Park City Museum will host a Zoom lecture called Bawdy Women of the West: The Myths and Realities of Prostitution given by Michael Rutter on Tuesday, October 20th from 5-6 p.m. Please register for the lecture by contacting Diane Knispel at education@parkcityhistory.org.

Michael Rutter will discuss the legends and myths of prostitution in the west. Behind the makeup and gaudy clothing there were real women living from day to day. The world’s oldest profession had a poor retirement plan and led women to be disillusioned, diseased, and disenfranchised.

Michael Rutter is a recipient of the Ben Franklin Book Award for Excellence and the Rocky Mountain Book Publishers’ Award. An “addicted” fly fisherman, his outdoor essays have been published from Yale University to Outdoor Life. He worked with American Experience on “The Wild West Series,” Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. He has been a Christa McAuliffe Fellow and an AT&T Scholar.

His books on western themes include Colorado Madams (summer 2020), Upstairs Girls: Prostitution in the American West; Boudoirs to Brothels: The Intimate World of Wild West Women; Myths and Mysteries of the Old West; Wild Bunch Women; Outlaw Tales of Utah; Bedside Book of Bad Girls: Outlaw Women of the American West; and Utah Off the Beaten Path.

He teaches advanced writing at Brigham Young University and lives in Orem, Utah, with his wife, Shari, three cats, and a large, very spoiled dog, a Turkish Akbash name Star.