MADAM KELLY'S BROTHEL ATTRACTED ACTRESSES and POWERFUL MEN : EMMA DIDN'T STAY LONG : THE FIFTEEN YEAR OLD'S TEMPORARY FORAY WITH TWENTY-SIX YEAR OLD SIR HARRY FETHERSTONHAUGH

1780ish.

Madam Kelly had been a prostitute herself, as young as the age of ten when she started. She became a Madam who made her prostitutes who worked at her brothel go into debt to her by supplying them fabulous clothes and expensive jewelry and she had no mercy in collecting money owed her. Aspiring actresses and other women who were accepted to work there had their chance to earn far more money than they could anywhere else but that was not always the ultimate goal. Some of them became the Mistresses of these powerful men. But to do so, a man had to "hire her out," pay off the clothes, and ultimately pay off the contract the prostitute had with Madam Kelly.

Excerpt page 68 : Emma was beginning to make friends, and she soon found a protector.  Sir Harry Fetherstonhaugh, a spoiled young squire, was characterized by gossip columns as the brothel regular "Sire Harry Flagellum" and "The Sporting Lover." Kelly listed him as Baron Harry Flagellum in a daybook for another of her brothels. He had become interested in Emma and asked to take her for a long-term hire at his house, Uppark, to entertain him and his friends  He would have had to shell out a lot of cash to Kelly to cover Emma's "debts" and the madam's loss of earnings, and he had to agree to buy her clothes.  Many girls, after being rented out, became kept mistresses.  Kelly expected to be able to extract an even larger amount when Fetherstonhaugh demanded Emma's ultimate release.

Emma hoped that Sir Harry Fetherstonhaugh might be her escape. In her year or so at Kelly's, Emma had found out about glamour and the kind of tricks to tempt a man's passion, and she had also learned to rely on herself and to hide her emotional needs. Her hard, brilliant exterior hid a secret longing for a man to cherish her, who she could believe loved her for herself.

As I read these passages in Kate William's book about Emma Hamilton, and the women at Madam Kelly, though hundreds of years passed to the days of Hollywood Madam, Heidi Fleiss, I'm reminded of Heidi because she bragged at how well paid and beautiful the women who worked for her as prostitutes were. 

Excerpt page 69 : Emma found herself on long-term hire to a stag party set to last the entire summer....  Fifteen year old Miss Lyon was hired to entertain the host and his guests, serve at dinner, dance, and smile.  She meant to work hard, confident that she would persuade Sir Harry to take her as his long-term mistress. 

Sir Harry was only twenty-six years old. He was good looking, a charming bad boy who was not much interested in study but rather drinking and hunting. Some called him effeminate and author Kate Williams uses the term fluffy headed.  He lived beyond his means and troubled his family.  His house was beautiful and rich and his estate workers were industrious.  Emma had her own cottage and exposed to this level of wealth unlike ever before. Servants - more than one hundred - worked tirelessly to keep it up. Though officially she was hired as a Lady's Maid, the other servants found reason to be jealous and resentful of her position.

In order to be more pleasing to Sir Harry, Emma, still called Emma Lyon, learned to ride horses and became an excellent side-saddle equestrian who accompanied him on the hunt.

After the hunt the men would become boisterous and gluttonous. She would dance for them and sing, giving a performance but feeling personally neglected by Harry.

Emma set her sights on an older, poorer man, Charles Greville, second son of Earl of Warwick and MP for Warwick, in the Midlands, who hated hunting, thirty-two, still unmarried, and not the life of any party.

Unfortunately, Emma's boredom with Harry and unhappiness with her life was further complicated by her pregnancy. Sir Harry was the father.

C 2025 Mistress Manifesto - BlogSpot All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights

OPINION BY MISSY : I TANGLE WITH THE TERMINOLOGY : DEFINING MISTRESS

Through my Coronavirus-19 shut down experience, I've spent a lot of time watching YouTube videos and reading articles on the internet surround the issue of legal prostitution. The name ALICE LITTLE kept coming up as she has reportedly in recent years been the highest earning prostitute known. Little's earnings are reflected in massive tax payments because she is a legal prostitute in the state of Nevada. She hints at the ownership of horses, investment property, and paying so much in taxes that she's sort of funding the county. It's said that Alice Little has made millions. She is a well spoken and intelligent woman who also has been an advocate for prostitution remaining legal in Nevada. She has sued to reopen the brothels closed due to Covid.

