Old page wikitext, before the edit (old_wikitext) | '{{Coord|39|32|40.78|N|119|33|22.43|W|display=title}}
{{Infobox company
|name=Mustang Ranch
| foundation = 1971 <br>2005 (reopened)
| location = 1011 Wild Horse Canyon Dr <br /> Sparks, Nevada 89434 (since 2005)
| industry = Brothel, Adult Entertainment
|owner=L. Lance Gilman
|website=[http://www.mustangranchbrothel.com/ www.mustangranchbrothel.com]
}}
The '''Mustang Ranch,''' is a [[brothel]] in [[Storey County, Nevada|Storey County]], [[Nevada]], about {{convert|15|mi}} east of [[Reno, Nevada|Reno]]. It is currently located at 1011 Wild Horse Canyon Dr Sparks, NV 89434.
Under owner [[Joe Conforte]], it became Nevada's first licensed brothel in 1971, eventually leading to the legalization of brothel [[prostitution]] in 10 of 17 counties in the state. It became Nevada's largest brothel with {{convert|166|acre}},<ref>{{cite news |title=Mustang Ranch rides into porn production |author=April Corbin |newspaper=[[Las Vegas Weekly]] |date=2010-01-07 |url=http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/news/2010/jan/07/mustang-ranch-rides-porn-production/ }}</ref> and the most profitable.<ref name="albert">{{cite book|last1=Albert|first1=Alexa|title=Brothel : Mustang Ranch and its women|date=2002|publisher=Ballantine Books|location=New York|isbn=978-0449006580|edition=1st Ballantine Books ed.}}</ref>
The Mustang Ranch was forfeited to the federal government in 1999 following Conforte's convictions for [[Tax avoidance and tax evasion|tax fraud]], [[Racket (crime)|racketeering]] and other crimes. It was auctioned off and reopened in 2005, {{convert|5|mi}} to the east under the same name but different ownership.
==Operation==
{{Refimprove section|date=November 2006}}
The [[prostitutes]] lived on the ranch during their entire shift, which lasted from several days to several weeks.<ref name="albert" /> In the early 1970s, the women were [[bikini]] clad. Conforte claimed in 1971, the age range of the working girls was 18 to 35. Conforte could provide women of any age, race or size on request of the high rollers. The shifts lasted 12 hours per day, the women were required to serve ten to fifteen customers per shift. In 1971, they were required to earn $300 to $600 a week. Women had to pay for their rooms and for any vendors who came to the Ranch. Clothing and salon services were provided by vendors who traveled from as far away as San Francisco and by non-prostitute employees who lived in [[Sparks, Nevada]]. [[Physician|Doctors]] came to the ranch to do pelvic exams and check for [[sexually transmitted diseases]]. The [[physician]]s provided many of the working women with "vitamin" shots to help keep their energy up. Women were shown by the madam how to use sponges during [[menstruation]]. Although many of the women working were from Reno or Sparks, many commuted from [[Sacramento]] and [[San Francisco]]. Others came from all parts of the country. Women not working on the ranch were not allowed in. Owner [[Joe Conforte]] allowed "out parties" for high rollers to take the women to hotels in Reno.
[[Las Vegas Valley|Las Vegas]] reporter Colin McKinlay visited the Mustang Ranch to do one of the first reports ever allowed by Mustang management. He wrote, "The women were the most beautiful of any fantasy of man. The line-up contained the most pale of [[Nordic countries|Nordic]] blonde to the midnight of [[ebony]]; a wide eyed [[waif]] and wrinkled senior; rail thin to pudgy; tall women stood next to near [[dwarfism|dwarfs]], all were required to answer the buzzer unless they were "busy"."
