The Last Madame of New Orleans: Norma Wallace

 

The Last Madame of New Orleans:  Norma Wallace

Norma Wallace (born Norma Lucille Badon, 1901 – 1974) was a prominent New Orleans madam who operated a series of high-end brothels from the 1920s through the early 1960s. Known for her elegance, business acumen, and longevity in a male-dominated underworld, she was often referred to as "The Last Madam." Her life and legacy are the subject of Christine Wiltz’s 2000 biography, The Last Madam: A Life in the New Orleans Underworld.

Early Life

Norma Lucille Badon was born in Mississippi in 1901 and raised in poverty. By her teenage years, she had moved to New Orleans and entered the sex trade. She reportedly began as a streetwalker and quickly rose through the ranks due to her entrepreneurial skills and strategic connections.

Career as a Madam

Wallace opened her first brothel in the 1920s. By the 1930s, she was operating out of a residence at 1026 Conti Street in the French Quarter, once the studio of photographer E. J. Bellocq. Her establishment was known for its discretion, cleanliness, and upscale clientele, which included politicians, entertainers, and businessmen.

Wallace enforced strict rules: no drugs, no pimps, and no violence. She built relationships with city officials and law enforcement that allowed her operations to continue largely unhindered for decades. Her use of coded language—referring to customers as “Vidalia onions,” for instance—was part of her system of secrecy and order.

Legal Troubles and Retirement

In 1962, after decades of evading law enforcement, Wallace was arrested and sentenced to prison. Upon release, she retired from sex work and briefly ran a restaurant. She later married her fifth husband, 30 years her junior, and moved to Texas.

Death

Wallace died by suicide in 1974. Her life remains a significant part of the folklore of New Orleans.

Legacy

Her memoirs, dictated to author Christine Wiltz, were published posthumously as The Last Madam, providing a rare first-person account of a woman who navigated power, sexuality, and vice in early- to mid-20th-century America. The book is widely regarded as a key text in understanding the hidden histories of women and vice economies in New Orleans.

The Daring Life of Norma Wallace: Queen of the French Quarter

In the heart of old New Orleans, behind the shuttered doors of 1026 Conti Street, lived a woman who ran one of the most sophisticated and enduring brothels in America: Norma Wallace, known to many as “The Last Madam.”

Born poor in 1901, Norma learned early how to navigate a world that rarely offered power to women—let alone to women in the underworld. But Norma wasn’t just any woman. She was elegant, cunning, and commanding. With a pistol tucked in her purse and diamonds at her neck, she curated an empire in the French Quarter that lasted through Prohibition, two world wars, and the changing tides of morality.

From the 1920s through the 1960s, Norma’s brothel was the place for discretion and luxury. Her girls were polished. The linens were clean. And her guest list included politicians, police, gangsters, and even visiting celebrities. Norma wasn’t just a madam—she was a cultural broker, working in shadows, knowing everyone’s secrets, and making sure her name stayed off the front page.

But by 1962, her luck ran out. A police sting sent her to prison. When she emerged, she married a man 30 years younger and moved to Texas. Despite a life of adventure, her ending was tragic—she took her own life in 1974.

Still, her story lives on. Christine Wiltz’s The Last Madam captures her voice, her grit, and her legacy. Norma Wallace reminds us that the history of New Orleans is as much about the women who ran the underworld as the men who ruled City Hall.

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