Madam

The Biography of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz Age

By: Debby Applegate

Narrated by: Erin Bennett

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 put: 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.

History Unknown

great revelation on another piece of the jazz age for which little is known to many

Wow

Such a great memoir/biography!

This book makes me feel like a fly on all of the best walls but only for the interesting parts and there are loads of those.

Feeling torn about this book

I believe the story about this incredible woman would be much more captivating - and shorter - if not for the hundreds of names thrown all over the place. Hard to keep up with, many parts felt more like a report than a memoir. Maybe the writer could have used the same kind of literary coaching the protagonist needed for her own book.

Enjoyable, Educational & Entertaining

I now know a bit better about the kind of society that my folks lived through in the twenties and prohibition.
It was very interesting to learn about a different view of many of the big names of that era.

Wordy

I thought it was very interesting most of the time. The other times were incredibly wordy with dozens of people mentioned from the most inconsequential attorney and policeman to the well known rich and famous. The story lines ran with Polly gets arrested, Polly gets out of it, so many times. I should have kept track.
Overall, I liked it. It’s good story about a notorious madame during a tumultuous time in history.