Timeline San Francisco 1930-1959
Return to home
1930 Jan 22, SF
city and army authorities began an investigation into the deaths of
Lauretta Watson and Sgt. John Yates, a Crissy Field flyer, to determine
whether the couple died from poison gin purchased from a local
bootlegger.
(SFC, 1/21/05, p.F3)
1930 Jan 23, Antone “Black Tony”
Parmagini and William Levin, said to be the brains of an int’l.
narcotics ring and the western associates of the notorious Rothstein
ring of NY, were found guilty in SF, Ca., on 5 different counts of
violating narcotics law.
(SFC, 1/21/05, p.F3)
1930 Jan 27, Mayor Rolph urged
California to make all of SF and San Mateo counties into one game
preserve after Supv. Thomas Hickey of San Mateo argues that the Spring
Valley lands surrounding the water reservoirs should be made a
sanctuary for wildlife.
(SFC, 1/28/05, p.F7)
1930 Feb 1, A Loening Air Yacht of
Air Ferries made its first passenger run between San Francisco and
Oakland, California. Amphibious airplanes offered frequent six-minute
flights between San Francisco and Oakland in 1930.
(HN, 2/1/99)
1930 Feb 3, The Glide Foundation
announced plans to build a large church at Taylor and Ellis streets as
a memorial to H.L. Glide, millionaire Sacramento cattleman.
(SFC, 2/4/05, p.F9)
1930 Feb 7, L.M. Giannini, son of
A.P. Giannini, officially became president of the Transamerica Corp.
(SFC, 2/4/05, p.F9)
1930 Feb 12, Divine Scientists in
SF and Oakland were shocked by the news that 2 East Coast cult leaders,
brothers Fenwick and Ernest Holmes, were under investigation for
alleged fake stock sales totaling $5 million.
(SFC, 2/11/05, p.F10)
1930 Feb 14, “The Maltese Falcon,"
by SF based writer Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961), was published.
(SFC, 6/7/04, p.C1)
1930 Feb 25, Doctors from around
the nation arrived in SF to study the Coffey-Humber experimental
treatment for cancer.
(SFC, 2/25/05, p.F4)
1930 Mar 2, SF took possession of
the Spring Valley Water system.
(SFC, 12/17/04, p.F2)
1930 Mar 4, A Federal Grand Jury
indicted George Noel Keyston, president of the SF Stock Exchange, along
with 8 others for an alleged conspiracy to embezzle some $550,000 from
the Post and Fillmore branch of the Bank of Italy in 1929.
(SFC, 3/4/05, p.F3)
1930 Mar 5, Some 10,000 people
gathered in front of SF City Hall as part of “Red Thursday,” a
nationwide and worldwide unemployment demonstration.
(SFC, 3/4/05, p.F3)
1930 Mar 19, A gas explosion and
flood from a broken 16-inch water main washed out half of 47th Avenue
for a block near Anza.
(SFC, 3/18/05, p.F6)
1930 Mar 26, SF Mayor Rolph helped
inaugurate air ferry service between SF and Vallejo.
(SFC, 3/25/05, p.F8)
1930 Apr 16, SF school teachers
won an increase in pay. The raise increased the budget for the school
year to $11.2 million. Annual pay would now range from $1,500 to $4,056.
(SFC, 4/15/05, p.F8)
1930 May 4, SF prohibition agents
raided the Silver Slipper Café at 621 Union and Shorty Roberts’
Place at the beach. None of the 650 guests were arrested but alcohol
was seized.
(SFC, 4/29/05, p.F2)
1930 May 21, At Tomales Bay
Vincent Lucich, rum runner, shot and killed M.S. Sturtevant, a
codefendant and witness in the Mason rum trial. Lucich surrendered to
SF police the next day.
(SFC, 5/20/05, p.F9)
1930 May 26, Mayor James Rolph Jr.
declared May 26 to be Living Music Day in SF.
(SFC, 5/20/05, p.F9)
1930 May 31, Clint Eastwood, actor
and director, was born was born in SF and went to high school in
Oakland. He became famous for his "Dirty Harry" films and "Spaghetti
Westerns." A biography: "Clint Eastwood," by Richard Schickel was
published in 1996 and made into a TV documentary in 1997.
(SFC,10/31/97, p.C7)(HN, 5/31/98)(HN, 5/31/99)
1930 Apr 29, Officer John Malcolm
was killed by payroll robbers at Pier 26.
(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.D3)
1930 May 30, US Census figures
moved San Francisco from 12th to 11th place on the list of large US
cities.
(SFC, 5/27/05, p.F5)
1930 Jun 6, A Chronicle-Universal
talkie newsreel was shown at the Marion Davies and Embassey Theaters as
well as motion-picture houses throughout Northern California and Nevada.
(SFC, 6/3/05, p.F6)
1930 Jul 29, The US Coast Guard
towed the Canadian rum-runner Ray Roberts into SF with a cargo of 1,050
cases of whiskey.
(SFC, 7/29/05, p.F7)
1930 Aug 1, The new $700,000
Maurice Hotel opened in SF at 761 Post St. Each of its rooms and suites
featured a bath and shower.
(SFC, 7/29/05, p.F7)
1930 Aug 7, James D. Phelan
(1897-1901), former 3-time mayor of SF, died. In 1914 he was elected
and served a single term in the US Senate. His unsuccessful 1920
reelection campaign used the slogan "Keep California White."
(SFC, 11/7/00, p.A15)(SFC, 8/5/05, p.F4)
1930 Aug 25, Max Baer (1909-1959)
knocked out Frankie Campbell in the 5th round of a boxing match in San
Francisco. Campbell died and Baer was jailed, but then cleared by a
grand jury. On Oct 1 a municipal judge dismissed manslaughter charges
against Baer.
(SFC, 8/25/05, p.B1)(SFC, 9/30/05, p.F3)
1930 Sep 7, Billy Hajek, sailor
and jazzman, passed the world’s record of 72 hours of continuous piano
playing at Clay & Co. at Sutter and Kearny streets in SF.
(SFC, 9/2/05, p.F3)
1930 Sep 28, Acting SF Mayor
Angelo Rossi presided over ground-breaking exercizes at 36th Ave. and
Vincente Street for work on the Sunset Boulevard.
(SFC, 9/23/05, p.F3)
1930 Sep, Louis Frost was shot and
killed while making an illegal liquor delivery on Hoffman Ave.
(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.D3)
1930 Oct 27, SF Bohemian Club
Pres. James Swinnerton announced plans for a new $750,000 clubhouse in
SF. The present site was at Post and Taylor streets.
(SFC, 10/21/05, p.F6)
1930 Nov 4, In SF George
Christopher defeated Democrat George Reilly for mayor and went on to
serve 2 terms. Voters also approved a $35 million bond issue to build
the Golden Gate Bridge.
(SFC, 9/15/00, p.A19)(SFC, 11/4/05, p.F6)
1930 Nov 7, Stock prices fell to
new lows on the SF Stock Exchange.
(SFC, 11/4/05, p.F6)
1930 Nov 10, Some 600 men were put
to work on 10 public projects in SF. They were to work 3 days a week
for a month at $5 per day to relieve unemployment.
(SFC, 11/4/05, p.F6)
1930 Nov 24, In SF George Bernard
Shaw’s 40th play, “The Apple Cart,” opened to rave reviews at the Geary
Theater.
(SFC, 11/18/05, p.F6)
1930 Dec 7, In San Francisco Leo
Diegel won the $7,500 inaugural national match play open golf
championship at the Olympic Club.
