Phil Stanford

Book received from Edelweiss.

This is an extremely quick read about corruption in the city of Portland Oregon mainly in the 70's. It does give you some information on how it all started in the 50's and 60's. It seemed that if you were in power in the 70's in that part of Oregon you were somehow on the make. I did like how the author used some of the actual newspaper stories on the various crimes to give the book a bit more substance. The photos of the people involved in the scandal helped me to get more out of the book. I did enjoy reading it but I felt it could have been longer.… (meer)

Having lived in Portland for a couple of years in the early 1990s, I had a personal interest in this book, its colorful premise notwithstanding. I confess that the Rose City’s noirish little secret had eluded me, its seamier past being well hidden by the coifurred, cultivated face – lots of coffee shops, used bookstores, and progressive thought. Boy, was I in for a surprise, and does this book deliver the goods!

The subtitle says much of this delicious quasi-exposé of Portland’s colorful history – there’s plenty of sex, crime and corruption to go around. Focusing on the vintage years of 1935-1955, the eminently readable text presents Portland’s seedy underside through the many personalities of the era. And all without a trace of wholesome environmentalism or double lattés!

From its wonderful Weegee-like cover dominated by the imposing figures of Candy Reneé and Big Jim Elkins (different kinds of figures, each, to be sure!), through Stanford’s chatty text with accompanying tabloidy photos, the book is a pure delight. But what really makes the story stick is the coverage -- often quite sympathetic -- of the many colorful personalities in all their small-time glory. The luminaries covered include the aforementioned Ms. Reneé, “Diamond Jim” Purcell, Blubber Maloney, Little Rusty, Tempest Storm, and the ever-present Big Jim Elkins. Even Bugsy Siegel makes a fleeting appearance, stopping by to check out Portland as a place to build one of his casinos. Alas, it rained every day he was in town, so he set his sights southward to the sunny climes of Hollywood and Las Vegas, and the rest, as they say, is history.

If there’s a weakness, it’s that the book stops fairly abruptly, ca. 1957, and many questions linger. When exactly did Portland stop being a corrupt and vice-ridden town, and why? How did a place with such a shadowy history transform itself, relatively quickly, into the Anti-Sleaze city, located at the other end of the legal and ethical spectrum? Who were the principals involved, and when did it take place? Most of all, can we hope for a sequel to sort out all the mysteries? For the moment, however, we’ll have to settle for savoring the current book, and indeed there’s much to savor. Well done, Phil. -- BCS… (meer)