Big Joe Turner: Shout Rattle & Roll (Proper)

ROMANTICS CALLED it "The Paris Of The Plains" but no one ever decided which arrondissement of France's capital Kansas City actually resembled. The red light district of gambling dens and whorehouses began at 14th Street within hailing distance of City Hall. A woman sat in every window of each building, passing their time until a taxi hove into view. Then they dropped whatever they were doing and tapped nickel coins on the windows, an auditory hail that only stopped if the taxi didn't. 14th Street has some renown. President Truman was helped in his political career by the boss of Kansas City, Tom Pendergast. When club-owner Milton Morris visited him in the White House, Truman asked how "the whores on 14th Street" were getting on.