In this episode, NYPL's Meredith Mann met with Debby Applegate, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher, to celebrate the release of Debby's new book Madam: The Biography of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz Age.  They dug into how a young Jewish immigrant became the proprietress of one of Manhattan's most notorious bordellos: how Polly Adler rose to prominence in the nightclub scene, rubbing shoulders with the Mob and the Algonquin Round Table, while carefully avoiding the eyes of Prohibition enforcers and the city's vice squad, the Committee of Fourteen.

Episode Recording and Transcript

A transcript of this event is available here.

Related Resources

• Polly Adler's autobiography A House Is Not  A Home and its 1964 film adaptation

• Guide to the Committee of Fourteen records, NYPL Manuscripts and Archives Division

• Guide and digitized images for the Committee of Fifteen records, NYPL Manuscripts and Archives Division

• Debby recommends Night After Night, Mae West's debut film

About the Work/Cited Series

Work/Cited is a program series that showcases the latest scholarship supported by the rich collections of The New York Public Library with a behind-the-scenes look at how the finished product was inspired, researched, and created. Catch up on previous episodes on the NYPL blog, where videos and links to related resources are posted shortly after each program. Sign up for NYPL's Research Newsletter or view the events calendar to hear about future programs as they are announced.