What do you think?
Rate this book
Madam: The Biography of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz Age
The compulsively readable and sometimes jaw-dropping story of the life of a notorious madam who played hostess to every gangster, politician, writer, sports star and Cafe Society swell worth knowing, and who as much as any single figure helped make the twenties roar—from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Most Famous Man in America .
"A fast-paced tale of … Polly’s many court battles, newspaper headlines, mobster dealings and society gossip…. A breathless tale told through extraordinary research.” — The New York Times Book Review
Simply Everybody came to Polly's. Pearl "Polly" Adler (1900-1962) was a diminutive dynamo whose Manhattan brothels in the Roaring Twenties became places not just for men to have the company of women but were key gathering places where the culturati and celebrity elite mingled with high society and with violent figures of the underworld—and had a good time doing it.
As a Jewish immigrant from eastern Europe, Polly Adler's life is a classic American story of success and assimilation that starts like a novel by Henry Roth and then turns into a glittering real-life tale straight out of F. Scott Fitzgerald. She declared her ambition to be "the best goddam madam in all America" and succeeded wildly. Debby Applegate uses Polly's story as the key to unpacking just what made the 1920s the appallingly corrupt yet glamorous and transformational era that it was and how the collision between high and low is the unique ingredient that fuels American culture.
"A fast-paced tale of … Polly’s many court battles, newspaper headlines, mobster dealings and society gossip…. A breathless tale told through extraordinary research.” — The New York Times Book Review
Simply Everybody came to Polly's. Pearl "Polly" Adler (1900-1962) was a diminutive dynamo whose Manhattan brothels in the Roaring Twenties became places not just for men to have the company of women but were key gathering places where the culturati and celebrity elite mingled with high society and with violent figures of the underworld—and had a good time doing it.
As a Jewish immigrant from eastern Europe, Polly Adler's life is a classic American story of success and assimilation that starts like a novel by Henry Roth and then turns into a glittering real-life tale straight out of F. Scott Fitzgerald. She declared her ambition to be "the best goddam madam in all America" and succeeded wildly. Debby Applegate uses Polly's story as the key to unpacking just what made the 1920s the appallingly corrupt yet glamorous and transformational era that it was and how the collision between high and low is the unique ingredient that fuels American culture.
576 pages, Hardcover
First published November 2, 2021
About the author
Debby Applegate
4 books54 followersDebby Applegate is an American biographer. She is the author of the The Most Famous Man in America, a biography of Henry Ward Beecher, for which she won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography.
Born in Eugene, Oregon, Applegate grew up in Clackamas, graduating from Clackamas High School in 1985. She graduated summa cum laude from Amherst College in 1989 and earned a Ph.D. in American Studies from Yale University in 1998.
Applegate has taught American History at Yale and Wesleyan University, and currently teaches an annual master class on writing biography and memoir at Marymount Manhattan College in New York. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Boston Globe and the Wall Street Journal among other publications. She serves on the governing boards of the New Haven Review, the Summer Cabaret at Yale, and the Friends of the Amherst College Library.
The following is copied from Debbie Applegate's blog:
I started researching the notorious and charming Reverend Henry Ward Beecher when I was only 18 years old, when I was asked to put together a display on notorious but forgotten alumni as a student worker in the Amherst College Archives (I was a great fan of American history even then).
I was raised in a very unusual religious environment -- my mother's family is Mormon, my father's is Irish Catholic, I grew up around many evangelical Christians in Oregon, and my mother is a New Thought minister -- and Beecher seemed to embody the best of what religion could offer. I loved his very modern sense of humor and irreverence toward old sacred cows, and his joyful, ecumenical approach to religion and life in general. Except, of course, for the fact that he was accused (but never convicted) of an affair with his own parishioner -- which explains why he'd been forgotten.
"What a great topic for a seminar paper!" I thought as an 18 year old student, but as I began writing about him I had no idea how long Beecher would capture my imagination. Finally, after nearly twenty years with Beecher -- including several years of college, 7 years of graduate school and another 7 years of research and writing (it begins to feel almost Biblical!) -- he and I have come to our climax.
I still feel great affection for Beecher even after seeing him at his worst, including discovering a child whom I believe to be his illegitimate daughter. In both his glories and faults, he is one of the great founding fathers of modern American religion and it would be impossible to imagine American culture without his influence. Just try "googling" Henry Ward Beecher's name on the web and you will find hundreds of his pithy, profound and funny quotations collected by people who have no idea that he was once the most famous man in America.
It would thrill me if my book restores some of Beecher's well-deserved fame and infamy. My only dilemma now is what to do now that old Beecher and I have finally come to the end of our collaboration. Any suggestions from readers are very welcome....
Born in Eugene, Oregon, Applegate grew up in Clackamas, graduating from Clackamas High School in 1985. She graduated summa cum laude from Amherst College in 1989 and earned a Ph.D. in American Studies from Yale University in 1998.
Applegate has taught American History at Yale and Wesleyan University, and currently teaches an annual master class on writing biography and memoir at Marymount Manhattan College in New York. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Boston Globe and the Wall Street Journal among other publications. She serves on the governing boards of the New Haven Review, the Summer Cabaret at Yale, and the Friends of the Amherst College Library.
The following is copied from Debbie Applegate's blog:
I started researching the notorious and charming Reverend Henry Ward Beecher when I was only 18 years old, when I was asked to put together a display on notorious but forgotten alumni as a student worker in the Amherst College Archives (I was a great fan of American history even then).
I was raised in a very unusual religious environment -- my mother's family is Mormon, my father's is Irish Catholic, I grew up around many evangelical Christians in Oregon, and my mother is a New Thought minister -- and Beecher seemed to embody the best of what religion could offer. I loved his very modern sense of humor and irreverence toward old sacred cows, and his joyful, ecumenical approach to religion and life in general. Except, of course, for the fact that he was accused (but never convicted) of an affair with his own parishioner -- which explains why he'd been forgotten.
"What a great topic for a seminar paper!" I thought as an 18 year old student, but as I began writing about him I had no idea how long Beecher would capture my imagination. Finally, after nearly twenty years with Beecher -- including several years of college, 7 years of graduate school and another 7 years of research and writing (it begins to feel almost Biblical!) -- he and I have come to our climax.
I still feel great affection for Beecher even after seeing him at his worst, including discovering a child whom I believe to be his illegitimate daughter. In both his glories and faults, he is one of the great founding fathers of modern American religion and it would be impossible to imagine American culture without his influence. Just try "googling" Henry Ward Beecher's name on the web and you will find hundreds of his pithy, profound and funny quotations collected by people who have no idea that he was once the most famous man in America.
It would thrill me if my book restores some of Beecher's well-deserved fame and infamy. My only dilemma now is what to do now that old Beecher and I have finally come to the end of our collaboration. Any suggestions from readers are very welcome....
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 186 reviews
August 18, 2022
Update Aug 17 The majority of brothels, and says the book, the best run ones were run by Russian Jewish emigres. Back in Russia the women had been running businesses as well as the home, and Jewish women are boss of religious ceremonies in the home, so generally not shrinking violets. Also sex is not viewed as Christians view it, it as much for bonding as it is for breeding, maybe more so, since marital rights are women's and not men's - their's is the duty. It seemed that with this background of running businesses and thinking sex was a pleasure, brothel-keeping was a better way of making money than the more general tailoring sweat shops they worked in, in NY.
One day I will get round to writing a proper review of this absolutely stunning book that exposes the underworld of NY in a way I hadn't read before. Every group, whether country, religion, or the police - it's always the cops isn't it, just like the politicians - judges, lawyers and everyone else was on the take, or the make, or both at the same time.
__________
Stunning book. If you are Russian/Jewish the first chapters will move you immeasurably. I never knew in detail what my family went through until reading them. If you think that the root of all evil is money and drugs you might have your mind changed to thinking it is government, their rules and laws. Prohibition and the continuing misogyny of the US governments criminalising women's sexual work are responsible for a lot of the underworld's activities.
If when you think of the jazz age and crime you think of the Italian Mafia, they scarcely make a showing in this book, it's all Jewish criminal gangs and the equally corrupt and criminal mainly Irish police force (and mobs) all run by the WASPy politicians, judges and lawyers who need their cut. Politicans might look like they have clean hands now, Roosevelt for instance, but no one sued the author of this book for libel!
If you've ever read Damon Runyon's books, this is how it really was. An entire history of the jazz age's underworld up into the 50s.
Proper review to come. This book deserves it!
One day I will get round to writing a proper review of this absolutely stunning book that exposes the underworld of NY in a way I hadn't read before. Every group, whether country, religion, or the police - it's always the cops isn't it, just like the politicians - judges, lawyers and everyone else was on the take, or the make, or both at the same time.
__________
Stunning book. If you are Russian/Jewish the first chapters will move you immeasurably. I never knew in detail what my family went through until reading them. If you think that the root of all evil is money and drugs you might have your mind changed to thinking it is government, their rules and laws. Prohibition and the continuing misogyny of the US governments criminalising women's sexual work are responsible for a lot of the underworld's activities.
