Angelina "Angie" Calicura

Angelina Jean Colacurcio, also later spelled Calicura, was born on July 21, 1917, in Martinez, California. Her parents were Saverio "Sam" Calicura and Angiolina "Angelina" Rodia Calicura, Italian immigrants raising seventeen children in one of Contra Costa County's largest families.

On June 11, 1930, the Martinez Daily Standard reported that Angelina Calicura had advanced from grammar school into junior high, documenting her formal education.

"Miss Angelina Calicura underwent a major operation at the Martinez Community Hospital today."

By 1937, Angie's independence was already evident. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin arrivals column (September 20, 1937) lists "Miss Angie Calicura", confirming that by age twenty she was traveling independently across the Pacific.

"Edna Lee's Beauty Salon No. 2 announces its new owner — Angie Calicura, 1309½ W. 6th St., expert hair stylist."

On April 5, 1940, Angie is listed under the name Jean Calicura on a manifest showing she is traveling from Honolulu, Hawaii, to California, where she arrived by ship on April 12, 1940. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, April 5, 1940, listed her departure.

Also in 1940 the Los Angeles City directory lists Jean Calicura at this address, again going by her middle name, at least for what is reported in the directory. But by 1942 she disappears and does not show up again until the 1950s.

Mr. and Mrs. Sam Calicura returned from a two-week vacation in Billings, where they visited their daughter Angelina Calicura, owner of the Ideal Hotel. The article confirms that Angie already controlled the Ideal Hotel by 1951, well before her formal licensing battles in Sheridan.

On August 3, 1953, The Sheridan Press reported that a hotel license was granted to Angelina Jean Calicura for the Rex Hotel, marking the beginning of her documented presence in Wyoming's hospitality and vice scene. The "Council Proceedings" also appeared in the Sheridan Press later that week, showing that the vote was carried unanimously. It remains unclear whether she initially worked for the well-known madam Pearl Logan or operated in some form of partnership with her, as no definitive record has yet surfaced. Regardless of that uncertainty, Angie quickly became a familiar and influential figure on North Main Street, signaling the start of her most notorious chapter in Sheridan.

By 1955, Angie applied for and received a rooming house license for the Ideal Hotel at 173 North Main Street. Sheridan council minutes from March 21, 1955, formally approved the application of Angelina Calicura Amato for a Rooming House License for the Ideal Hotel. Another Sheridan Press article from March 30, 1955, states the rooming house is located over the Bullard Hardware on Main Street.

"From 1956 to 1960, Angelina Calicura managed the Ideal Hotel. Unlike the Rex, the Ideal was reputed to have ties to the Mob, and the story is told that a small airplane arrived weekly from Billings, Montana, to pick up the receipts."

February 9, 1956 – Casper Star-Tribune: "Man held after $460 taken in tavern here. Mrs. A. J. Calicura Amato reported the theft of cash and jewelry, including a $350 diamond-studded cross."

"Mrs. Angelina J. Calicura was arrested on a charge of vagrancy and released on $100 bail."

Angelina J. Calicura was listed as both a director and the registered agent, formally placing her in charge of operations at 173 North Main Street. Other directors listed are Dr. L.G. Booth and John D. Henry.

Jean Riley Jean Toby Riley Toby Riley Angelina Amato Angeline Gene Brown

On April 1, 1957, The Sheridan Press reported that the Sheridan City Council would formally consider the renewal of the Ideal Hotel's rooming-house license later that day, setting the stage for what would become the most public and consequential chapter of Angelina Calicura's career in Sheridan. The article revealed that County Attorney Edward J. Redle had officially protested the reissuance of the license, directly questioning the moral character of those associated with the hotel's operation. Mayor Carl Crawford confirmed that both Redle and City Attorney Kenneth Chetwood were actively involved, signaling that this was no routine licensing matter. What had once operated quietly behind closed doors was now under intense public scrutiny, and for the first time, Angie's business at the Ideal Hotel was being challenged openly at the highest levels of city government.

County Attorney Edward J. Redle again took center stage, arguing that the moral character of Angelina Calicura, president of the Ideal Hotel corporation, was grounds for denial under city ordinance. Redle contended that the ordinance required proof of "good moral character" for license renewal and asserted that the city should not approve the application unless substantial evidence to the contrary could be produced. He referenced arrests connected to Calicura but also acknowledged the legal gray area—admitting that an arrest alone did not constitute guilt. Nonetheless, he maintained that the city had sufficient cause to proceed with denial.

Despite heated debate, confusion over legal standards, and disagreement among city officials, the council allowed the denial to stand. With no second offered to revive the motion, the Ideal Hotel's rooming-house license was officially refused—marking a historic turning point in Angelina Calicura's Sheridan operation and signaling the beginning of the end for her control of the Ideal.

Just one week later, on April 8, 1957, the situation surrounding the Ideal Hotel took a surprising and dramatic turn in Angelina Calicura's favor. When the Sheridan City Council reconvened at 10:00 a.m. on April 8, 1957, the matter of the Ideal Hotel's rooming-house license again took center stage.

For Angelina Calicura, the April 8 vote marked a dramatic and unexpected reversal. After days of uncertainty, public controversy, and legal ambiguity, the Ideal Hotel was once again officially authorized to operate. Yet the debate had exposed deep fractures between city leadership, county officials, and law enforcement—fractures that would not heal quietly. While Angie had secured a critical reprieve, the political forces surrounding her business had been fully awakened, and the struggle over the Ideal Hotel was far from finished.

The very next day, on April 9, 1957, the political storm surrounding Angelina Calicura and the Ideal Hotel intensified once again. In a sharply worded response published in The Sheridan Press under the headline "Redle Assails Council Action," County Attorney Edward J. Redle publicly criticized the Sheridan City Council for renewing the Ideal Hotel's rooming-house license only a day earlier.

