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Glossary and Character Taxonomy  Breakdown by Country of Origin   Bibliography   Table of Contents    The Best of the Encyclopedia

The Madame. The Madame was created by Perry Paul (Dizzy Malone) and appeared in twelve stories in Gun Molls Magazine from 1930 to 1932, beginning with “The Madame From Cell No. 6” (Gun Molls Magazine, Nov. 1930).

The Madame is a Gun Moll. She is an anti-heroine who helps people while also committing crimes. She is described as “the mystery moll feared and respected by both police and underworld because she could case a job so tight that nothing could break it, because she could spot dip, dick or peterman whatever handicap he liked and beat him at his own game; and because she was a straight shooter in a town where even the calendar was suspected of being fixed.” She runs a store, La Parfume Shoppe, which she uses as a front. She is aloof, blonde, blue-eyed, competent with her fists and with guns, and “when she chose she could curse a taxi driver to silence.” If need be she will murder her enemies and make their deaths look like suicides.

* I'm including The Madame stories in the Best of the Encyclopedia category because they're hella fun. The Madame is a great character, and Perry Paul's chosen style for the Madame stories, heavy on criminal slang and lingo, is the criminal version of the Bellem's hardboiled patois. The Madame stories aren't classic prose and The Madame herself isn't a sophisticated character of hidden depths. The Madame stories are just prime pulp of the sort that doesn't age badly at all and can be used as an example of what the pulps could do without shame or hesitation. 

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