If when you think of the jazz age and crime you think of the Italian Mafia, they scarcely make a showing in this book, it's all Jewish criminal gangs and the equally corrupt and criminal mainly Irish police force (and mobs) all run by the WASPy politicians, judges and lawyers who need their cut. Politicans might look like they have clean hands now, Roosevelt for instance, but no one sued the author of this book for libel!
If you've ever read Damon Runyon's books, this is how it really was. An entire history of the jazz age's underworld up into the 50s.
Proper review to come. This book deserves it!
September 6, 2021
Debby Applegate, a Pulitzer Prize winning historian, has written a fascinating biography of Polly Adler, a jazz-age madam, referred to as the "Jewish Jezebel." At age 13, she came to the United States by herself from a shtetel in Russia, and eventually became a notorious madam, catering to society men, gangsters, and the literati of 1920's New York. In Polly's rags to riches story; the author tells of life in the shtetl, Polly's experience as a new immigrant, and the reality of running an illicit business in 1920's Manhattan, replete with police payoffs, bootleggers, drugs, and the constant demand for attractive women. (I kept wondering if she would get caught, as did so many of the gangsters of the era, for tax evasion.) Recommended for anyone with an interest in women's history, or the history of the Roaring Twenties.. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.
September 24, 2023
When I read books , they are nearly always fiction. While I read plenty of short nonfiction articles, I rarely read nonfiction books, and almost never read biographies.
So this book was an exception for me. But there were several reasons I picked it up. First, it was recommended by Jesse Kornbluth, aka “Head Butler”. He’s a writer himself and any book he picks will be at least well written, and probably very interesting and worth reading.
Second, it was immediately available in both ebook and e-audiobook format in my library’s rapidly shrinking and increasingly less available digital collection.
And finally, who could resist reading about a Russian Jewish immigrant who ran a brothel during New York’s most colorful and tumultuous years? Not me.
I’m glad I read this sprawling, rollicking blockbuster/doorstopper of a book for multiple reasons.
To begin with, Polly (originally “Pearl”) Adler, grew up in Yanow, a town in the Pale of Settlement (area to which Jews were confined) in Byelorus. Yanow is about a couple hundred miles from Slutsk, the town from which most of my own Jewish grandparents hailed. I knew very little about the mysterious past of these people, my own grandparents, so the tales of pogroms, etc. really hit home for me. Things got so bad in Yanow, that Polly’s father, Moshe (“Morris”) sent her off to America by herself at the tender age of thirteen.
I also got a glimpse of the extremely repressive and restrictive ideas about Jewish women in Byelorus. They were expected to be virtuous and uneducated housewives, and nothing more. I can see how these attitudes colored my own parents’ ideas about raising me, even though my parents were born in America, the children of immigrants. All of this background was very enlightening.
I also learned something about the hardships endured by my grandparents when they came to America. My mother’s mother sold pots and pans from a pushcart on the Lower East Side, which meant my mother was shunted around to various relatives so my grandmother could work.
Anyway, aside from this, Polly Adler lead an astonishing life. She eventually become a financial success in spite of raids by double crossing policemen who sampled her whorehouse’s wares, and then raided her and hauled her off in their paddy wagons; and the constant necessity of paying lawyers and bribing city officials in order to keep her business operating. Obviously, these expenses ate into her profits. She endured on-and-off attention from the police, the courts, and even the FBI. She had to constantly move her locations to avoid the prying eyes of the police. Yet in spite of these difficulties she was able to purchase an automobile and a fur coat.
But even with all these difficulties, she endured, and even thrived at times. Polly knew everyone who was anyone during the years she operated. Many of these celebrities visited her brothel, some for the prostitutes, others just to drink and socialize. Some actresses turned tricks for her to make ends meet. She knew many famous writers and performers, including writer and actor Bob Benchley, critic Walter Winchell, playwright and drama critic George S. Kaufman, satirist Dorothy Parker, actresses Tallulah Bankhead, Dorothy Lamour, and Barbara Stanwyck (when she was still called Ruby); comedienne Martha Raye, bandleader and actor Desi Arnaz, jazz bandleader Duke Ellington, etc.
She met and hosted many politicians, including FDR and one time NYC mayor Jimmy Walker.
She knew all the leading New York City mob figures of the day: Dutch Schultz, Lucky Luciano, Arnold Rothstein, Meyer Lansky, etc. I knew about Italian and Irish mobsters, but had no idea how many of the New York mobsters were Jewish.
Polly Adler knew many of the leading lights of business, including movie theater entrepreneur Walter Reade and various Wall Streeters.
She was connected with scions of wealthy families like Winthrop Rockefeller and various Ivy League collegians.
And that’s just a very partial list of Polly’s friends, associates, clients, hangers on, and employees.
Obviously, for a long time New Yorker like me, who’s fascinated by New York City history of this period, this book was a gold mine. I’ve already read plenty about this time period, including the novel, Manhattan Girls, which focused on Dorothy Parker and other women associated with the Algonquin Round Table; and the Libba Bray series The Diviners, which largely takes place in Prohibition Era New York. I learned a lot about New York history. For example, I did not know that the well known Neo-Gothic Jefferson Market Library in Greenwich Village had been a Women’s Court during Polly’s time.
Speaking of Prohibition, Polly’s New York career as a madam spanned many decades, including Prohibition and Tammany Hall, a time period rife with corruption and which intersected with the Roaring Twenties; the Depression; Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia’s attempts to clean up NYC corruption, and World War II.
Polly made a few attempts to start legit businesses, including a clothing store, but concluded that once a madam, always a madam.
Polly wasn’t just in New York City. She travelled a lot (often to avoid negative publicity as she became famous), sometimes doing business in the places she visited, and often paying calls on local madams. These included Chicago, Las Vegas, Saratoga Springs; Hot Springs, Arkansas; the Los Angeles area; Burbank, California; Miami, Florida; Israel; Panama, and maybe Switzerland and Havana.
My one complaint would be this. We get a great picture of Polly’s colorful life and times. But we don’t get much of a glimpse into Polly’s inner life. This makes it difficult to connect with Polly as a person. But comments from biographer Debby Applegate, who labored over this book for thirteen years, make it clear that this wasn’t Applegate’s fault, but that of her source material, which includes Polly’s own autobiography, A House is Not a Home. It seems that Polly herself, from a lifetime of hiding and dissembling, would not or could not open herself up and become vulnerable in her writing. (Totally understandable given the number of betrayals in her life). It also seems that for various reasons, including protecting her clients and making herself look good, she often prevaricated.
Overall, though, this was a great read. “Head Butler” made a great recommendation here. P.S. The book
also contains many wonderful old black and white photos of Polly, her associates, and her relatives.
Erin Bennett was a decent audio narrator, though I’m not sure she was the optimal choice for this material. I would have preferred someone Jewish, with a greater familiarity with Yiddish pronunciation. Bennett seemed a bit too plain vanilla All-American for this book.
So this book was an exception for me. But there were several reasons I picked it up. First, it was recommended by Jesse Kornbluth, aka “Head Butler”. He’s a writer himself and any book he picks will be at least well written, and probably very interesting and worth reading.
Second, it was immediately available in both ebook and e-audiobook format in my library’s rapidly shrinking and increasingly less available digital collection.
And finally, who could resist reading about a Russian Jewish immigrant who ran a brothel during New York’s most colorful and tumultuous years? Not me.
I’m glad I read this sprawling, rollicking blockbuster/doorstopper of a book for multiple reasons.
To begin with, Polly (originally “Pearl”) Adler, grew up in Yanow, a town in the Pale of Settlement (area to which Jews were confined) in Byelorus. Yanow is about a couple hundred miles from Slutsk, the town from which most of my own Jewish grandparents hailed. I knew very little about the mysterious past of these people, my own grandparents, so the tales of pogroms, etc. really hit home for me. Things got so bad in Yanow, that Polly’s father, Moshe (“Morris”) sent her off to America by herself at the tender age of thirteen.
I also got a glimpse of the extremely repressive and restrictive ideas about Jewish women in Byelorus. They were expected to be virtuous and uneducated housewives, and nothing more. I can see how these attitudes colored my own parents’ ideas about raising me, even though my parents were born in America, the children of immigrants. All of this background was very enlightening.
I also learned something about the hardships endured by my grandparents when they came to America. My mother’s mother sold pots and pans from a pushcart on the Lower East Side, which meant my mother was shunted around to various relatives so my grandmother could work.
Anyway, aside from this, Polly Adler lead an astonishing life. She eventually become a financial success in spite of raids by double crossing policemen who sampled her whorehouse’s wares, and then raided her and hauled her off in their paddy wagons; and the constant necessity of paying lawyers and bribing city officials in order to keep her business operating. Obviously, these expenses ate into her profits. She endured on-and-off attention from the police, the courts, and even the FBI. She had to constantly move her locations to avoid the prying eyes of the police. Yet in spite of these difficulties she was able to purchase an automobile and a fur coat.
