Remembering Newport

Readers are urged not to overlook the New York Crank's nostalgic retrospective on the good times in a Newport, Ky., whorehouse, back in 1961 when gas was 35 cents a gallon (link) and relief of lust was not much dearer. I triggered his memory with a reference to George Ratterman, former Notre Dame football player who became Newport's reform sheriff after a comically botched attempt to frame him with a hooker (link).

It may have been a great time to be a 19-year-old in a bordello; it was also a glorious moment to be a newspaper reporter. I was in the city room of the old Louisville Times when the story of the set-up broke. The lady in the case traded under the name of "April Flowers;" inquiry quickly revealed the more drab monicker of Juanita Jean Hodges (fame is fleeting; I find only six Google refs (link)).

But the plot thickens. It quickly emerged that Ms. Flowers-Hodges was a Kentucky Colonel, the possessor of a certificate signed by the Lieutenant Governor, the estimable Wilson W. Wyatt.

Wyatt was a good guy in his way; he was an Adlai Stevenson liberal, and also a tough (and highly successful) corporate lawyer. But he took second place to no one in pomposity and it was easy to make a fool of him, especially, as then, when he was seeking higher office--he was gearing up for a US Senate race, which he ultimately lost to Thruston Morton.

No; you didn't have to make Wyatt look like a fool; he did it all for himself. No sooner had the hilarity shifted in his direction than Wyatt tried (as he thought) to wriggle out of trouble by revoking his writ. Some people just don't know what is funny; in particular, some people don't understand the concept of "second-day story." It was left to Richard Harwood, then the Times' political reporter, to announce that he'd researched the case, and that a Kentucky colonelcy cannot be revoked; it's an achievement that stays with you, like once a rabbi, always a rabbi. So Ms. Flowers-Hodges exits history, with her commission intact.

Reference: Ron Goldfarb puts the story in the context of the career of Robert Kennedy, in this Google book.

Trivia upon trivia: Dick Harwood was the father of John Harwood, a celebrated political reporter in his own right.