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Madame Claude: Her Secret World of Pleasure, Privilege, & Power
The life of Madame Claude, the brilliant and complicated and utterly amoral woman behind the most glamorous and successful escort service in the world.In post-WWII Paris, Madame Claude ran the most exclusive finishing school in the world. Her alumnae married more fortunes, titles and famous names than any of the Seven Sisters. The names on her client list were epic—Kennedy, Rothschild, Agnelli, Onassis, Niarchos, Brando, Sinatra, McQueen, Picasso, Chagall, Qaddafi, the Shah, and that's just for starters. By the 1950s, she was the richest and most celebrated self-made woman in Europe, as much of a legend as Coco Chanel. Born Fernande Grudet, a poor Jewish girl in the aristocratic chateau city of Angers, the future Madame led a life of high adventure—resistance fighter, concentration camp survivor, gun moll of the Corsican Mafia and erstwhile streetwalker—before becoming the ultimate broker between beauty and power. She harnessed the emerging postwar technology of the telephone to create the concept of the call girl. But Madame Claude wasn't just selling sex—she was the world's ultimate matchmaker, the Dolly Levi of the Power Elite.She was also one of the most controversial—and most wanted—women in the world. Now, through his own conversations with the woman herself and interviews with the great men and remarkable women on whom she built her empire, social historian and biographer William Stadiem pierces the veil of Claude’s secret, forbidden universe of pleasure and privilege.
298 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 15, 2018
63 people are currently reading
203 people want to read
About the author
William Stadiem
30 books10 followersWILLIAM STADIEM is the author of twelve books, including the bestselling Marilyn Monroe Confidential; Dear Senator; and Mr. S: My Life with Frank Sinatra. In 2014 he has two major books coming out: Daughter of the King and Jet Set. A feature length documentary of Mr. S, which Stadiem is scripting for producers Graydon Carter, Brian Grazer and Brett Ratner, is also planned for production this year. A Harvard JD-MBA, Stadiem abandoned Wall Street for Sunset Boulevard, where he has written such films as Franco Zeffirelli’s Young Toscanini, Elizabeth Taylor’s last major starring role. As a screenwriter, a columnist for Andy Warhol’s Interview, and the restaurant critic for Los Angeles, Stadiem has enjoyed a ringside seat for the decadence and outrageousness he recounts in his 2013 Moneywood. He lives in Santa Monica, California.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
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July 20, 2018Update I finished the book. I'm not sure if it is a 1 star or a 5 star. I'm not sure that it isn't a self-serving, mostly-invented, scurrilious little book, or if it is a thoroughly enjoyable read of a distopian universe where everything, everything boils down to money. So that is two angles I could address. Or I could just do sex. All the tests, very graphic, the would-be 'swans' went through in order to become high-priced prostitutes. He isn't a fan of feminism. One of those angles, but which?
Written when I was reading it.
Written when I was reading it.
August 30, 2018
Take this book to the beach...
...if you need a conversation starter. Madame Claude was the first procurer to make use of the telephone, thus coining the phrase "call girls." She was also the first to thoroughly vet her employees with an eye toward fulfilling the fantasies of wealthy men. Hers was a rigorous weeding-out process that was often followed by plastic surgery to perfect what she deemed perfectible. This sort of innocuous information will provide a fine cover for your own seaside vetting procedure. (Lovely eyes? Check. Sense of humor? Check. Not afraid of ice cream? Check.)
Take this book to the beach...
...if you require a volume you can toss into the sand on a moment's notice. Sunscreen must be re-applied, as you know, and bodies turned to roast evenly. Then there is lunch to consider. And the ever-rising tide. And the visit from the snuffling dog someone mistakenly imagined people would be pleased to see frolicking along the shore. This is a book that requires no sustained attention, the reading of which might actually be improved by frequent breaks from the endless (and often excruciatingly pointless) name-dropping.
Take this book to the beach...
...if the beach you've gone to is so beautiful you find the need to pinch yourself just to prove you're awake and not caught in some deliciously tormenting dream. These pages will provide that painful pluck with their wealth of corrupted adages and overworked expressions. Examples: Beauty may have been in the eyes of the Bel Air beholder...The cash cow had been sent to the abattoir...This was a world where one hand was washing the other so much that it could have been the basis for a designer-soap commercial. (Have no fear, the cheese here is ripe and distinctly aromatic.)
So yes, my advice would be to take this book to the beach...
...and give a little thought to leaving it there.
...if you need a conversation starter. Madame Claude was the first procurer to make use of the telephone, thus coining the phrase "call girls." She was also the first to thoroughly vet her employees with an eye toward fulfilling the fantasies of wealthy men. Hers was a rigorous weeding-out process that was often followed by plastic surgery to perfect what she deemed perfectible. This sort of innocuous information will provide a fine cover for your own seaside vetting procedure. (Lovely eyes? Check. Sense of humor? Check. Not afraid of ice cream? Check.)
Take this book to the beach...
...if you require a volume you can toss into the sand on a moment's notice. Sunscreen must be re-applied, as you know, and bodies turned to roast evenly. Then there is lunch to consider. And the ever-rising tide. And the visit from the snuffling dog someone mistakenly imagined people would be pleased to see frolicking along the shore. This is a book that requires no sustained attention, the reading of which might actually be improved by frequent breaks from the endless (and often excruciatingly pointless) name-dropping.
Take this book to the beach...
...if the beach you've gone to is so beautiful you find the need to pinch yourself just to prove you're awake and not caught in some deliciously tormenting dream. These pages will provide that painful pluck with their wealth of corrupted adages and overworked expressions. Examples: Beauty may have been in the eyes of the Bel Air beholder...The cash cow had been sent to the abattoir...This was a world where one hand was washing the other so much that it could have been the basis for a designer-soap commercial. (Have no fear, the cheese here is ripe and distinctly aromatic.)