But even with all these difficulties, she endured, and even thrived at times. Polly knew everyone who was anyone during the years she operated. Many of these celebrities visited her brothel, some for the prostitutes, others just to drink and socialize. Some actresses turned tricks for her to make ends meet. She knew many famous writers and performers, including writer and actor Bob Benchley, critic Walter Winchell, playwright and drama critic George S. Kaufman, satirist Dorothy Parker, actresses Tallulah Bankhead, Dorothy Lamour, and Barbara Stanwyck (when she was still called Ruby); comedienne Martha Raye, bandleader and actor Desi Arnaz, jazz bandleader Duke Ellington, etc.
She met and hosted many politicians, including FDR and one time NYC mayor Jimmy Walker.
She knew all the leading New York City mob figures of the day: Dutch Schultz, Lucky Luciano, Arnold Rothstein, Meyer Lansky, etc. I knew about Italian and Irish mobsters, but had no idea how many of the New York mobsters were Jewish.
Polly Adler knew many of the leading lights of business, including movie theater entrepreneur Walter Reade and various Wall Streeters.
She was connected with scions of wealthy families like Winthrop Rockefeller and various Ivy League collegians.
And that’s just a very partial list of Polly’s friends, associates, clients, hangers on, and employees.
Obviously, for a long time New Yorker like me, who’s fascinated by New York City history of this period, this book was a gold mine. I’ve already read plenty about this time period, including the novel, Manhattan Girls, which focused on Dorothy Parker and other women associated with the Algonquin Round Table; and the Libba Bray series The Diviners, which largely takes place in Prohibition Era New York. I learned a lot about New York history. For example, I did not know that the well known Neo-Gothic Jefferson Market Library in Greenwich Village had been a Women’s Court during Polly’s time.
Speaking of Prohibition, Polly’s New York career as a madam spanned many decades, including Prohibition and Tammany Hall, a time period rife with corruption and which intersected with the Roaring Twenties; the Depression; Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia’s attempts to clean up NYC corruption, and World War II.
Polly made a few attempts to start legit businesses, including a clothing store, but concluded that once a madam, always a madam.
Polly wasn’t just in New York City. She travelled a lot (often to avoid negative publicity as she became famous), sometimes doing business in the places she visited, and often paying calls on local madams. These included Chicago, Las Vegas, Saratoga Springs; Hot Springs, Arkansas; the Los Angeles area; Burbank, California; Miami, Florida; Israel; Panama, and maybe Switzerland and Havana.
My one complaint would be this. We get a great picture of Polly’s colorful life and times. But we don’t get much of a glimpse into Polly’s inner life. This makes it difficult to connect with Polly as a person. But comments from biographer Debby Applegate, who labored over this book for thirteen years, make it clear that this wasn’t Applegate’s fault, but that of her source material, which includes Polly’s own autobiography, A House is Not a Home. It seems that Polly herself, from a lifetime of hiding and dissembling, would not or could not open herself up and become vulnerable in her writing. (Totally understandable given the number of betrayals in her life). It also seems that for various reasons, including protecting her clients and making herself look good, she often prevaricated.
Overall, though, this was a great read. “Head Butler” made a great recommendation here. P.S. The book
also contains many wonderful old black and white photos of Polly, her associates, and her relatives.
Erin Bennett was a decent audio narrator, though I’m not sure she was the optimal choice for this material. I would have preferred someone Jewish, with a greater familiarity with Yiddish pronunciation. Bennett seemed a bit too plain vanilla All-American for this book.
November 18, 2021
Giveaway Win!
I love the 1920's it was a time of great change in American society. Women started to express their independence, youth culture became a thing, sexual taboos were being explored and dismantled.
Basically times were a changing.
Russian Jewish immigrant Polly Adler arrived in America at just the right time. The New York City that Polly arrived in was a hard place for immigrants and it was even harder for a young immigrant woman. There were many days when Polly went without food and had to rely on the kindness of friends to have some place to live. But Polly was a hustler and soon discovered the business that would make her rich and infamous...Sex.
Polly Adler was one of the biggest and most well known madams in the 1920's. Her Manhattan brothel was considered the place to be for not just "Johns" looking for sex but also for the 1920's glitterati. Polly's friends included Desi Arnaz, Dutch Schultz, Duke Ellington, Al Capone and Franklin Roosevelt. Polly Adler was the true definition of a entrepreneur. After the sex industry no longer was conducive to her life she became a New York Times best-selling author.
What An Icon!
Madam was not only a fascinating look at one of the most interesting women of the 20th century but it was also a great look at what life was like for immigrants at that time and it explored just how much society was changing during this time.
Polly went from being a penniless 13 year old immigrant to being the First Lady of the Underworld to being a bestselling author. If that isn't the American Dream than I don't know what is.
Great book! Recommended to my fellow History lovers.
I love the 1920's it was a time of great change in American society. Women started to express their independence, youth culture became a thing, sexual taboos were being explored and dismantled.
Basically times were a changing.
Russian Jewish immigrant Polly Adler arrived in America at just the right time. The New York City that Polly arrived in was a hard place for immigrants and it was even harder for a young immigrant woman. There were many days when Polly went without food and had to rely on the kindness of friends to have some place to live. But Polly was a hustler and soon discovered the business that would make her rich and infamous...Sex.
Polly Adler was one of the biggest and most well known madams in the 1920's. Her Manhattan brothel was considered the place to be for not just "Johns" looking for sex but also for the 1920's glitterati. Polly's friends included Desi Arnaz, Dutch Schultz, Duke Ellington, Al Capone and Franklin Roosevelt. Polly Adler was the true definition of a entrepreneur. After the sex industry no longer was conducive to her life she became a New York Times best-selling author.
What An Icon!
Madam was not only a fascinating look at one of the most interesting women of the 20th century but it was also a great look at what life was like for immigrants at that time and it explored just how much society was changing during this time.
Polly went from being a penniless 13 year old immigrant to being the First Lady of the Underworld to being a bestselling author. If that isn't the American Dream than I don't know what is.
Great book! Recommended to my fellow History lovers.
January 16, 2022
In her latest book, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Debby Applegate did her best to reveal the history and the full character of Polly Adler, the famous/infamous madam (a.k.a. brothel owner) of Jazz Age. Thoroughly researched, the biography not only presents the life story of Polly Adler, but also gives a kaleidoscopic view of 1920s and 1930s New York, including both the highbrow and lowbrow: the gangsters, politicians, entertainment personals of Broadway, the literatis, and of course, the madams, prostitutes and their customers. This is not a book of voyeurism. I like the feminism angle when analysing a complex woman like Polly Adler.
Polly Adler, born Pearl Adler in Yanow, Belarus to a Jewish tailor and his wife, immigrated to the US at age of 13. Her earlier years in the US were as tremulous as her later years. Thanks to the excellent writing, I keep hoping that Pearl would make it, and she would not end up as a prostitute and a madam as she did. I don’t find any white-washing in the book. Applegate is also careful not to pass on moral judgements. There are plenty of disturbing scenes. Almost all women who ended up being a prostitute for Polly (and prostitution in genral) had some kind of sexual trauma during their formative years, including Polly herself. Polly Adler claimed that she never recruited fresh start girls but the author thinks she did. According to the author, the reason she survived gangsters, law enforcements and blackmailers is largely attributed to her discretion and practicality. As a madam of the oldest disreputable profession, she craved for respectability until the very end of her life. She wrote her memoir, A House is Not a Home, a bestseller, with the help of her literary friend, Virginia Faulkner. Yet, she claimed it was all written by herself.
What I find very interesting:
- Tammany Hall, the influential political pressure group, the political machine behind Democratic Party of New York
- The unspeakable connection between gangsters, elections and politicians
- NYPD, how corrupted it was, especially its notorious plainclothes vice squad.
- The general public’s change of attitude towards fashion, women and sex during 1920s.
- In the 1920s, Jewish took up 20% of the population in New York, but 50% of the brothels were run by Jewish madams
- How “Jazz” in the Jazz Age came to being; interesting it originally was associated with disreputable underworld and decadence; the connection between gangsters and Broadway industry; how George Gershwin wrote his famous Rhapsody in Blue (1924)
- Dorothy Parker, a famous American poet and writer of her time, strikes me as the only modern woman (by today’s standard) among Polly’s patrons
- Meyer Wolfsheim in The Great Gatsby is based on Arnold Rothstein, a Jewish mob boss of the Jazz Age.
Slangs I’ve learned: bootleggers, speakeasies, watering holes, kingpin
Polly Adler’s business was inevitably entangled with the New York underworld. There are many gangsters and mob bosses, Irish, Jewish and Italian, too many for me to remember their names. Here are a few: Arnold Rothstein, George McManus, Dutch Schultz
Polly Adler, born Pearl Adler in Yanow, Belarus to a Jewish tailor and his wife, immigrated to the US at age of 13. Her earlier years in the US were as tremulous as her later years. Thanks to the excellent writing, I keep hoping that Pearl would make it, and she would not end up as a prostitute and a madam as she did. I don’t find any white-washing in the book. Applegate is also careful not to pass on moral judgements. There are plenty of disturbing scenes. Almost all women who ended up being a prostitute for Polly (and prostitution in genral) had some kind of sexual trauma during their formative years, including Polly herself. Polly Adler claimed that she never recruited fresh start girls but the author thinks she did. According to the author, the reason she survived gangsters, law enforcements and blackmailers is largely attributed to her discretion and practicality. As a madam of the oldest disreputable profession, she craved for respectability until the very end of her life. She wrote her memoir, A House is Not a Home, a bestseller, with the help of her literary friend, Virginia Faulkner. Yet, she claimed it was all written by herself.
