Madam : the biography of Polly Adler, icon of the Jazz Age Cover Image

Book

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

Summary:

"A biography of Pearl "Polly" Alder, New York City madam and icon of the Jazz Age"-- Provided by publisher.

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.

Record details

ISBN: 9780385534758
ISBN: 0385534752
Physical Description: 553 pages, 24 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: New York : Doubleday, [2021]

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	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.