker. 

I was very surprised to find that the actual Longbranch Saloon in Dodge City was nothing like the Longbranch Saloon that we see in Gunsmoke.  The actual Longbranch did not have saloon girls, as it's location all saloons employed saloon  in Dodge City’s north side of Front Street was the “respectable” side, where guns, saloon girls and gambling were prohibited.  Instead, music and billiards were the main activities while drinking.  Records show that afive-piece orchestra played nightly at the Longbranch, and soon the saloon became the most popular and refined place for the cattlemen of Dodge City.   The Longbranch served milk, tea, lemonade, sarsaparilla, all types of alcohol including champagne, and of course beer. Incidentally, Anheuser-Busch was the original beer served in the Longbranch. Everything was kept cold in the winter from ice that came from the river, and in the summer it was shipped out on the train from the mountains in Colorado.