Tenderloin, Manhattan

The Tenderloin was an entertainment and red-light district in the heart of the New York City borough of Manhattan during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Referring to the increased number of bribes he would receive for police protection of both legitimate and illegitimate businesses there – especially the many brothels – Williams said, "I've been having chuck steak ever since I've been on the force, and now I'm going to have a bit of tenderloin.

Early in the 19th century, the major vice district had been located in what is now SoHo, called at the time "Hells' Hundred Acres", but as the city grew steadily northward, the theater district along Broadway and the Bowery moved uptown as well, as did the legitimate and illegitimate businesses that were usually connected with show business.

[2] By the 1880s, the Tenderloin encompassed the largest number of nightclubs, saloons, bordellos, gambling casinos, dance halls, and "clip joints" in New York City, to the extent that one estimate made in 1885 was that half of the buildings in the district were connected with vice.

Thomas De Witt Talmage, denounced the entire city of New York as "the modern Gomorrah" for allowing it to exist.

On some nights only gentlemen in formal evening dress were allowed to attend, and the girls of these houses were as socially adept as they were sexually;[2] on Christmas Eve profits were given to charity.

"[3] Occasionally there would be organized attempts to clean up the Tenderloin, and reformist mayors, such as William Russell Grace and Abram S. Hewitt, would authorize raids on saloons and brothels, even those under the protection of "Clubber" Williams, but the effects were generally temporary: prostitutes would decamp to outlying areas, and return when the latest crusade was over.

The net effect of these "shake-ups" or "shake-downs" was simply to drive up the cost of protection afterwards, making Williams even richer – he retired a millionaire – and putting more money into the pockets of Tammany Hall, which was deeply entwined in the graft and corruption connected with the district.

[9] Frustration at this state of affairs led to Anthony Comstock's anti-vice crusade, which operated with Federal authority from the Post Office and with the support of the New York Chamber of Commerce and leading citizens such as J. P. Morgan.