As in other [[prostitution in Nevada|Nevada brothels]], customers were buzzed in through a gate. Once in, they chose a woman from a lineup in a lobby, and negotiated prices and services in the woman's room. She checked the penis for any open sores or signs of venereal disease and tested the pre-ejaculatory fluid. A short negotiation was made as to the type of "party" the customer wanted. Typical prices ranged from $100 to $500 plus tips, although the standard price of $25 for 30 minutes with [[wikt:half and half#Noun|half and half]] was enforced and could not be refused. Some women, who performed bizarre acts approved by the Confortes, could get up to $10,000 for a party. The house received half of anything the women made. After the negotiations (overheard by a hidden intercom system) were over, the prostitute collected the money and deposited it with a cashier. She returned to the room, washed the male genitals in a basin. After the act, she would again wash the male and slip on her skimpy outfit. The women was require to escort the customer from her room to the door. Some men would relax in the bar or on sofas talking to the girls. In time the men would be rested for "round two." Many men had favorites or wanted variety. They could be with as many women as they could afford. The fantasy of two and three women simultaneously was common. Another frequent fantasy was of an older and younger prostitute being intimate with the customer and each other; he pretended they were mother and daughter.
The house rules forbade [[anal sex]] and [[kiss]]ing on the mouth. Many major-league sports figures and entertainment-industry types would visit the Mustang Ranch. After 1985, due to [[HIV/AIDS]], Nevada state law required customers to wear [[condom]]s for both [[sexual intercourse|intercourse]] and [[oral sex]]. The women were not allowed to reject a customer who was willing to pay the house minimum and abide by the rules. For the safety of the women, every room had a hidden panic button.
[[Mapes Hotel]] bellmen in Reno directed men to the Mustang Ranch.
Alexa Albert, who conducted interviews with several women in the Mustang Ranch from 1993 to 1996, reported that at one point, the brothel required all women to have [[pimp]]s, who were thought to make the women work harder. Although this practice had stopped by the 1990s, many women were still pressured into the work by boyfriends, husbands, or other family members. About half of the women reported having been sexually abused as children.<ref name="albert" />
Joe Conforte in 1986 wrote his autobiography and history of the Mustang Ranch, with famed Nevada writer, David W. Toll.<ref>David W. Toll: '' Breaks, Brains and Balls, The Story of Joe Conforte and Nevada's Fabulous Mustang Ranch,'' Gold Hill Publishing Company, 2011. Toll is a prize-winning Nevada journalist, author and publisher.</ref>
==History==
The brothel started out as a set of four double-wide trailers, run by Richard Bennet and initially called ''Mustang Bridge Ranch.'' [[Joe Conforte]] (1923-), (''[[Look (American magazine)|Look]]'' gave his age as 48, in 1971) who had owned several brothels in Nevada together with his wife, Sally Burgess Conforte aka Jesse E. Conforte (1917–1992) since October 1955, took over the Mustang Ranch in 1967. At this time, brothels were not explicitly illegal in Nevada, but some had been closed as public nuisances.
Conforte gained political influence in Storey County (by renting out cheap trailers and telling the renters how to vote) and persuaded county officials to pass a brothel-licensing ordinance, which came into effect in 1971. Joe Conforte was featured in ''Look'', June 29, 1971, the article titled "Legal Prostitution Spreads in Nevada'" by Gerald Astor, ''Look'' Senior Editor. Joe was on the cover of ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' magazine November 23, 1972.
The [[Nevada Supreme Court]] upheld the right of a county to legalize prostitution, and several counties followed suit. Conforte converted the trailers into a permanent structure with 54 bedrooms. Mustang I had a spa room with [[jacuzzi]]. The swimming pool was for adult play.
Initially, the brothel did not serve black customers. In 1967, a separate trailer for blacks was built, and the prostitutes were allowed to refuse these men. This segregation was later abandoned, but black customers were still announced by a special signal, so that women could choose not to join the lineup, something not allowed for white customers.
