Mayflower Madam
The Secret Life of Sydney Biddle Barrows
1986
I was weeding biographies, and of course I started laughing when I got to this lovely book. When I shared this particular find, only the over-40 crowd even remembered this scandal. Of course I now feel old AGAIN! I suppose this story would hardly make waves nowadays given our saturation level of scandals in the last 20 years. Extra credit if you remember Candice Bergen in the 1987 TV movie!
Mary
Is there anyone who DOESN’T remember Candace Bergen in a 1987 TV movie? I mean, I was two years old and have no idea what you’re talking about and I remember!
I’ll admit to having a huge crush on her.
Don’t remember her at all.
me lol…all I know her from is Murphy Brown.
I had no idea there was a movie, but I well recall the Law & Order episode that was based on this story.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0629195/
What’s she doing these days, I wonder?
Whatever happened to her anyway? The madam, I mean.
Well, she’s written a couple of books according to Wikipedia –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Biddle_Barrows
And she runs some sort of consulting business I guess.
And here’s a blog post all about her –
http://scandalouswoman.blogspot.com/2008/04/notorious-new-york-women-mayflower.html
Oh yeah, and apparently she’s ticked off at Spitzer –
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08071/864081-85.stm
But she’s so far off people’s minds she’s not even in Google’s autocomplete until you actually type out the full “Mayflower Madam.”
That’s when your 15 minutes of fame are officially over!
I remember this very well. And the movie. This was the height of scandals – 1987 was when all the tv preachers got caught (Jim and Tammy Fay Baker and what’s his name..), wasn’t there a preppy rapist/murder story too? Long before Heidi, there was Sydney. I might have even read this book.
While I’m too young to remember this story from when it occurred, from what I once read, the Mayflower Madam supposedly got off with a lighter sentence because no one was really victimized by her sex scandal! I NEVER expected to find this book here!
OMG! I wish I could get that book. OMG!! I loved it!I know I’m probably the only one here though LOL
I’m only 34, but I remember the movie! Awesome.
Sorry, never heard of her!