What I find very interesting:
- Tammany Hall, the influential political pressure group, the political machine behind Democratic Party of New York
- The unspeakable connection between gangsters, elections and politicians
- NYPD, how corrupted it was, especially its notorious plainclothes vice squad.
- The general public’s change of attitude towards fashion, women and sex during 1920s.
- In the 1920s, Jewish took up 20% of the population in New York, but 50% of the brothels were run by Jewish madams
- How “Jazz” in the Jazz Age came to being; interesting it originally was associated with disreputable underworld and decadence; the connection between gangsters and Broadway industry; how George Gershwin wrote his famous Rhapsody in Blue (1924)
- Dorothy Parker, a famous American poet and writer of her time, strikes me as the only modern woman (by today’s standard) among Polly’s patrons
- Meyer Wolfsheim in The Great Gatsby is based on Arnold Rothstein, a Jewish mob boss of the Jazz Age.
Slangs I’ve learned: bootleggers, speakeasies, watering holes, kingpin
Polly Adler’s business was inevitably entangled with the New York underworld. There are many gangsters and mob bosses, Irish, Jewish and Italian, too many for me to remember their names. Here are a few: Arnold Rothstein, George McManus, Dutch Schultz
January 23, 2022
My husband bought this for me for Christmas. I am so glad he did. Polly Adler's life was fascinating. Her connections to the mob and Crime syndicate made for excellent reading.
I was surprised how thorough the research was done. To me it seemed nothing was left out. Polly was Indeed a historical figure. She knew so much about the inner workings of the mob and politics of that time. Yet even though she never got the respect she so longed for people admired her for never being a snitch. Honestly with how many times she was double crossed it indeed was impressive.
I enjoyed my time with this book. Polly Adler was a Madam and I would say she did that job well.
I was surprised how thorough the research was done. To me it seemed nothing was left out. Polly was Indeed a historical figure. She knew so much about the inner workings of the mob and politics of that time. Yet even though she never got the respect she so longed for people admired her for never being a snitch. Honestly with how many times she was double crossed it indeed was impressive.
I enjoyed my time with this book. Polly Adler was a Madam and I would say she did that job well.
September 17, 2021
This is so much more than a biography of the infamous MADAM, Polly Adler, it is a social history of the era in which she reigned. The author has blended in so many of the important political, sports figures and other celebrities, that I found it a joyful learning experience.
I know I will use this material in my seminars. This book is well written and filled with the fascinating story of an era.
Thank you Netgalley for sending me this remarkable book
I know I will use this material in my seminars. This book is well written and filled with the fascinating story of an era.
Thank you Netgalley for sending me this remarkable book
January 27, 2022
Too long. Too tedious. Too lacking in story.
September 6, 2022
Born into a poor Jewish family in a shtetl in what is today Belarus, Polly Adler arrived in the US in 1913. Ambitious, clever, and with limited formal education, Adler was determined to make more of herself than earning a pittance for backbreaking, dead-end factory work. By the early 1920s, Adler had set up her own brothel and was soon New York City's "top supplier of party girls". Her establishment was visited by a list of johns who make up a who's who of the great, good, and gruesome of the Roaring Twenties: the Marx Brothers, Desi Arnaz, Franklin Roosevelt, mob guys, and European royalty. Adler made a fortune and became a small-time celebrity, before retiring to post-war California where she went back to school and wrote a best-selling memoir.
Debby Applegate writes with clear affection for her subject, but without glossing over the less savory aspects of Adler's career or ignoring the grit that lay beneath the Twenties glamour. There is a lingering sense at the end of Madam that there are key aspects of Adler's life that are now unknowable—as Applegate says, Adler “hid far more of her story than she shared, even from herself.” Still, a briskly readable combination of biography and social history.
Debby Applegate writes with clear affection for her subject, but without glossing over the less savory aspects of Adler's career or ignoring the grit that lay beneath the Twenties glamour. There is a lingering sense at the end of Madam that there are key aspects of Adler's life that are now unknowable—as Applegate says, Adler “hid far more of her story than she shared, even from herself.” Still, a briskly readable combination of biography and social history.
August 23, 2021
A fascinating and thorough look at the life of Polly Adler. She came to America alone from a shtetl in Janow, Russia. After being kicked out of two different relatives homes, she moved to New York City and got some work in a corset factory. She learned the ropes in the prostitution game and set up her first brothel in 1920, the same year as Prohibition came into existence as a moral ban on alcohol. She ran her brothels well for someone in her 20s, but paid a lot of money in bribes and still got busted at times. That cost her a lot in having to relocate, bail everyone out and hire lawyers. Polly built up a following of famous people, wealthy patrons, and underworld figures. She allowed just about anyone with a large bankroll to hire the services of her whores. Polly Adler soon became so well known that there were few who didn’t recognize her name. Advance electronic review copy was provided by NetGalley, author Debby Applegate, and the publisher.
December 16, 2021
A lot of historical context but it was too much at times and bored me
February 11, 2022
I stumbled across Polly's memoir A House is Not a Home probably 30 years ago and loved it. It was such an excellent thrift store find! It's a different take from the usual 1920's stories one hears. The focus is almost always on the men of that era - the gangsters, the politicians, the writers, the actors and musicians. Sure occasionally Dorothy Parker or Tallulah Bankhead make an appearance, but mainly the focus is on men. Women are the supporting characters, not the focal point.
My biggest quibble about this biography is that for chunks of the story, Polly basically vanishes from the pages. It's all about what the guys were up to. Applegate does do an excellent job, summarizing the era. Over the years I've gathered bits and pieces of the history of NYC of that era, but it was great having it told in one fell swoop. It just bothered me that this was supposed to be Polly's story and instead I was reading pages about Mayor Jimmy Walker and Lucky Luciano and Robert Benchley.The sad fact of the matter is that much of her story is lost. In history it is rare to get in-depth looks at women except in as far as how they interacted with men. That is the case here. Polly is seen through the prism of the men around her.
I started thinking that really the best way to tell her story would be through historical fiction. That way the author could fill in the missing pieces. I wanted to learn more about backstage - what was happening behind the scenes at the bordello. I wanted to learn more about Showboat, Polly's long term maid/second in command. I wanted to learn about the women working there and about their relationships with each other, with Polly, with Showboat....about outside friends, relationships with family, boyfriends/girlfriends? So many unexplored topics.
Even though the biography didn't fulfill all of my desires for it, it is still worth the read. I cannot stress how batshit crazy NYC was in the 1910s, 20's and 30s. People nowadays love to complain about how terrible everything is but boy, it used to be so much worse. For instance, all the drama about voter rights nowadays. There are issues about poll locations being closed, the time window for voting is being shortened, people being thrown off voter rolls. All bad things, to be sure. Voting in NYC a hundred years ago entailed men with billy clubs, chains and guns beating you up if you tried to vote, busloads of people being driven from poll to poll voting multiple times (and stinking drunk while voting) getting threatened with losing your job or life if you didn't vote a certain way....The level of violence in town was nuts as well. I was amazed reading about the murder at - I think it was called the Hotsy Totsy club? Anyway, a gangster was murdered by Legs Diamond after hours, when some staff were still there. Legs started worrying about witnesses so one by one the club manager, the bandleader, the bartender, the waiters, the hatcheck girl(!) and finally Leg's own girlfriend were all murdered in order to get rid of the pesky witness problem. Very Jimmy from the move Goodfellas. One of the. gangsters was nicknamed Baby Killer because during drive-by shootings he shot some children. I don't feel like going into all the sexual sadists Polly and her girls had to cope with.
Speaking of children, I'd be remiss not to mention how young the prostitutes were. And showgirls, who were often prostitutes on the side. I'm talking 12, 13, 14 years old. The story of Polly's best friend Garnet Williams, the one who introduced her to a life of prostitution, was devastating. Her mother Helen caught her boyfriend molesting Garnet so she did what any mother would do....no wait a minute, actually she blamed Garnet for seducing the guy and kicked Garnet out of the house. Garnet was 12. To survive, she started singing in saloons which evolved into turning tricks which evolved into a serious drug addiction. Honestly, an opium pipe sounds great in comparison to what she was being put through on a daily basis.
The author did not highlight these disturbing stories the way I am. The focus was more on politics and gangsters jockeying for power interspersed with the shenanigans of pretty much every famous person of the era. Duke Ellington used to play music at Pollys. Wow, that's quite a house band. Name a famous person from that era and 100% they hung out with Polly. Some famous people were nice, other were jerks. I enjoyed reading all the gossipy stories about them.
Reading this biography is part of a 1920s kick I've been on lately. Maybe because it was 100 years ago? The book has pointed me towards a lot of different rabbit holes I plan to fall through. I want to know more!
