From madam to mayor

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34127, 13 April 1976, Page 29

From madam to mayor

(From

JOHN N. HUTCHISON)

SAN FRANCISCO. Sally Stanford was once the most notorious woman in San Francisco, where for years she ran an expensive bordello. Now she is the properly elected mayor of fashionable, funky, far-out Sausalito, a seaside suburb just across the Golden Gate. Madam was her occupation. Now it is her title, even though it sticks in the craws of the council members over whom she now presides. Sally has served sentences for keeping a house of prostitution twice, as well as for forgery and criminal contempt. Her sumptuous house in San Francisco was raided on innumerable occasions, and she was arrested 17 times, almost always getting off the charge. She has been married six times, divorced six times, and has had six heart attacks. At 72, she is the gadfly and scourge of Sausalito’s establishment. She

stood for the council six times before winning a seat ’n 1972. This year she led the polls, and sits triumphantly in the first chair. She never has been meek, and she won’t be now. ’This city had better shape up,” she says belligerently. “Shaping up” presumably means that Sausalito must ba more tolerant of growth .nd development, with less xegulation of business. The town has traditionally tried to maintain a quaint atmosphere of small shops and individual homes.

Miss Stanford retired from the prostitution business in the 1950’5, and started a plush restaurant in Sausalito, calling it "Valhalla.” It has prospered mightily, as have other investments in the town. She is thought to be many times a millionairess.

Hundreds of stories about Sally Stanford have contributed to the legend erected about her. A young woman who had just joined the staff of a San Francisco

newspaper m the late 194 Us saw the famous madam at a large public function, and asked a newspaper coilegue to introduce her. “Miss Stanford,” he said, “This is Miss So-and-so. She has just come to work for the ‘Chronicle.’ ” Miss Stanford inspected the very plain girl briefly and coldly. “Hmph. I’m glad you’ve found a job, dearie; you certainly couldn’t work for me.” Agcent of man Women in search of a husband should head for the tiny mid-Atlantic island of Ascension, judging by figures just released by the United Nations. The males there outnumber the females — all 48 of them —by almost 10 to one. The place for prospective bridegrooms is the Soviet Union, which has more than 18m females to spare. The most equallydivided population on earth is on the Cocos Keeling Islands in the Indian Ocean, 317 females.—New York. I