tales of academia! good ol' days of ethnography edition

Troy Duster's 2006 American Sociological Association presidential address (here)*, about which much could be said, contains the following passage in discussing the Chicago school of research:

According to the folklore, one of the most celebrated sociologists of the era got "caught with his pants down" in an up-close ethnography of prostitution; the university administration and the Chicago Tribune demanded that he be fired. This tale is a more colorful illustration of Chicago researchers' committment to studying deviance in its natural settings.

Does anyone know who this is about, and what the story is?

* Regarding my last post, one can read this address and get a sense of how many sociologists think about the seemliness of any kind of effort toward even modest constructively-minded engagement between sociology and genetics.

Update: Someone who would know confirmed for me that the person referred to is W.I. Thomas.