As Alice Little, who is four foot eight or nine inches tall and likely uses the stage name Alice Little, states, she is sometimes thought of or called a courtesan, but the wording that the state of Nevada uses on the licensing is prostitute.  I watched a number of her videos in which she exhibits great enthusiasm for her profession as well as "sex worker" knowledge, some of which she openly shares in an attempt to show how friendly she is, tease potential customers, and normalize prostitution. In one of the videos, which seemed to be a recording of a talk show in which she was the guest and the host or moderator asked a number of good questions, Alice said the difference between a Mistress and a Courtesan is that a Courtesan "services" many but a Mistress only "services" one person.  

Ouch!  I do not agree with her definition.

One of the things we do here at Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot is consider definitions as we try to understand what being a Mistress means in the 21st Century.  Although often the word Kept is used for men and women who do not earn their own money, that would also define stay at home wives and husbands - those who do and do not have children - who are dependent on someone else for food, shelter, clothing, and a whole lot more.  I have to say that by suggesting that a Mistress is "servicing" a man, that the relationship is just another way a man pays for sex, turned me off and is inaccurate.

Reviewing the many Mistresses, Courtesans, and others profiled here at Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot, I can say there is plenty of evidence that there is a difference between them and Prostitutes. So maybe it's just Alice Little's prostitute mentality and she doesn't see that Mistresses have relationships with men they are not married to and that Courtesan's may too, but Mistresses choose their relationships. 

Relationships.

Basically, I agree with Nevada definition of Alice and her cohorts who live in brothels awaiting customers who pay for sex as prostitutes. I think applying the Courtesan label to herself is Alice's attempt to up her reputation because she charges so much and might be "choosing" only those customers who can afford her negotiated fees.

Earlier in this blog, I suggested that Courtesan describes a woman who, be it that she has one or many, chooses who she will have in her life, be it pure romance or just sex, or something inclusive of both. She has men vying for her company and she does well enough to reject those she is not interested in. Historically Courtesans want the rich life but that doesn't stop them from loving who they love or sharing their riches, including sometimes supporting lovers. Some spurn men who can't afford gifts such as jewelry, fine art, and houses but that used to be saving for a rainy day because there was no retirement. There wasn't a menu of "parties" with rates listed. Nor is the Courtesan hidden away in a bordello. She is out and about with her friends and companions.

Genuinely positive and warm feelings, even love, can exist between a Courtesan and her favorites. That's why Pamela Digby Churchill Harriman, was called The Courtesan of the Century. For many years before she married, she made it her life's work to make wonderful homes for her men, entertaining, dressing beautifully and being an interesting companion, and she stayed friendly with them even as they were breaking with her. This lifelong habit of having a generous spirit resulted in her becoming a fund raiser for the Democratic party. I would never confuse Pamela with a prostitute.

Let's ask these questions: Is a legal wife just "servicing" her husband, so she'll have a man father her children, live with her, maybe have difficulty getting out of a relationship with her, and support her financially?  

Does a woman who is living in a polygamous lifestyle and sharing a man knowingly with other women and who is willing to have as many children as is possible such as the Sister Wives  just "servicing" him?

I realize that most wives today also earn income, and today's Mistresses usually also earn some - or all - of their own income at regular jobs or have careers, but until fairly recently, certainly in the last couple centuries, most wives were totally dependent on their husbands for the financial support. To this day some women are resistant to marriage if a man cannot or will not do this for them. Women who were not married were vulnerable to being preyed upon.

Another "test" of a relationship is this: Would Alice Little or any of the other women who work at the legal brothel still arrange to see a man if they knew they would not be paid?  What if he paid many times and then showed up broke? My guess is no.