In 1976, the world class boxer [[Oscar Bonavena]] (1942–1976), who was a former friend of Conforte's and probably had an affair with his wife Sally, was shot dead at the ranch by Conforte's bodyguard.<ref name="Farrell">{{ cite news
|first=Barry
|last=Farrell
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b-MCAAAAMBAJ
|title=The Killing At the Notorious Mustang Ranch
|work=[[New York (magazine)|New York]]
|date=July 26, 1976
|pages=41–49
|quote=
|accessdate= 2009-06-07 }}</ref>
In 1982, Mustang II with 48 bedrooms was built a hundred meters away from Mustang I. A bit smaller and not as luxurious as Mustang I, mostly new women and women demoted from Mustang I for some infraction worked there. Mustang 1 was subsequently rebranded as the "World Famous Mustang Ranch".<ref name="nvreno">{{cite web|title=Reno Brothels|url=http://www.nvbrothels.net:80/reno.htm|website=NV Brothels|accessdate=4 May 2018|date= |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20030207171156/http://www.nvbrothels.net:80/reno.htm |archive-date=7 February 2003}}</ref>
=== Forfeiture and sale following tax fraud ===
After losing a tax fraud case in 1990, the brothel was closed for three months and auctioned off. Conforte fled the [[United States]] and now lives in [[Brazil]]. The brothel was bought by a holding company and stayed open. After that company and the brothel's manager (a former county commissioner) lost a federal [[fraud]], [[racketeering]] and conspiracy case in 1999, the Mustang Ranch was closed and forfeited to the federal government. That same year, the [[Supreme Federal Court (Brazil)|Brazil Supreme Court]] ruled Conforte could not be extradited.
In 2002, the brothel's furniture, paintings and accessories were auctioned off. The [[United States Bureau of Land Management|Bureau of Land Management]] sold the Ranch's pink [[stucco]] structures on [[eBay]] in 2003. Bordello owner [[Lance Gilman]] purchased the buildings for $145,100 and moved them to his [[Wild Horse Adult Resort & Spa]] five miles to the east, where the relocated and extensively renovated buildings eventually became the second brothel located at that complex. However, the rights to the name Mustang Ranch, which Gilman had hoped to use for this new brothel, were tied up in a court battle with David Burgess, the owner of the [[Old Bridge Ranch]], nephew of Joe Conforte, and manager of the Mustang Ranch from 1979 until 1989. In December 2006, a federal judge ruled that Gilman was the "exclusive owner of the Mustang Ranch trademark" giving him the rights to use the name and branding.<ref>{{cite news|title=Battle for Mustang Ranch name over; Gilman wins|url=http://virginiacitynews.com/battle-for-mustang-ranch-name-over-gilman-wins-p918-91.htm|accessdate=29 July 2011|newspaper=Virginia City News|date=17 September 2008}}</ref>
In late March 2007, the final remaining building, the Annex II which had been bought for $8,600 by [[Dennis Hof]], was burned down in a fire department training exercise.<ref name=shipley>{{cite news|last=Shipley|first=Jarid|title=A fiery end for the Mustang Ranch 2|url=http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20070326/NEWS/103260065|accessdate=29 July 2011|newspaper=Nevada Appeal|date=26 March 2007}}</ref> A ''[[Reno Gazette-Journal]]'' report<ref>[http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051017/NEWS10/510170319/1002 River returning to nature] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.is/20060112092156/http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051017/NEWS10/510170319/1002 |date=2006-01-12 }}, an October 2005 ''[[Reno Gazette-Journal]]'' article mentioning the fate of the Mustang Ranch</ref> cited plans for the restoration of natural conditions to the section of the [[Truckee River]] flowing through the land, following the completion of a similar restoration<ref>[http://nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/nevada/preserves/art11683.html Restoration of McCarran Ranch land] from [[The Nature Conservancy]] website</ref> five miles downstream on [[Pat McCarran|McCarran]] Ranch land owned by [[The Nature Conservancy]].
