As business slows, brothel seeking to add male prostitutes

By Cy Ryan

Tuesday, June 2, 2009 | 4:47 p.m.

(UPDATED STORY: Applications roll in for brothel’s male prostitution jobs)

Business is so slow at the Shady Lady Ranch that the owner of the Nye County brothel wants to add a few shady men to her roster.

Bobbi Davis, the owner of the bordello located about 150 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is set to start interviewing men who aspire to be prostitutes.

“We’ll start out with one or two,” Davis said, adding that she is “looking for men in their early 30s to mid-50s” who are in good shape and want to entertain women.

The applicants might soon even be able to shop their resumes around. George Flint, spokesman for the Nevada Brothel Association, said the ailing economy has four other bordellos considering the possibility of adding men.

But Flint doesn’t think the idea will work. Joe Conforte tried it 30 years ago when he owned the Mustang Ranch outside Reno “and found it was not a viable concept,” Flint said.

Flint said the concept also is “probably socially unacceptable.”

Davis disagrees. She wants to try it out and see what kind of reaction she gets. “We feel this is an untapped resource,” she said.

When Heidi Fleiss, “the Hollywood madam,” talked about opening a bordello for women customers, it generated worldwide publicity, Davis noted. But Fleiss couldn’t get a license because of a felony conviction.

Davis said the charges for the new services will be based on the time spent because women don’t want “quickies – wham bam, thank you madam.”

The minimum would be two hours, probably at a cost of $500, she said. Three hours would cost $700 and four hours, $1,000. An overnight stay would be $2,000.

Flint cautioned that the administrative code in Nye County would have to be changed for this to work.

The regulations regarding prostitution refer to female body parts only. “All of the Nevada Administrative Code is built on the female anatomy,” said Flint.