So yes, my advice would be to take this book to the beach...
...and give a little thought to leaving it there.
June 20, 2018
Horribly written. A complete bore. The author distastefully insults the president throughout the course of the book, which has nothing to do with the subject matter being discussed.
February 6, 2019
For decades, I've been curious about Madame Claude. Now, having read Stadiem's book, I wish I'd saved my energy.
Madame Claude was a legend in her time. Stadiem credits her with being the inventor of the call girl and of turning sex into a luxury brand to equal Hermes, Louis Vuitton or Chanel. Her customers were the rich and the powerful men of the world, and the "girls" she employed appeared to be aristocratic, beautiful, educated and sophisticated -- regardless of their origins.
Madame Claude's fans talk on about the wonderful marriages her girls made, the careers they stepped into and the money they made. Her foes talk about how long her girls had to work to pay off the money she fronted them for plastic surgery, cosmetic dentistry and designer wardrobes.
Her heyday was the 1960s to the mid-1970s when fast, affordable jet travel made it possible to fly to Paris for the weekend or to send girls around the world to clients. But that world started crumbling when the French government went after her for tax evasion, feminism opened doors to other ways of being successful as a woman, the AIDS epidemic arrived and technology made virtual sex accessible to anyone with a computer.
Ultimately this is a sad tale of a woman focused on money and unable to accept changing times.
This is a classic celebrity biography with lots of famous names being dropped and peeks into the inner sanctums of the very rich and powerful.
Madame Claude was a legend in her time. Stadiem credits her with being the inventor of the call girl and of turning sex into a luxury brand to equal Hermes, Louis Vuitton or Chanel. Her customers were the rich and the powerful men of the world, and the "girls" she employed appeared to be aristocratic, beautiful, educated and sophisticated -- regardless of their origins.
Madame Claude's fans talk on about the wonderful marriages her girls made, the careers they stepped into and the money they made. Her foes talk about how long her girls had to work to pay off the money she fronted them for plastic surgery, cosmetic dentistry and designer wardrobes.
Her heyday was the 1960s to the mid-1970s when fast, affordable jet travel made it possible to fly to Paris for the weekend or to send girls around the world to clients. But that world started crumbling when the French government went after her for tax evasion, feminism opened doors to other ways of being successful as a woman, the AIDS epidemic arrived and technology made virtual sex accessible to anyone with a computer.
Ultimately this is a sad tale of a woman focused on money and unable to accept changing times.
This is a classic celebrity biography with lots of famous names being dropped and peeks into the inner sanctums of the very rich and powerful.
July 21, 2024
The author is a professional "ghost writer" and from that information alone I felt confident picking the book up with expectations to be technically well done and it is excellent on that level. However, it is stated that there are conflicting accounts of Madame Claude's origins and even other stories about her without corroboration. To that end it's hard to judge the veracity of what is being presented in this book. It is a peek into what big money can buy and like looking at celebrity homes in magazines sort of satisfying but one dimensional: you only know what is being present (by the author) and cannot get any further into backstories as many interviewed by the author want confidentiality. So it is merely a collection of sometimes salacious stories from the 1960s-1970s with an emphasis on the "stories" as unverified.
January 28, 2024
frustrating
Less a book about Madame Claude, more about those who used her services. Read as an exercise in shameless name dropping, even mentioning people who were related to or associated with Claude’s customers, just for the sake of it, purely because they were notable persons of the time, who were irrelevant to the overall. For instance, the first chapter, JFK. Who was a Claude customer, but a lot of the chapter was spent talking about Jackie. Would not bother picking up again.
Less a book about Madame Claude, more about those who used her services. Read as an exercise in shameless name dropping, even mentioning people who were related to or associated with Claude’s customers, just for the sake of it, purely because they were notable persons of the time, who were irrelevant to the overall. For instance, the first chapter, JFK. Who was a Claude customer, but a lot of the chapter was spent talking about Jackie. Would not bother picking up again.
September 16, 2018
This was an interesting book. At first I got sucked into google looking up all the French people and French phrases I did not know. When that got time consuming I glossed over it with the hopeful plan that I will look them up. (It probably will not happen.) I also wish the author did not use pronouns as much and stuck to proper nouns when describing personal situations but that is only my personal preference. It was a very insightful story to a very decadent world.
July 22, 2020
Kinda fun but kinda went over my head. Might be interesting if your really aware of/have an interest in all the names it drops, but if you aren’t it’s kind of lacklustre. Clearly a lot of research and information went into this book so I can appreciate that, but I felt like it was just telling the same story over and over with different names slotted in. There are some fun scenarios depicted and some interesting juicy tidbits, but this book didn’t quite measure up to what I expected it to be.
September 6, 2018
This book is written in a coy style "just us girls" style that is annoying...even though the author is a gay man. I'll finish it because I paid Audible for it, but what schlock. Even the narration is this haughty-wannabe-classy-impersonation voice that makes it
July 29, 2022
A real page-turner!
Want to read
April 2, 2023"William Stadiem sexes up the glory days of aviation in Jet Set. Fly me!"- Vanity Fair
October 29, 2025
For stars for Madame Claude not for the author; we really do not need to know your opinions, you’re a historian, present the facts or change the title of the book
June 17, 2022
Madam Claude was one of the most well known madams in Paris. She service filthy rich men from all walks of life -- politicians, entertainers, etc. I loved the way she want about picking her girls and how she groomed them. Not just any girl could be a Claude girl. They had to be very sophisticated. She never hired anyone shorter than 5'7" and her girls were known for their beauty. Madam Claude lived a VERY long life. I believe she was in her 90's when she died.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews