Northwest History. Alaska. General.

• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1936
• Subjects: sourdoughs; Alaska; Dance Hall; Washington; asylum; Dawson; Seattle; gold rush; Diamond Tooth Lil; Butte; Mont.; Charles (Charlie) Beam; Fairbanks; Alexander Pantages; Gus Johnson; miner; prospector; Capt. A. J. Goddard; Yukon; William Huson; Sumner; Dave Griffith; Auburn; Capt. Marshall Scrafford; Klondikers parade; George Miller; Lillian Orinstein; mental illness; Northwest; Pacific > History > 20th century; Griffith; Pacific; Steamboat
• Online Access: http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/clipping/id/92105

Recall Old Days: "Diamond Tooth Lil's" Illness Brings Reminiscences./By Sourdoughs Of Alaska./Remember Her Days As Dance Hall Girl In Dawson; Dying In Washington Insane Asylum. RECALL OLD DAYS "Diamond Tooth Lil's" Illness Brings Reminiscences BY SOURDOUGHS OF ALASKA Remember Her Days as Dance Hall Girl In Dawson; Dying In Washington Insane Asylum. Seattle, June 30.-UP)-Memories of the hell-roaring Dawson days of gold rush times stirred old time Alaskans today, roused by the sad plight of "Diamond Tooth Lil," dance hall adventuress now near death. "Diamond Tooth Lil," the black-haired, mysterious good-looking girl of 21 or 22 at Dawson (in the words or one who remembers her) is in seclusion in a Washington state insane asylum. Authorities have tried to locate a sister, believed to be at Butte, Mont. "Her folks were supposed to be very wealthy when she came to Dawson in '98 or '99, I'm not sure just which year," Charles (Charlie) Beam recalled. Beam operated gambling houses there and at Fairbanks. He is now retired. Friend of Pantages. "She was there three or four years, and became a great friend of the late Alexander Pantages, who became theater-magnate in the states. She had black hair and was about medium height. Folks thought she was very good-looking." The life of dance hall girls in the gold rush days was rough. Girls danced on a "percentage basis," getting a tip or check when each dance was over, usually 25 cents, sometimes much more. Dances were held etfery night of the week except Sundays, and frequently lasted all night. Gus Johnson, operator of a steam laundry at Dawson in the early days and a miner and prospector, recalled a "Diamond Tooth Gertie," but was uncertain whether or not she was "Diamond Tooth Lil." Both girls, Beam and Johnson recalled, gained their names through having diamonds placed in their teeth. Goddard Remembers. Capt. A. J. Goddard, a steamboat captain on the Yukon 20 years, remembered "Diamond Tooth Lil" as a .well-known dance hall character. "I believe William Huson, who played the fiddle in an orchestra for her, is still living at Sumner," he said. "He would remember her. Dave Griffith, of Auburn, would also remember her." Detective Capt. Marshall Scrafford, who Is directing efforts to locate her relatives and aid her, said that she put on a big demonstration, "throwing money around right and left," at a Klondikers parade when she came out to Seattle around 1908. She Is known as the widow of the late George Miller, of Seattle, and to have been the former Lillian Orinstein, daughter of a Jewish family. She Inherited $150,000 from her mother, Mrs. A. Orinstein, who died in Los Angeles in 1928 shortly before she divorced Miller. She became an apartment house owner here but in recent years lost most or all of her wealth before mental illness overcame her.