I can't ask "What if he pays for companionship and does not have sex?" because that does happen, however, the most modern of services now offered on a prostitute's menu is "the girlfriend experience." This is the paid for time the prostitute spends on a "date" such as going out to dinner, or as Alice Little says, seeing the sights, even going into Vegas (where prostitution is illegal), having fun and getting to know one another better. In my opinion the "Girlfriend Experience" is probably the most time consuming and expensive fantasy experience a customer can buy and much easier on the prostitute though she has to be an excellent actress to offer all that to one stranger after another. The so called Girlfriend Experience further blurs the line between what is or is not a relationship and is closer to the Escort Experience, which also, it is said, may not result in sexuality each and every time, but in which the escort is also said to provide companionship. Question again is if the woman who got paid by the hour, day, weekend, or week as an Escort or a Girlfriend will see that person if no money is paid.

Now flip this around and look at dating for women who expect not to have sex or feel at all obligated to have sex with someone, just because he paid for a movie or dinner or some other activity. He probably did pay because he did the asking and he has a higher income: more women with higher incomes are paying for dates as well as Keeping men. 

Dating one or several men, just taking one's time to get the know someone before having a serious commitment and waiting until then is not just Old Fashioned. It's recommended by many dating coaches as the best way to find someone to marry.

No one I know wants to accept a date, especially when she has just met someone, if she thinks or she feels sex with the man will be obligatory payment for a night out. No one I know wants to have a flirtation or simply be curious about another person and accept an invitation to meet with that person socially if they think or feel sex will be expected as payment. I know women who are in love with men who have, from the start, paid for every date but are not yet sexual with them.

I'm with the State of Nevada. When you go to a brothel, which is a place to have sex, legal or not, you are paying for sex with a prostitute, a woman who has sex with many men and/or women for payment, and that is the point, though for one reason or another sex may not happen.

One more thing: one of Alice Little's videos suggests that the fantasy of being with three uniformed "school girls" is certainly possible at the brothel. I don't know for how many more years she will appear youthful enough to play at being a schoolgirl. Because she is so short and has a girl-next-door face it's easy to imagine her in a school girl uniform.  I'm not comfortable that this pedophile's fantasy may be normalizing pedophilia.

Does this kind of "party" embolden a pedophile?


C 2021Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot
All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights

Slight editing for clarity March 2025

Please note that in compliance with Google's Public Blogger Guidelines there is no sexually explicit photos or language in this blog, nor links to any sites associated with hiring prostitutes, pornography, etc.  In your comments, please post on topic and consider how you might speak in a college classroom.

Note: March and April 2019 were devoted to Courtesan of the 20th Century Pamela Digby Churchill Harriman, so if interested in learning more about her go to those posts!  Or you might want to run the word Courtesan through the search feature on this blog and see what comes up!

HEIDI FLEISS and HER BIRDS - SHE ASKS "ARE WE THAT SELFISH?"

It's time for Heidi to form a Non Profit and take donations for the care of her birds.  She needs a lawyer and an accountant - people around her who aren't sketchy characters.  I honor her for finding her life's work in this endeavor.

Missy



From the article by John Lavitt in Fix :

Heidi said, "You pretty much got it.  After prison, I did see the world differently.  I saw a beautiful macaw in a cage, and it really bothered me.  I asked the owner when was the last time it was out of its cage. She said, "I don't know.  Maybe 20 or 30 years." The bird actually had dust on it.  I realized I could not go on with my life, knowing that bird was still in that cage.  It seemed so awful to have wings and be stuck in a cage, of all things.  Imagine 45 years in a basement with another 45 to go.  ... We are a civilized society. How can we do this? The subjugation of this species is selfish and self absorbed.  It's a torturous, bleak, existence.  It;s so painful for them because their bodies aren't meant for sedentary lives.  They struggle with this lonely, painful existence.  Do you really think these animals with wings are on this earth to say bad words and dance for us?  It's disgusting, and everybody should find it offensive.  Are we really that selfish?

THE FIX: HEIDI FLEISS SEX DRUG REALITY


And this article: PV TIMES -HEIDI FLEISS BEMOANS PARROT PREDICAMENT IN PAHRUMP  by Selwyn Harris - Pahrump Valley Times

This is the story of a bird who flew off and was finally found and returned.

