Just as Chicagoans don’t faint from surprise whenever an alderman is indicted for corruption, San Franciscans aren’t normally shocked to learn that public figures are prey to temptations of the flesh. But a recent party sponsored by the man running the campaign for a new San Francisco 49ers stadium was not conventional by any city’s standards.
The 50th birthday party bash thrown by powerful political consultant Jack Davis was not unusual in featuring a guest list studded with local political figures. What was unusual was the entertainment, which included male and female strippers, a live sex show and a sado-masochistic act in which a leather-clad dominatrix carved a satanic symbol into the back of a man wearing an Apache headdress.
Once reports of the festivities hit the news, just about everyone was shocked and offended, including some people who had been there. Davis’ political enemies called the party “despicable.” Mayor Willie Brown, one of Davis’ clients, said it was “ludicrous.”
Opponents of the proposed $525 million stadium-mall complex, to be built partly with $100 million from a city bond issue, promised not to use the scandal in their efforts, though they did allow that they found it “shocking.”
As if that weren’t enough piling on the birthday boy, a pair of experts in sado-masochism stepped forward to inform the public that, contrary to what the unschooled might assume, “the ritual fell short of several of the standards in general use throughout the S/M community.”
American Indians were also offended. A Stanford scholar of Apache ancestry said she was “speechless” after the performance artist in the headdress said he was merely putting a modern interpretation on a traditional tribal rite.
Davis had to apologize, though he also expressed sorrow at seeing neo-puritanism afoot in the home of the Tenderloin. The 49ers president agreed that no one “would subscribe to the tastefulness of what transpired at the party.”
None of this bodes well for the team in its effort to get a new facility, which was trailing in the polls already. But locals ought to thank Jack Davis for his ability to surprise. It must be a relief for San Franciscans to know that even they haven’t seen it all.
