The Parlor House Madam

Parlor houses were elegant well-furnished places where the most beautiful and desirable women worked. These places appealed to a wealthy clientele. All parlor houses and high-class brothels had servants, fine food, drinks, and entertainment. A piano player called "the professor" provided music. The "girls" were referred to as "boarders." There were usually around twenty in each house, ranging in age from eighteen to thirty or thirty-five year in age. The girls spent their daytime hours doing needlework, reading and sewing. The brothels worked in the same way, but were not as elegant. Still, they usually had comfortable saloons and offered drinks and conversation.

Every parlor house or brothel was presided over by a madam. The madam was usually an older woman who had "paid her dues" by working as a prostitute herself and had through the years saved up enough money to start her own business. However, there were also several madams who boasted they had never been prostitutes themselves. Others may have been set up in business by a wealthy boyfriend or admirer.

In exchange for her services and protection, the madam kept a certain portion of each girl's earnings. This usually amounted to about a 50-50 split of money taken in. Arrangements on how the pay was taken varied from house to house and were worked out with the individual madam. In some parlor houses, girls were given free room and board, in others they had to pay rent. Usually, if they had to pay rent, less was taken from their actual earnings. The girls got to keep any tips they were given by their customers. The madam usually got big a cut of the girl's earnings one way or the other.

In parlor houses as well as brothels, much of the profit came from drinks served. Prices on these drinks were raised considerably. Sometimes the madam kept all the money taken in from alcohol sales, other times she gave the girls a small commission to encourage them to ply the customer with the high-priced drinks.

The working girls had to maintain an expensive wardrobe of dresses, hats, gowns and lingerie, and usually had no credit. The madam often allowed them to charge these items to her account. This kept the girls continually in her debt and in her employ.

The running of a parlor house was an enterprising business. Many of the madams were quite successful businesswomen and amassed sizeable fortunes. Quite a few of them owned property and fine horses. Though the parlor house business was not accepted by society, the madams paid their share of revenue to the community in taxes and in fines to corrupt police officials. They were also expected to contribute to charity.

Some of the madams eventually retired from the business and lived out their lives in quiet contentment. Unfortunately, drug addiction and depression seemed to be hazards of the trade. More than a few of the famous madams ran through the fortunes they had accumulated and died penniless and destitute.