Contrary to a popular [[urban legend]] circulated by email, the Mustang Ranch was never operated by the US government. It was operated by the Bankruptcy Trustee appointed by the United States Bankruptcy Court on behalf of the United States Government.<ref>[http://articles.latimes.com/2003/oct/12/travel/tr-spano12 Hoping to save the wild Mustang -- Ranch, that is]</ref><ref>[http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/government/a/mustang_ranch.htm False: U.S. Gov't Tried (and Failed) to Run Mustang Ranch]</ref>
==In media==
The 1973 motion picture ''[[Charley Varrick]]'' contained a scene filmed at Mustang Ranch, with a cameo by Joe Conforte. Nevada writer Gabriel R. Vogliotti (1908–1983) did research living at the Mustang Ranch. In 1975 he authored ''The Girls of Nevada,'' with a subtitle on the dust jacket, ''Featuring Joe Conforte, Overseer of the Mustang Ranch.'' In 1978, Robert Goralnick wrote and directed ''Mustang: The House That Joe Built.''
The 2010 film ''[[Love Ranch]]'' starring [[Helen Mirren]] is loosely based on the events at the Mustang Ranch. After a visit to the new Mustang Ranch in 2008 Mirren announced she was a "complete believer in legal brothels."<ref>[http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/tv-showbiz-news/entertainment-news/2008/09/07/dame-helen-mirren-calls-for-the-legalisation-of-brothels-78057-20726491/ Dame Helen Mirren calls for the legalisation of brothels], ''The Sunday Mail'', 7 September 2008</ref>
== See also ==
* [[Prostitution in Nevada]]
* [[List of brothels in Nevada]]
== References ==
{{Reflist|2}}
==External links==
* [http://www.worldfamousbrothel.com/ ''Mustang Ranch'']
[[Category:Brothels in Nevada]]
[[Category:Landmarks in Nevada]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in Storey County, Nevada]]
[[Category:1971 establishments in the United States]]
[[Category:1999 disestablishments in Nevada]]' |
New page wikitext, after the edit (new_wikitext) | '{{Coord|39|32|40.78|N|119|33|22.43|W|display=title}}
{{Infobox company
|name=Mustang Ranch
| foundation = 1971 <br>2005 (reopened)
| location = 1011 Wild Horse Canyon Dr <br /> Sparks, Nevada 89434 (since 2005)
| industry = Brothel, Adult Entertainment
|owner=L. Lance Gilman
|website=[http://www.mustangranchbrothel.com/ www.mustangranchbrothel.com]
}}
The '''Mustang Ranch,''' is a [[brothel]] in [[Storey County, Nevada|Storey County]], [[Nevada]], about {{convert|15|mi}} east of [[Reno, Nevada|Reno]]. It is currently located at 1011 Wild Horse Canyon Dr Sparks, NV 89434.
Under owner [[Joe Conforte]], it became Nevada's first licensed brothel in 1971, eventually leading to the legalization of brothel [[prostitution]] in 10 of 17 counties in the state. It became Nevada's largest brothel with {{convert|166|acre}},<ref>{{cite news |title=Mustang Ranch rides into porn production |author=April Corbin |newspaper=[[Las Vegas Weekly]] |date=2010-01-07 |url=http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/news/2010/jan/07/mustang-ranch-rides-porn-production/ }}</ref> and the most profitable.<ref name="albert">{{cite book|last1=Albert|first1=Alexa|title=Brothel : Mustang Ranch and its women|date=2002|publisher=Ballantine Books|location=New York|isbn=978-0449006580|edition=1st Ballantine Books ed.}}</ref>
The Mustang Ranch was forfeited to the federal government in 1999 following Conforte's convictions for [[Tax avoidance and tax evasion|tax fraud]], [[Racket (crime)|racketeering]] and other crimes. It was auctioned off and reopened in 2005, {{convert|5|mi}} to the east under the same name but different ownership.