(SFC, 12/2/05, p.F3)
1930 Dec 8, In San Francisco
Rosetta Baker, a wealthy widow with a taste for younger men, was found
strangled in her California St. apartment. Liu Fook, her butler (63)
and a secret opium addict, was suspected but found innocent at trial.
(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.D3)(SFC, 2/17/09, p.A11)
1930 Dec 12, The California Palace
of the Legion of Honor held a reception for Diego Rivera to honor the
opening of the completed exhibition of his paintings there.
(SFC, 12/9/05, p.F6)
1930 Dec 14, US Customs agents in
San Francisco seized $56,000 worth of opium from the Japanese liner
Asama Maru as festivities marked the liner’s 1st year of trans-Pacific
service.
(SFC, 12/9/05, p.F6)
1930 Dec 14, A Swarthmore College
report on 431 US educational institutions counted 871,184 full and
part-time students. The Univ. of California, which included the LA
branch, topped the list with 17,322.
(SFC, 12/9/05, p.F6)
1930 Dec 22, The SF Board of
Supervisors voted 14-2 to elect Angelo Rossi to succeed Gov.-elect
James Rolph on Jan 6, 1931, as mayor of SF.
(SFC, 12/16/05, p.F7)
1930 The 29-story Shell Oil
Building was constructed in 300 days at the Bush, Battery and Market
St. corner.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, BR p.4)
1930 In San Francisco the 3-story
Roosevelt Middle School, designed by Miller & Pflueger in the Dutch
Expressionist style, was built at 460 Arguello.
(SSFC, 5/10/09, p.B2)
1930 In San Francisco a 28-story
tower, designed by Miller and Pflueger and Lewis Hobart, was built at
100 McAllister St. It opened as a hotel atop a church. The federal
government used it for offices during WWII. As of 2009 it contained
apartments for UC Hastings Law College.
(SSFC, 6/21/09, p.B2)
1930 The SF Water Dept. acquired
508 acres near Pleasanton. Wells on the site provided a water source
until the 1960s when Pleasanton was allowed to use the land for sewage
disposal.
(SFC, 6/16/97, p.A1,11)
1930 The Orpheum Theater on
O’Farrell St. became the Columbia, a 2nd-run movie and burlesque house.
It was razed in 1938.
(SFEC, 4/5/98, DB p.44)
1930 San Francisco Stock and Bond
Exchange opened in a new building at Pine and Sansome.
(SSFC, 7/3/05, p.F3)
1930 The SF Bank of Italy became
the Bank of America. A.P. Giannini consolidated his banking holdings
into the Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association under
Transamerica’s control.
(SFC, 1/3/98, p.A19)(SFC, 4/14/98, p.B4)
1930 The SF College of Mortuary
Science was established.
(SFC, 9/25/99, p.A1)
1930 James R. Rolph, "Sunny Jim,"
was elected governor of the state and served one 4-year term.
(SFC, 3/16/98, p.A14)(SFEC, 6/14/98, p.B8)
1930 Mills Field was renamed SF
Municipal Airport.
(Ind, 5/5/01, 5A)
1930s The neighborhood of stucco
homes with tiled roofs known as Little Hollywood was built between
Visitacion Valley and the Bayview.
(SFEC, 11/15/98, p.A14)
1930s Some 2 dozen houses were
built in SF in the Francisco Heights neighborhood on Almaden Court in
the Rousseau style of small Tudor and Spanish revival.
(SFCM, 3/20/05, p.6)
1930s Jose Cansino and his sister
Elisa opened a dance studio next to the Curran Theater. The taught
"bailes de figura" and flamenco dancing.
(SFEC,10/26/97, DB p.41)
1930-1945 Charles J. Connick created the
stained-glass windows for Grace Cathedral. The Cathedral was built on
Nob Hill at the site of the Charles Crocker home.
(SFC, 4/21/99, p.E5)(Ind, 9/23/00,5A)
1931 Jan 3, The SF Board of
Supervisors ordered that construction begin on a long-planned roadway
around Lake Merced and voted to name it the Elizabeth W. Coit Blvd.
(SFC, 12/30/05, p.F2)
1931 Jan 6, Angelo Rossi succeeded
Gov.-elect James Rolph as mayor of SF.
(SFC, 12/16/05, p.F7)
1931 Jan 7, The SF Police Homicide
Squad reported that 27 murders in SF for 1930.
(SFC, 1/6/06, p.F6)
1931 Jan 8, US Sen. Tallant Tubbs
of SF introduced a joint resolution urging Congress to repeal the 18th
amendment.
(SFC, 1/6/06, p.F6)
1931 Jan, Foundation work began on
the new Opera House and Veteran’s Building in the Civic Center.
(SFEM, 8/31/97, p.7)
1931 Jan, Henry Schmidt was found
bound, gagged and strangled in his Fulton Street store.
(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.D3)
1931 Feb, Albina Voohries was
murdered and set afire in her 48th Ave. store to cover up a robbery.
(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.D3)
1931 Apr 2, Virne "Jackie"
Mitchell became the 2nd woman to play for an all-male pro baseball
team. In an exhibition game against the New York Yankees, she struck
out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game in Chattanooga,
Tennessee.
(HN,
4/2/01)(www.exploratorium.edu/baseball/mitchell.html)
1931 The 2 Piazzoni murals, "The
Land" and "The Sea" were painted in the SF Main Library.
(SFC, 12/11/98, p.A25)
1931 The Main Post Chapel at the
Presidio was built in a Spanish Colonial Revival style.
(SFEM, 6/27/99, p.13)
1931 San Francisco’s 1,600-foot
Municipal Pier at Aquatic Park was completed. 634 pilings attached to
pre-cast concrete created calm waters for swimming.
(SFC, 10/3/08, p.B7)
1931 Diego Rivera, Mexican
muralist, arrived in SF. He painted "Allegory of California" for the
Pacific Stock Exchange.
(SFEC, 5/18/97, SF p.2)(SFC, 8/30/03, p.D10)
1931 In San Francisco Seals
Stadium at 16th and Bryant streets, a $1.5 million single-deck cement
structure, was designed by H.J. Brunnier. The baseball stadium had a
public address system and lights for night games. It was also home to
the Mission Reds until 1938. Seals Stadium was demolished in 1959.
(SFEC,12/797, Z1 p.4)(SSFC, 10/4/09, p.50)
1931 The Commonwealth Club of San
Francisco created the California Book Award. The 1st recipients this
year were: California Sen. William McAdoo for his journal, Lincoln
Steffens for his autobiography, and Herbert E. Bolton for his history
of SF: “Outposts of Empire.”
(SFC, 6/6/06, p.D1)
1931 Lizzie Glide, a Methodist
philanthropist, opened Glide Church and founded the Glide Foundation as
a memorial to her husband, cattle baron H.L. Glide.
(SFC, 9/15/98, p.A9)
1931 Joe DiMaggio (17) joined the
San Francisco Seals, a Pacific Coast League baseball team.
(CHA, 1/2001)
1931 SF purchased a brand new
Lincoln Phaeton convertible touring car for $4,400. It was the 1st car
to cross the GG Bridge on opening day in 1937.
(SFC, 12/27/00, p.A23)
1931 George M Greene sold his land
Mrs. Sigmund Stern and she donated it to the city for open-air concerts
and as a tribute to her late husband. Architect Bernard Maybeck was
consulted in developing the grove. The Trocodero Clubhouse demonstrates
Stick-Eastlake architecture.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.6)
1931 A.P. Giannini regained
control Transamerica Corp. after ousting CEO Elisha Walker who planned
to liquidate the organization to stave off bankruptcy.
