Madame Claude: Her Secret World of Pleasure, Privilege, and Power

Stadiem (Marilyn Monroe Confidential) narrates the life and career of Parisian brothel owner Madame Claude in this lifeless biography. Between 1955 and 1977, Madame Claude ran a successful escort service in Paris built on the modern idea of the call girl, who could look like cover girls or the girl next door. Her business targeted the luxury class and counted among its clients John F. Kennedy, Sammy Davis Jr., and Groucho Marx. Stadiem chronicles the childhood years that Claude—born Fernande Grudet—spent at convent school; her time in the French resistance in WWII, for which she was sent to a Nazi concentration camp; her early pregnancy and the birth of her daughter, from whom she would become estranged; and her business, which, according to Stadiem, was a “finishing school for superbeauties.” Claude left Paris for L.A. in 1977 to avoid paying taxes, but returned eight years later to live in the south of France, only to be arrested for tax evasion. Claude never lost her grand view of herself—many called her a terrible snob—but when she died in 2015, only five people attended her memorial service. Stadiem’s tedious book might have been better as a magazine article, and never quite grasps the readers attention. (May)