Gem Theater

The Gem Theater was a saloon in Deadwood, South Dakota, owned by Al Swearengen. Swearengen and the Gem (as the Gem Saloon) are both portrayed in the HBO television show, Deadwood.

Swearengen opened the Gem Variety Theater on April 7, 1877, at the corners of Wall and Main streets, to entertain the population of the mining camp with "prize fights" (as was customary with Swearengen's previous establishment the Cricket Saloon, no prizes were actually involved), stage acts consisting of comedians, singers and dancers, and, primarily, prostitutes.

Gambling was a main theme at the Gem, as was the Gem band, who played nightly from the balcony as a form of advertising.

Swearengen recruited his prostitutes in the same manner as it is still carried out by some today; advertising legitimate stage, cleaning, or waitressing jobs in his theater to desperate young women and advancing them the money for their (one way) trip; then, when they arrived, forcing them into what was essentially indentured servitude as prostitutes. Those who balked were first threatened with demands for repayment of the funds advanced to them for the trip; if that failed, they were threatened with beatings, and if that failed they were beaten and physically forced to submit to Swearengen's demands. Many still resisted, but those who escaped this fate could only find themselves in no better situation, as penniless women with no source of income, alone in a rough and rowdy mining camp, and with the constant threat of Swearengen's men hanging over them. Many grew sick and died from lack of proper nutrition and shelter, while many others committed suicide.

The Gem prospered, bringing in an average of $5,000 a night, even reaching as high as $10,000. Swearengen forged alliances with many of Deadwood's most prominent citizens, buying himself immunity from legal or other problems. His immunity even extended to the notoriously upright and incorruptible Marshal Seth Bullock, who did not have the political clout to extend his campaign to clean up the town as far as the lower regions of Main Street, which remained Swearengen's territory.

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