(SFC, 4/14/98, p.B1)
1931 Francis Marion "Borax" Smith,
founder and developer of the Pacific Coast Borax Company, died. He
consolidated the SF Bay Area trolley lines into the Key System, built
the East Bay water system and helped build the Claremont Hotel. His
Arbor Villa in Oakland was demolished in 1932.
(SFC, 11/6/98, p.D5)(SSFC, 10/20/02, p.A19)
1931-1944 Angelo Rossi served as mayor of SF.
(SFC, 11/5/03, p.A27)
1932 Feb 18, In SF federal
prohibition agents seized the offices and storehouses of two wholesale
liquor setups: The Chicago Specialty Company at 724 Montgomery St. and
J.C. Millet at 241 Clay St. The raids were aimed at breaking up a major
bootlegging ring said to be headed by Johnny Marino.
(SSFC, 2/18/07, DB p.58)
1932 Feb 19, In SF Bank of Canton
manager Arthur G. Wong reported that over $1,000,000 in gold had been
wired from SF to aid Chinese forces in Shanghai.
(SSFC, 2/18/07, DB p.58)
1932 Mar 3, George Gordon was
found slain at a Utah St. factory.
(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.D3)
1932 Mar 23, Paul Hanson,
defending the honor of his date, was killed by 3 thugs at a lovers lane
at Lake Merced.
(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.D3)
1932 Apr, Jessie Scott Hughes was
killed near her home on Lakeview St. in a faked automobile accident. It
was later revealed that Frank Egan, the county public defender,
engineered the killing.
(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.D3)
1932 May 5, O’Bryan Bemis was
found dead at the California Rod and Gun club range at Fort Funston
after a good day at the track.
(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.D3)
1932 May 18, Luigi Malvese,
bootleg gangster, was ambushed and shot to death in front of the Del
Monte Barbershop at 720 Columbus Ave, SF, Ca. A police dragnet rounded
up some 1,000 "usual suspect" in an attempt to pressure the underworld
to rein in its wild men. Louis Dinato, Al Capone’s tailor, was among
those rounded up.
(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.D3)
1932 Aug, Fluoridation of SF
drinking water began in the city’s western neighborhoods. The program
went city-wide in 1955.
(SFC, 7/22/05, p.F3)
1932 Oct 15, The War Memorial
Opera House opened with Puccini’s Tosca. Gaetano Merola led the
orchestra.
(SFC, 6/27/96, p.D3)(SFEC, 8/10/97, p.A12,B9)
1932 Dec 11, Snow fell in San
Francisco and accumulated to 1 inch. Temperatures dropped to a record
low of 27 degrees.
(SFEM, 12/22/96, p.20)(SFC, 12/25/08, p.A14)
1932 Ten oil on canvas paintings
by Gottardo Piazzoni were installed along the side of the loggia in the
Main Library. 5 view were of the Pacific Ocean and 5 were of the
mountains. Another 4 landscapes were added later.
(WSJ, 1/19/98, p.A20)
1932 The national radio show "One
Man’s Family" premiered. It was about a fictional San Francisco family.
(SFEC, 3/30/97, BR. p.4)
1932 The SF Opera Company was
founded at the Civic Auditorium.
(WSJ, 12/26/95, p. A-5)
1932 The 18-hole Sharp Park Golf
Course opened in Pacifica, Ca. SF park superintendent John McLaren had
hired Alister MacKenzie to design the course on land donated by sugar
magnate Adolph Spreckels.
(SFC, 8/31/09, p.A1)
1932 In San Francisco the Roman
Catholic church St. Anne of the Sunset was built at 850 Judah St. It
was designed in a Romanesque style by architects Shea & Lofquist.
(SSFC, 11/15/09, p.C3)
1932 The anchor-shaped Public
Health Service Hospital was built in the Presidio as a hospital for
merchant marines. 2 wings were added in 1952.
(SFC, 7/30/03, p.A23)
1932 The Mission revival style
Pier 38 was completed.
(SFEC, 2/27/00, p.B3)
1932 The YWCA building at 1830
Sutter St. was built with money raised by Japanese immigrants. It was
designed by Julia Morgan. In 2002 the Nihonmachi Little Friends
community day care center gained title in a settlement with YWCA.
(SFC, 2/27/02, p.A15)
1932 The small (575 sq. ft.) Ocean
View Library opened at 111 Broad St.
(SFC, 8/19/99, p.A17)
1932 Fields Book Store at 1419
Polk St. began business.
(SFEC, 12/13/98, Z1 p.4)
1932 The city’s modern-day charter
was first adopted.
(SFC, 1/8/98, p.A20)
1932 SF held 9 State Assembly
seats.
(SFEM, 11/17/96, p.12)
1932 A police raid at the Beach
Chalet netted a dozen men charged with sponsoring lewd shows and
gambling parties.
(SFC, 12/26/96, p.C1)
1932 John P. McLaughlin founded
the Municipal park Employees Union.
(SFC,11/24/97, p.A21)
1933 Jan 5, In San Francisco
federal judge Harold Lauderback ordered the auction of 2,245 gallons of
moonshine that had been seized in raids.
(SSFC, 1/4/09, DB p.50)
1933 Feb 26, Ground was broken for
the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Russell Cone was hired to
oversee the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge. He had already
worked on the Philadelphia-Camden (Ben Franklin) Bridge, the
Detroit-Windsor Ambassador Bridge and the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge.
(HN, 2/26/98) (SFC,12/20/97, p.A21)
1933 Apr 13, The Merchants
Exchange Club at 465 California St. unveiled 3 murals on its walls
commissioned to painter Jose Moya del Pino (d.1969).
(SFC, 4/7/97, p.E1)
1933 Jun 2, The SF Ballet
performed "Le Ballet Mecanique" by Adolph Bolm at the new Opera House.
The piece was originally created for a Hollywood film.
(SFEC, 8/17/97, DB p.35)
1933 Jun 10, Col. Eugene
Northington (53) of the US Army Medical Corps died in SF from X-ray
cancers. He had dedicated his life to pioneering work studying X-rays.
(SSFC, 6/8/08, DB p.58)
1933 Jun 22, Dianne Feinstein, 1st
female mayor of SF, (Sen-D-Ca), was born in SF.
(MC, 6/22/02)
1933 Oct, San Francisco’s Coit
Tower was dedicated. It was built with $100,000 in funds bequeathed by
Lillie Hitchcock Coit. It was designed by Arthur Brown Jr. and contains
frescoes by Mexican artist Diego Rivera. Eliza Wychie Hitchcock Coit
died at age 88 and rests in Cypress Lawn, Colma.
(SFEC, 11/3/96, DB p.33)(HT, 5/97, p.14)(CHA, 1/2001)
1933 Dec 5, SF became a dry city
with the death of Prohibition as the city went under state license
control with no licenses issued.
(SSFC, 11/30/08, DB p.58)
1933 Dec 5, In SF some 6,259 men
received pay from the Civil Works Administration for projects that
included Lake Merced road and Balboa reservoir.
(SSFC, 11/30/08, DB p.58)
1933 Dec 15, In San Francisco
Lloyd J. Evans became the first worker on the Bay Bridge to die. He had
been working 112 feet down on the bay bottom and experienced
decompression sickness. An 11-hour effort to revive him in a
recompression chamber failed.
(SSFC, 12/14/08, p.54)
1933 The SF Opera Ballet was
founded.
(SFEC, 8/17/97, DB p.35)
1933 Sargent Johnson (1888-1967),
a successful African-American artist in SF, made his sculpture "Forever
Free."
(SFEC, 2/8/98, DB p.31)(SFEM, 3/22/98, p.8)
1933 Lillian Schuman (1906-1996)
and her husband Adolph founded the San Francisco clothing company Lilli
Ann Corp.
