New Exhibit To Showcase Montreal Prostitues

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Their eyes convey a mix of emotions â?? dismay at being busted, surprise, sheepishness, smugness. Some even betray a glimmer of recognition, one that suggests theyâ??ve crossed paths before with the policeman doing the booking.

Next month, Montrealers will get a rare glimpse of the mug shots of prostitutes and madams entered as exhibits in the 1954 Caron inquiry to crack down on corruption, gambling, brothels and boozing in the place known as North Americaâ??s Sin City during the Second World War.
The spread of disease among troops waiting in Montreal before they were dispatched to fight in Europe was notorious.
It sparked a Canadian army probe into a well-organized ring of pleasure-seekers and those earning money off a strident desire for fun, said Jean-François Leclerc, director of the museum the Centre dâ??histoire de Montréal.
After the war, more than 373 people testified before the Caron inquiry, which was organized in response to demands from a citizensâ?? committee.
Its hearings exposed not just gambling and the sex industry, but corruption and collusion by police and politicians, he says.
The mugshots, unearthed in the Archives of Montreal, are â??very rare,â? said Catherine Charlebois, the museumâ??s curator of collections and exhibitions.
They were taken when the women were arrested, but were entered as exhibits during the inquiry when the madams and prostitutes were called as witnesses.
â??We donâ??t have all the photos, but thereâ??s more than 100 pictures in the collection,â? she added.
They include not just prostitutes, but also the people who ran gambling dens and booze cans or were involved in organized crime.
Itâ??s extremely rare to find photos of madams, Ms. Charlebois says, since these powerful women would more likely give up one of their girls than turn themselves in.
The collection includes mugshots of prominent madam Liliane Brown, who also went by the name Ida Katz, and Anna Labelle, also known as Mrs. Emile Beauchamp, the most powerful madam in Montreal during the war.
â??We were very excited when we found these photos,â? Ms. Charlebois said.

The exhibition [URL="http://www.tourisme-montreal.org/Travel-Trade/What-To-Do/Events/scandal...vice-crime-and-morality-in-montreal"][I][COLOR=#0000ff]Scandal! Vice, crime and morality in Montreal, 1940-1960[/COLOR][/I][/URL] opens at the Centre dâ??histoire de Montréal on Nov. 15, 2013.

[URL]http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/10/02/new-exhibit-to-showcase-photos-of-montreal-prostitutes-who-worked-in-north-americas-sin-city-in-the-1940s/[/URL]