ESCORTS: At Your Service, MU 9-4378—Hostesses, too.
FRIENDS—TO MEET NEW ONES: Personally we're misanthropes, but if you're lonely and haven't the guts to brave strangers, phone ABC, WI 7-2430; Social, TR 3-2013, or Clara Lane, LU 2-2617.
GIRDLES—FIRST AID: If your favorite girdle busts while you're away from home, call Jean Kaufman, 54 West 56th Street. But if you're the kind who needs a girdle, why didn't you stay home?
GAMBLING: All forms, except on-track parimutuel, are illegal, but you will have little trouble finding bookmakers and policy-slip sellers. There are no casinos or gambling houses as such in the city limits. As soon as one gets started, the cops crack down. There are no exceptions. Yet you can find card games going in some political clubs and so-called social and bridge clubs. Traveling crap games are common around Broadway and in Harlem, and there are steerers to take you to them.
Slot machines are vigorously banned, but of late the authorities have been winking at a new type of electrical gambling machine, similar to pinball, which pays off on poker hands. These are being set up in some of the best midtown locations and in other parts of town, and though they pay off in "merchandise," which is as illegal as cash, they seem to have plenty of protection way up. Some buy back the "merchandise" for currency. Frank Costello makes them.