Ledger-Dispatch

By Scott Thomas Anderson (sanderson@ledger-dispatch.c= om)=20

Vern Farewell, seen here on the = outskirts of=20 Jackson in 1950, was Amador County's first highway = patrolman.

Photo by: Courtesy to the Ledger=20 Dispatch

Main Street Jackson in the 1950s was a = thriving=20 business district that would soon become infamous for the great = "vice=20 probe" California's Attorney General launched in = 1955-56.

Photo by: Courtesy to the Ledger=20 Dispatch
Main Street Jackson at the = dawn of the=20 1950s - an avenue lined with the glittering chrome of Fords and = Chevrolets.=20 Overhead was a clutter of marquees that jutted from grocery stores, drug = stores,=20 hardware stores, banks, theaters and some 18 saloons, most of which had = roulette=20 tables spinning and blackjack on the menu. There were also five brothels = open=20 for business.

Jackson was the happy, bustling heart of the = county, and an=20 unspoken enemy of the state. As Dizzy Gillespie played on the radio, the = city=20 was in the last days of a strange cocktail of American innocence and = rural vice=20 that would soon be gone forever.

For the people of Jackson, "The = War"=20 changed everything. In the decades leading up to 1950, hundreds worked = in the=20 city's massive gold mines. However, after Pearl Harbor was bombed in = 1941, the=20 mines were closed to divert energy to the war machine. What followed for = Jackson=20 was a time of widespread joblessness. But by 1950, things were looking = up, as=20 ex-miners began working in Amador's growing timber industry. Yet the = war's=20 shadow still lingered over the city in much darker ways. On one street = alone,=20 three households had sacrificed young men to the bloodshed overseas. =

One=20 of Jackson's boys to return from the battles in France was Gino Ricci, = who soon=20 began cutting hair in the barbershop his father had opened decades = earlier on=20 Main Street. Ricci remembers the start of the 1950s as a golden era.=20

"Times were pretty good," he recalled. "The timber business was = booming.=20 You could do all your shopping in Jackson - the town was totally=20 self-sustaining. All of the merchants knew each other. You'd go into the = saloons=20 and that big band sound was playing on the jukeboxes. The bars would = have=20 smaller live bands on the weekends. And when it came to gambling, there = were=20 guys who could palm dice like you wouldn't believe."

Ricci's = favorite=20 memories from that time involve the dangerously spirited rivalry between = Jackson=20 and Sutter Creek. "It was great," he said of competition between the = cities.=20 "Back then, when there were football games between the schools, we'd = literally=20 burn each other in effigy."

Pat Holland, who was a Jackson = teenager=20 during the 1950s, agrees on how intense the rivalry was. "If you were a = Jackson=20 kid, you didn't go to Sutter Creek by yourself," he said. "That was just = asking=20 for it - and vice versa. Everyone did go to the movie theater in = Jackson, but=20 during the shows, all of the Jackson boys would sit on one side of the = aisle and=20 all of the Sutter Creek guys would be on the other."

Holland = said the=20 only place where an unspoken truce existed was past the county line. "Of = course,=20 everything changed if you went to a dance or something in Calaveras = County," he=20 said. "In that situation, a guy from Sutter Creek you'd never talked to = before=20 would be your best friend. There were fights all the time back in those=20 days."

One place where discipline reigned supreme was Jackson = High=20 School, thanks to its legendary English teacher, Mrs. Van Thiel. = According to=20 Holland, Van Thiel's stature and forceful personality made her more = influential=20 than the principal.

"She basically ran the entire school," = Holland=20 recalled. "You didn't worry if you got sent to the principal's office by = yourself; but you really worried when Mrs. Van Thiel went with you. She = would=20 also walk around the dances with a ruler in her hand and measure the = distance=20 between the boys and girls to make sure they weren't too close."=20

Overall, Holland's memories of Jackson at the mid-century mark = are very=20 warm. "Everyone knew everyone," he said. "People would volunteer to do = what=20 needed to be done, especially when it came to families who'd lost = someone in the=20 war. There was not a lot of money around by today's standards - but = people truly=20 took care of each other."

One couple that liked the sense of = community=20 was Russ and Dollie Evitt, who moved to the area in 1948. "The rural = atmosphere=20 in those days was unbelievable," Russ remembered, who flew bombing = missions over=20 Europe in World War II. "That's what we liked about it."

Russ and = Dollie=20 would often go to the movie theater on Main Street and then sit and eat = ice=20 cream outside. "That was a nice way to spend the evening," Dollie = reminisced.=20 "And the town was really something - guys like John Wayne and John Ford = would be=20 playing cards right over at the National Hotel."

There was a = reason=20 famous movie directors like Ford and notorious gangsters like Bugsy = Siegel all=20 knew about Jackson. "You'd go through these swinging doors into the = Louvre Club=20 and suddenly you'd be in 'Little Reno,'" Russ pointed out. "In fact = that's what=20 Jackson was known as back then - Little Reno.'"

On April 12, = 1951, the=20 Stockton Record reported that California's Attorney General, Pat Brown, = warned=20 Jackson's mayor and city council that rampant illegal gambling and = prostitution=20 would no longer be tolerated. By most accounts, Brown was summarily=20 ignored.

Russ, who became District 1 Supervisor in the 1950s, = admits the=20 city did whatever it wanted. "The supes would meet up in the second = story of the=20 old courthouse, which was an Art Deco building at the time, and from = there you=20 could look out the window right down at the houses of ill repute," he=20 remembered, chuckling. "It was just wide open."

But it wouldn't = be for=20 long. Year after year the Jackson Police Department had turned a blind = eye to=20 the brothels and gambling - even as the rest of the state appeared to = join a=20 different century.

However, in 1953, a new police chief came to = town.=20 George Milardovich was a tough, no-nonsense ex-U.S. Marine who'd fought = in the=20 Pacific. He wasn't easily intimidated. He viewed the city council as = "morally=20 corrupt" and had little respect for them because they were his age but = hadn't=20 enlisted for the war. Milardovich began arresting individuals involved = in the=20 prostitution rings. He was eventually fired by the mayor and city = council and=20 replaced by a card dealer from one of the saloons.

With = Milardovich's=20 help, Brown's special agents moved in on City Hall and the police = department.=20 What followed was a spectacle of court hearings that appeared in = newspapers all=20 across the state. The theatrics included a number of well-dressed, = beautiful=20 "working girls" being paraded up to the witness stand.

The era of = "the=20 houses" was finally coming to a close. Many people in the city were = angry to see=20 them disappear. It was widely thought they were harmless and good for = business.=20 One of the most vocal crusaders to keep the brothels open was none other = than=20 the venerable Van Thiel, who believed the houses kept adolescent boys = from=20 pursuing the chastity of the girls she taught.

To this day, Brown = is=20 still seen as a villainous character by some long-time Jackson = residents. "Pat=20 Brown rode in the Kit Carson Day parade right after it all happened," = observed=20 Ricci. "I thought someone was going to shoot him."

But Brown made = it back=20 to Sacramento that day and went on to become California's governor; and = Jackson=20 - a final bastion of the roaring, independent spirit of the West - began = to=20 change.

Russ still looks back at the class and the chaos with a = sense of=20 wonder. "It was a different world," he said. "There was a lot of real = history=20 that happened that today would read like something out of a = fairytale."

Scott Thomas = Anderson