Oshkosh Public Library

Madam, the biography of Polly Adler, icon of the Jazz Age, Debby Applegate

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 509-522) and index

individual biography

illustrationsplates

index present

non fiction

Madam

bibliography

1237101675

Debby Applegate

the biography of Polly Adler, icon of the Jazz Age

Everybody came to Polly's. Pearl "Polly" Adler was a diminutive dynamo whose Manhattan brothels in the Roaring Twenties became places not just for men to have the company of women. They 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, Adler's life is a classic American story of success and assimilation. She declared her ambition to be "the best goddam madam in all America" and succeeded wildly. Applegate shows 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. -- adapted from jacket

From a nobody to a legend -- Man plans, god laughs -- The jazz baby -- What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this? -- Liquor and lust -- Thumbs up with the mob -- The double standard -- The party girl racket -- The underworld complex -- The Jewish jezebel -- The female Al Capone -- Café society -- The big shot -- Madam emeritus

Biography of Polly Adler, icon of the Jazz Age