Excerpt: As far as how many birds I own, I think one is too many," she said with a laugh.  "If I could, I just want to help every macaw that is stuck inside a cage, beauce I think putting a living creature that has wings inside a cage, is fundamentally wrong; it;s perverse and obscene.  I gave up a very fancy and spoiled life for them.  There is no financial benefit for me. ...

HEIDI FLEISS ANSWERS QUESTIONS ON AS IT LAYS

Interesting! Truly!  As it Lays is a very odd show. Clearly you can't be the interviewee and ask the interviewer any questions.

But I get it.  It's almost like talking to yourself!

HEIDI IS SORRY SHE GOT HER DAD IN TROUBLE and WISHES SHE'D TAKEN SCHOOL MORE SERIOUSLY

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER INTERVIEW OF HEIDI FLEISS 25th ANNIVERSARY OF HER ARREST by Seth Abramovich

Excerpt from Interview Article:

You came from a fairly conservative background. Your dad was a doctor.

I was born and raised in LA.  My dad was a famous pediatrician.  When he died, they donated a bench to him at the Griffith Park Observatory.

Did he know about your escort service?

No.  But I got him in big trouble.  I felt shitty about that.  Dad gave me really the best childhood possible and all of the opportunity in front of me.  I wish that I took school seriously and went a different route, but it was not my father's fault at all.

THE PLAYERS HANDBOOK - ANOTHER BOOK by EX MADAM HEIDI FLEISS

New image August 2022

SHE HAD 500 "GIRL NEXT DOOR" PROSTITUTES WORKING FOR HER and a DRUG ADDICTION

THE FIX: HEIDI FLEISS - SEX DRUGS REALITY by John Lavitt

EXCERPT: When Fleiss was arrested in 1993 for charges including attempted pandering, her escort service employed 500 beautiful girls-next-door who were like porn stars in the bedroom. They charged clients what today would be almost $3000 a night, and Fleiss grew rich by keeping 40 percent of those earnings.  Partying hard and living in the fast lane led to struggles with addiction.



Missy here!  A  great article and interview of Heidi from 2019, lots about addiction.

HEIDI FLEISS and IVAN NAGY - HEIDI IN THE CYCLE OF ABUSE

From Once More With Feeling by Jeanne Parrent (with author Bruce W. Cook), quoting Jennifer Young, the daughter of actor Gig Young.

"Heidi was a bright girl. She said she liked older men because younger ones weren't smart enough for her.  I'm not so sure she picked the best older man however.  Around the time she was breaking up with Bernie (Cornfeld), she met Ivan Nagy.  That was the real beginning of the Heidi Fleiss story."

OK, readers of Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot,  Let us pause here in Jennifer Young's testimonial about her old friend Heidi Fleiss.  To this point Heidi was not a prostitute.  She was a young woman obsessed with an older man who had not been faithful and who thought he had given her so much materially as his Mistress that she owed him but he broke her heart.  She might have even thought, as many women do when their man cheats on them (and let's them catch him in the act) that if only she were better in bed, then she could get him back.  She might have even thought, as some women do, that she would prove to him (and herself) that other men found her desirable by sleeping around.  Jennifer was also in a relationship in which she was being badly abused. Jennifer reveals that Heidi had also become pregnant by Bernie and had an abortion.  No doubt this effected her mind. (Pages 254-255 and 257)

Jennifer tells that Ivan was like Bernie (not exclusive with Heidi sexually) but that he wanted to "screw all of Heidi's friends."  So Heidi went from bad to worse.  They had heated arguments.  (Have you ever been entirely drained from Arguments?) Heidi packed up and left but bounced back to Bernie.  Jennifer reports that she could have bailed out on both men.  She was running hot and cold - sounds confused to me - and might have even slept with Jennifer's boyfriend.  (Page 255)

At some time unknown but during this time in her life Heidi became an "escort.  Bisexual Heidi was having sex with women too. And she was using drugs.

It was about 1988 when Heidi told Jennifer she was a Madam which explained her purchase of a black Corvette convertible car and new wealth. (Page 257)

FOR HEIDI and BERNIE IT WAS LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT BUT...