After nearly a full year with no mentions of Angelina Calicura in the Sheridan Press, her name abruptly resurfaced in the spring of 1958—this time with decisive and irreversible consequences for the Ideal Hotel.

Yet even as the city stripped away her licenses, Angie continued to appear in court records and police blotters, reflecting the ongoing tension between her persistence and the city's enforcement efforts. On April 15, 1958, a disorderly conduct charge filed against a patron at the Ideal Hotel lists Angelina Calicura as the complainant, demonstrating that she was still very much exercising control over the premises despite the formal revocation of her license. Also on April 15, 1958, the Sheridan Press reported on the formation of a new 21-member City Planning Commission, created to guide future development in Sheridan. Within the article, the Ideal Hotel was mentioned again—this time only in passing—as a property whose license had already been revoked for criminal violations. The tone had shifted completely: what had once been a headline-dominating political battle now became a closed chapter in the city's regulatory history.

Her final appearance in the Sheridan Press while still living came not in connection with the Ideal Hotel, but through a crime report in which she was not the offender. On December 12, 1958, the paper reported that $1,600 had been stolen from the office safe of local attorney Kenneth Chetwood, and police records revealed that the money was reported to have belonged to Angie Calicura. It was a quiet, almost footnote-like reappearance—yet it served as a poignant epilogue to her turbulent and closely watched Sheridan chapter. Notably, Angie still appeared in the 1959 Sheridan City Directory listed as a resident of 173 North Main Street, yet for the first time the name "Ideal Hotel" was entirely absent, a subtle but telling marker that the once-infamous operation had fully vanished from public record.

By the early 1960s, Angelina Calicura Alexander had firmly reestablished herself in Billings, Montana, and, true to form, once again blended entrepreneurship, legal entanglements, and public visibility. On January 13, 1961, the Sheridan Press reported that "Angelina Calicura Alexander fined $50 for disorderly conduct." Later that year, on November 30, 1961, the Billings Times recorded a default judgment of $971.34 entered against her, marking another financial and legal setback.

Yet Angie was also rebuilding. On December 27, 1963, the Billings Gazette carried a striking advertisement announcing a new chapter in her life: "The Hub Beauty Salon," owned by Angie Alexander, now affiliated with the Wagon Wheel Trailer Court at 6025 Hardin Road in the Lockwood Flats area of Billings. The announcement promoted professional beauty services and invited the public to "stop in and get acquainted with our staff." The ad marked a dramatic reinvention of Angie's public identity, from the embattled operator of the Ideal Hotel in Sheridan to a fully legitimate small-business owner in Montana's growing east-side community. By the early 1960s, she had once again established herself as a woman in control of her own enterprise—this time operating squarely within the bounds of respectability.

Real estate records from the mid-1960s show that Angie was also actively buying and selling property. On April 1, 1965, the Billings Times recorded a quitclaim deed transferring land from John C. Alexander to Angelina Alexander, followed shortly by another transaction in which Angelina transferred property to G. E. and Verna Messinger. A second listing in the Billings Gazette later that month confirms additional land transfers within the same township and range, revealing that Angie continued maneuvering assets and investing despite her controversial past.

Court records from Billings also continued to follow her. On June 18, 1964, the Billings Times reported a civil judgment against "Angelina J. Alexander, dba Wagon Wheel Trailer Court," totaling $645.37 plus interest and costs, further confirming her ownership or control of the trailer court enterprise. Police blotters likewise continued to document her presence. On September 15, 1964, the Billings Gazette recorded a traffic fine issued to Angelina Calicura Alexander, age 46, of 2315 Grand Avenue, Billings, for passing a loading school bus. On January 14, 1965, she appeared again in Billings police court reporting for careless driving, leaving the scene of an accident, and driving without a license, resulting in multiple fines.

After January 1965, Angelina Calicura Alexander abruptly disappears from Billings newspapers altogether. No further court notices, property transfers, police citations, or business advertisements bearing her name have yet been found in Montana records after that point. This sudden silence strongly suggests a relocation, although no definitive document of that move has yet surfaced. The timing closely mirrors her earlier disappearance from Sheridan's public record—another quiet exit following years of persistent visibility.

By 1965, the paper noted, the hotel had not been in operation for several years, standing as a silent reminder of a very different chapter in Sheridan's past. Its demolition symbolized more than just urban renewal—it represented the erasure of a structure that had stood through the town's earliest legal, financial, and vice-era histories alike. With the fall of its stone walls came the final physical disappearance of the building most closely associated with Angelina Calicura's turbulent years in Sheridan. Though her name had long vanished from the city's official records by then, the destruction of the Ideal Hotel itself served as a quiet, visual coda to one of the most controversial addresses ever to operate on North Main Street.

Angelina "Angie" Calicura Alexander's legacy extends beyond hospitality. As the niece of Sam Rodia, she was connected to California's iconic Watts Towers. The 2006 documentary I Build the Tower highlights Rodia's vision, a creative spirit that echoed in Angelina's own life. Angie is given special thanks in the documentary by her nephew Brad Byer (Mary Lou Calicura Byer's son), and filmmaker Edward Landler.

Angelina "Angie" Calicura Alexander did.

Through the life of Angelina "Angie" Calicura Alexander, we are offered a rare, deeply human window into an underground economy that shaped neighborhoods, politics, law enforcement, and social boundaries in ways both visible and obscured. Angie's story is not presented as an isolated curiosity, but as one thread in a much wider historical fabric, one that challenges easy judgments and reveals the complexity of survival, power, and identity in mid-twentieth-century Sheridan and the world.