Celebrating Black History Month 2023
Book Review: 'Gentleman of Leisure'
by Susan Hall and Bob Adelman
New American Library, 1972
Here at the PorPor Books Blog, we celebrate Black History Month by reading and reviewing nonfiction and fiction books that illuminate the black experience. We try to focus on books that are less well-known, and have lapsed into undeserved obscurity.
For Black History Month 2023, we're reviewing 'Gentleman of Leisure: A Year in the Life of A Pimp' (192 pp.), published by the New American Library in 1972. It's a hardbound book, printed on thick paper stock.
Robert Melvin Adelman (1930 – 2016) was a photojournalist who was best known for documenting the civil rights movement of the 1960s. He later expanded his coverage to professional sports and urban living, publishing photoessays on those subjects.
Coauthor Susan Hall, a filmmaker and author, is alive and well. Her books include 'On and Off the Street' (1970), 'Ladies of the Night' (1973) (which also deals with the urban demimonde) and 'Down Home, Camden, Alabama' (1974).
A 2017 interview with Bob Adelman, conducted shortly before his death, is available at the Rialto Report. The interview revealed that 'Silky', the star of the book, was still alive and hustling at that time. 'Gentleman' is a photoessay that deals with the day-to-day life of Silky, and some of the girls in his stable: Sandy, Kitty, Linda, Tracey, and Lois. The book intersperses its sections of photographs with text interviews with Silky, his fellow pimps, and the girls. We learn that Silky prefers to have white women in his stable because black women have too much drama, and are less pliable.
Silky is of course delighted to be the subject of attention and the book presents his philosophies regarding hustling, pimping, and life in general.
Playing a major role in the pursuit of The Game are its physical accoutrements: the latest and flyest clothing, and the finest of rides. A pimp who does not Represent in style is on the downward curve.
Contrary to the usual trope of pimps keeping order in their stable through the direct application of force, Silky relies on financial rewards, and displays of affection, to persuade his girls to work for him. It seems that there is no shortage of women willing to take up prostitution; indeed, Silky is constantly cycling girls into and out of his stable and bemoans the effort required to tend to so many 'employees'. The girls are enigmatic. It's not clear how much of what they tell Susan Hall is honest and forthright, but at least superficially, they have no regrets about their choice of profession and their reliance on Silky. It's the girls that offer observations on events carefully withheld by Silky; for example, we learn from them that he was serious injured in a fight with a rival pimp, to the extent of needing plastic surgery.
'Gentlemen' closes with a Glossary, a vital source of information for anyone contemplating writing a novel or screenplay dealing with the street scene in New York City in the early 1970s:
'Gentleman' is an interesting look at an urban subculture in its heyday in the 1970s, a subculture mythologized in the novels of Iceberg Slim and referenced by modern-day rappers like Snoop Dogg. Understandably, because they wanted access to Silky and his stable, Hall and Adelman carefully avoid passing judgment on the pimping enterprise, and covering its more unsavory aspects. And no doubt, Silky and the girls presented themselves in the best possible light to Hall and Adelman. These aspects of the interaction between chroniclers and subject will of course need to be held in mind while perusing the pages of 'Gentleman'. Copies of the book, in good condition, can be had for under $20. But if you are interested in obtaining a copy, I would act sooner, rather than later, as the price for even a marginal copy inevitably is going to rise.
