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By all accounts, the wildest places in the Wild West were the saloons, and Texas had some of the wildest of the wild. Fort Worth's White Elephant, site of more than a few gunfights, shady deals and high-stakes games in its day, was plenty wild at times, yet it was also a business model for successful saloon entrepreneurship. A true Western saloon, such as the White Elephant, was a different critter from any of its nearest kin — the dance house, parlor house or variety theater — even though they were often to be found right next door to each other. The saloon was first and foremost a men-only establishment where drinking and gambling were the main attractions, not retail sex. By contrast, the dance house mixed the sexes, dispensing with any pretense of conventional decorum. Many concerned citizens considered the dance houses the greatest curse to befall their Western towns. The parlor house, or bordello, though, could be worse. A well-stocked bar was usually among its amenities, but not the main attraction. The variety theater was a precursor to vaudeville, encouraging men to drink while they viewed scantily clad women. Among these four Western institutions, only the saloon combined drinking, gambling and male fellowship under one roof. Most gentlemen's saloons (there were other types, too) would not serve proper ladies and frowned upon the other kind of women hanging around the premises.