The answer to this question is in a movie.c.1947, starring Yvonne de Carlo andd directed by Billy Wilder - who personally knew maud Allaan in her later years - titled Salome: Where She Danced. [I believe this is the correct title; it can be checked/corrected in Yvonne de Carlo's movie making record. It's been years since I examined it. I understand it has been colorize4d for video. this is a very poor nmovie, but quite obviously inspired by the career of Maud Allan,the Salome Dancer, reared in San Francisco and more than probably the grandaughter of Adolf Sutro {MHer mopther beingn Sutro's natura;l child) and very certainly the sister of Theodore Durrant, executed in 1898 for the infamous Baptist church murders. Mr. Durrant was an unemployed shoemaker, and yet his son was defended in court by Sutro's right hand man/lawyer - "General" Dickinson. Furthermore, the personal correspondance (in my possession)of the Durrant family refers expliciutly to visits to Theo Durrant by "Sutro," - both in the City Jail abd later on, in San Quentin. In the movie, a 'look-a-like' of Sutro, standing on the cliffs by his estate, suddenly appears, without further comment. When, some 15 years ago, a grandson of Adolf Sutro was asked directly about the long standing rumour that Sutro was indeed Mrs. Durrant's father, the answr wasd "so they say." Mrs. Durrant was adopted by a Toronto woman, and some 8 years after her marriage to Mr. Durrant, the family moved to San Francisco. Within a a handful of years Mrs. Durrant owned a house on Fair Elm Street. Such are some of the main elements indicating Sutro's relationship to, lifelong interest and secret role in the Durrant Trial. Any comment would be most welcome. Felix Cherniavsky, author of: The Salome Dancer: The Life and Times of Maud Allan, and [far more readable!] of Maud Allan and her Art, A critical compendium, available from Lawrence Adams, Dance CollectionDanse, Toronto Ont.(Site: talk@dcd.ca)

-- felix cherniavsky (chernyca@yahoo.ca), May 15, 2002