(SFC, 6/18/96, p.A17)
1933 Photographer Horace Bristol
moved to SF from Ventura Ct. and opened a studio near Union Square. He
soon met Ansel Adams and the members of the Group f/64, a Bay Area
affiliation of photographers that included Imogen Cunningham, Edward
Weston, Dorothea Lange, Otto Hagel and Hansel Mieth. Bristol
collaborated with Steinbeck in 1938 to shoot photographs of migrant
workers in the valley and their work led to Steinbeck’s 1939 "The
Grapes Of Wrath."
(SFC, 8/7/97, p.A18)
c1933 The Anchor Brewing Co. was
purchased by employee Joe Allen after Prohibition. He ran the operation
to 1958.
(SFC, 3/3/99, Z1 p.9)
1933 The Fritz Cos., a SF
freight-forwarding firm, was founded. Lynn Fritz, son of the founder,
sold the company to United Parcel Service in 2001 for $437 million.
(SSFC, 3/27/05, p.B1)
1933 Patrick H. McCarthy, former
mayor of SF (1909-1911), died.
(SFC, 9/12/98, p.C3)
1933 The square-rigged Star of
Alaska (1904-1933), formerly the Balclutha (1886-1904), was sold by
Alaska Packers to new owners who renamed and transformed the ship into
the Pacific Queen pirate ship and towed it up and down the Pacific
coast as a floating carnival boat. In 1955 it became the 1st of the SF
Maritime collection of historic ships.
(SFEC,11/23/97, p.D3)(SFC, 3/11/05, p.E4)
1934 Jan 22, Bill Bixby, actor
(Incredible Hulk, My Favorite Martian), was born in SF, Calif.
(MC, 1/22/02)
1934 Feb 2, The SF Police
Commission promulgated a set of regulations regarding dance permits to
Barbary Coast nightclubs. These included a prohibition against colored
and white people dancing together.
(SSFC, 2/1/09, DB p.50)
1934 Feb 7, Kathleen Norris, a SF
Bay Area novelist based in Palo Alto, summed up a trip to Germany
saying Hitler has virtually solved problems of unemployment and
poverty. She said the leader was idolized everywhere as the people’s
rescuer.
(SSFC, 2/1/09, p.50)
1934 Feb 20, In San Francisco a
fire destroyed the recently opened Anchor Brewing Co. at 1610 Harrison
St. The plant specialized in steam beer for which SF was once
famous.
(SSFC, 2/15/09, DB p.50)
1934 Mar 8, It was reported that
workmen excavating for the SF Federal Building unearthed the skeletal
remains of 3 SF settlers and several gold and silver coins near the
corner of McAllister and Hyde streets. Over 20 graves were uncovered
during the course of the excavation.
(SSFC, 3/8/09, DB p.45)
1934 Mar, In SF Michael R.
Catalano, underworld figure, was murdered.
(SSFC, 3/15/09, DB p.50)
1934 May 9, The San Francisco
waterfront strike began. The Int’l. Longshoremen’s Association (ILA),
headed by Australian immigrant Harry Bridges, shut down seaports in
Washington, Oregon and California for 3 months. Union workers went on
strike for a 6 hour day and a hiring hall to replace the company
operated Blue Book Union on the waterfront. Strike breakers were housed
in ships to avoid getting beat up by the dock workers. In 1996 David F.
Selvin published "A Terrible Anger: The 1934 Waterfront and General
Strikes in San Francisco." [see Jul 5]
(SFEC, 12/15/96, BR p.5)(SFEM, 3/2/97, p.21)(SFC,
8/4/97, p.E5)(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.4)(SFC, 10/4/02, p.A17)
1934 May 28, In San Francisco
nearly 1,000 longshoremen clashed with police at Pier 18 on the 20th
day of their strike. Alphonse Metzgar was shot in the back with light
buckshot.
(SSFC, 5/24/09, DB p.39)
1934 Jun 2, Sunny Jim Rolph
(b.1869), former mayor of SF (1912-1931) and Governor of California
(1931-1934), died. He lived at his home at 288 San Jose Ave. in the
Mission throughout his life.
(SFEC, 4/25/99, Z1 p.5)(SSFC, 5/31/09, DB p.50)
1934 Jun 22, San Francisco Police
Capt. Charles Goff voiced the sensational charge that carefully planned
communistic programs are being carried out in SF schools and churches.
(SSFC, 6/21/09, DB p.50)
1934 Jun 30, In San Francisco a
group of men with sledgehammers and crowbars attacked the headquarters
of the Western Worker, a Communist Party publication, near the Civic
Center Plaza. They fled when men associated with the publication rushed
out from a back room.
(SSFC, 6/28/09, DB p.50)
1934 Jul 5, During the West Coast
maritime strike Mayor Angelo J. Rossi, a former florist, unleashed the
city’s violently anti-union police department on the workers. 33 people
were shot with 2 men killed in what came to be called "Bloody
Thursday." Police fired into a crowd of strikers at Steuart and Mission
streets and killed Howard S. Perry and Nickolas Bordoise. Another 109
strikers were wounded. Police had tried to escort scabs to the docks.
Civil liberties attorneys Ernest Besig (d.1998 at 94), and Chester
Williams were called in from New York. They founded a local American
Civil Liberties Union and sued SF and Oakland for failure to protect
striker’s First Amendment rights.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W31)(SFC, 11/21/98, p.C2)(SFC,
9/27/02, p.D11)(SSFC, 7/5/09, DB p.42)
1934 Jul 9, A parade of 15,000 was
held on Market Street for the 2 men killed on Jul 5. The funeral was
followed by a general strike. SF Mayor Angelo J. Rossi and Gov. Frank
Merriman blamed the strike on Communists.
(SFEM, 1/18/98, p.6)(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W31)(SFEC,
5/2/99, Z1 p.4)
1934 Jul 16, The nation’s 1st
general strike was called in San Francisco in response to violence and
disregard of worker’s rights in the waterfront strike. Some 140,000
workers walked off their jobs. It collapsed after 4 days. Seven men
were killed and thousands were injured. The general strike ended after
4 days and went into arbitration. In the fall arbitrators gave the
union a hiring hall, a 6-hour day and a small wage increase. [see May
9, Jul 5]
(SFEC, 12/15/96, BR p.5)(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.4)(SFC,
9/27/02, p.D11)(PCh, 1992, p.826)
1934 Jul 29, The West Coast
longshoremen’s strike came to an end on its 82nd day when the dock
workers’ leaders accepted conditions proposed by the National
Longshoremen’s board, pending arbitration. Men returned to work on July
31.
(SSFC, 7/26/09, DB
p.42)(www.lib.washington.edu/exhibits/STRIKES!/exh.html)
1934 Aug 11, The US government
opened a maximum security prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco
Bay and the first federal prisoners arrived. From the time it opened to
1937 there was no talking by prisoners allowed. Alcatraz, previously
used only for American military criminals, received its first group of
civilian prisoners. The federal convicts joined a small number of
military prisoners, left over from the island‘s time as a U.S. Army
prison. The facility had been used as a military prison since 1859, but
was redesigned in the 1930s to be a high-security penitentiary for the
"most dangerous" prisoners. Gangster Al Capone arrived at Alcatraz
later that August.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.7)(AP, 8/11/97)(SFEC,
3/8/98, p.W30)(HNQ, 7/10/00)
1934 Sep 29, In Vallejo, Ca., the
body of Joe Soon (40), a member of the Hop Sing tong, was found dead in
the Vallejo business district with a hatchet wound between the eyes and
4 bullets in his torso. The murderers were believed to be hatchetmen
from San Francisco’s Chinatown.