My biggest quibble about this biography is that for chunks of the story, Polly basically vanishes from the pages. It's all about what the guys were up to. Applegate does do an excellent job, summarizing the era. Over the years I've gathered bits and pieces of the history of NYC of that era, but it was great having it told in one fell swoop. It just bothered me that this was supposed to be Polly's story and instead I was reading pages about Mayor Jimmy Walker and Lucky Luciano and Robert Benchley.The sad fact of the matter is that much of her story is lost. In history it is rare to get in-depth looks at women except in as far as how they interacted with men. That is the case here. Polly is seen through the prism of the men around her.
I started thinking that really the best way to tell her story would be through historical fiction. That way the author could fill in the missing pieces. I wanted to learn more about backstage - what was happening behind the scenes at the bordello. I wanted to learn more about Showboat, Polly's long term maid/second in command. I wanted to learn about the women working there and about their relationships with each other, with Polly, with Showboat....about outside friends, relationships with family, boyfriends/girlfriends? So many unexplored topics.
Even though the biography didn't fulfill all of my desires for it, it is still worth the read. I cannot stress how batshit crazy NYC was in the 1910s, 20's and 30s. People nowadays love to complain about how terrible everything is but boy, it used to be so much worse. For instance, all the drama about voter rights nowadays. There are issues about poll locations being closed, the time window for voting is being shortened, people being thrown off voter rolls. All bad things, to be sure. Voting in NYC a hundred years ago entailed men with billy clubs, chains and guns beating you up if you tried to vote, busloads of people being driven from poll to poll voting multiple times (and stinking drunk while voting) getting threatened with losing your job or life if you didn't vote a certain way....The level of violence in town was nuts as well. I was amazed reading about the murder at - I think it was called the Hotsy Totsy club? Anyway, a gangster was murdered by Legs Diamond after hours, when some staff were still there. Legs started worrying about witnesses so one by one the club manager, the bandleader, the bartender, the waiters, the hatcheck girl(!) and finally Leg's own girlfriend were all murdered in order to get rid of the pesky witness problem. Very Jimmy from the move Goodfellas. One of the. gangsters was nicknamed Baby Killer because during drive-by shootings he shot some children. I don't feel like going into all the sexual sadists Polly and her girls had to cope with.
Speaking of children, I'd be remiss not to mention how young the prostitutes were. And showgirls, who were often prostitutes on the side. I'm talking 12, 13, 14 years old. The story of Polly's best friend Garnet Williams, the one who introduced her to a life of prostitution, was devastating. Her mother Helen caught her boyfriend molesting Garnet so she did what any mother would do....no wait a minute, actually she blamed Garnet for seducing the guy and kicked Garnet out of the house. Garnet was 12. To survive, she started singing in saloons which evolved into turning tricks which evolved into a serious drug addiction. Honestly, an opium pipe sounds great in comparison to what she was being put through on a daily basis.
The author did not highlight these disturbing stories the way I am. The focus was more on politics and gangsters jockeying for power interspersed with the shenanigans of pretty much every famous person of the era. Duke Ellington used to play music at Pollys. Wow, that's quite a house band. Name a famous person from that era and 100% they hung out with Polly. Some famous people were nice, other were jerks. I enjoyed reading all the gossipy stories about them.
Reading this biography is part of a 1920s kick I've been on lately. Maybe because it was 100 years ago? The book has pointed me towards a lot of different rabbit holes I plan to fall through. I want to know more!
January 7, 2022
Really 2.5 mired down in quotes by people I didn’t know or could keep track of. Too detailed in dropping names. Extensively researched but went on tangents a lot.
January 15, 2022
Pulitzer prize winning historian Debby Applegate's biography of notorious madam Polly Adler is a social history of New York City during the Jazz Age as seen through the prism of prostitution. Adler, who immigrated from Russia to escape the pogroms at 13, landed alone at Ellis Island in 1913 with no money and little formal education. Starting out as a sweat shop seamstress, she worked her way up to becoming the city's most notorious madam. In the 1930s and 1940s, Polly's houses provided neutral ground where the corrupt politicians of Tammany Hall, the Broadway glitterati, bandleaders, notorious gangsters, and members of Murder Inc. could mingle with film stars, actors, socialites and members of the Algonquin Round Table.
Applegate's 550 page tome, researched over 13 years, details Adler's years-long bribery of the authorities, her ties to mob figures such as Lucky Luciano, Frank Costello, and Legs Diamond,
her relations with prominent politicians, and her investigation by the Seabury Commission. Written in the NY vernacular of the time and heavily larded with direct quotations, Adler presents a not only panoramic picture of the seamy side of NYC in first half of the 20th century, but also a wealth of fascinating details. (For example, Polly had to provide Joe DiMaggio with cotton sheets because his knees slipped on her usual satin bedclothes.)
Applegate's 550 page tome, researched over 13 years, details Adler's years-long bribery of the authorities, her ties to mob figures such as Lucky Luciano, Frank Costello, and Legs Diamond,
her relations with prominent politicians, and her investigation by the Seabury Commission. Written in the NY vernacular of the time and heavily larded with direct quotations, Adler presents a not only panoramic picture of the seamy side of NYC in first half of the 20th century, but also a wealth of fascinating details. (For example, Polly had to provide Joe DiMaggio with cotton sheets because his knees slipped on her usual satin bedclothes.)
December 26, 2021
If you're someone who's thinking, "Eh, I don't know if I want to spend 600 pages reading about a madam," fear not, Debby Applegate's "Madam" is a sleek, Duesenberg-like vehicle to examine prominent gangsters, musicians, politicians, businessman, athletes and writers -- I'm looking at you, The New Yorker -- who patronized her prostitutes, and the larger societal trends these figures, along with Polly herself, represented. From that perspective, her book succeeds roaringly.
Where I think the book falters slightly is in its dearth of details about Polly's relationships with her workers. For instance, I may be mistaken, but I can't recall a single mention of what the basic percentage revenue split was between Polly and her workers, nor did I get a palpable feel for what it was like to work for Polly on a day-to-day basis; perhaps those stories are lost to history, but Applegate is SUCH a thorough and capable researcher about everything else, it feels like an emotional hole.
If you provided services to the country's most famous men and were simultaneously shunned by the larger society, you, too, would be obsessed with respectability as much as Polly was, however, I found that trope belabored and, ultimately, as uninteresting as Polly's cravings for fame. One theme I didn't find tiresome: despite her renown and periods of wealth, you wouldn't wish Polly's job on anyone it was so stressful and dangerous, albeit far better than the alternative: working in a sweatshop for nothing.
In any case, this is a SERIOUSLY enjoyable and informative read and I strongly recommend it despite the aforementioned quibbles. If you liked Bill Bryson's "One Summer: America, 1927," or get off on hypocrisy with a capital "H," you'll relish this book. Lastly, one factoid I learned that was never mentioned in Hebrew school: Jewish women, apparently, made the best madams.
Where I think the book falters slightly is in its dearth of details about Polly's relationships with her workers. For instance, I may be mistaken, but I can't recall a single mention of what the basic percentage revenue split was between Polly and her workers, nor did I get a palpable feel for what it was like to work for Polly on a day-to-day basis; perhaps those stories are lost to history, but Applegate is SUCH a thorough and capable researcher about everything else, it feels like an emotional hole.
If you provided services to the country's most famous men and were simultaneously shunned by the larger society, you, too, would be obsessed with respectability as much as Polly was, however, I found that trope belabored and, ultimately, as uninteresting as Polly's cravings for fame. One theme I didn't find tiresome: despite her renown and periods of wealth, you wouldn't wish Polly's job on anyone it was so stressful and dangerous, albeit far better than the alternative: working in a sweatshop for nothing.
In any case, this is a SERIOUSLY enjoyable and informative read and I strongly recommend it despite the aforementioned quibbles. If you liked Bill Bryson's "One Summer: America, 1927," or get off on hypocrisy with a capital "H," you'll relish this book. Lastly, one factoid I learned that was never mentioned in Hebrew school: Jewish women, apparently, made the best madams.
November 16, 2022
Polly Adler was a genuine American success story. You do not need to approve of the exploitative business she was in, but starting as a twelve year old girl who arrived alone from a Russian shtetl, she rose to the apex of her profession through intelligence, hard work, perseverance, and the ability to foster relationships with rich and powerful people on both sides of the law.
What she ran was not a traditional bordello. She would have an apartment and three or four women who lived there, but most of her business was either connecting clients with women to meet at other locations, or calling in freelancers from her list when someone wanted a party at her place or elsewhere. It also wasn’t always about sex. She made a lot of money selling drinks, especially during prohibition, but she also provided a discrete place for movers and shakers to meet to relax, make deals, and socialize. Polly was even an expert backgammon player, and an excellent listener, so some men just dropped by just to talk to her, knowing that her most valuable asset was absolute discretion.
The book begins with a description of Jewish life in the Russian Pale of Settlements, and it was grim, always subject to robbery and murder during official pograms or whenever the Christians wanted to create mayhem. Her family decided to emigrate, but did not have the money to pay the necessary bribes and smugglers to get them all out of Russia at once, so they followed the established tradition of sending one of their daughters first, hoping that she could find a job and send money home to start getting the rest of the family out. Polly came to America and worked miserable sweatshop jobs for bare subsistence wages, but she also worked hard to get an education.
