Mustang Ranch
- This article is about the Nevada brothel; Mustang Ranch and is also the name of the biggest brothel on the island of Majorca.
The Mustang Ranch, also known as the Mustang Bridge Ranch and as Valley of the Dolls, was a brothel near Storey County, Nevada, eight miles east of Reno, Nevada. It became Nevada's first licensed brothel in 1971, eventually leading to the legalization of brothel prostitution in ten of seventeen counties of the state. Prostitution is illegal in Washoe County, Reno, Clark County, but the Mustang Ranch was not in any of these counties. Whitewashed rocks with red arrows guided the driver from Interstate 80 to the Ranch.
After eventually becoming Nevada's largest brothel, with more revenue than all other legal Nevada brothels combined, the Mustang Ranch was forfeited to the federal government in 1999 following a series of convictions for tax fraud, racketeering, and other crimes.
Operation
The prostitutes lived on the ranch during their whole shift, which lasted from several days to several weeks. In the 1970s the women were bikini clad. During their shift, they worked 12 hours per day, serving six customers per day on average. Women had to pay for their rooms and to vendors who came to the Ranch. Medicine and cosmetics were purchased by non-prostitute employees who lived in Sparks. Doctors came to the ranch to do a pelvic exam and check for VD. The only time women were allowed out was during their period. More than one woman would share the rent of an apartment in Reno or Sparks. Women not working on the ranch were not allowed in. Joe Conforte allowed out-parties for high rollers to take the women to Reno hotels. Joe and Sally Conforte were always friendly to regular customers.
Las Vegas reporter, Colin McKinlay, once visited Mustang to do one of the first reports ever allowed. He wrote, "The women were the most beautiful of any fantasy of man. The line-up contained the most pale of Nordic blonde to the midnight of ebony; a wide eyed waif and wrinkled senior; rail thin to pudgy; tall women stood next to near dwarfs, all to answer the buzzer". Joe Conforte kept his brothel stable with the most variety in Nevada.
As in other Nevada brothels, customers were buzzed in through a gate, chose a woman from a lineup in a lobby, and negotiated prices and services in the woman's room. She checked the penis for any open sores or signs of veneral disease and tested the pre-cum. A short negotiation as to the type of "party" the customer wanted. Typical prices ranged from $100 to $500 plus tips; Some women for bizarre acts approved by the Confortes could get up to $10,000 for a party. The house received half of anything the women made. The prices rose as the economy of the times. In the late 1960s, $25.00 for 30 minutes with half and half. After the negotiations (overheard by a hidden intercom system) were over, the prostitute collected the money and deposited it with a cashier. She returned to the room, washed the male genitals in a basin. After the act, she would again wash the male she would slip on her skimpy outfit and he would dress to be escorted to the door. Some men would relax in the bar or on sofas talking to the girls. In time the men would be rested for "round two". Many men had favorites or wanted total variety. Men could have as many women as he could afford. The fantasy of two and three women was many times met. A fantasy was an older and younger prostitute; who to the customer appeared as mother and daughter.
The house rules forbade anal sex and kissing on the mouth. Many of the major league sports figures and men from the entertainment industry would come to the Mustang Ranch. After 1985, with advent of AIDS and Nevada State Law; customers were required to wear condoms for both intercourse and oral sex. The women were not allowed to reject a customer who was willing to pay the house minimum and stick to the rules. For the safety of the women every room had a hidden panic button. Gun towers and guards were there to keep the women in and strangers out.
The 1973 motion picture "Charley Varrick" contained a scene filmed at Mustang Ranch, with a cameo by Joe Conforte. In 1978, Robert Goralnick wrote and directed Mustang: The House That Joe Built.
Mapes Hotel, bellmen in Reno, directed men to the Mustang Ranch. Cab drivers typically received 10% of the money their customers spent at the ranch.
Alexa Albert, who conducted interviews with several women in the Mustang Ranch from 1993 to 1996, reported that at one point, the brothel required all women to have pimps, who were thought to make the women work harder. Although this practice had stopped by the 1990s, many women were still pressured into the work by boyfriends, husbands, or other family members. About half of the women reported having been sexually abused as a child, compared to an estimated overall rate of 20%.
