Polly Adler

Even though she retired at the age of 44 to go to college and write books instead, Polly Adler spent more than two decades running the most luxurious and well-attended brothels in Manhattan. Politicians, writers, gangsters, and the highest of high society rubbed shoulders with each other and with Polly’s "girls" in the wee hours of the morning, but it was said that many came just to talk with “Polly Pal” who was an in-your-face-woman and given to saying things like, “I’m one of those people who just can't help getting a kick out of life -- even when it's a kick in the teeth.”