==Operation==
{{Refimprove section|date=November 2006}}
The [[prostitutes]] lived on the ranch during their entire shift, which lasted from several days to several weeks.<ref name="albert" /> In the early 1970s, the women were [[bikini]] clad. Conforte claimed in 1971, the age range of the working girls was 18 to 35. Conforte could provide women of any age, race or size on request of the high rollers. The shifts lasted 12 hours per day, the women were required to serve ten to fifteen customers per shift. In 1971, they were required to earn $300 to $600 a week. Women had to pay for their rooms and for any vendors who came to the Ranch. Clothing and salon services were provided by vendors who traveled from as far away as San Francisco and by non-prostitute employees who lived in [[Sparks, Nevada]]. [[Physician|Doctors]] came to the ranch to do pelvic exams and check for [[sexually transmitted diseases]]. The [[physician]]s provided many of the working women with "vitamin" shots to help keep their energy up. Women were shown by the madam how to use sponges during [[menstruation]]. Although many of the women working were from Reno or Sparks, many commuted from [[Sacramento]] and [[San Francisco]]. Others came from all parts of the country. Women not working on the ranch were not allowed in. Owner [[Joe Conforte]] allowed "out parties" for high rollers to take the women to hotels in Reno.
[[Las Vegas Valley|Las Vegas]] reporter Colin McKinlay visited the Mustang Ranch to do one of the first reports ever allowed by Mustang management. He wrote, "The women were the most beautiful of any fantasy of man. The line-up contained the most pale of [[Nordic countries|Nordic]] blonde to the midnight of [[ebony]]; a wide eyed [[waif]] and wrinkled senior; rail thin to pudgy; tall women stood next to near [[dwarfism|dwarfs]], all were required to answer the buzzer unless they were "busy"."
As in other [[prostitution in Nevada|Nevada Sex Shop]], customers were buzzed in through a gate. Once in, they chose a woman from a lineup in a lobby, and negotiated prices and services in the woman's room. She checked the penis for any open sores or signs of venereal disease and tested the pre-ejaculatory fluid. A short negotiation was made as to the type of "party" the customer wanted. Typical prices ranged from $1 to $10 with no tips, although the standard price of $0.07 for minutes with [[wikt:half and half#Noun|half and half]] was enforced and could not be refused. Some women, who performed bizarre acts approved by the Confortes, could get up to $0.69 for a party. The house received half of anything the women made. After the negotiations (overheard by a hidden intercom system) were over, the “ho” collected the money and deposited in his nutsack. The lady that was “thirsty returned to the room, washed the male penis with her saliva. After the act, she would again wash the male anus on her silky outfit. The women was require to keep the customer in her room to proceed in sexual intercourse one more time. Some men would relax in the bar or on sofas talking to the bartender while drunk, listening to Juice Wrld song, “All Girls Are The Same”. In time the men would be rested for "Sexual Healing." Many men had favorites or wanted variety. They could be with as many shemales as they could afford. The fantasy of two and three traps simultaneously was common. Another frequent fantasy was of an older ho, underage thots being “nasty like my anus” with the customer and each other; he pretended they were mother and daughter.
The house rules allow [[anal sex]] and [[kiss]]ing on the mouth previously. Many major-league sports figures and entertainment-industry types would visit the Mustang Ranch. After 1985, due to [[HIV/AIDS]], Nevada state law required customers to not wrap their small penis in [[condom]]s for both [[sexual intercourse|intercourse]] and [[oral sex]]. The women were not allowed to reject a customer who was willing to pay the house minimum and abide by the rules. For the safety of the women, every room had a hidden panic button for security to proceed beating the pervert.
[[Mapes Hotel]] bellmen in Reno directed men to the Mustang Ranch.
