Not mentioned- but inferred to those who 'read between the lines'- was that the pony that young Violet casually rides in the backyard of the mansion in the beginning of the movie was actually an animal used to entertain the paying customers in 'the circus' that certain women performed in.
The recollections in the book draw upon the actual fact that the mother who related the story actually took part in the deflowering of her daughter in the 'House' as described, and that they went on to be a 'team', a very common and desirable commodity in that day. These photographs are hauntingly beautiful in their own right, and the young Brooke Shields-as well as the beautiful Susan Sarandon-were a masterstroke of Malle to play the parts of mother and daughter prostitutes. Bellocq, was a real person who captured on glass plates forever the images of the young prostitutes of Storyville. Anyone familiar with with the era knows that the photographer, E. I'd like to point out that this movie is literally based on first hand recollections of a prostitute interviewed in Al Rose's definitive book on the subject: 'Storyville', published many years ago.
