As public scandals go, this one might seem pretty benign, by today’s low bar. But in 1984, it was a big story when it was revealed that the authoirities had broken up a high-priced Manhattan escort service that was being run by a woman named Sydney Biddle Barrows.
Now, when a New York Post reporter uncovered the fact that the 32-year-old Barrows is from the Biddle family of Philadelphia, and is a direct descendant of some of the original Mayflower settlers, he dubbed her the “Mayflower Madam” — and the name stuck.
Within two years of her company being put out of business, Barrows wrote a bestselling autobiography, called, of course, “The Mayflower Madam.”
That’s when I first met her.
So here now, from 1986, Mayflower Madam Sydney Biddle Barrows:
Sydney Biddle Barrows is 68 now. She’s a management consultant and writer.