Alexa Albert, who conducted interviews with several women in the Mustang Ranch from 1993 to 1996, reported that at one point, the brothel required all women to have [[pimp]]s, who were thought to make the women work harder. Although this practice had stopped by the 1990s, many women were still pressured into the work by boyfriends, husbands, niggers, or other family members. About half of the women reported having been sexually active as children.<ref name="albert" />
Joe Conforte in 1986 wrote his autobiography and history of the Mustang Ranch, with famed Nevada writer, David W. Toll.<ref>David W. Toll: '' Breaks, Brains and Balls, The Story of Joe Conforte and Nevada's Fabulous Mustang Ranch,'' Gold Hill Publishing Company, 2011. Toll is a prize-winning Nevada journalist, author and publisher.</ref>
==History==
The brothel started out as a set of four double-wide trailers, run by Richard Bennet and initially called ''Mustang Bridge Ranch.'' [[Joe Conforte]] (1923-), (''[[Look (American magazine)|Look]]'' gave his age as 48, in 1971) who had owned several brothels in Nevada together with his wife, Sally Burgess Conforte aka Jesse E. Conforte (1917–1992) since October 1955, took over the Mustang Ranch in 1967. At this time, brothels were not explicitly illegal in Nevada, but some had been closed as public nuisances.
Conforte gained political influence in Storey County (by renting out cheap trailers and telling the renters how to vote) and persuaded county officials to pass a brothel-licensing ordinance, which came into effect in 1971. Joe Conforte was featured in ''Look'', June 29, 1971, the article titled "Legal Prostitution Spreads in Nevada'" by Gerald Astor, ''Look'' Senior Editor. Joe was on the cover of ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' magazine November 23, 1972.
The [[Nevada Supreme Court]] upheld the right of a county to legalize prostitution, and several counties followed suit. Conforte converted the trailers into a permanent structure with 54 bedrooms. Mustang I had a spa room with [[jacuzzi]]. The swimming pool was for adult play.
Initially, the brothel did not serve black customers. In 1967, a separate trailer for blacks was built, and the prostitutes were allowed to refuse these men. This segregation was later abandoned, but black customers were still announced by a special signal, so that women could choose not to join the lineup, something not allowed for white customers.
In 1976, the world class boxer [[Oscar Bonavena]] (1942–1976), who was a former friend of Conforte's and probably had an affair with his wife Sally, was shot dead at the ranch by Conforte's bodyguard.<ref name="Farrell">{{ cite news
|first=Barry
|last=Farrell
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b-MCAAAAMBAJ
|title=The Killing At the Notorious Mustang Ranch
|work=[[New York (magazine)|New York]]
|date=July 26, 1976
|pages=41–49
|quote=
|accessdate= 2009-06-07 }}</ref>
In 1982, Mustang II with 48 bedrooms was built a hundred meters away from Mustang I. A bit smaller and not as luxurious as Mustang I, mostly new women and women demoted from Mustang I for some infraction worked there. Mustang 1 was subsequently rebranded as the "World Famous Mustang Ranch".<ref name="nvreno">{{cite web|title=Reno Brothels|url=http://www.nvbrothels.net:80/reno.htm|website=NV Brothels|accessdate=4 May 2018|date= |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20030207171156/http://www.nvbrothels.net:80/reno.htm |archive-date=7 February 2003}}</ref>
=== Forfeiture and sale following tax fraud ===
After losing a tax fraud case in 1990, the brothel was closed for three months and auctioned off. Conforte fled the [[United States]] and now lives in [[Brazil]]. The brothel was bought by a holding company and stayed open. After that company and the brothel's manager (a former county commissioner) lost a federal [[fraud]], [[racketeering]] and conspiracy case in 1999, the Mustang Ranch was closed and forfeited to the federal government. That same year, the [[Supreme Federal Court (Brazil)|Brazil Supreme Court]] ruled Conforte could not be extradited.
