At the core of the mystery is a woman named Sal. Or, at least, this is the professional name of the woman, immortal in the famous song 1905, which later turned into "Sal im Gal".
What historians believe is that she was a singer of Indiana singer Paul Dresser in Evansville. She led a successful brothel in her late 20's and collected food and clothes on a family dependent on poverty. And - as described by the younger brother of Dresser, the famous novelist Theodore Dreiser - was beautiful, with a white image and dark hair and eyes that opposed a pale color.
But more than a century after Dresser wrote the song, scholars have not been able to confirm the true identity of a woman who is likely to hit the pop culture award when she was portrayed by her Rita Hayworth in Dresser 1942's biopic "My Salem." And so she has remained an amazing puzzler, one that New York Times Magazine writer John Jeremiah Sullivan has worked long to decipher.
Now, it's quite possible that he has. Through his research that centers on music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Sullivan has found a real identity for Sal that matches up with Dreiser's description of her.
For his part, Sullivan is confident it's her.
"The character, the personage, that Sal person, she already existed and had a real enigmatic power, and so that was very cool to be able to put a name to that," Sullivan said.
Her professional name was Sallie Davis. Her real name likely was Annie Swonner. She was a madam of a fancy brothel in Evansville, she had a penchant for wild men and she led quite the adventurous life.
'My Gal Sal,' a pop culture giant
Dresser was the first to introduce the Salun Complex to the general public. "My Gal Gal" was his last blow, one that came a year before his death in 1906, at a time when he had lost the popularity and wealth that had determined his entertainment career.
While Dresser has now faded into the darkness for many Hoosiers, he was one of Indiana's favorite guys. The singer was born in Terre Haute, a superstitious mother who thought he had a vision and a Catholic father whose personality grew worse after an accident where a large part of the wood fell on his head, Dreiser wrote. The death of the first three children punished their parents, but there were another 10, of whom Paul was the oldest.
Dresser was sent to the seminary school as a young teenager and left shortly thereafter for unknown reasons, biographer Dresser Clayton Henderson wrote in "About the Wabash Banks: The Life and Music of Paul Dresser". Eventually, he began traveling to the Vaudeville County and found fame as a composer, comedian and singer, playing Evansville, Indianapolis, Chicago, Cincinnati, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Louisville. He became known for generosity His extreme, pounding frame and the love of women, some of whom probably used it, said Marylee Hagan, executive director of the Society and Historical Museum of Vigo District.
"He was good for women, he liked women and spent his money with rage," said Hagan.
During the last part of the 19th century, Dresser - who shrugged off the family name for an easier-to-pronounce, show-business, wrote a hit after hitting in the sentimental style, comforter that wowed crowds. In 1897, he composed what would become the state song of Indiana, "For the banks of Wabash, far away".
"He was a storyteller," said Hagan. "The music he wrote ... you can imagine what he was talking about."
A bitter end:
After Sal, Dresser is rumored to have had an intense relationship — and maybe even a child who later died — with singer and burlesque queen May Howard. Historians don't know if she is the woman he left Sal for, but accounts after Dresser's death say Howard deserted him for someone else.
Sal later married Charles Hildebrand, who was a criminal before becoming known as the temperance-supporting "Reformed Outlaw," according to Sullivan. Whether Hildebrand was actually dedicated to his new life is debatable — especially since he had never divorced his first wife when he wed Sal, Sullivan said. Nonetheless, the former outlaw toured the country with his new bride giving lectures about prison reform and alcohol abstinence.
"This toughness in her, I started seeing early on, this refusal to give in to the will of the disapproving townspeople and ... just to insist on her own social validity that she, too, had a place in that town, that the bagnio had a place," Sullivan said.
"There was definitely a boldness in her ... she falls in love with this huge, dashing, successful songwriter and then she next falls in love with another showman of a sort."
According to her death certificate, Sal — then going by Annie Hildebrand — died in Troy N.Y. in 1886 and was buried in Bellville, Ohio. "Hemaplegia," which is defined as paralysis caused by a brain injury or disease, is listed as the reason. Charles Hildebrand's obituary mentioned the time and place of her death, and it was the document that tied together several details, Sullivan said.
Absolute proof that Annie Swonner, a.k.a. Sallie Davis, was the famous Sal doesn't exist. But, that doesn't stem the fun of piecing together clues into a highly plausible narrative. The world that drew in Sullivan, with its smart and sometimes tragic businesswomen, remains a vibrant one for those who spend time studying it.
"I think it's the glamour that's associated — even though it's kind of a twisted glamour — of these beautiful bordellos that were created by these women," Hagan said.