(SSFC, 9/27/09, p.50)
1934 Oct 12, Michael
O'Shaughnessy, SF chief engineer, died, just 12 days before Hetch
Hetchy water began flowing to the Bay Area. [see Oct 28]
(Ind, 3/11/00, p.5A)(SFC, 9/15/02, p.A20)
1934 Oct 28, In Redwood City, Ca.,
a crowd of 20,000 people gathered at the temporary Pulgas Water Temple
to witness the first Sierra water begin to empty into Crystal Springs
Lake. The Pulgas Water Temple near the Crystal Springs Reservoir was
modeled after the Sunol Water Temple designed by Willis Polk. This
marked the end of the 20-year SF water project led by engineer Michael
O'Shaugnessy (d.10/18/34) [see Oct 12].
(SFC, 12/19/96, p.A21)(SFC, 9/27/97, p.A24)(Ind,
3/11/00, p.5A)
1934 Oct 12, In San Francisco the
new Coit Tower in Pioneer Park on Telegraph Hill opened to the public.
At least 8 frescoes, painted by artists employed by the WPA, were
washed out and eliminated because they were “architecturally
inharmonious.”
(SSFC, 10/4/09, p.50)
1934 Nov 1, Jeanette MacDonald
arrived in San Francisco for the upcoming premier of “The Merry Widow,”
in which she co-starred with Maurice Chevalier.
(SSFC, 11/1/09, DB p.42)(TVM, 1977, p.470)
1934 Nov 2, In San Francisco a
fight for control of the beer market expanded as brewers matched the
prices of Humboldt Brewery at $1 a case of 24 pints.
(SSFC, 11/1/09, DB p.42)
1934 A bridge was constructed on
Third St. across Mission Creek Channel. It was later named the Lefty
O'Doul Bridge.
(SFC, 3/14/00, p.A15)
1934 The 103-foot Mount Davidson
Cross was erected as a memorial to the veterans of WW I. Pres. Franklin
D. Roosevelt sent an electrical impulse via telegraph to turn on
floodlights at the base. The cross was created by architect George
Kelham.
(SFC, 8/21/96, p.A1,11)(SFC, 4/24/98, p.A17)(SFC,
1/5/00, p.A18)
1934 The non-profit Wine Institute
was founded in SF sponsored by 48 California wineries to help the
industry regroup following prohibition.
(SFEC, 3/14/99, p.C1)
1934 The SF County Jail, designed
for 550 inmates, was built in San Bruno, Ca. It was replaced in 2006
with a new facility next door designed for 768 inmates.
(SFC, 9/5/97, p.A24)(SFC, 8/17/06, p.B8)
1934 Alexander Roberts asked the
state Legislature to purchase 53 acres of city-owned land near Lake
Merced as a new campus.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, Z1 p.4)
1934 The Pacific Rod and Gun Club
moved into a new 13-acre city-owned facility at Lake Merced in San
Francisco.
(SFC, 3/20/08, p.A1)
1934 In SF Vincente La Rocca
opened La Rocca’s Corner, a bar in North Beach at Columbus and Taylor.
His son Leo La Rocca (1913-2006) took over in the 1950s and sold the
bar in 1995.
(SFC, 2/8/06, p.B5)
1934-1940 Henry Doelger became America’s biggest
homebuilder. He was managing to build 2 homes a day. The area from 27th
to 39th Avenues between Kirkham and Quintara came to be called Doelger
City. His next project was Golden Gate Heights on 15th and 16th Avenues.
(GTP, 1973, p.108)
1935 Mar 27, The steamer North
Haven departed San Francisco with 2 prefabricated hotels and other
supplies to establish bases on Wake and Guam Islands in the Marianas to
support Pan Am flights.
(SFEM, 2/13/00, p.32)
1935 Apr 16, Captain Musick lifted
the Sikorsky S-42 Pan American Clipper up from the waters of the SF Bay
for its historic flight to Hawaii.
(SFEM, 2/13/00, p.33)
1935 Oct 1, Some 500 SF commercial
fishing boats began to be blessed in the traditional Madonna del Lune
rite.
(SFC, 10/1/04, p.F5)
1935 Nov 22, Pan Am inaugurated
the first transpacific airmail service, San Francisco to Manila. The
Pan Am China Clipper under Captain Ed Musick took off from Alameda
Point bound for the Philippines with 111,000 letters. It was the
company's first trans-Pacific flight. The plane was a 25-ton Martin
M-130 flying boat with a wingspan of 130 feet, and was the largest
aircraft in world service.
(HN, 11/22/98)(Ind, 5/1/99, p.5A)(SFEM, 2/13/00,
p.35)(NPub, 2002, p.13)
1935 Sargent Johnson (1888-1967),
African-American artist in SF, made his sculpture "Negro Woman."
(SFEC, 4/12/98, DB p.43)
1935 A.G. Rizzoli created his work
"Mrs. Geo. Powleson Symbolically Portrayed."
(SFEC, 4/12/98, DB p.43)
1935 The SF Museum of Art opened
on the 4th floor of the new Veterans Building. The 1st exhibition
included gothic tapestries as well as contemporary art.
(SFC, 10/21/04, p.A15)
1935 Pierre Monteux began
conducting the SF Symphony Orchestra.
(SFC, 10/5/01, WB p.6)
1935 The SF Opera performed its
first Ring Cycle with Lauritz Melchior and Kirsten Flagstad in her
company debut.
(SFEC, 8/17/97, DB p.35)
1935 In San Francisco Paul C.
Smith (27) was named executive editor of The Chronicle newspaper.
(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A8)
1935 Lawrence Hart (1901-1996)
established a seminar that produced the "Activist Group" of poets. He
lived on the "Monkey Block" where the Transamerica Pyramid now stands.
A manifesto by the group was published by the Berkeley magazine Circle
in 1947 titled: Ideas of Order in Experimental Poetry.
(SFC, 6/6/96, p.C6)
1935 John Joseph Mitty succeeded
Archbishop Hanna as Archbishop of SF and served until 1961. Mitty was
the city's 4th Catholic archbishop.
(SSFC, 7/27/03, p.A22)
1935 John Graffeo opened his
Graffeo Coffee House in North Beach. When he died in the early 1950s
the business was taken over by Luciano Repetto and his family, and
called the Graffeo Coffee Roasting Co.
(SFC,12/31/97, Z1 p.6)
1935 Giuseppe Luigi Mezetta and
his son Daniel Joseph Mezetta (1916-2005) founded G.L. Mezetta,
importer of Italian specialty foods that included glass-packed peppers
and olives. The firm was originally based at the SF Produce Market.
(SFC, 3/26/05, p.B4)
1935 Joe DiMaggio hit .398 for the
Seals and 34 homers in his last year in the minors.
(SFC, 3/9/99, p.A10)
1935 SF State Normal School
changed its name to SF State College and introduced a liberal arts
curriculum.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, Z1 p.4)
1935 The WPA began construction on
major exhibits at the SF Zoo. These included Monkey Island, Lion House,
the Aviary and Elephant House.
(SFC, 7/30/04, p.E15)
1935 Peter Petri (1916-2007),
Italian immigrant, hired in as an elevator operator for the St. Francis
Hotel for $2.80 per day.
(SFC, 1/17/07, p.B7)
1936 Apr 18, Pan-Am Clipper began
regular passenger flights from SF to Honolulu.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1936 Jun 21, The first Herb Caen
(age 20) column appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle. He replaced
J.E. "Dinty" Doyle. Executive editor Paul C. Smith had hired Caen to
write a radio column.
