Review of Harold Robbins' 79 Park Avenue

I watched parts of this television mini-series long ago. I did like Lesley Ann Warren's role as Marja, later as Madame Marianne. Lesley Ann Warren is in fact the real one main character throughout the tv mini-series. The part I remember most is of Marianne as a young woman trying to make it on her own during the Great Depression. Jobs and opportunities for women are scant. Despite her best efforts, Marianne will find herself on the long road to becoming an escort agency madam. In the early days, Marianne takes up with a couple, the husband being the manager and his wife a burlesque dancer. For a while Marianne and the wife make a living doing burlesque dance shows as a team, from place to place. One day the couple suggest to Marianne that they make the burlesque dance routine more risqué which Marianne rejects. The morning after one of their nightly burlesque dance shows, Marianne awakes in their shared downtown hotel room to find that her partners have quietly deserted her, taking everything, including her clothing. All that's left is the red, cotton robe Marianne slept in and the unpaid hotel bill. The hotel manager shows up at the hotel room door to inform Marianne that her partners departed, leaving the room bill unpaid. Worse, Marianne learns that her male partner had lied about pre-paying the room bill. Marianne informs him of her misfortune and lack of money. The hotel manager, to his credit or maybe not, remains calm and cool, doesn't threaten her and doesn't force anything on Marianne, clearly she's broke and calling the police won't help anything. But Marianne is a beautiful shapely woman so the dodgy hotel manager offers her a deal. He'll overlook the unpaid hotel room bill and even give $20 to Marianne for sex. It takes Marianne but few seconds to understand her predicament has only one way out. She drops her red bath robe (she's naked underneath) and tells him, "You're the boss." The dodgy hotel manager rushes forward and hugs Marianne, kissing her on the side of the neck, as Marianne struggles to restrain her repulsion and humiliation. You may find yourself grossed out watching that scene. But I felt pity for the Marianne character. She had no other options and it was the only one she could take. It solves her predicament and in the next scene she's back home visiting her ailing mother. The $20 - a lot of money for the 1930 - allowed her to purchase a decent dress to wear.