She stayed with relatives and people from her hometown who had moved to America earlier, but was restless and did not fit in well with the respectable people. While living in Brooklyn she refused marriage to a schlub of a guy picked out for her, and had to make her own way once she was no longer welcome in the family she was staying with. She drifted into Manhattan and the sex trade, where a woman could make $50 a night as opposed to $5 a week working a factory job.
Because she was smart and resourceful she realized that the real money was not in turning tricks but in managing the women who did, and became a successful madam, gradually working her way up to catering to the most influential people in the city, who were usually politicians, entertainers, or writers.
It was, nevertheless, a hard job and she was regularly wiped out financially. She would occasionally be robbed or extorted by criminal elements, but the underworld tended to operate with a strict hierarchy which enforced the behavior of its lower ranks. She was good friends with mobsters that are thought of today as murderous psychopaths, such as Dutch Schultz and Lucky Luciano, but to her they were always gentlemen whom she could count on when trouble arose.
Trouble arose frequently. It was the “respectable” people who were the worst of all, the cops, lawyers, judges, and district attorneys, always looking to shake down women who had no legal recourse against them. It started with the cops:
They would come to her place and demand their regular payoffs, along with free drinks (especially during prohibition) and free sex, then turn around and arrest her for prostitution when they needed to make their monthly quotas. After that everyone wanted money: her girls needed to be bailed out, and the bail bondsmen were in on the deal to take their cut. Then more money was needed to pay for the shady lawyers who would get the charges thrown out of court, either by paying the judges to find insufficient evidence, or the cops to simply not show up the day of the trial.
A considerable part of the book takes place during Prohibition, between 1920 and 1933, when Polly was a rising star and her place was beginning to be a favorite hangout in high society. Prohibition was one of history’s great misguided social experiments, a colossal failure that tried to change a human behavior that humans had no intention of changing.
Supplying illegal alcohol was enormously profitable, but it required multiple levels of organization to procure, transport, and distribute it, as well as muscle to keep others from cutting in on your business. Prohibition put the ‘organized’ in organized crime, embedding it so deeply into society that it has been impossible to root out, and its hallmarks of corruption and violence are still in evidence today.
The book’s focus is on Polly Adler, so the other women involved are peripheral figures. Some of those who worked for her later became famous actresses or entertainers, but most are ghostly figures in this book, and I was left wondering where they went when they could no longer hustle. There are two stories in the book of ghastly, life destroying drug addiction, that were hard to read, and occasional mention is made of women being reduced to streetwalkers when they were no longer employable in bordellos. As for the rest, who knows? Maybe some of them used their earnings to start businesses or otherwise became successful, but for many of them their lives must have ended badly. There is a single comment in the book that during the depths of the Great Depression so many women were willing to turn to prostitution that Polly was turning away thirty or forty for every one she accepted. The reader can see great sadness and desperation there, but the book never explores it.
She cultivated relationships with the newspaper writers who frequented her establishments, and they returned the favor either by making her a celebrity whose every appearance at a nightclub or Broadway show was reported, and by passing a cloak of silence over things like her arrests and other problems with the law.
They heyday of organized prostitution as a glamorous business was in the twenties and thirties. By the forties serious efforts were finally made to clean out the corrupt cops and judges and their accomplices. Several policemen killed themselves when they were transferred to precincts without opportunities for graft – cowards to the end. Eventually, society changed and Polly Adler’s time in the business faded away. She moved to Burbank, California and became a respectable citizen, puttering around in her garden.
She also wrote a best-selling book, A House is Not A Home, about her time in the business. Most publishers would not touch it, concerned with their family friendly reputations, and most of the people she thought were her friends from the old days refused to sign releases to appear in the book. Respectability can be a bitch. Even her family, which eventually made it to the United States and which remained dependent on her for financial assistance to the end, kept her away and would not invite her to the high holy days observances.
She died in 1962, a curiosity of a bygone time. She was one tough dame, tougher, and smarter by far than most of the men who thought they were using her. She was a survivor in a business where survivors are few. You do not have to respect the line of work she was in to appreciate her ability to rise from nothing to become the chosen madam of presidents, royalty, Hollywood stars, and society’s most influential people.
What she ran was not a traditional bordello. She would have an apartment and three or four women who lived there, but most of her business was either connecting clients with women to meet at other locations, or calling in freelancers from her list when someone wanted a party at her place or elsewhere. It also wasn’t always about sex. She made a lot of money selling drinks, especially during prohibition, but she also provided a discrete place for movers and shakers to meet to relax, make deals, and socialize. Polly was even an expert backgammon player, and an excellent listener, so some men just dropped by just to talk to her, knowing that her most valuable asset was absolute discretion.
The book begins with a description of Jewish life in the Russian Pale of Settlements, and it was grim, always subject to robbery and murder during official pograms or whenever the Christians wanted to create mayhem. Her family decided to emigrate, but did not have the money to pay the necessary bribes and smugglers to get them all out of Russia at once, so they followed the established tradition of sending one of their daughters first, hoping that she could find a job and send money home to start getting the rest of the family out. Polly came to America and worked miserable sweatshop jobs for bare subsistence wages, but she also worked hard to get an education.
She stayed with relatives and people from her hometown who had moved to America earlier, but was restless and did not fit in well with the respectable people. While living in Brooklyn she refused marriage to a schlub of a guy picked out for her, and had to make her own way once she was no longer welcome in the family she was staying with. She drifted into Manhattan and the sex trade, where a woman could make $50 a night as opposed to $5 a week working a factory job.
Because she was smart and resourceful she realized that the real money was not in turning tricks but in managing the women who did, and became a successful madam, gradually working her way up to catering to the most influential people in the city, who were usually politicians, entertainers, or writers.
It was, nevertheless, a hard job and she was regularly wiped out financially. She would occasionally be robbed or extorted by criminal elements, but the underworld tended to operate with a strict hierarchy which enforced the behavior of its lower ranks. She was good friends with mobsters that are thought of today as murderous psychopaths, such as Dutch Schultz and Lucky Luciano, but to her they were always gentlemen whom she could count on when trouble arose.
Trouble arose frequently. It was the “respectable” people who were the worst of all, the cops, lawyers, judges, and district attorneys, always looking to shake down women who had no legal recourse against them. It started with the cops:
Unofficially, the vice squad ran a shakedown operation that hauled in millions of dollars in bribes annually. It was a plush position for those who weren’t prudish. The stream of graft from vice was so steady and so lucrative that it required excellent political connections and a kickback of several thousand dollars to wrangle a spot on one of the plainclothes squads spread throughout the city. (p. 129-130)
They would come to her place and demand their regular payoffs, along with free drinks (especially during prohibition) and free sex, then turn around and arrest her for prostitution when they needed to make their monthly quotas. After that everyone wanted money: her girls needed to be bailed out, and the bail bondsmen were in on the deal to take their cut. Then more money was needed to pay for the shady lawyers who would get the charges thrown out of court, either by paying the judges to find insufficient evidence, or the cops to simply not show up the day of the trial.
A considerable part of the book takes place during Prohibition, between 1920 and 1933, when Polly was a rising star and her place was beginning to be a favorite hangout in high society. Prohibition was one of history’s great misguided social experiments, a colossal failure that tried to change a human behavior that humans had no intention of changing.
Prohibition had the perverse effect of transforming the sleazy underworld of vice into a cutting-edge counterculture. “Slumming” had long been the hobby of sporting men, raffish intellectuals, and wealthy young rakes who had so much money and social status that they could afford to flout conventional morality. Now anyone who wanted a glass of beer was forced consort with criminals. (p. 188)
Supplying illegal alcohol was enormously profitable, but it required multiple levels of organization to procure, transport, and distribute it, as well as muscle to keep others from cutting in on your business. Prohibition put the ‘organized’ in organized crime, embedding it so deeply into society that it has been impossible to root out, and its hallmarks of corruption and violence are still in evidence today.
The book’s focus is on Polly Adler, so the other women involved are peripheral figures. Some of those who worked for her later became famous actresses or entertainers, but most are ghostly figures in this book, and I was left wondering where they went when they could no longer hustle. There are two stories in the book of ghastly, life destroying drug addiction, that were hard to read, and occasional mention is made of women being reduced to streetwalkers when they were no longer employable in bordellos. As for the rest, who knows? Maybe some of them used their earnings to start businesses or otherwise became successful, but for many of them their lives must have ended badly. There is a single comment in the book that during the depths of the Great Depression so many women were willing to turn to prostitution that Polly was turning away thirty or forty for every one she accepted. The reader can see great sadness and desperation there, but the book never explores it.
She cultivated relationships with the newspaper writers who frequented her establishments, and they returned the favor either by making her a celebrity whose every appearance at a nightclub or Broadway show was reported, and by passing a cloak of silence over things like her arrests and other problems with the law.
They heyday of organized prostitution as a glamorous business was in the twenties and thirties. By the forties serious efforts were finally made to clean out the corrupt cops and judges and their accomplices. Several policemen killed themselves when they were transferred to precincts without opportunities for graft – cowards to the end. Eventually, society changed and Polly Adler’s time in the business faded away. She moved to Burbank, California and became a respectable citizen, puttering around in her garden.