From Once More With Feeling by Jeanne Parrent (with author Bruce W. Cook), quoting Jennifer Young, the daughter of actor Gig Young.  According to the book, Jennifer's father was not much in her life, especially as he commit suicide when she was fourteen.  She went to Beverly Hills High School and was a partier - sex and drugs.  Her mother became a successful realtor.  She and Heidi met at a club called Helena's owned by actor Jack Nicholson. They became instant best friends and eventually became room mates in 1985. Their friendship lasted about four years and began well before Heidi became the Hollywood Madam in 1988. (Pages 227, 251-251)

"When we first met Heidi was waitressing at Cravings Restaurant on Sunset."  They went to a big party attended by celebrities at Bernie Cornfeld's. It was Jennifer's invitation. "I introduced him to Heidi and the two of them fell head over heels for each other instantly."  Bernie owned a modeling agency called Max Modeling and Heidi began to work there as well as travel to Europe with him and the models.  "After a while Heidi moved into Bernie's house. Things seem to be going all right until one day she walked in on him having sex with another woman.  She was so upset that she tried killing herself, slitting her wrists."
(Page 253)

Revenge sex began.

"He yelled at Heidi, screaming about all he had done for her, about the car he gave her, the clothes, the house to live in. (Missy here, I think he means allowing her to live in his house with him.)  The opportunities and this was how she repaid him."  She just listened and didn't bother to mention his double standards when it came to fidelity. (Page 254)

It was as this drama was unfolding that Heidi began going between her dad's place and Bernie's and that she and Jennifer decided to become room mates.

We'll continue with this story in a future post.

HEIDI FLEISS ON AN OLD CRIME WATCH DAILY

FROM 2015... Dennis Hof died in October 2018

PANDERINGS by HEIDI FLEISS

Available at my local library! 
I enjoyed looking through this artistic scrapbook-type effort. Reading through it may just give you some insight into Heidi's mind at the time she put it together.

HEIDI FLEISS : GIRL NEXT DOOR TO HOLLYWOOD MADAM TO BIRD SANCTUARY! WAS BEING KEPT THE TURNING POINT FOR THIS UNUSUAL WOMAN?

HEIDI FLEISS - MISTRESS OF THE MONTH

The book Once More With Feeling by Jeanne Parrent (with author Bruce W. Cook) is the primary reference for this month's posts.  (The image on the book is a model and is not Heidi.) This book cover image was added August 2022. At the time I originally posted, no image was available.

I also watched the film "Call Me: The Rise and Fall of Heidi Fleiss" as part of my research and don't know how fictive it is.  It's on YouTube and came out in 2004. I read numerous articles on the Internet about HEIDI FLEISS' life, her arrest, trials, prison, and attempts to resurrect herself as a business woman.

In the pages before Once More With Feeling begins, it is stated that the information that is presented (which includes name dropping celebrities including Heidi Fleiss) was both verified by lie detector test and by a private investigator. That's compelling!  Parrent is known for a couple other "tell all" books including "You'll Never Make Love In This Town Again." The passages about Heidi come from one of the women who talked about her own life in Los Angeles as the daughter of a famous actor, Jennifer Young, whose dad was actor Gig Young. Jennifer was once a roommate with Heidi. 



Here at Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot, we learn that having a Sugar Daddy for a semester in college, a brief affair with a celebrity, or a thing with your married boss after hours probably isn't enough to fairly be called a "Mistress" or "Kept."  Yet we also know that being a Mistress does not require being Kept - financially supported by a man.

Last month we looked at a new lexicon for describing sexuality.  This month I want to start with the lexicon that's been used to describe Mistresses, Madams, and Sex Traffickers.

We know what a Classic Mistress is: she is a woman who is fully financially supported by a man, sometimes for many years or life - a house, investments - and can be called Kept.  She doesn't have to worry about money though she may have to find something to do to keep her busy during his absences and is on call when he's available. Perhaps she travels with him and inhabits one of his houses or has children with him - a second (or third or fourth... family for him - which he visits in another town or country as he travels for business. Usually she is unmarried but he is. 

Some people think that the era of the Classic Mistress is over. For sure there are probably many Classic Mistresses we will never know about because being very discrete, private, and secretive is usually part of their success. This blog would not be possible if it depended on my personal associations and relies on the famous or infamous, many whom have had books written about them or who have written their own memoirs.

