Pearl Callahan

A Chocolate Drop, A Midnight Blonde, Dynamite in a Small Package. Those are all adjectives that Pearl Callahan uses when describing herself, and they are right on..... She is a native Northern California girl who comes from the inner city, and yet her smile is as carefree as if she had never seen a hard day in her life. Pearl was one of nine children raised by a single father who worked two jobs and sometimes three. His main occupation? Custodian... The small house in which she was raised was proof of her father’s hard work and devotion and yet, it was a three bedroom house for 10 people. Her daddy had a room, her brothers had a room and the all the girls shared a bedroom as well. In Pearl’s bed slept her and her two sisters closest in age. She speaks of what it was like being raised with love and close to nothing else. She talks about her memories of wishing there was more food, especially at the end of the month when there just wasn’t enough food to go around.

In her teen years she would often walk past the drug dealers on the corner who had taken over a block that was once lined with a small family owned store and local businesses. She and her two sisters, close in age, were inseparable. At 16 she became pregnant; something that she had told herself wouldn’t happen to her. She knew the day her child’s father died and her son was still only a baby, that she was the only one that was going to get them out of there. Not wanting to go on welfare, Pearl began to allow the attentions of an older gentlemen who had been showing interest for sometime. He began helping her financially and soon Pearl found out exactly what he was looking for and she found her and her sons ticket out.

Pearl Callahan’s story spans many years. She is 58 now and is retired and married. Follow her life from the streets and the hustle of pimps and undesirables; to the houses in Nevada; the massage parlors in the 70’s; to working at an upscale call service in the city where she grew up. Finally in her later years, she found what made her happy and she became a massage therapist as well, using touch to heal. Want to know what a lifer is like in this business? A woman who holds the secrets of centuries? Meet Pearl, a true American Courtesan.