The Last Madam: A Life in the New Orleans Underworld

by Christine Wiltz Narrated by Donna Postel

Overview

1916: Norma Wallace, age 15, arrived in New Orleans. Sexy and shrewd, she quickly went from streetwalker to madam and by 1920 had opened what became a legendary house of prostitution. There she entertained a steady stream of governors, gangsters, and movie stars until she was arrested at last in 1962. Shortly before she died in 1974, she tape-recorded her memories - the scandalous stories of a powerful woman with the city's politicians in her pocket and whose lovers included the 25 year old boy-next-door, whom she married at age 64. With those tapes and original research, Christine Wiltz chronicles Norma's rise and fall with the social history of New Orleans. Thick with the vice and corruption that flourished there, Wiltz resurrects a vanished secret world.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Mystery and nonfiction writer Wiltz (Glass House, etc.) offers an affecting portrayal of the woman who for 40 years ran the last successful high-class brothel in New Orleans, and of her vanished demimonde. Born into poverty in 1901, Norma Wallace became a streetwalker in her teens, but by the early 1920s had decided that a more comfortable, profitable living lay in being a "landlady"--running a discreet, lavish, politically protected house of prostitution. Shrewd and ambitious--and a strict madam--she quickly became an underworld force within the wide-open New Orleans of the 1920s-1940s, enjoying numerous romances along the way with a Capone-linked gangster, then-blind champion bantamweight Pete Herman and entertainer Phil Harris, among others. Norma's first serious arrest came only in 1962, and it sped her retirement a few years later. Wiltz, who makes excellent use of Norma's tape-recorded, unpublished memoirs (Norma died in 1974), understands that this tale is necessarily one of corruption and acquiescence in mid-century urban America: Norma could not have prospered without the ritualized, baroque corruption of local law enforcement as well as the town's leading economic lights and political figures, who often checked their pious selves at Norma's door. Wiltz thus elevates a sometimes impeccably assembled historical narrative above its elementary bawdy elements into something more elegant and fragile: the resurrection of a secret world, like those uncovered by Luc Sante and James Ellroy. (Jan.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Michael Lewis

The book tells the wonderful story of Norma Wallace, who for more than 40 years ran the best-known whorehouse in town. In so doing she apparently became not merely a great French Quarter character but a kind of power broker. Mayors, governors, gangsters, prizefighters, movie stars and an endless parade of prominent New Orleans gentlemen came through her doors. Wiltz reports that when Wallace was asked in the late 1950's if there was any important man she didn't have in her pocket, she had to think about it. ''The president,'' she finally said....In this world there are great characters who have no idea that they are great characters, and great characters who are fully aware of their greatness. Wallace must be counted among the latter. She had the wit of Dorothy Parker and the instinct for self-dramatization of Tallulah Bankhead.
—The New York Times Book Review

Library Journal - Audio

03/15/2017
Wiltz has set several novels, as well as a mystery series, in her hometown of New Orleans. Here she tells the true story of Norma Wallace (1899–1974), a notorious and very successful madam who opened her first bordello in 1920. Eventually awarded the key to the city, this powerful, savvy "landlady" (madams preferred this term) welcomed film stars, musicians, politicians, police, and mobsters to her establishments. From 1920 to 1960, Wallace's wild whorehouses were the life of the party in the French Quarter. Taxi drivers, hotel staff, and bar owners recommended her businesses to tourists, while city fathers and the law turned a blind eye—thanks to her bribes. Shortly before she died, Wallace began to record her memories, and Wiltz wisely lets the woman speak for herself. Unfortunately, despite a fascinating subject and a solid performance from narrator Donna Postel, whose warm delivery and relaxed pace highlight Wallace's appealing joie de vivre, the narrative is not consistently engaging—excessive detail about minor characters and government machinations disrupt the flow. VERDICT Best for New Orleans natives and others with a strong interest in the city.—Beth Farrell, Cleveland State Univ. Law Lib.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940175395106
Publisher:	Dreamscape Media
Publication date:	11/22/2016
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	951,500

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