(SFC, 6/5/96, p.C1)(SFEC, 2/2/97, p.A12)(SSFC,
6/7/09, p.W2)
1936 Aug 25, George Washington
High School opened at 32nd and Anza. It was designed by Timothy
Pflueger and partially funded by the WPA.
(SFCM, 8/15/04, p.13)
1936 Oct 21, Pan Am inaugurated
the first passenger flight from California to the Philippines with 9
passengers.
(SFEM, 2/13/00, p.37)
1936 Nov 12, The San Francisco Bay
Bridge opened. It cost $78 million and was the longest bridge ever
attempted. 23 men died during its construction.
(SFC, 11/11/96, p.A13)(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.5)
1936 Dec 18, Su-Lin, the 1st giant
panda to come to US from China, arrived in SF.
(MC, 12/18/01)
1936 The film "China Clipper" with
Humphrey Bogart was released. It had been shot in the SF Bay Area.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, DB, p.39)
1936 The SF Symphony performed
with George Gershwin in his "Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in F
Minor."
(SFEC, 8/17/97, DB p.35)
1936 French Conductor Pierre
Monteux began a 17-year tenure with the SF Symphony.
(SFEC, 8/10/97, p.B9)
1936 The "Marriage of Figaro" with
Ezio Pinza was performed by the SF Opera. It was the first Mozart opera
performed in the new house.
(SFEC, 8/17/97, DB p.35)
1936 The entire streetcar line
through Daly City was shifted and new pavement was laid over the center
lines on Mission St. Later service ceased beyond the Top of the Hill,
which remained the terminus for SF car 14. [through at least 1973]
(GTP, 1973, p.74)
1936 Finnochio's nightclub opened
at 506 Broadway. It became world famous for its female impersonators.
(SFC, 11/4/99, p.A1)
1936 Eddie Shipstad (d.1998 at
91), his brother Roy and Oscar Johnson founded the Ice Follies based in
SF.
(SFC, 8/25/98, p.B2)
1936 Joe DiMaggio transferred to
the major leagues.
(CHA, 1/2001)
1936 The S.S. Ohioan ran ashore
near the Point Lobos overlook.
(G, Winter 96/97, p.3)
1936-1937 The Lucien Labaudt murals were painted at
the Beach Chalet in Goldengate Park.
(SFEC, 12/15/96, p.C4)(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A7)
1937 Feb 17, A platform broke on
the Golden Gate Bridge and 12 men plunged 250 feet into the bay. Of 3
survivors two men were picked up by a fishing boat and a third man
caught hold of a bridge beam. Evan C. "Slim" Lambert (d.1998 at 87) was
won of the 2 men in the bay who swam to the fishing boat with a dead
companion.
(SFC, 1/17/98, p.A19)
1937 Feb 17, Nearly at the end of
the four years of construction of the Golden Gate Bridge, 10
construction workers lost their lives when a section of scaffold fell
through a safety net. When construction began on the 35-million-dollar
bridge spanning the Golden Gate Strait between San Francisco and Marin
County, Chief Engineer Joseph B. Strauss was determined to use the most
rigorous safety precautions available. Protective hardhats and
glare-free goggles were required and special diets were developed to
combat dizziness. But it was the safety net strung under the bridge
during construction that saved the lives of 19 men who became known as
the "Half-Way-to-Hell" Club. Until February 17, 1937, only one life had
been lost during construction. The Golden Gate Bridge opened to
vehicular traffic on May 28, 1937.
(HNPD, 2/17/99)
1937 May 27, The newly completed
Golden Gate Bridge connecting SF and Marin County, Calif., was opened
to pedestrian traffic. The bridge was designed by Joseph Strauss
(d.1938). Over 200,000 pedestrians walked across on opening day. The
bridge towers stood a record 750 feet. In 2007 Frank Stahl and Daniel
Mohn authored “The Golden Gate Bridge, Report of the Chief Engineer,
Vol II.” They gave credit to engineer Charles Ellis of the Univ. of
Illinois for much of the technical and theoretical work that went into
the bridge. He was fired by Strauss before construction began.
(AP, 5/27/97)(SFEC, 10/5/97, Z1 p.6)(SFC, 10/30/99,
p.C3)(SFC, 5/11/07, p.A1)
1937 May 28, President Roosevelt
pushed a button in Washington signaling that vehicular traffic could
cross the just-opened Golden Gate Bridge in California.
(AP, 5/28/97)
1937 Harriet Lane Levy published
her memoir "920 O’Farrell Street." She had spent time in Paris and
London with writers and artists and had introduced Gertrude Stein to
Alice B. Toklas.
(SFEC, 4/20/97, BR p.10)
1937 Willam Christensen (d.2001 at
99), director of a dance school in Portland, accepted an offer to
become the principal male soloist in the SF Opera Ballet.
(SFC, 10/16/01, p.B2)
1937 A row of 6 matching bungalows
was built on Stanyon St. in Cape Cod style. The area had formerly been
the Odd Fellows Cemetery (1865-1935).
(SFCM, 1/18/04, p.12)
1937 Helen Strybing made a bequest
to Golden Gate Park for an arboretum and it was built with WPA funds.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.5)
1937 Adolph Sutro’s grandson
converted the large tank in the Sutro Baths to a skating rink.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.7)
1937 Norman Bright (1910-1996) won
the Bay to Breakers race.
(SFC, 9/19/96, p.A17)
1937 Leon Miller (1910-1996),
founded the Littleman Grocery Store at Geary and 22nd Ave., which grew
to a chain of 16 supermarkets. The chain was sold to Cala in 1965.
(SFC, 6/6/96, p.C6)
1937 The Federal Reserve,
dominated by bankers who feared interstate banking, forced A.P.
Giannini’s Transamerica Corp. to divest 58% of its ownership in
BankAmerica stock.
(SFC, 4/14/98, p.B1)
1937 The Old Mint stopped being an
actual mint and was just used for federal offices. It had once stored a
third of the nation’s gold supply. The new mint opened on upper Market
near the Castro District.
(SFC, 8/2/01, p.A14)(SSFC, 1/28/03, p.E6)
1937 Edwin Atherton, a former FBI
agent, was hired by SF to look into police graft and corruption. He
found so much that hundreds of officers were reassigned and more than a
dozen were fired or resigned.
(SSFC, 12/11/05, p.A10)
1937 In San Francisco George K.
and Leo Whitney purchased the vacant Cliff House and turned it into a
popular restaurant.
(SFC, 10/19/02, p.A21)
1937 Ante “Tony” Rodin (1913-2006)
and 2 partners purchased the Golden Pines restaurant at 144 Taylor St.
and renamed it Original Joe’s.
(SSFC, 3/12/06, p.B6)
1937 The 1907 Del Monte cannery on
Jefferson St. closed. In 1963 Leonard Martin (d.2002 at 81) acquired
the building and converted it to a shopping complex.
(SFC, 1/29/02, p.A17)
1937 Joe DiMaggio, baseball star,
bought a 2-story house at 2150 Beach St. in the Marina for $14,600. In
1999 the house listed for $1.4 million.
(SFEC, 6/13/99, p.D1)
1937 The ship Frank H. Buck sank
and is visible from between Point Vista and the Palace of the Legion of
Honor.
(G, Winter 96/97, p.3)
1938 Jul 5, The Herb Caen column
"It’s New to Me" had its debut.
(SFEC, 2/2/97, p.A12)
1938 Sep 16, Cal Gov. Frank
Merriam rode a ceremonial test Key Route train across the Bay Bridge.