Modern Mistresses tend to have their own work and income and involvement with a man may not be financial at all (so invalidating the Kept Woman stereotype) or her man simply makes life more pleasing with his financial contribution to their arrangement.  She may hesitate or refuse to actually quit her education or job or career.  She may be hoping that he will eventually marry her or she may have settled into the life she loves because she loves him. There are many possibilities.

Or there may be a "role reversal" and a woman may be Keeping a man the way Husbands used to keep Wives. I believe this is happening more and more often and sometimes the woman doesn't make much money but still does not require her man work for income.

The word "Madam" as in Hollywood Madam, which Heidi Fleiss was called, after her mentor, the previous Hollywood Madam, Alex Adams, was called that, also seems to be wrongly used and confused in the media.  

For instance I read one article on Ghislaine Maxwell, a woman accused of the serious offences of sex trafficking,  which called her Jeffery Epstein's Madam. There is no reason to think that any person who does not take a percentage or cut for introducing prostitutes to customers is a Madam and so I don't think that's the right term to use on Ghislaine. The accusations against Ghislaine Maxwell are that she was a "procurer" of underage girls and that she also abused them - or joined in sexually -making her someone who sexually assaulted underage girls.  Under the age of 18 girls are by law not considered mature enough to make adult decision and they are not adult women who chose to prostitute. And so if Ghislaine is guilty, and as I understand it from extensive reading around the Internet she cannot even be found to go on trial, then she would also rightly be called a sex trafficker.  But Madam?  No. And frankly, though being innocent and underage or scared to quit a relationship is important to consider, some of the girls and young women who Epstein may have used and paid, went home and came back again and again - and that goes against them.

The opposite of Madam? The word "Pimp" is applied to men who run prostitutes, generally thought of the less well paid "street walker" prostitute. Pandering is more often applied to a woman who provides introductions. Escorts are women who will likely have sex on "dates" but supposedly don't have to, at least not every time since a client might not want more than company or a kind of fake date to take somewhere when he isn't dating anyone. 

I recall from a Woman's Studies class I took in college that historically Madam's  (Women who owned brothels) generally provided better pay and conditions for prostitutes (and often, historically, their housing) and that generally things got more violent when men, as Pimps, took over. I also learned in a Woman's Studies class that casual prostitution, such as having one or two men other than one's husband or because one did not have a husband to make ends meet was not uncommon in the 19th century America. For some prostitution was and is the only way to prevent one's starvation (and that of children) or homelessness.

Sometimes a woman has no choice.  Sometimes a woman does.

I personally have a difficult time even imagining what it must be to prostitute.

So - So Heidi Fliess, the Girl Next Door whom I'm also electing to be our Mistress of the Month here at Mistress Manifesto, was properly called "The Hollywood Madam," though one book she wrote is called "Pandering." (She also wrote The Players Handbook for Men.)

She took a percentage of the earnings of those who worked for her - 40% - which they themselves turned over to her, in a kind of gentlewoman's agreement.  She was thus rightfully called a Madam.

In 1987 at the age of only 22 years old, she became a protégé of the previous Hollywood Madam, Alex.  in 1990 she became a Madam herself.  She was arrested on June 9, 1993. She was charged with pandering. She'd been earning -approximately half a million a year.  With inflation a typical sex for money arrangement would be about $3000 a night today. She hid money from the IRS with the help of her dad, who also got in trouble.  She spent 1997-2000 in a federal prison.

According to Heidi Fliess' own testimonial, there will never be another Madam in Hollywood like her again. She mentions she was only about 26 years old when she became a major success in that world. She saw and sees her time being a Madam to some of the highest paid prostitutes in history and introductions she made to some of the wealthiest and most important men to have been a win-win situation for her and her "girls." She says her girls were all looking for rich men to date and would likely have had sex for free on those dates. Instead they profited so that they could, assuming they saved and invested, and have more choice about their lives - their education - their own businesses.  Unlike Madam Alex, she refused to give the police information passed on to her by her prostitutes to them in exchange for being able to stay in business.

She wasn't the first and probably isn't the last Hollywood Madam.  In my opinion someone else has to be at it. I personally have not heard of any names.

