A small brothel about 150 miles northwest of Las Vegas got its final approval from authorities in rural Nye County this week to employ guys for hire, sowing the seeds for the first stud farm as soon as the owners select a few good men.
"We've had quite a few couples who want to add a man to a threesome and ladies who say to us, 'When the hell are we going to get to hire a man?'" said Shady Lady co-owner Jim Davis, 78, whose wife, Bobbi, 55, is the madam. "We don't know whether it's going to work or not, but it's gonna be fun to find out."
Courtesy Shady Lady Ranch
The Shady Lady Ranch is located about 150 miles northwest of Las Vegas in rural Nye County.
The recession has been hard on Nevada, and the state's two dozen legal brothels have not been spared, leading the Davises to contemplate expanding their business for all comers, not just men seeking ladies of the evening. While prostitution has been either tolerated or legal almost since before the state's founding in 1864, the laws specify weekly health checkups for body parts like cervixes that exist only on women.
So the Shady Lady -- which has no plans yet to change its name -- fought for and won a waiver from the Nevada Board of Health on grounds that the gender-specific law is discriminatory and unconstitutional. The tiny operation of just three to five female prostitutes won that challenge Dec. 11, with the state dictating that men would have urethral testing weekly, blood tests monthly and routine physical inspections to guard against sexually transmitted diseases.
The final step was getting a similar waiver from the nine-member county board that licenses sex workers. In doing so, the Davises succeeded where Hollywood Madam Heidi Fleiss failed five years ago. Fleiss moved to the Nye County town of Pahrump intending to open a male brothel, drawing attention from the international media.
But Fleiss ran into personal legal issues related to her own suitability as a legal brothel operator given the felony convictions from the 1990s scandal in which she was tried as a madam for California's rich and famous. She opened a laundromat instead.
Bobbi Davis spent Wednesday poring over the hundreds of applications she's receiving via the Internet, looking for one or two men with what she calls the "it" factor. She hopes to have one in residence by February.
"The minute a guy says so-and-so, and I have an 8-inch penis, we tune them out," Davis said. "When they say that, they're thinking just sex, but we're talking about entertaining women. They've got to be able to laugh at a lady's joke."
Davis said they're seeking heterosexual men to service straight women but that gay men will be permitted to ask for a lineup, at which the prostitutes stand before prospective clients for consideration. Sex workers, however, have final say as to whether they will engage with any potential john, so gays seeking legal male prostitutes can still be refused. If the male prostitutes are largely attracting interest from gay johns, Davis said, the Shady Lady will probably stop having male sex workers.
"That's just not our business model," he said. "Nothing against that, but we're not interested in running that business."
Among those who opposed the change is George Flint, the president of the Nevada Brothel Association, who spoke against the waiver at Tuesday's board meeting in the Nye County seat of Tonopah. Flint has long feared that male prostitution, with its potential for homosexual activity, could spur state legislators already uneasy about legal prostitution into banning it. And, in fact, Jim Davis said the couple and the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada plan to pursue a permanent change in Nevada law to allow legal gigolos in any brothel that wishes to make such a service available.
Where the action is
Nevada is the only state where prostitution is legal, but it is not legal in counties with more than 100,000 residents. That includes Clark County, where Las Vegas is, and Washoe County, where Reno is. The nearest legal brothel to Las Vegas is in Pahrump, more than 60 miles away.
In the Silver State's less-populated counties, however, it is a significant source of revenue for cash-strapped county governments, so Dennis Hof of the Moonlite Bunny Ranch near Reno doubts there's political will to halt the business. Hof said his operation provides $250,000 in taxes to Lyon County.
"I'm for it because how can you discriminate between men and women?" said Hof, whose bordello is featured in the HBO reality show "Cathouse." "I think it's time the counties dealt with it because it's going to have to happen somewhere."
That said, Hof doubts there's a market for male prostitutes either among male or female johns. Still, he's in talks with HBO about adding a gigolo to "Cathouse" for the reality-show drama it could provide.
But he doesn't think the Shady Lady can tap into the market because, he said, women don't need to pay for sex and aren't going to travel 150 miles from Las Vegas to find it. Nor will gay men, said John Hessling, owner of the Blue Moon Resort in Las Vegas, a gay hotel.
"Unless they're incredibly desperate, I don't see a gay man going hours away to get laid when there are plenty of illegal male prostitutes here in town," Hessling said. "And women don't have the same sex drive as men. Men are pigs. They'll do a helluva a lot more to get laid than a woman would."
One man who does believe the male brothel idea will work is Los Angeles-based actor Les Brandt. In 2005, he told reporters he was interested in becoming Fleiss' first stud, although now he disavows that notion and is focused on a legitimate acting career. Still, when he was in that spotlight he heard from hundreds of women who are interested in taking advantage of such services.
"There are women -- a lot of women -- who would like and need that option," he said. "Some women need to pay for that affection that makes them feel human. There are some people who need that and there are some people who are willing to be the tool to make that happen."
