Licensed Prostitute -- City of Shanghai (1965)

Monsieur (New York), vol. 8, no. 1, June 1965, p. 63.

This joke was already old when it appeared in this men’s magazine as a supposedly true story. See, for example, Bennett Cerf, Good for a Laugh (1952), 203-4: “It’s unlikely that a certain Senator’s wife will be wearing to any more public functions a medallion her husband picked up for her on an air junket to Hong Kong. She was very proud of it for quite a while—until the evening, in fact, that a Chinese Nationalist diplomat, over to address the U.N., informed her gravely that the literal translation of the Chinese characters on the medallion read, ‘Licensed prostitute, City of Shanghai.’ ”

Compare this story from The New Yorker, 14 Dec 1940, p. 20.

THE TALK OF THE TOWN

Souvenir of Mexico

Two earnest, pretty young school teachers decided to go to Mexico on their vacation last summer. Naturally, they avoided all the tourist places, desiring only the real flavor of Mexico. They got it, too. Arriving in a highly flavored little inland city, they had a meal and a bath at the hotel, then set out to explore. Coming to a street mellifluously named the Avenue of the Beautiful Springs and the Waterfall and the Bridge That Is Music in Stone, they turned into it, only to be pounced upon by a policeman, who haled them off to the police station. There the captain explained that their offence was trespassing on the section reserved for licenced prostitutes. There was a fine of three hundred pesos for any girl caught without a licence on the Avenue of the Beautiful Springs and the Waterfall and the Bridge That Is Music in Stone. The girls protested that they were simply sightseeing and had no idea of muscling in, but the captain said the fine remained. Then he had an inspiration. "The fine is three hundred pesos, but the licence costs only twenty-five. Why don't you apply for licences?" he asked. The girls thought this was a fine idea. For the Mexican equivalent of five dollars each, they received handsomely engraved documents giving them access to the Avenue of the Beautiful Springs, etc.