Pleasure to meet you, Madam
Two or three weeks ago I wrote about compiling a list of 10 amazing women of Arkansas for a lecture I was giving. Liking women quite a lot, and not being naturally parsimonious, I ended up with a list of 12. One of the women I included was “my favorite prostitute,” Mrs. Maxine Jones of Hot Springs. While my wife was not keen on the wording, she and several other readers wanted to know more about Maxine.
As you might expect, doing research on prostitutes—historical research, I should point out— is a challenge. These were people on the edges of society and their work was illegal, not the sort of thing that gets recounted in the family history. Documenting prostitution in a conservative Southern state like Arkansas can be even more daunting. Nevertheless, enough documentation survives to conclude that throughout our history, Arkansas women did occasionally engage in prostitution—and Arkansas men provided plenty of customers.
Maxine Jones might have commenced work as a prostitute, but she spent most of her working life managing her own brothel in Hot Springs. We know this because Maxine published an autobiography
in her later years. Call Me Madam: The Life and Times of a Hot Springs Madam was privately printed in 1983. It was through this book that I came to meet Maxine Jones.
Walter Nunn of Little Rock, a friend and the owner of Rose Publishing Co., had a smile on his face one day when he mentioned that he had just had a meeting with a former prostitute who was submitting her autobiography for publication by his company. Quickly realizing its potential, Nunn read the manuscript with some enthusiasm only to discover that the author had used real names when writing about customers at her brothel, or corrupt policemen, and no few prominent politicians. Nunn did not relish the legal liabilities in publishing and distributing a “tell-all” of this nature. Maxine was not happy with this, but promised she would disguise the names.
At a follow-up meeting, Nunn realized his futile situation when he noted that Maxine had barely made an effort.
Maxine wanted her memoir uncensored because she wanted to get even with some of the public officials and underworld figures who had ultimately driven Maxine into retirement. Who was Maxine Jones and what could have motivated her to such revenge?
It is fitting that in 1917 Maxine was born in the small Bradley County hamlet of Johnsville. She grew up in a normal farm family, but she later recalled that even as a child, she did not look forward to a husband and family. That did not keep her from a teenage marriage, but it was short-lived.
At the age of 23, Maxine joined the Women’s Army Corps and was stationed in Washington, D.C., and later at Camden. She remembered World War II as an exciting time in which she “grew up.” She was a robust-looking woman, not the skinny call girl of today. Black-and-white photographs of Maxine as a young prostitute show that she was handsome, with long blonde hair and a self-assured composure.
Following the war Maxine went to work for a madam in Texarkana, and then she relocated to Hot Springs, where she went to work for Mary Williams, who presided over a brothel above a cab company.
Maxine prospered, and before long she was driving a Cadillac and buying a ranch outside town. This success enabled her to contribute to the support of her siblings back home in Bradley County. And, after two years, Maxine bought the house.
Writer Jay Jennings wrote about Maxine in 1982 as she was looking for a publisher, and he noted that, “Maxine moved from labor to management, and for the next 20 years—until 1970—was the most notorious and perhaps richest madam in Arkansas.” Jennings concluded that, “Mary Williams ran an efficient business, but Maxine turned it into an elegant operation . . .” Maxine claimed that she occasionally took her girls to Gov. Orval Faubus’ inaugural balls in Little Rock.
Being a successful madam was not easy, and Maxine paid a high price for her success. She paid large amounts in fines—which were de
facto licenses. Her employees were arrested periodically and an occasional judge would prove troublesome.
Maxine claimed that a cabal of police officials and underworld figures in the late 1960s conspired to put her out of business. She ultimately spent time in the state penitentiary. In the early 1970s, Maxine left her business and moved with her third husband to Oklahoma.
Thus, it was an older Maxine Jones whom I met in 1983. I came across her at the Arkansas Historical Association convention where she was selling her memoirs. She was no longer a robust blonde, but rather a tiny gray-haired old lady. But, her personality never shriveled—and I never had a conversation with her that was not full of revelation and no small wonderment. She died in 1997.