(SFC, 9/4/98, p.S25)
1938 Willam Christensen (d.2001 at
99) became master of the SF Opera Ballet. He purchased it from the
opera in 1942 and changed the name to the SF Ballet. The SF Ballet had
begun as a wing of the opera but staged its own programs under
balletmasters Adolph Bolm and Serge Oukrainsky. Christensen returned to
Utah in 1951.
(SFEC, 11/24/96, DB p.44)(SFEC, 8/10/97, p.B9)(SFC,
10/16/01, p.B2)
1938 Strybing Arboretum was
constructed in Goldengate Park. The California Academy of Sciences
acquired a lungfish, Neoceratodus forsteri, for the aquarium. In 1988
it was named Methuselah to mark its 50th year in the tank.
(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A7)(SFC, 11/19/03, p.A27)
1938 The SF Archdiocese purchased
an old Victorian home at Bush and Lyon and converted it to the St.
Benedict Western Addition church for black Catholics. In 1962 it became
a special parish for the deaf and hearing-impaired. It was later
converted to townhouses.
(SFEC, 3/2/97, z1 p.7)
1938 Rosalie Meyer Stern founded
the free concert festivals at Stern Grove in San Francisco.
(SFC, 6/14/96, p. C1)(SFEM, 6/15/97, p.2)
1938 The Mission Reds ball team
left Seal Stadium to become the Pacific Coast League’s Hollywood Stars.
(SFEC,12/797, Z1 p.4)
1938 The SF Board of Supervisors
created the SF Housing Authority as a quasi-federal agency to manage
public housing developments in SF and federal rent voucher subsidies.
(SFC, 6/6/06, p.B1)
1938 The SF Downtown Association
created a 49 Mile Scenic Drive to highlight the city as a business and
tourist destination.
(SFC, 8/15/03, p.E1)
1938 The Union Square Garage Corp.
was formed to build a garage under Union Square.
(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.F2)
1938 Ben Sears, a retired circus
clown, and his wife, Hilbur, opened Sears Fine Food at Powell and
Sutter. They featured pancakes based on an inherited Swedish recipe.
The restaurant closed in late 2003.
(SFC, 12/25/03, p.A6)
1938-1992 Mobil Oil operated a fueling facility at
San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf during this period. In 2008 the city
sued Exxon-Mobil to force a cleanup of the site and pay damages and
attorney fees.
(WSJ, 6/20/08, p.B3)
1939 Jan 7, Tom Mooney
(1882-1942), California imprisoned labor leader, was pardoned by newly
elected Democratic Governor Culbert Olson (1876-1962). Mooney had been
convicted and imprisoned for over 22 years for the SF Preparedness Day
Bombing of 1916.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Mooney)(www.atheists.org/Atheism/roots/olson/)
1939 Jan 15, The orange Key System
trains began running across the lower deck of the Bay Bridge. The Key
System of trolley lines had been consolidated earlier by Francis Marion
"Borax" Smith.
(SFC, 8/10/98, p.A5)(SFC, 11/6/98, p.D5)
1939 Feb 18, The Golden Gate
International Exposition opened on Treasure Island in the SF Bay.
(HN, 2/18/98)(SFC, 2/18/99, p.D10)
1939 Oct, Joe DiMaggio (25)
married film actress Dorothy Arnold (21) at Saints Peter and Paul
Cathedral in San Francisco. Dorothy, formerly Dorothy Arnoldine Olson,
was from Duluth, Minn. They divorced in 1944.
(CHA, 1/2001)
1939 Sargent Johnson (1888-1967),
African-American artist in SF, made his glazed ceramic "Hippopotamus."
(SFEC, 4/12/98, DB p.43)
1939 Jacques Schnier, sculptor,
designed artworks for the world’s fair on Treasure Island.
(SFC, 10/17/98, p.C2)
1939 Sergei Rachmaninoff appeared
with the SF Symphony playing his "Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor"
under Pierre Montieux.
(SFEC, 8/17/97, DB p.35,36)
1939 In SF a new bathhouse and
public space was built at Aquatic Park as part of a WPA project. The
Streamline Moderne design resembled a ship in its dock. It included a
mural by Hilaire Hiler depicting the underwater world of Atlantis. In
1951 it was converted into the SF Maritime Museum. Renovation of the
structure was completed in 2008.
(SFC, 6/21/06, p.B3)(SFC, 10/3/08, p.B7)
1939 The new SF Transbay Terminal,
designed by Timothy Pflueger, opened. It served as the port of entry
for electric-powered trains that went back and forth from the East Bay
on the lower deck of the Bay Bridge.
(SFC, 8/7/07, p.A6)
1939 Treasure Island was created
with 29.5 million cubic yards of sand and gravel. The 403-acre island
was built to host the Golden Gate Int’l. Exposition.
(SFC, 5/7/97, p.A15)(SFC, 5/9/97, p.E2)
1939 The GG Park Carousel was
moved to Treasure Island for the World’s Fair.
(SFC, 1/29/98, p.A20)
1939 The Bay Bridge was completed.
[see 1936]
(SFC, 5/19/96, Mag, p.11)
1939 The SF West Portal Branch
Library opened with funds from the WPA. It was remodeled in 2005.
(SFC, 5/6/05, p.F1)
1939 Ground was broken for the new
SF State College by Lake Merced, but construction was delayed by WW II.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, Z1 p.4)
1939 The Dahlia Garden was planted
in Goldengate Park.
(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A7)
1939 The Vagabonds opened a club
on Geary St. called the Vagabonds. They were founder Dominic Germano
(1913-1996), Al Torrieri, Attilio Risso (accordion) and Pete Peterson.
They were in the movie "The Spirit of Stanford."
(SFC, 8/23/96, p.A26)
1939 The Top of the Mark Nightclub
opened at the top of Mark Hopkins Hotel.
(SFEM, 11/24/96, p.13)
1939 Peter Macchiarini (d.2001),
jewelry designer, helped organize the 1st outdoor festival for artists
at the Ferry Building. He later helped develop the annual North Beach
street fair.
(SFC, 7/7/01, p.B2)
1939 Jerome Flax (d.1998 at 76)
founded Flax Art Materials.
(SFC, 7/30/98, p.B2)
1939 Dr. Meyer Friedman (d.2001 at
90) founded the Harold Brunn Institute for Cardiovascular Research at
Mt. Zion Hospital. He and Dr. Ray H. Rosenman coined the term "Type A"
to describe personalities with high-stress lifestyles.
(SSFC, 4/29/01, p.A26)
1939 The Chinatown professional
basketball team, called the Hong Wah Kues (brave Chinese Warriors),
went on national tour under the organization of James W. Porter. The
team split 2 games with the House of David, a Jewish team who all wore
long beards, and lost to the Harlem Globetrotters. Their overall record
was 56 wins and 21 losses. After the war an amateur team called the SF
Saints was organized and played in the state-wide Amateur Athletic
Union league. In 1956 the team took a State Dept. playing tour of Asia.
(SFC, 5/28/99, p.A26)
1939 Charlie Low hired Ngun Yee
(d.2003) to dance at the new Forbidden City nightclub at 3623 Sutter
St. Yee changed her name to Noel Toy and became the 1st Chinese
American fan dancer.
(SFC, 1/23/04, p.A21)
1939 The US 76th Congress
purchased 47 acres for $3.9 million at Hunters Point, SF. In 1941 it
was acquired by the US Navy. 500 more acres were soon added to build
and support ships.
(SFC, 4/8/05, p.F2)
1939 The deportation trial of
Harry Bridges, leader of the ILWU, was held on Angel Island.
