what years was Sally Stanford involved in San Francisco politics ? Is either her Bar or restaurant still operating ?

-- Karl Kiger (coyote4868@AOL.COM), May 06, 2002

Answers

You tax my powers of restraint, sir. Do you mean Sally involved in San Francisco politics or San Francisco politics involved with Sally? I imagine it went both ways until she “retired” in 1949.

Here’s a picture of the site of one of her former houses. (Garg. I nearly rented an apartment in that building. It is beyond horrid. Green carpets, floor to ceiling drapes.) http://www.mistersf.com/notorious/notsally.htm

Sally was the major of Sausalito. Her Valhalla Restaurant is still there. Her brick house, in Pacific Heights, still is. An legend circulated that she’d hidden all of her wealth inside the walls and floors of it, instead of using a bank. What the person who bought the house after her death did with that information, I do not know.

In 1972, she was elected to the Sausalito City Council and in 1976 she was elected mayor of the city.

-- Vlad Rosa (rosadebon@yahoo.com), May 06, 2002.

She was a whore and a cheap whore according to my good friend Frank Apostoli(son of former middleweight champ Freddie Apostili) he tended bar at the Vallhalla, it just goes to show you how some of these nut cases gained fame during the controversial 60s and 70s!

-- Mike Vishniakoff (MVishniako@aol.com), April 18, 2003.

actually, sally wasn't involved in san francisco politics at all. she was involved with politics in sausalito across the bay. she became the mayor. anything but a nut case, she was a shrewd businesswoman who weathered accusations that trailed her long after she, in her words, "went square". the night she opened her restaurant vahalla, the townspeople painted it red becuase she was a former madam. she never repainted the building another color. i remember being greeted by her personally in 1981. she sat in a grand chair next to the bar near the entrance. the bar, by the way, was supposedly tended by baby face nelson while he was a fugitive. one of his nightly customers was said to have been the chief of police! check out the dyan cannon movie 'lady of the house' for a mild, but enjoyable version of sally's story. you can also read stanford's biography of the same name.

-- josh lindsay (lookingatyou67@hotmail.com), September 18, 2003.