HISTORICAL FOOTNOTE A Hotbed of Hot Beds-or, Who Got the Big Idea That the Sexual Revolution Was Something New?

“A rather sneaky study by Southern Methodist University sociology students of the comings and goings at Dallas motels over one weekend in 1935 found that of the 2,000 customers who used the city’s 38 establishments, most were registered under fictitious names and at least three-quarters of those so registered were there for illicit sex. (What then, we might reasonably wonder, were the remaining one-quarter up to-and how did the researchers determine who was doing what?) Terrific money was to be made in the “hot bed” or “Mr. and Mrs. Jones” trade, as it came to be known. One Dallas establishment was noted to have rented out a particular room no fewer than 16 times in 24 hours, or once every 90 minutes.”