She was the woman who invented the term call girl. Madame Claude's life was a real legend that grew between pink and gray.
Six years after her death, the life of France's most famous brothel promoter is being made into a movie on Netflix, premiering on April 2.
Fernande Grudet passed away, just days old, on December 21, 2015, bearing the title of "queen" in the European prostitution circuit. Only six people attended her funeral. In her life she didn't smoke, she didn't drink, while she started collecting money by selling Bibles, door to door.
"People pay for two things, food and love. I've never been good at cooking," she said, adding that she personally didn't hold sex in high esteem - "we shouldn't have sex after 40". was drumming. She was known, of course, for her famous and international clientele that developed between 1955 and 1977, with legend having her even working with the CIA as a negotiator, being close to Gaddafi, providing women for his diplomats.
Among the revelations she has made in her autobiography are that she wanted to recruit Joan Collins, unbeknownst to her husband, or that Kennedy wanted a woman who looked like Jackie "but warmer".
Grindé used to recruit girls from wherever she could. From good society and the Sorbonne and the grand catwalks, to the streets and neighborhoods. The "Claudettes" who gathered at the company's headquarters at 18 Rue de Marignan in Paris were a favorite of members of the French government and celebrities of the time. Her client list reportedly included names such as JFK, Marlon Brando, Groucho Marx, Rex Harrison, Frank Sinatra, Pablo Picasso and Colonel Gaddafi of Libya. Aristotle Onassis was also on the list, with "Madame" telling Vanity Fair that "the demands of the Onassis-Kallas couple were so sick that they made me blush". Of course none of this can be confirmed.
She called her girls "swans" and those who entered her brothels and network had to have the "perfect" body. That's why many were forced to visit a plastic surgeon, which "Claude" herself had done when she started her "pink" career in 1950 as a publisher. Among other things, they were educated in high literature and dressed in expensive clothes. In total, he "trained" over 500 women, most of whom were models or young actresses who could not make a career in their field.
As Grindé stated, her girls came to be paid in today's money, up to 10,000 euros for one night, while she had increased the rate of the time from 40 French francs to 500. Many of them left "home" to live with tycoons. The Shah of Iran had new girls sent to Tehran every week, and the king of Fiat, Gianni Agnelli, had hired many girls for his orgies. Urban legends also have the CIA hiring its girls to boost their morale.
The French journalist Elisabeth Antébi had managed to enter Claude's circle, as part of the research she did in 1975 for the newspaper Le Progrès de Lyon, together with Anne Florentin. It described how the girls had to be fit, "smart, around 1.65, dark". He also mentioned that the "Claudettes" had to meet the above criteria to be liked by "high society", according to the standards that the "lady" had in her head. Antébi also confirmed the plastic surgery and surgeries done by almost all the girls who worked for her network.
The Daily Mail had written that more than half of France's cabinet had passed through the beds of the Claudettes. Maybe it's an exaggeration, maybe not, the truth will never be known as "Madame" never made public the names of French ministers, but only "photographed" them through her statements.
In a biography of her published in France in 1994 entitled "Madam", it is stated that she was born in the Loire Valley, that she grew up in a monastery where she took a vow of chastity and that for her resistance action in the War she was imprisoned in a concentration camp. She even had her number engraved on her arm. "Lies, all lies," claimed the makers of a documentary aired in 2010 by French television. "She got everything out of her mind." But the infamous playboy Taki (Theodorakopoulos), another of her loyal customers, claims to have seen the tattoo with his own eyes.
Journalists who knew her well claim that she was imprisoned for her Jewish origin, and not for her role in the French Resistance.
When Valéry Giscard d'Estaing became president of France and began to pursue luxury prostitution, Madame Claude fled to Los Angeles in 1977. Her attempts to create a new brothel on the other side of the Atlantic failed. In 1985, under the presidency of François Mitterrand, he was notified that he could return. But he was arrested for tax evasion and spent four months in prison. She returned to her old job, until she was taken to court by an employee's complaint, convicted and imprisoned again for a few months.
Her life was made into a movie in 1977 with Françoise Fabian in the lead role. The Netflix production is directed by Sylvie Verheyde, while "Madame" is played by Karole Rocher. Her two biological daughters also play with her.
It is characteristic that the French director, Verheyde, stated to Le Monde that even her mother saw the famous promoter as an example of success, despite her bad reputation. "At that time, not many women made it. Madame managed to rise in a field dominated by men and that made her a model of success for many, despite her fame," she said, talking about her film.
The new French biographical drama tells the story of Madame Claude's brothels at their height of popularity, as Madame Claude created her own network of public relations with the elite of the time, as well as the underworld. Filming took place in 2019 in Paris and several locations around Paris, under the direction of Sylvie Verheyde.
The film also includes a shocking scene of abuse by three men, without clarifying whether it corresponds to real events or not.
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