A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 8

This is the 11th year in a row I’ve run this series in April. Why a story idea each day for the month? Several reasons which I’ll work my through during this series of posts. Here’s another one:

You always need more than one in your gun.

Want that explained? Go here to read a Business of Screenwriting post.

Today’s story idea: The Madam of Ogden, Utah.

The top photo is Rose Davie who, along with her husband, ran brothels in Ogden, Utah during the 1940s and 1950s. Rose was said to be making around $30,000 per month during the peak years but was never convicted of any crime by the local police — and there are lots of theories about that good luck.

Ogden had grown with the railroad and was a busy place as the west grew. From prohibition through the 1960s there was a wild west feel in the city. One particular street was a no-go zone for anyone with a reputation to protect — and a corner building, on the second floor, was the Rose Rooms where love was for rent seven days a week. Rosetta Davie and her husband Bill ran a very successful establishment and old timers remember lines of lonely men going out the door and down the sidewalk on some nights. Prohibition and trains full of young soldiers during the war years had made this modest building into a money machine for the Davies. The close proximity to respectable Salt Lake City likely made Ogden a destination for those with an itch to scratch with no one looking.

The local government took a pragmatic approach to these businesses and the tax income helped all of Ogden. It may have helped that Rose and Bill owned much of the property along that street. However times change and during the 1960s there were a series of successful efforts to clean up Ogden and polish its reputation. The Rose Rooms closed after the Davies were convicted for tax evasion.

From a Deseret News article, we learn this tidbit about Rose:

Rose owned a pink Cadillac and also an ocelot, which she liked to take for walks on a leash.

Then there’s this:

Sarah Langsdon, head of Special Collections at WSU, said her department has stumbled upon handwritten notes from an interview former Standard-Examiner reporter Bert Strand conducted with the infamous Rossette Duccinni Davie.

The interview was from Aug. 30, 1951, and was dictated by Olwyn Bergeson. Langsdon said the notes were found hidden inside a box of 1970s photos from the newspaper. For a historian, Langsdon said, the interview notes and the old Standard-Examiner envelope they came in was a treasure trove of material. But there was just one problem: the transcription is written in a decades-old shorthand style that no one really uses anymore.

Okay, what do we have? Period piece (1940s and 1950s). Prostitution in Utah of all places, home to the largest concentration of Mormons in the world. Husband and wife brothel owners. A pink Cadillac and a pet ocelet. And the Protagonist Rose. Just look at that face. Those piercing eyes. That wild hair. Stunning. And then there is the mysterious interview.

I’m thinking a limited series. Ogden is 38 miles away by car from Salt Lake City, just far enough away so politicians and church bigwigs could engage in some sexual dalliances outside the watchful eyes of righteous Utah citizenry. If Rose and her husband were $30K per month, that’s over $300K in today’s dollars. We’re talking major bucks. I’m sure we’re talking lots of bribes to lots of officials. Meanwhile, Rose could be keeping meticulous files of the clientele frequenting her establishment.

That mysterious interview could open the door to the series A-story. Did Rose use a secret shorthand to communicate with somebody? Who might that somebody be? Why the need for shorthand?

Politics? Espionage? Right around this time was the Red Scare, paranoia about Communists in our midst. That feels promising. Utah is next to Nevada where there were nuclear testing sites (I believe southern Utah had one site, too). That could bleed into the arms race with the Soviet Union.

Does Rose try to bribe someone? Does she get in over her head? Does one of her clients end up murdered and she falls under suspicion? Or one of her ‘girls’? What if this particular client is a big player in a spy ring?

There’s something here…

There you go, my 8th story idea of the month. And it’s yours. Free! What would YOU do with it?

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7

Each day in April, I invite you to join me in comments to do some brainstorming. Take each day’s story idea and see what it can become when we play around with it. These are valuable skills for a writer to develop.

See you in RESPONSES to hear YOUR take on this story idea. And come back tomorrow for another Story Idea Each Day For A Month.