Troy's Most Famous Madam
Troy’s Most Famous Madam, Mame Faye
Truth or Fiction?
There has been so much written about Mary Fahey Bonter, also known as “Mame Faye,” that perhaps there is no more to tell. Locally, she has become the poster child of the seamier side of Troy entertainment and has been the subject of articles, blog posts, and even a video, “Sittin’ on a Million.” She has been portrayed as the Madam with the heart of gold and as the notorious Queen of Troy’s “Red Light District.” As with many dramatic tales where the subject has little input, there has been lots of hyperbole added to her story. She was really just one of a number of proprietors of “disorderly houses” from c. 1905-1940 in Troy. A newspaper article used in other stories about “Mame” listed hers as just one of five houses in “Troy’s Famous Redlight District, “special attention given to high school boys and travelling salesmen”. But the stories don’t say that this was a satirical newspaper of the 1930’s, according to Duncan Crary, not a true report.
So who was the woman behind Mama Faye?
Mary Fahey was the daughter of Irish immigrants Thomas and Margaret, born in 1866. The NY State Census of 1875 listed the family as: Thomas, 35, a laborer; wife Margaret, 32; and children Peter, 13; Mary, 9; Thomas, 6; and Margaret, 2 months. Mary married a man named Gordon A. Bonter in 1895. In the Troy Directory of 1897, he appears living at 395 River Street, a saloon. After that he disappears, but thereafter, Mary was known as Mary Bonter in the census and as either Mary Bonter or Mame Fay in the newspaper.
This photo was taken in October 1929, looking south on 6th Avenue. Mary Bonter’s house, number 1725, was on the right, the second house past the building with the Uneeda Biscuit sign on the side. The Grand Union hotel was the first building on the right.
Apparently, Mary tried to establish a business in Albany, where the “Albany Evening Journal” of March 16, 1899 reported that “Mame Fay, a former Trojan, was before Judge Brady…charged with keeping a disorderly house at No. 18 Union Street.” A disorderly house was a site not only of prostitution but of illegal gambling of all sorts. However, Mary returned to Troy, where the 1910 Census listed her as a widow, the proprietor of a boarding house , and the Troy “Daily Times” of June 1, 1911 recorded a fire in the sofa at Miss Mame Fay’s residence, 1725 Sixth Avenue, put out by the Arba Read Steamer Company. And thereon, until 1942, that was her place of business, also referred to as “Mame Fay’s Sporting House.” The Troy Police Station was just a few blocks south, at the corner of State and 6th, as it is now.
There were six or seven brownstones in a row on 6th Avenue, down the street from Troy’s Union Station, which were operated as “rooming houses”, mostly by women proprietors, from about 1910 to 1940. Mary Bonter stands out from the other proprietors for her longevity. Only one other woman was there for more than ten years. And only one man was listed as a proprietor, Henry Viall in 1940. In the 1910 census, Mary Bonter had two other Marys, neither with an occupation, listed as living with her. In 1920, there was just a housekeeper; in 1930 six single women lived in the home. One was listed as a dry goods clerk. Finally in 1940, nine young women lived in Mary Bonter’s rooming house, each listed with an occupation- though two, Beatrice Sykes, 28, and Vivian Kirkwood, 34, were nightclub entertainers.
There was an ongoing battle in Troy, and certainly throughout the country, between those who wished to have all the “disorderly houses” closed and those who recognized their place in society. H.L. Waldo, a candidate for Mayor of Troy in 1913, wrote to the newspaper, “I am informed the police have a list of the houses of prostitution that is approximately correct and complete. Why do they not bring those violators of law before [the police justice]?” In March 1917 Mame Fay was charged with keeping a disorderly house and brought to trial. A jury found her innocent after five minutes deliberation. That June she faced the same charges, but pled guilty and paid a fine. Her attorney throughout her career was Abbott H. Jones, a very respected local attorney of the time and grandfather of prominent local attorney E. Stewart Jones.
The start of Prohibition in January 1920 ushered in an era of even more controversy between those who sought to close the “disorderly houses”, which could now provide illegal alcohol, and those who patronized them. John P. Taylor, District Attorney of Rensselaer County, lost a bid for re-election in 1920 amid accusations that “Gambling houses have been and are now today in full blast, houses of prostitution are wide open and nickel-in-the-slot machines can be found in operation everywhere…in some places boxes have been provided for children to stand upon, as they were too small to reach the machines.” Through it all, Mary Fahey Bonter and her peers on 6th Avenue continued to run their businesses. She saved her money and bought real estate around her- on Union Street, behind her house, on Federal Street, around the corner.
“Mame Fay” again pled guilty to keeping a disorderly house in January 1939 and paid a fine of $500. She was not being singled out. District Attorney Charles Ranney had conducted a raid on the “red light district” and issued 35 warrants all along 6th Avenue. This was a major crackdown on vice. An article in the Record on February 7 reported that the Troy Police Court had collected $6500 in fines as a result, with both the “housekeeper” and “doorkeeper” being fined in some cases. Several of the women had fled the city but had been pursued and caught by Troy Police detectives.
Mary Bonter’s house was padlocked by the county at the beginning of 1942, along with at least two others on 6th. Ranney’s successor, Earl J. Wiley, presided. An inspection in March, found it “Filthy beyond belief.” The furnishings were sold at public auction but brought just $125. Certainly Mary could have afforded to keep the house in good condition, even to furnish it lavishly, but either she removed anything valuable from the house before the closure, she had lost interest in keeping up the house as she aged, or some combination. She had been renting rooms to nine women as of 1940, so the house must have been habitable then. The row of houses was torn down in 1952.
Mary Bonter died May 5, 1943. (Troy Times Record 27 May 1943) For a woman supposed to be so notorious, she was not identified other than by her name in death, and not the subject of an obituary. She left her large estate to her nephew Thomas A. Myers (Troy Times Record 15 Sept 1943). He was the son of Mary’s younger sister Martha and her husband Michael Myers, both of whom died quite young. In the 1940 census, he was listed as a chauffeur for a private family, and had made $1200 in 1939, so this inheritance would have meant a big change in his life.
Mary left real estate worth about $10,000, stocks and bonds worth about $13,000, and cash and bank deposits of almost $220,000, plus jointly owned property worth almost $30,000- about $5 million today. She was buried with her parents and brother at St. Joseph’s Cemetery, but a tombstone was not erected at the time, certainly neglectful of her nephew, who had become a wealthy man. He and his wife Anna had retired to Florida by 1950. When Thomas died in Florida in 1959, he was described as a businessman.
Mary Bonter, “Mame Fay”, stands for the seamy side of entertainment in the first half of the 20th century in Troy. The woman herself has been lost in the haze of memory and conclusions based on few facts. She was definitely a successful businesswoman who navigated a difficult environment.