Heidi, in a Madam's Code of Honor, also refused to name names from her so called "Little Black Book," which means she was honorable as a Madam and didn't take down anyone else when she was arrested and put out of business. (It's said that many in Hollywood and Corporate America sighed with relief.) Heidi eventually seems to have lost everything though she has made efforts to be a successful business person since the scandal.  She moved to Nevada and hoped to open a brothel for women clients there but did not succeed. Her little black book is described as several Gucci bound address books.

How did this Girl Next Door become a Madam?

Heidi Fleiss liked money and the things it could buy her. A daughter in a large family of six children with a doctor for a dad - one who made house calls! - Heidi grew up with enough, not the riches she wanted, but her entry into the social world of Los Angeles - Hollywood, allowed her to come into contact with some of the most powerful and important people in the world, not just in "the business" or "industry" of film making, but, she says, politics too. She was one of the girls who wanted to date rich men. A sports car - a gorgeous house to live in - but also eventually drugs. That's where she was at for some time in her young life.

Heidi could relate to all the young women she met who wanted rich boyfriends and she got one.  She traveled with him as his Mistress and got a taste of the rich life. His name was Bernie Cornfeld. She wanted to please him.  She was hurt and also challenged when she learned he wasn't faithful sexually. But she lived with him, traveled with him, and had sex with him for four years.  In my opinion, she lived the life of a Classic Mistress.  He was not the marrying kind.

Heidi decided she liked men over 40.  Older men.  They liked her.

After Bernie she got another boyfriend, this one, a film producer named Ivan Nagy.  This is where the story goes in a couple directions.  Some say it was Ivan who turned her over to Madam Alex.  He says that when he told Madam Alex he had a girl for her, Alex claimed to already be employing Heidi.

The story goes that Ivan and Heidi were actually a great together, that they sparked each other.  They liked to gamble.  A motivation for Heidi to enter into prostitution might have been to pay off her own gambling debts.

So Ivan Nagy had ties to Madam Alex in Los Angeles and he took her over there to make an introduction. Who was lying, I don't know.  It's also possible that Ivan conspired with Madam Alex to bring Heidi down.  Alex, long an informant to LAPD finally got busted and Heidi used that moment to take over her business.  After she prospered she may have grown tired of Ivan and wanted independence from him.

Heidi seems to have worked in the life as an internship.  She was studying Alex, how she did things, and ambitious to share the business.

She has said that she was "too lazy" to be a good prostitute, but her acumen for business began when she took cuts for referrals to other girls for baby sitting jobs as a teenager.  She and Alex got to be friends and by competing with her mentor, well, maybe Alex had something to do with her getting caught. 

After she did her time and was released she wondered what else she could do.  She considered opening a brothel of studly male prostitutes in Nevada. It didn't work out. She also had a relationship with legal Nevada brothel owner, Dennis Hof, now deceased. As things are today, Heidi lives in Nevada and her home is also a bird sanctuary.  Were I to give Heidi advice, I would tell her to turn her personal advocacy into an official nonprofit for her life's work has found her! Personally, I wish her love.  I think she needs lots of it.  She is paying the price for her gamble while only one of her male clients is known; the actor Charlie Sheen.
She didn't tell on him.

Some time after Heidi Fleiss had served time, I saw and recognized her while I was out and about doing errands.  We smiled at each other though we had never met before. I swear she let her shoulders down for an instant. I thought "She's the girl next door!"  It wasn't until I read the book and saw the film that I realized she had also served time as a Mistress.

Even though I can't imagine being a prostitute and wouldn't want anyone I love to be and I'm very concerned about the terms and conditions of prostitution and the effect having sex for money has on a person's psyche.  Even though I'm against porn because I think it can ruin people for the real sex they're likely to have in their lives... Even though I'm horrified by sex trafficking... I do think that there are some people out there who get into the world's oldest business by choice.

C 2020  Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot
All Rights Reserved including International and Internet Rights

Please note that in compliance with Google's Public Blogger Guidelines there is no sexually explicit photos or language in this blog, nor links to any sites associated with hiring prostitutes, pornography, etc.  In your comments, please post on topic and consider how you might speak in a college classroom.