Working girl?

Hey Girl is Hey Boy's sister. She is not a "Working Girl" in the sense of a prostitute, she is a porter at the hotel and she, like her brother, are independent workers and are not employed by the Hotel Carleton.

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I noticed her again, sitting with a blond in the lobby of the Carlton Hotel. Paladin said he had dinner with her one evening, so she could have been a lady he entertained for the fun of it, i.e., a lady of the evening. A prostitute would have been discouraged from sitting in the lobby of the hotel trying to pick up customers, so your guess is as good as mine.

This was in the episode '24 Hours at North Fork' from the first season in the beginning of the episode. The ladies were waiting in the lobby to pounce upon Paladin together. Take a peek and tell me if it's this actress to whom you refer. I noticed her, too. She put up with a great deal.

Edit: It wasn't '24 Hours at North Fork,' she was in, it was 'Deliver the Body.' I beg your pardon, I confused the two episodes.

Edit The Second: Upon rereading The HGWT Companion and RICHARD BOONE, A KNIGHT WITHOUT ARMOR IN A SAVAGE LAND, the Carlton Hotel segments were filmed sometimes all at once and sometimes weekly. It's possible the woman we're discussing was there once and the segments featuring her appearance were filmed on a single occasion. Dunno if this helps at all, it simply occurred to me to mention it...

I believe the context shows her to be a hotel resident. That would cost a fair amount of money. While it is reasonably possible that prostitution in those days could make someone wealthy, it probably would not be the prostitute. Instead, it would be the person who controlled/managed/used the prostitute.

A major hotel catering to a wealthy clientele at that time would not have tolerated prostitution in their hotel at all, much less open solicitation of prostitution in the lobby. The comment mentions the "status of Orientals," but fails to take into account that very factor would cause the hotel to chase out someone of a different race who was not legit. Despite the "status of Orientals" cited in the comment, there were some wealthy people of Asian background who were not prostitutes.

Moreover, I believe Paladin would not patronize a prostitute because he would not have to. I would guess that most patrons of prostitutes would be either: a) men stranded in remote locations without many women; b) married men without any time to devote to romance; or c) losers who have trouble picking up women at all. Paladin certainly would not fall into any of those categories.

Or not. ;) Still, San Francisco had a reputation as a rather racy town so it might very well have attracted adventurous females of good family who would have felt stifled "back East" (or in Mexico, for that matter).