Chapter Seven: Historical Notes
Documentation and Context
The Admiral Bimbo Inn
The Admiral Bimbo Inn depicted in this chapter is based on the House of Lords, a notorious bar, gambling house, and brothel located in Joplin, Missouri (not Springfield, Missouri). This establishment was well-known throughout the Ozarks region during the late 19th century for its colorful atmosphere and questionable reputation.
Historical Context
Joplin, Missouri, was a rough-and-tumble mining town in the 1890s, fueled by lead and zinc mining operations. The House of Lords was one of many establishments that catered to miners, gamblers, and those seeking entertainment of all varieties. These establishments operated in the shadowy space between legal saloons and outright criminal enterprises.
The bar's location in Joplin placed it at the crossroads of several important routes through the Ozarks, making it a natural stopping point for travelers, salesmen, and drifters—precisely the type of clientele that M.S. Glenn and Mack McQuary would have encountered.
The saloon's opulent walnut bar, green leather barstools, and ornate fixtures described in the chapter were typical of high-end establishments of the period, which sought to create an air of respectability despite their illicit activities. The contrast between elegant furnishings and sordid business was a hallmark of such places.
The Painting Above the Bar
The story of the painting depicting the dead woman with the stab wound is based on a real-life incident involving Thomas Hart Benton, who would later become one of America's most famous painters. Before achieving fame, Benton worked as an illustrator for the Joplin Globe newspaper.
Thomas Hart Benton in Joplin
In the early 1900s, a young Thomas Hart Benton worked as a newspaper illustrator in Joplin, creating drawings to accompany news stories in an era before newspaper photography became common. His job required him to illustrate various local events, including crimes, accidents, and sensational incidents.
One of his assignments involved creating an illustration based on a violent crime that had occurred in one of Joplin's establishments. The image—a dramatic rendering of a murder scene—was so striking that it allegedly ended up hanging in the very establishment where the crime had taken place, serving as a macabre piece of decoration and perhaps a warning.
Benton's time in Joplin and his exposure to the raw, violent realities of frontier life would later influence his artistic style. His famous murals and paintings often depicted the harsh realities of American life with unflinching honesty, a sensibility that may have been shaped by his early experiences illustrating crime scenes and frontier incidents.
The whiskey glass that inspired artistic contemplation
Art and Vice in the Ozarks
The juxtaposition of fine art (the romantic painting of the knight and castle) with crude sensationalism (the murder scene) in the Admiral Bimbo Inn reflects the cultural contradictions of frontier America. Saloons and brothels often displayed expensive paintings and elegant fixtures alongside their more sordid offerings, creating an atmosphere that was simultaneously refined and degraded.
This paradox mirrors Mack McQuary's own character—a young man with artistic sensibilities and romantic dreams attempting to navigate a world of con artists, saloons, and compromised morality.
The Dark Knight Painting
The romantic painting of the purple castle and the knight on the black horse represents the kind of popular art that decorated saloons and hotel lobbies throughout America during this period. These images—often reproductions of European paintings—appealed to frontier audiences who craved connections to Old World culture and romance.
The painting's imagery of a knight questing toward a distant castle where a lady waits perfectly captures the romantic delusion that McQuary is already beginning to construct. His interpretation of the painting, seeing it through Glenn's cynical lens as being "all about cherry pie," represents the collision of romantic idealism with crude reality that characterizes his entire journey.
The Purple Knight's Origin
It's worth noting that this painting may have planted the seed for McQuary's later persona as "The Purple Knight." The image of a knight on a romantic quest, combined with the color purple (both in the sky and in McQuary's later costume), suggests that this moment in the Admiral Bimbo Inn was formative in his developing scheme.