Sydney Biddle Barrows

Passions

Vocation

Lifestyle

Notable

Traits

Family

American noted family, the ancestor of one of the oldest family names in America. When her story came out, people started to call her "the Mayflower Madam." She was the founder and manager of an exclusive Escort Service that provided high-class prostitutes for clients with expensive tastes and generous funds. In 1984, she was arrested and fined $5,000 for her operation. With William Novak, she wrote "Mayflower Madam" in 1986, which sold in the form of a lucrative best-seller and a TV movie deal. At one time, she was available for lectures at $4,000 an evening. She had to appear at a lot of chicken dinners to cover a legal tab of $650,000. In December 1987, her former business manager sued her for $100,000 for nonpayment of fees. A media consultant also filed a $10 million suit for breach of agreement. By 1991 Barrows redefined "adult education" with a road show of one-night seminars on the escort business. She denies she is promoting prostitution but notes, "If people are going to do it, I'd rather they'd do it right." With her hair neatly pulled back she looks more like a Brownie troop leader than a former madam. She talks about organizing an escort service as though it were a sorority tea. She advised her "young ladies" to read news magazines and watch TV documentaries so that they can carry on a conversation over a bottle of wine. Briefcases are a must on hotel visits to look businesslike. And courtesy dictates that girls wait until the evening entertainment has been transacted before broaching payment. She claims that during her years in business, her annual earnings were in the mid six figures. Articulate, pleasant, intelligent and well-informed, Barrow looks the part of an aristocratic socialite. She loves clothes and fashion and is a shrewd businesswoman. She does not see prostitution as a social evil, but a matter of choice of a woman to do what she wishes with her body, and of a man, to seek solace and pleasure in a safe and comfortable environment. Barrows married Darnay Hoffman, a legal scholar and TV producer, on 5/14/1994 in New York. The marriage was her first and his third. Hoffman had contacted her four months prior after hearing her on a talk show and they had been together since then. Link to Wikipedia biography