Jeri Estes
Jeri Estes is a novelist, screenwriter and motivational speaker.
She grew up during the late fifties in the San Fernando Valley, as she likes to put it; “when California was clean and open.” As a child her world consisted of playing army in green fields at the end of her block. Max, her kid brother would trail behind as h.... more
Jeri Estes is a novelist, screenwriter and motivational speaker.
She grew up during the late fifties in the San Fernando Valley, as she likes to put it; “when California was clean and open.” As a child her world consisted of playing army in green fields at the end of her block. Max, her kid brother would trail behind as her dog Nuisance ran ahead, anxious to reach their little house as evening fell. His dinner consisted of a can of dog food. Hers was a wholesome meal served on simple China by a loving mother. Nothing inherited from her handsome father or acquired from her Catholic values predicted the life of crime that was to be her future.
At sixteen the roads of fate lead Jeri to San Francisco's notorious red light district, the Tenderloin. There she discovered a hidden world of lesbian call girls and gangsters. Stilettos and Steel memorializes the characters who were her fellow travelers in this treacherous underworld. Fueled by power, glamour and sex, they banded together for survival.
A beacon of light which drew Jeri away from the dark TL streets and back to her roots was the birth of her daughter Elena. After living a life of normalcy, raising her daughter and succeeding in business, Jeri became compelled to write this book. She realized that the women of the TL during the sixties were an invisible tribe and that the world would never even know that they had existed. They would be lost forever and not included in San Francisco's history. And thus Stilettos and Steel was born.
As Jeri lovingly writes in her forward: "Stilettos and Steel is dedicated to my friends and comrades who never made it out of the Tenderloin."
Today, Jeri divides her time between Studio City and San Francisco and is currently working on her next book – the sequel!
To see rare historical footage of the Tenderloin, please visit: www.stilettosandsteel.com