Polly Adler
| Polly Adler | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | April 16, 1900 Yanow, Russia |
| Died | June 11, 1962 (aged 62) |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Madam, author |
Pearl "Polly" Adler (April 16, 1900 – June 11, 1962) was an American madam, author, and person of Russian-Jewish origin.
The oldest of nine children of Gertrude Koval and Morris Adler, Polly was the daughter of a tailor who travelled throughout Europe on business. Her early education was from the village rabbi. Polly Adler emigrated to America from Yanow, Russia, near the Polish border at the age of 12 just before World War I. The war stopped her family from joining her. She lived for a time with family friends in Holyoke, Massachusetts, where she cleaned house and attended school, and at age 14, she began working in the local paper mill; the following year she moved to Brooklyn, living for a time with cousins.
She worked as a seamstress, at clothing factories, and sporadically attended school. At 19, she began to enjoy the company of theater people in Manhattan, and moved into the apartment of an actress and showgirl on Riverside Drive in New York City. It was at this apartment that she was introduced to a local bootlegger and gangster, who offered to pay Adler if she would allow him and his girlfriend to use her apartment. She began to procure for him and his friends, and became successful as a madam.
She opened her first bordello in 1920, under the protection of mobster Dutch Schultz and a friend of mobster Charles "Lucky" Luciano. One building in which she plied her trade was The Majestic at 215 West 75th Street, designed by architects Schwartz and Gross and completed in 1924 with hidden stairways and secret doorways. Her brothel there boasted such patrons as Peter Arno, Harold Ross, Desi Arnaz,George S. Kaufman,Robert Benchley,Dorothy Parker,Milton Berle,John Garfield, New York City mayor Jimmy Walker, and mobster Dutch Schultz. It has been theorized that the New York State Supreme Court justice Joseph Force Crater, missing since Aug. 6, 1930, died in Polly Adler's brothel.
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