5 Deadwood Madams and What Made Them Famous

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An Open Secret: The Story of Deadwood’s Most Notorious Bordellos

Alice Ivers studying a winning hand

Madam Alice Ivers

Deadwood was a rough and tumble gaming town not fit for a fine English lady. But that’s exactly where Ms. Alice Ivers found herself. Widowed and broke, this lady began playing poker to support herself. Nicknamed “Poker Alice,” she became a cigar-smoking, straight-faced, gambler who very rarely lost. She was so legendary that men came from all around just for the chance to beat her—but few of them did.

Reportedly, her favorite saying was “Praise the Lord and place your bets. I’ll take your money with no regrets.” She met and married a local Deadwood man and had seven children, but she never gave up the game of poker and used her winnings to help support the family. In her later years, Alice claimed she won over $250,000 at the gaming tables – but never cheated. Poker Alice died in 1930 and is buried in Sturgis, SD.

Madam Dora DuFran

Though most “sporting girls” who worked in  Deadwood remain nameless, others, such as Madame Dora DuFran, were more notable. An immediate success once she arrived in Deadwood, she continued to build her business until she soon had “branch” houses in Sturgis, Rapid City, and Belle Fourche.

Born in England, Dora eventually immigrated to  Nebraska with her parents. A good-looking girl in her youth, she arrived in Rapid City as Amy Helen Dorothy Bolshow and began working as a dancehall girl. However, by the time the gold rush was on in Deadwood, she had obviously “promoted” herself to a full-scale madam.

Madam Mollie Johnson

Born in Alabama in 1853. She was twenty-five years old when she opened her house of ill repute in Deadwood on Sherman Street. She was known as the “Queen of the Blondes.” All the women who worked for her had golden hair and pleasing figures. In addition to being prostitutes, they were also entertainers. Some were balladists, and some were dancers. Mollie was a shadow dancer. She performed wearing little or no clothing, but patrons could only see her shadow projected on a screen by a bright light. Advertisements to attend parties in which Mollie would appear were posted regularly in newspapers throughout the Black Hills, and people flocked to the bordello to see her.

Madam May Brown

Born Anna Piergue on December 2, 1859, in Saxony, Germany, she was a precocious child who enjoyed spending time with her five brothers and four sisters and possessed a talent for painting. She ended up in Deadwood in 1884 and was hired at a brothel. She changed her name to May Brown and by 1885 was running her own house.

In addition to operating a house of ill repute in Deadwood and Rapid City, May also funded train robberies. She was found guilty of her crimes in December 1888 and sentenced to fifteen years hard labor at the territorial penitentiary in Sioux Falls.

Madam Pam Holliday

The last madam in Deadwood. She opened a bordello called the Frontier Rooms, later renamed the Purple Door. Between five and seven girls, ranging in ages from twenty-one to forty, were regularly in her employ.

The state shut down the Purple Door in June 1980. She went to prison for tax evasion in 1982 and was released in 1986. She then moved to Minnesota to be near her daughter and grandchildren. She died of natural causes on July 25, 2003, at the Hospice Facility in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. She was seventy-two years old when she passed away.

To learn more about the madams who worked in Deadwood read An Open Secret: The Story of Deadwood Most Notorious. 

Visit the Brothel Deadwood September 26 and 27 from 11 A.M. to 6 P.M. to hear a presentation about the history of soiled doves in the Black Hills.