In 2002, the brothel's furniture, paintings and accessories were auctioned off. The [[United States Bureau of Land Management|Bureau of Land Management]] sold the Ranch's pink [[stucco]] structures on [[eBay]] in 2003. Bordello owner [[Lance Gilman]] purchased the buildings for $145,100 and moved them to his [[Wild Horse Adult Resort & Spa]] five miles to the east, where the relocated and extensively renovated buildings eventually became the second brothel located at that complex. However, the rights to the name Mustang Ranch, which Gilman had hoped to use for this new brothel, were tied up in a court battle with David Burgess, the owner of the [[Old Bridge Ranch]], nephew of Joe Conforte, and manager of the Mustang Ranch from 1979 until 1989. In December 2006, a federal judge ruled that Gilman was the "exclusive owner of the Mustang Ranch trademark" giving him the rights to use the name and branding.<ref>{{cite news|title=Battle for Mustang Ranch name over; Gilman wins|url=http://virginiacitynews.com/battle-for-mustang-ranch-name-over-gilman-wins-p918-91.htm|accessdate=29 July 2011|newspaper=Virginia City News|date=17 September 2008}}</ref>
In late March 2007, the final remaining building, the Annex II which had been bought for $8,600 by [[Dennis Hof]], was burned down in a fire department training exercise.<ref name=shipley>{{cite news|last=Shipley|first=Jarid|title=A fiery end for the Mustang Ranch 2|url=http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20070326/NEWS/103260065|accessdate=29 July 2011|newspaper=Nevada Appeal|date=26 March 2007}}</ref> A ''[[Reno Gazette-Journal]]'' report<ref>[http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051017/NEWS10/510170319/1002 River returning to nature] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.is/20060112092156/http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051017/NEWS10/510170319/1002 |date=2006-01-12 }}, an October 2005 ''[[Reno Gazette-Journal]]'' article mentioning the fate of the Mustang Ranch</ref> cited plans for the restoration of natural conditions to the section of the [[Truckee River]] flowing through the land, following the completion of a similar restoration<ref>[http://nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/nevada/preserves/art11683.html Restoration of McCarran Ranch land] from [[The Nature Conservancy]] website</ref> five miles downstream on [[Pat McCarran|McCarran]] Ranch land owned by [[The Nature Conservancy]].
Contrary to a popular [[urban legend]] circulated by email, the Mustang Ranch was never operated by the US government. It was operated by the Bankruptcy Trustee appointed by the United States Bankruptcy Court on behalf of the United States Government.<ref>[http://articles.latimes.com/2003/oct/12/travel/tr-spano12 Hoping to save the wild Mustang -- Ranch, that is]</ref><ref>[http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/government/a/mustang_ranch.htm False: U.S. Gov't Tried (and Failed) to Run Mustang Ranch]</ref>
==In media==
The 1973 motion picture ''[[Charley Varrick]]'' contained a scene filmed at Mustang Ranch, with a cameo by Joe Conforte. Nevada writer Gabriel R. Vogliotti (1908–1983) did research living at the Mustang Ranch. In 1975 he authored ''The Girls of Nevada,'' with a subtitle on the dust jacket, ''Featuring Joe Conforte, Overseer of the Mustang Ranch.'' In 1978, Robert Goralnick wrote and directed ''Mustang: The House That Joe Built.''
The 2010 film ''[[Love Ranch]]'' starring [[Helen Mirren]] is loosely based on the events at the Mustang Ranch. After a visit to the new Mustang Ranch in 2008 Mirren announced she was a "complete believer in legal brothels."<ref>[http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/tv-showbiz-news/entertainment-news/2008/09/07/dame-helen-mirren-calls-for-the-legalisation-of-brothels-78057-20726491/ Dame Helen Mirren calls for the legalisation of brothels], ''The Sunday Mail'', 7 September 2008</ref>
== See also ==
* [[Prostitution in Nevada]]
* [[List of brothels in Nevada]]
== References ==
{{Reflist|2}}
==External links==
* [http://www.worldfamousbrothel.com/ ''Mustang Ranch'']
[[Category:Brothels in Nevada]]
[[Category:Landmarks in Nevada]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in Storey County, Nevada]]
[[Category:1971 establishments in the United States]]
[[Category:1999 disestablishments in Nevada]]' |
