"The Canal Street Madam" - Movie

[NinaBrooke]

Hi !

Anyone seen this?

"
An FBI raid on Jeanette Maier’s infamous family-run brothel in New Orleans destroyed her livelihood. Stigmatized by felony, fearing recrimination from powerful clients and determined to protect her children, Jeanette sets out to re-invent herself.
Until an FBI bust upended her life, Jeanette Maier was a successful New Orleans madam. Her discreet clientele included a number of powerful, high-ranking politicians. The ensuing very public trial - both in the courtroom and in the media – focused salaciously on the fact that Jeanette’s brothel was a family affair – Jeanette ran the business with her mother and she employed her own daughter as an escort. Jeanette and her family ended up infamous, their futures blighted by felony convictions, yet their well-connected clients escaped exposure. Now, the Canal Street Madam sets out to reinvent herself, to reclaim her public persona, and to protect her family as she fights back against a system that silences the powerless and protects the elite.

“Jeanette is a savvy entrepreneur who knows better than to go to the cops when she has a problem. She goes straight to the media. With humour and sympathy, she defends her loved ones and the rights of working girls against threats and insults.”
– Hot Docs

http://www.TheCanalStreetMadamFilm.c...adam/Home.html

[RickForFun]

I would love to see the movie. I know the story and the house though I never went there. The story is so real life New Orleans.

[WTF]

Thanks for the heads up nina. I wanna see this lil movie.

[arianne]

Yes. Thank you. Just watched the preview. Looks interesting and will have to check it out.

[CajunGent]

I am curious to see if the movie will be close to real life on Canal Street.

[RickForFun]

Originally Posted by CajunGent

I am curious to see if the movie will be close to real life on Canal Street.

That statements sounds like it is from someone that went there. How was it?

[I B Hankering]

Another movie attempting to capitalize off the notoriety of New Orleans’ colorful history of excess, sexual license. I hope it's a good movie and not merely salacious.

Maybe CajunGent can tell us more about this place. I never had the opportunity to visit the place, but I remember reading about it when the police shut the place down . . . as usual, it involved little black books with bunches of VIP names.

New Orleans Mayor Martin Behrman (1904-1920; 1925-1926) once said, “You can make it [prostitution] illegal, but you can't make it unpopular.”

Some here may know about Storyville, but, for those who don't, Storyville was a 20 block section of New Orleans cordoned off for illicit activities – a veritable red-light district. Before 1895, houses of ill repute could be found any where in New Orleans. A city alderman named Sidney Story wrote and sponsored the ordinance establishing the famous red-light district. His purpose was to shield polite society from rubbing elbows with the "riff-raff" that frequented such establishments. His reward, the people “unofficially” named the district “Storyville” in his honor.

In 1917 the Army and the Navy demanded (for the health and welfare of deploying troops and sailors) that New Orleans close Storyville, or they would shift their WWI mobilization operations to another southern port-city.

Purportedly, among the district’s entrepreneurs “were a few hundred light-skinned, mixed race women who were beautiful, cultured, refined, deeply passionate, and highly skilled in the erotic arts. These women were listed in the New Orleans’ ‘Blue Books’ as ‘Octoroons.’ In the imprecise milieu of Storyville, if a woman looked and acted as an Octoroon was supposed to, she could claim and promote that identity and capitalize upon the power of the her personae, no matter her true ancestry. Several of these women were able to manage temporary material prosperity between 1897 and 1917. A much smaller number, such as the ‘Countess’ Willie Piazza with her assortment of stunning Octoroon and Quadroon ‘nieces,’ was able to turn that myth into significant accumulations of wealth and property.” [I had included this part especially for Naomi per another thread she had started – but alas, she is once again on ‘vacation’]

“The ‘Blue Books’ used a variety of designations to describe women, including White, Colored, Octoroon, Spanish, Egyptian, Jewish, and French. While one might assume that the word ‘French’ referred to women of French nationality or Acadian (A’Cajun) ancestry, it did not. It referred to women who were willing to engage in oral sex because, in the vernacular of the day [and today], this activity was referred to as ‘French.’” (The Great Southern Babylon: Sex, Race, and Respectability in New Orleans by Alecia P. Long, p. 205)

Other movies with fictional portrayals of Storyville are: New Orleans (1947), Pretty Baby (1978), and Storyville (1992).

The 1978 movie Pretty Baby was about a pre-teen girl growing up in a house of prostitution in the Storyville section of New Orleans in 1917. It was quite controversial in 1978, because it featured a 12-year-old actress, Brooke Shields, in a movie with such an adult theme.

BTW, it’s a well known fact that “jazz” also got its start in New Orleans. As a form of entertainment, it was very popular in Storyville. “Jazz” is not a bad word now, but almost certainly is of extremely low origin. The expression seems to have arisen sometime during the later nineteenth century in the better brothels of New Orleans. It originally referred to copulation or "gism" or "jizz" before it was applied to music and dancing.

Nina, if you get the chance, you need to visit New Orleans before you return to Europe.

[AdventureAdams]

Originally Posted by I B Hankering

Purportedly, among the district’s entrepreneurs “were a few hundred light-skinned, mixed race women who were beautiful, cultured, refined, deeply passionate, and highly skilled in the erotic arts. These women were listed in the New Orleans’ ‘Blue Books’ as ‘Octoroons.’ In the imprecise milieu of Storyville, if a woman looked and acted as an Octoroon was supposed to, she could claim and promote that identity and capitalize upon the power of the her personae, no matter her true ancestry. Several of these women were able to manage temporary material prosperity between 1897 and 1917. A much smaller number, such as the ‘Countess’ Willie Piazza with her assortment of stunning Octoroon and Quadroon ‘nieces,’ was able to turn that myth into significant accumulations of wealth and property.”

Other movies with fictional portrayals of Storyville are: New Orleans (1947), Pretty Baby (1978), and Storyville (1992).

The 1978 movie Pretty Baby was about a pre-teen girl growing up in a house of prostitution in the Storyville section of New Orleans in 1917. It was quite controversial in 1978, because it featured a 12-year-old actress, Brooke Shields, in a movie with such an adult theme.

I finally watched Pretty Baby last year. Great Acting but it was really a sad tale of a little girl growing up way to fast and even though everyone in that house loved her like her own it really wasn't a suitable environment for her. I felt really awkward watching that movie.

[Nicolet]

She, along with many other famous madams in New Orleans, had palatial homes where business was conducted. Some are still standing, in the Garden District. There was a photographer, played by Keith Carradine in the movie "Pretty Baby", who's name was Bellocq, who took pictures of the many women who worked in the brothels and cribs. Here is a link to some of his work: http://storyvilledistrict.tripod.com/bellocq_women.html
I did some research LONG before I got in the hobby and was fascinated by it all.