History
The brothel started out as a set of four double-wide trailers, run by Richard Bennet and initially called Mustang Bridge Ranch. Joe Conforte (1922- ), who had owned several brothels in Nevada together with his wife, Sally Burgess Conforte (c. 1920-1992) since October 1955, took over the Mustang Ranch in 1967. At this time, brothels were not explicitly illegal in Nevada, but some had been closed as public nuisances.
Conforte gained political influence in Storey County (by renting out cheap trailers and telling the renters how to vote) and persuaded county officials to pass a brothel-licensing ordinance, which came into effect in 1971. Joe Conforte was featured in a Look magazine article, June 29, 1971. Rolling Stone magazine November 23, 1972 Joe Conforte, appeared on the cover and the article, Joe Conforte "The Crusading Pimp" of Mustang Ranch. Rolling Stone of April 18, 1991, "Sex & Taxes" Mustang Ranch.
The Nevada Supreme Court upheld the right of a county to legalize prostitution, and several counties followed suit. Conforte converted the trailers into a permanent structure with 54 bedrooms. Mustang I had a spa room with jacuzzi. The swimming pool was for adult play.
Initially, the brothel did not serve black customers. In 1967, a separate trailer for blacks was built, and the prostitutes were allowed to refuse these men. This segregation was later abandoned, but black customers were still announced by a special signal, so that women could choose not to join the lineup, something not allowed for white customers.
Nevada writer, Gabriel R. Vogliotti (1908-1983), did research living at the Mustang Ranch. In 1975 he authored, The Girls of Nevada, with a subtitle on the dust jacket, Featuring Joe Conforte, Overseer of the Mustang Ranch. The theme is for legal prostitution in all Nevada.
In 1976, the world class boxer Oscar Bonavena, (1942-1976) who was a former friend of Conforte's and probably had an affair with his wife Sally, was shot dead at the ranch by Conforte's body guard.
In 1982, Mustang II with 48 bedrooms was built a hundred meters away from Mustang I. A bit smaller and not as luxurious as Mustang I, mostly new women and women demoted from Mustang I for some infraction worked there.
Forfeiture following tax fraud
After losing a tax fraud case in 1990, the brothel was closed for three months and auctioned off. Conforte fled the United States and now lives in Brazil. The brothel was bought by a holding company (a front for Conforte) and stayed open. After that company and the brothel's manager (a former county commissioner) lost a federal fraud, racketeering and conspiracy case in 1999, the Mustang Ranch was closed and forfeited to the federal government. The Brazil supreme court ruled in the same year that Conforte could not be extradited.
In 2002, the brothel's furniture, paintings and accessories were auctioned off. The United States Bureau of Land Management (BLM) sold the Ranch's pink stucco structures on eBay in 2003. Bordello owner Lance Gilman purchased the buildings for $145,100 and moved them to his Wild Horse Adult Resort & Spa five miles to the east, where the relocated and extensively renovated buildings eventually became the second brothel located at that complex. However, the rights to the name Mustang Ranch, which Gilman had hoped to use for this new brothel, were tied up in a court battle with David Burgess, the owner of the Old Bridge Ranch and nephew of Joe Conforte until mid December 2006. In December of 2006, a federal judge ruled that Gilman was the exclusive owner of the Mustang Ranch trademark giving him the rights to use the name and branding.
As of 2005 the site remains vacant. A Reno Gazette-Journal report cited plans for the restoration of natural conditions to the section of the Truckee River flowing through the land, following the completion of a similar restoration [1] five miles downstream on Pat McCarran Ranch land owned by The Nature Conservancy. It would likely include construction of natural meanders to the river channel and replacement of invasive whitetop (Lepidium draba) with native plants, willow and cottonwood trees. Such a restoration will cost millions of dollars and could begin by 2007.
See also
See also
Return to Nevada Guest Ranches page
References
- ↑ Restoration of McCarran Ranch land from The Nature Conservancy website
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