Maintaining her youthful appearance was of great importance to Inez Burns. Designers were summoned to her home on Guerrero Street and told to bring the latest fashions including expensive furs, diamond, ruby and emerald jewelry.
To protect her fair skin from the aging effects of the sun, hundreds of expensive hats with wide brims were made for Inez and stored in a special “hat room.”
“It’s better to have one good thing than seven bad ones,” was Inez Burns’ maxim–and she lived it to the hilt.
In the Guerrero Street home’s large rumpus room, she hosted catered parties, never drinking more than two silver fizzes, christened with the cliche, “Down the hatch.”
Inez was a difficult taskmaster, hiring and firing maids in rapid order, forever seeking the perfect maid with a perfect dusting technique.
Driven about town in a chauffeured limousine, she ran around with good friend Mabel Malotte, a high-priced, first-class madam “who treated her girls good.”
Inez’s granddaughter Caroline Carlisle recalled, “Inez didn’t like [Sausalito madam] Sally Stanford. Grandmother said Sally Stanford withheld pay from the girls, telling them the customer’s checks bounced.”
…To Be Continued…