Klondike Kate The Life and Legend of Kitty Rockwell The Queen of the Yukon

Lucia, Ellis

Published by Hastings House Publishers, Inc., New York, 1962

About this Item

305 Pages Indexed. 1962 Edition with no later printings listed. Illustrated with black and white photographs. Orange cloth with black lettering to spine and front. A four-line red-inked owner's name and address on front endpaper. No other marks or stamps to this bright, tight, straight book. Very, very light corner wear and a tiny bump to bottom of back cover. No other defects noted. Flawless interior. Dust jacket has some edge chipping and a tiny piece missing at top of spine area. Price $5.95 is unclipped. This is the spirited chronicle of Kathleen Rockwell, the pretty, venturesome girl with restless feet and big ambitions who took the Klondike by storm and became the last of the great dance-hall queens. In that wild and wicked Eldorado of the Arctic, the redhaired Kitty sang and danced her way into the sourdoughs' hearts, panned enough gold from their pouches to make a small fortune, and led a life that was always colorful, frequently daring and occasionally lurid. Her background was that of a middleclass, respectable, God-fearing family, but Kate Rockwell more than held her own with the other dance-hall dames of Dawson, flashy wenches who sported such monickers as Diamond Lil and Diamond-Tooth Gertie, Ping Pong and Nellie the Pig, the Grizzly Bear and the Oregon Mare, Claw-finger Kate and Touch-the-Button Nell. She met, on an equal footing, characters like Soapy Smith, king of the con men; Wilson Mizner and Tex Rickard, destined for larger fame later in the sports boom of the twenties; and Alexander Pantages, the Greek roustabout who became a multi-millionaire theater magnate. Before that, Kitty Rockwell had been a chorus girl, both in New York and on the West Coast, and after the Klondike excitement had died down at the turn of the century, she went back to the States and a long, successful career in vaudeville. She always knew how to attract the beams of the Spotlight, and even after she retired they were focused on her again during the morals trial of Alex Pantages, with whom she had been on intimate terms in the Yukon. That case, which earned sensational headlines across the nation, is treated in detail, with special attention to Kate's mysterious role in the legal drama. Told with tang and verve, Klondike Kate is the fast moving, continually entertaining story of a smash-hit show-business personality who high-lighted America's last frontier, and of the people who knew her, loved her, exploited her - and hailed her as the Queen of the North. -- From the Dust Jacket Flaps.

Seller Inventory # 10572

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Klondike Kate The Life and Legend of Kitty Rockwell The Queen of the Yukon
• Publisher: Hastings House Publishers, Inc., New York
• Publication Date: 1962
• Binding: Hard Back
• Edition: First Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Good