She also wrote a best-selling book, A House is Not A Home, about her time in the business. Most publishers would not touch it, concerned with their family friendly reputations, and most of the people she thought were her friends from the old days refused to sign releases to appear in the book. Respectability can be a bitch. Even her family, which eventually made it to the United States and which remained dependent on her for financial assistance to the end, kept her away and would not invite her to the high holy days observances.
She died in 1962, a curiosity of a bygone time. She was one tough dame, tougher, and smarter by far than most of the men who thought they were using her. She was a survivor in a business where survivors are few. You do not have to respect the line of work she was in to appreciate her ability to rise from nothing to become the chosen madam of presidents, royalty, Hollywood stars, and society’s most influential people.
November 15, 2021
This is not only a fascinating biography of Polly Adler, but also an insightful history of the Jazz Age. Polly Adler was once one of many young immigrants to come from Eastern Europe, but the path her life took was anything but expected.
Born in Yanow, Russia, in 1900, Pearl Adler's early life was very circumspect due to her gender and the anti-Semitic restrictions of the Russian Empire. Nevertheless, throughout her childhood, Pearl exhibited intelligence and was determined to get an education, even though that was unheard of for a girl.
At just thirteen years of age, she landed at Ellis Island, all alone, to meet relations who were strangers. When this arrangement turned out to be less than desirable, she was forced
to live on her own at a very young age. Her intelligence and determination would be put to many a test in the coming years.
How Pearl became Polly Adler, the most well-known madam and a legend in New York City, is a long story, and very much worth reading.
Boxers, gangsters, politicians, entertainers, cops, judges, writers, and reporters. High brow, low brow, and everything in between. She met them. Some came for drinks and games, some for sex, some to hide out. She had her finger on the pulse of the current culture for years.
I was shocked at the depth of corruption in NYC during Polly’s lifetime. It was truly wild, as was her existence. The tenacity and stamina it took to hold on to her livelihood is unimaginable.
Author Debby Applegate has used the language of this time period, and it effectively creates an atmosphere that transports the reader to another era. I am impressed with the extensive research this volume required and was captivated by its style.
I haven’t given away any details in this review, in the hope that some of the surprising facts--and there are many--will amaze and enthrall someone else in the same way.
Thank you so much to Doubleday and Netgalley for this mesmerizing experience.
Born in Yanow, Russia, in 1900, Pearl Adler's early life was very circumspect due to her gender and the anti-Semitic restrictions of the Russian Empire. Nevertheless, throughout her childhood, Pearl exhibited intelligence and was determined to get an education, even though that was unheard of for a girl.
At just thirteen years of age, she landed at Ellis Island, all alone, to meet relations who were strangers. When this arrangement turned out to be less than desirable, she was forced
to live on her own at a very young age. Her intelligence and determination would be put to many a test in the coming years.
How Pearl became Polly Adler, the most well-known madam and a legend in New York City, is a long story, and very much worth reading.
Boxers, gangsters, politicians, entertainers, cops, judges, writers, and reporters. High brow, low brow, and everything in between. She met them. Some came for drinks and games, some for sex, some to hide out. She had her finger on the pulse of the current culture for years.
I was shocked at the depth of corruption in NYC during Polly’s lifetime. It was truly wild, as was her existence. The tenacity and stamina it took to hold on to her livelihood is unimaginable.
Author Debby Applegate has used the language of this time period, and it effectively creates an atmosphere that transports the reader to another era. I am impressed with the extensive research this volume required and was captivated by its style.
I haven’t given away any details in this review, in the hope that some of the surprising facts--and there are many--will amaze and enthrall someone else in the same way.
Thank you so much to Doubleday and Netgalley for this mesmerizing experience.
September 26, 2021
I felt that the book was based more upon US history and not of Polly Adler I was quite disappointed. I'm sure however that many people will enjoy this book. I had to put it down. Could not keep my interest.
Read
October 30, 2021Excellent bio of madam Polly Adler - an in-depth look at jazz age prostitution in NYC
December 30, 2021
This book about a major madam of the early 20th century is far from titillating. I did feel exhausted with the merry-go-round of pay-offs and address changes necessarily for Polly Adler to stay on top of her profession. The book does contain familiar names, mostly gangsters but also a few from literati and show biz.
The book is a good view of how the country, especially morals, have changed over the century.
The punch line appeared in her obituary. Despite close to 50 years in the oldest profession, she spent the last 10 years of her life pushing her autobiography. Her description in her obit: auteur.
The book is a good view of how the country, especially morals, have changed over the century.
The punch line appeared in her obituary. Despite close to 50 years in the oldest profession, she spent the last 10 years of her life pushing her autobiography. Her description in her obit: auteur.
November 2, 2021
Madam by Debby Applegate is a free NetGalley ebook that I read in late October.
The 1920s era-specific description is laid over a scene/situation like heavy ornate drapes that you want to push or peel aside. It’s a bummer since I love stories like these, but it’s meant for a far more patient and obliging reader than I am.
The 1920s era-specific description is laid over a scene/situation like heavy ornate drapes that you want to push or peel aside. It’s a bummer since I love stories like these, but it’s meant for a far more patient and obliging reader than I am.
December 15, 2021
Could not get into this book.
January 6, 2022
Polly Adler lived a very unique version of the American dream. Born into a Jewish family in Russia around the turn of the twentieth century, Polly immigrated to the United States just before World War I. Young and in need of a way to support herself, Polly tried a number of trades before she was pulled into the world of brothels, madams, and sex. Before long, Polly was a madam herself, running her own bordello patronized by some of the most notable men of New York in the 1920s and 30s. Adler had connections with politicians, mobsters, Hollywood actors, and lived to write her own story in the form of memoirs in the 1950s. A fascinating woman, and a biography that offers a fresh perspective of the iconic Jazz Age.
March 14, 2022
Debby Applegate, may the gods bless you. Madam took a mammoth amount of research to write. Applegate not only researched Polly Adler, but also the Russian village where Adler was born, New York City the place in the 1920s and 30s, the politics of Adler's world, and the biographies of many key public figures of the time, including mobsters, policemen, and musicians.
I can see Applegate sitting down to write, then thinking "wait, who is the police commissioner, like, really?" Then going down a 2-day rabbit hole reading everything she can about the man, circling back to write, and having to rinse and repeat dozens and dozens of times as Adler's world unfurled before her.
Writing nonfiction is so difficult. You want to paint an accurate picture, but you also have to trim the fat and fill in blanks in order to create a compelling narrative, and that's where Applegate fell short for me. I think she got so bogged down in researching everything that was going on around Polly Adler, she was so preoccupied with the framework of Polly Adler, that she sort of lost sight of Polly Adler the person. Who, you know, was the whole point of the book, or so it was billed.
Part of the issue seems to be all of the secrecy and rumor surrounding Polly Adler. Adler published a memoir, sure, but can you really believe said memoir? And, if so little is definitively out there about Ms. Adler, isn't it better to just write what we know is truth?
I'm gonna say no.
Sorry. I think about Robert Massie's book on Catherine the Great. He took leaps and made assumptions in that book to make it a truly fantastic biography. For whatever reason, Applegate was unwilling to make leaps, or draw conclusions, and her book suffers from that reluctance. You could easily say "sources disagree, but" and give us the goods. At the end of 500 pages, I don't feel as though I know who Polly Adler was. What I do have is a rich description of what New York City was like in the 1920s and 30s. Applegate also spent a lot of time fleshing out organized crime. To a certain extent, it makes sense. Ms. Adler was dealing in an illegal business, so organized crime was going to be a factor in her life. But Applegate spent too much time talking about how this mobster hated that mobster and those mobsters tried to gun down these mobsters and just, like, who cares? There were so many names flying around who had very little to do with Polly Adler. And, again, isn't this a book about Polly Adler?
I'm going to do what Applegate didn't, and draw a conclusion here. I think Applegate did so much research to ensure accuracy of time and place that she lost sight of her subject matter. She had so much detail about all these people and events from her research, that she decided to include them all, despite their only tangential relation to the point of the book she was writing. I get it: you did all that work and want to "show" that work, as it were. But the book dragged in places because of this exhaustive inclusion that rarely circled back to Polly Adler the person.
This became frustrating as the book marched on, because we were spending so much time with male mobsters, but Applegate never really unpacked what I was interested in: being a woman in the 1920s dealing in prostitution where women are abused and murdered regularly. There are several scenes in Madam where Polly Adler and/or the women she employs are abused by customers, but Applegate takes the anthropological approach with these scenes. She doesn't comment on or unpack these injustices. She records them and moves on. We spend so much time learning about the powerful men in the book, and so little time learning about the women beneath, or sometimes on top, of them. Would providing that context and commentary be an impossible ask for an author? These women were, in most cases, intentionally anonymous. But we could explore what it was like to be Woman back then, and we could, again, draw conclusions to try to breathe color and life into these women who deserve to, finally, have voices. It was disappointing to get so much detail about the peripheral men in Polly Adler's life, but so little about the women surrounding her. To be fair, the final page of the book is a thunderclap of genius, speaking to what few avenues of power women had during Polly Adler's time. But that is ONE page in a 500 book, and it just demonstrates that Applegate has the writing chops to really break down Polly Adler for us, and didn't.
