May 10
Mabel Busby's Birthday
 
Sally Stanford   Mabel Busby wasn't fond of her name. When she moved to San Francisco in 1924, she change name from Mabel to Marsha,  In 1971.she went to court and changed her legal name from Marsha Owen to Sally Stanford after seeing a newspaper headline about Stanford University winning a football game. She liked the name Stanford and decided to use it as her new surname. The song "I Wonder What Became of Sally" was playing on the radio at the same time. That's how Sally Stanford came to be.

After becoming a bootlegger during the Depression,  she decided to go into the call girl management business and  eventually ran one of San Francisco's best known and elegant whorehouses at 1144 Pine Street from 1940 to 1949 when it was raided by the attorney general of California.  Her reign as "empress" of 1144 Pine Street was detailed in her autobiography Lady of the House,  A 1978 TV movie with the same name starring Dyan Cannon was based on the book.
 

Marsha retired from prostitution management in 1950 to avoid prosecution and moved to Sausalito and started a new and highly successful career  as operator the Valhalla restaurant, and subsequently was elected the mayor of Sausalito. Besides being Mayor Stanford, she was the Rev. Stanford and officiated at occasional marriages by holding of a mail order diploma from Kirby Hensley’s Universal Life Church in Modesto. When asked about her career choices, she replied "Us sinners never give up."

Sally became even better know nationally when she was a guest of the Johnny Carson Tonight Show when and  talked about her career choices.  She once explained  that "Madaming is the sort of thing that happens to you—like getting a battlefield commission or becoming the dean of women at Stanford University.

So to celebrate Sally's  birthday, we suggest watching Lady of the House while munching on croque-madam. A croque-madam is the distaff version of a croque-monsieur - a hot ham and Gruyère cheese grilled sandwich - the French version of fast food.  The only difference is that croque madam is served with a fried egg on top of it. The name is based on the French verb croquer ("to crunch"). Some dictionaries attribute the name to the egg resembling an old fashioned woman's hat. According to the Le Petit Robert French dictionary, the croque-madam dates to around 1960 which makes croque-monsieur about 50 years older than madam as in many many French marriages  The first recorded appearance of a croque-monsieur  was at a 1910 Parisian café and was mentioned by Marcel Proust in volume 2 of his À la recherche du temps perdu (1918). Enyoy one while watching Lady of the House.
 

Croque-Madam
 

 

Ingredients
 

4 slices white  bread
8 slices of Gruyère cheese,
8 slices of ham
2 large eggs
 		 3 TB unsalted butter
salt, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste


 
Instructions
 
  1. Butter the bread.
  2. Place the slices of bread buttered side down and cover them with two cheese slices.  Place 2 slices of the ham over the cheese,  and top with 2 more cheese slices . Then place the top slice of bread over the ham, buttered side up.
  3. Grill the sandwiches in butter in a non-stick pan, turning once. Place on serving plates.
  4. Fry eggs and place egg over each of the grilled sandwiches. Sprinkle with pepper and serve.

 
© 2011 Gordon Nary and Tyler Stokes