TL;DR : meticulously researched and generally well-written but it isn't about Polly Adler so much as as snapshot of New York City in the 1920s and 30s.
I can see Applegate sitting down to write, then thinking "wait, who is the police commissioner, like, really?" Then going down a 2-day rabbit hole reading everything she can about the man, circling back to write, and having to rinse and repeat dozens and dozens of times as Adler's world unfurled before her.
Writing nonfiction is so difficult. You want to paint an accurate picture, but you also have to trim the fat and fill in blanks in order to create a compelling narrative, and that's where Applegate fell short for me. I think she got so bogged down in researching everything that was going on around Polly Adler, she was so preoccupied with the framework of Polly Adler, that she sort of lost sight of Polly Adler the person. Who, you know, was the whole point of the book, or so it was billed.
Part of the issue seems to be all of the secrecy and rumor surrounding Polly Adler. Adler published a memoir, sure, but can you really believe said memoir? And, if so little is definitively out there about Ms. Adler, isn't it better to just write what we know is truth?
I'm gonna say no.
Sorry. I think about Robert Massie's book on Catherine the Great. He took leaps and made assumptions in that book to make it a truly fantastic biography. For whatever reason, Applegate was unwilling to make leaps, or draw conclusions, and her book suffers from that reluctance. You could easily say "sources disagree, but" and give us the goods. At the end of 500 pages, I don't feel as though I know who Polly Adler was. What I do have is a rich description of what New York City was like in the 1920s and 30s. Applegate also spent a lot of time fleshing out organized crime. To a certain extent, it makes sense. Ms. Adler was dealing in an illegal business, so organized crime was going to be a factor in her life. But Applegate spent too much time talking about how this mobster hated that mobster and those mobsters tried to gun down these mobsters and just, like, who cares? There were so many names flying around who had very little to do with Polly Adler. And, again, isn't this a book about Polly Adler?
I'm going to do what Applegate didn't, and draw a conclusion here. I think Applegate did so much research to ensure accuracy of time and place that she lost sight of her subject matter. She had so much detail about all these people and events from her research, that she decided to include them all, despite their only tangential relation to the point of the book she was writing. I get it: you did all that work and want to "show" that work, as it were. But the book dragged in places because of this exhaustive inclusion that rarely circled back to Polly Adler the person.
This became frustrating as the book marched on, because we were spending so much time with male mobsters, but Applegate never really unpacked what I was interested in: being a woman in the 1920s dealing in prostitution where women are abused and murdered regularly. There are several scenes in Madam where Polly Adler and/or the women she employs are abused by customers, but Applegate takes the anthropological approach with these scenes. She doesn't comment on or unpack these injustices. She records them and moves on. We spend so much time learning about the powerful men in the book, and so little time learning about the women beneath, or sometimes on top, of them. Would providing that context and commentary be an impossible ask for an author? These women were, in most cases, intentionally anonymous. But we could explore what it was like to be Woman back then, and we could, again, draw conclusions to try to breathe color and life into these women who deserve to, finally, have voices. It was disappointing to get so much detail about the peripheral men in Polly Adler's life, but so little about the women surrounding her. To be fair, the final page of the book is a thunderclap of genius, speaking to what few avenues of power women had during Polly Adler's time. But that is ONE page in a 500 book, and it just demonstrates that Applegate has the writing chops to really break down Polly Adler for us, and didn't.
TL;DR : meticulously researched and generally well-written but it isn't about Polly Adler so much as as snapshot of New York City in the 1920s and 30s.
February 13, 2022
This book is quite thorough. I loved reading about the mob scene and show business. I was also fascinated reading how many people in powerful positions frequented brothels, though not surprised. I found the parts about New York politics to drag on unnecessarily.
March 21, 2022
This is another book where you really have to be deeply invested in the subject matter to enjoy it. Fortunately, it’s right up my alley. 20s, bootlegging, gangsters, New York City. Yes, yes, yes, and yes.
It seems as if there was one running thread that connected gangsters like Arnold Rothstein to politicians like Jimmy Walker to entertainers like the Marx brothers to athletes like Jack Dempsey to the upper crust of Manhattan society, it was sex. Specifically the sex Polly Adler provided in her many and various houses up and down the island. Applegate spends the minimum amount of time on Adler’s background and rise to prominence, with the bulk of the book dedicated to her running her operations while trying to evade the law. She was definitely a right person in the right place at the right time. 1920s New York City was flush with cash and everyone seemed to rub elbows in the same clubs and speakeasies on the way to Polly.
But there’s a reason I did a lot of name dropping in the preceding paragraph (not to jack up the word count for the matter). Debby Applegate’s style itself is to do a lot of name dropping while documenting the specifics of Polly moving her houses from one place to another to evade the authorities. The only difference between the chapters are the timing of the year (1925 was a good year, 1930 was not, etc.). I enjoyed the heck out of it because the names fascinated me and how they all connected to Polly but this is really where you need to decide what your tolerance level is.
I also liked how Debby Applegate covered the hypocrisy of the flesh trade and how Polly was treated. How everyone came running to Polly when they needed a screw but ditched her at the first sign of trouble or how they brought her into a man’s world but always reminded her in one way or another, physically or verbally, that she’s a woman. She made it in a difficult world but it was indeed difficult and Applegate doesn’t shy away from that.
As I said, I enjoyed this one immensely but my recommendations would be specific to those who are interested in the subject or the era.
It seems as if there was one running thread that connected gangsters like Arnold Rothstein to politicians like Jimmy Walker to entertainers like the Marx brothers to athletes like Jack Dempsey to the upper crust of Manhattan society, it was sex. Specifically the sex Polly Adler provided in her many and various houses up and down the island. Applegate spends the minimum amount of time on Adler’s background and rise to prominence, with the bulk of the book dedicated to her running her operations while trying to evade the law. She was definitely a right person in the right place at the right time. 1920s New York City was flush with cash and everyone seemed to rub elbows in the same clubs and speakeasies on the way to Polly.
But there’s a reason I did a lot of name dropping in the preceding paragraph (not to jack up the word count for the matter). Debby Applegate’s style itself is to do a lot of name dropping while documenting the specifics of Polly moving her houses from one place to another to evade the authorities. The only difference between the chapters are the timing of the year (1925 was a good year, 1930 was not, etc.). I enjoyed the heck out of it because the names fascinated me and how they all connected to Polly but this is really where you need to decide what your tolerance level is.
I also liked how Debby Applegate covered the hypocrisy of the flesh trade and how Polly was treated. How everyone came running to Polly when they needed a screw but ditched her at the first sign of trouble or how they brought her into a man’s world but always reminded her in one way or another, physically or verbally, that she’s a woman. She made it in a difficult world but it was indeed difficult and Applegate doesn’t shy away from that.
As I said, I enjoyed this one immensely but my recommendations would be specific to those who are interested in the subject or the era.
November 4, 2021
Who knew a book about a woman I had never heard of would be so compelling and bring together famous people we all know
(FDR, Milton Berle, Desi Arnez) into this incredible picture of life in the early-mid 20th century. What an amazing, complex, relentless woman Polly Adler was! I loved this book. So well researched! I love when I’m reading and learn new things yet am reintroduced to familiar names and events tying them all together. This book is long - and packed with details and info - I found all of it captivating. This is the book I didn’t know I needed to read and am so glad I did! Highly recommend! Heartfelt thanks to Doubleday for the advanced copy. Go read this book! So fascinating!
(FDR, Milton Berle, Desi Arnez) into this incredible picture of life in the early-mid 20th century. What an amazing, complex, relentless woman Polly Adler was! I loved this book. So well researched! I love when I’m reading and learn new things yet am reintroduced to familiar names and events tying them all together. This book is long - and packed with details and info - I found all of it captivating. This is the book I didn’t know I needed to read and am so glad I did! Highly recommend! Heartfelt thanks to Doubleday for the advanced copy. Go read this book! So fascinating!
February 6, 2022
A riveting biography of the 1920s-1940s most successful brothel owner as well as a rich social history of the time and places where she lived. The context for the story of Polly Adler's life is jam-packed with juicy details, from an astute description of the social hierarchy of her hometown shtetl before emigrating to the United States around 1915 to inside baseball factoids about Pollys best customers, from Jewish mob king Arnold Rothstein to, ahem, FDR. I have been urging everyone I know to read this book, which I "read" on audio.
January 20, 2022
While this book clearly reflects a great deal of research and was well written, I felt that the title was somewhat misleading. I enjoy character studies and I really didn't get that with this book. It was a very detailed account of NYC during the Jazz Age, with Polly Adler being one of the main players. I would have preferred more about Polly Adler and less about the machinations of New York City during this time period.
February 3, 2023
(5 star sleep aid) The beginning and ending chapters, which focused on Polly’s story, were terrific. The mushy middle, which attempted to contextualize Polly’s business in the politics and culture of the time, was incredibly dense and tedious. I kept reading out of a sense of duty to my Jewish Russian immigrant ancestors, but it was a SLOG. Turns out Polly and a ghostwriter wrote an autobiography in the 50s. Safe bet it was much better than this clunker.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 186 reviews