(SFC, 3/6/99, p.A21)
1939 PG&E signed a contract
with SF and Oakland for a .5% franchise fee to use city property to
deliver power to customers. A 1-time payment of $200,000 helped secure
the contract.
(SFC, 1/7/05, p.B4)
1939 The building that had housed
St. Catherine's Home and Industrial School on Potrero St., closed in
1932, was torn down. A grotto of Mary remained.
(SSFC, 8/24/03, p.A27)
1939-1940 The Golden Gate Int’l. Exposition was held
on Treasure Island. It featured the Tower of the Sun, the height of a
40-story building, and the immense statue of Pacifica.
(SFC, 5/7/97, p.A15)
1940 Nov 27, Bruce Lee, [Lee Yuen
Kam], karate star and actor (Green Hornet), was born in SF, Calif.
(MC, 11/27/01)
1940 The SF Ballet staged the
first US full-length "Swan Lake."
(SFEC, 8/17/97, DB p.36)
1940 Jussi Bjoerling made his SF
Opera debut in "La Boheme," and his first performance anywhere in "Un
Ballo in Maschera."
(SFEC, 8/17/97, DB p.36)
1940 The SF Opera staged "Der
Rosenkavalier" with Lotte Lehmann, Rise Stevens, Alexander Kipnis, with
Erich Leinsdorf conducting.
(SFEC, 8/17/97, DB p.36)
1940 The public library in Bernal
Heights was built with federal job creation funds.
(SFC, 2/11/05, p.F1)
1940 The Bay View Boat Club was
founded in Hunters Point, SF. In 1964 members moved their building on
Innes Ave. by barge to the Mission Rock area, where land was leased
from the city.
(SFC, 10/7/05, p.B5)
1940 Thomas Chinn founded the
Chinese News in San Francisco, the first English language weekly for
Chinese Americans, which he published and edited.
(SFC, 9/16/97, p.A18)
1940 In the San Francisco Bay to
Breakers race Bobbie Burke ran disguised as a man because women weren’t
allowed to participate.
(SFC, 9/19/96, p.A17)
1940 Gov. Earl Warren of
California signed a $2 million appropriation for Moffitt Hospital, a
teaching facility in San Francisco. It was completed 16 years later at
a cost of $24 million.
(SFC, 5/12/96, p.A-10)
1940 C.B. Johnson (1914-1996),
Bernal Heights sculptor and a founding member of the Artist’s
Cooperative on Union St., decided to marry Louisa Saiki, but their
marriage was forbidden by California law. They went to Washington state
to be wed.
(SFC, 8/13/96, p.A20)
1940 Modernists Bob Anshen and
Steve Allen founded their Anshen + Allen architectural firm. They
specialized in residential architecture and designed the Eichler homes
in 1949.
(SFEM, 2/22/98, p.22)(SFC, 9/29/99, Z1 p.7)
1940 Ed Gaffney, democrat house
painter, was elected to the State Assembly from the Irish SF Castro
district.
(SFEM, 11/17/96, p.12)
1940 Attorney Alfred Fuhrman
bequeathed SF an oil field near Bakersfield that earned over $400,000 a
year to help support GG Park and the SF Public Library.
(SFC, 2/13/98, p.A23)
1940 There was a one day garbage
strike.
(SFEC, 4/27/97, p.A15)
1940 Larry Ching (d.2003 at 82), a
singing bartender at the Chinese Village, was hired by Charlie Low to
perform at the Forbidden City, which folded 1961. Low was dubbed "the
Chinese Frank Sinatra."
(SFC, 7/7/03, p.B4)
1940 Oct 6, The new Fleishhacker
Zoo opened.
(SFC, 7/30/04, p.E15)
1940-1947 Charles Dullea served as the chief of
police of SF.
(SSFC, 6/13/04, p.B7)
1940s Anthony Boucher was a
mystery reviewer for the SF Chronicle under his book editor Joseph
Henry Jackson. Boucher moved on to write the "Criminals at Large"
column in the New York Times in the 1950s.
(SFEC,10/26/97, BR p.2)
1940s The SF Lakeside area was
developed by the Stoneson brothers. It was bordered by 19th Ave. to the
west, Junipero Serra to the east, Holloway Ave. at the bottom and Ocean
at the top.
(SFCM, 2/07/04, p.4)
c1940-1972 In SF Laughing Sal towered above the
entrance to the Funhouse at Playland-at-the-Beach. She had been
initially constructed by the Old King Cole papier-mache company under
commission to the Philadelphia Toboggan Co. as a department store Santa
Claus.
(SSFC, 7/3/05, p.F6)
1941 Apr 2, USS Hornet with Jimmy
Doolittle's B-25s departed from SF.
(MC, 4/2/02)
1941 Nov 15, Cow Palace opened in
San Francisco.
(MC, 11/15/01)
1941 Roman Cycowski, former singer
in the popular European group, Comedian Harmonists, took up a job as
cantor of the Beth Israel Temple in SF and served for 25 years.
(WSJ, 2/5/98, p.A20)
1941 In San Francisco a building
opened on western Taraval near Ocean Beach. It was initially a bait
shop that connected to a bar called the Oar House, surrounded by empty
streets and sand dunes. It later became known as the Riptide
neighborhood bar.
(SSFC, 12/7/08, p.A2)
1941 Construction began on the
Union Square Garage, the 1st underground parking facility and air-raid
shelter.
(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.F2)
1941 The US Navy took over
Treasure Island.
(SFC, 5/9/97, p.A28)
1941 Audley Cole became the first
black operator hired by Muni. One of his co-workers was beaten for
trying to train him.
(SFC, 10/6/99, p.A4)
1941 Sam Mooshei opened the
Persian Aub Zam Zam bar on Haight St.
(SSFC, 12/3/00, p.A24)
1941-1942 The Sunnydale project near McLaren Park
opened as a development restricted to whites. It was integrated after a
few years. In 1999 80% of the 3,000 residents were African Americans.
(SFEC, 6/27/99, p.D4)
1941-1945 Henry Doelger offered his services to the
Army Corp. of Engineers. He was assigned to build defense housing in
the Bay Area and built some 3,000 units in Oakland and South San
Francisco.
(GTP, 1973, p.108)
1941-1945 Industrialist Henry J. Kaiser, who helped
build the Hoover and Grand Coulee dams, established bay area ship yards
that were able to launch a "Liberty Ship" every 24 hours. He expanded a
health plan begun on his earlier dam projects that grew to become
Kaiser Permanente, the world’s largest health maintenance organization.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W31)
1941-1974 Hunters Point Shipyard was a major repair
and dry-dock facility for destroyers, frigates and other warships. The
work left hazardous materials such as lead, nickel, cadmium, asbestos
and PCBs in the soil, groundwater and structures.
(SFC, 1/15/98, p.A17)
1942 Sep 12, Mayor Angelo Rossi
presided over dedication ceremonies for the redesigned Union Square and
underground garage.
(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.F2)
1942 Sep 27, The S.S. Stephen
Hopkins, a Liberty Ship with an all-San Francisco crew, engaged the
German raider Stier and her tender, Tannenfels. It shelled and brought
down the Stier and hit the Tannenfels before it was sunk. Of a crew of
58, only 15 survived. They reached the shore of Brazil after a 31-day
voyage in an open lifeboat.
(SFC, 9/27/96, p.B1)
1942 Pianist Leon Fleischer at age
17 made his professional debut with the SF Symphony.
(SFEC, 8/17/97, DB p.36)
1942 The SF Opera severed
relations with the SF Ballet. The Ballet School was sold to Willam and
Harold Christensen and the Ballet Guild was created to support the SF
Ballet.
(SFEC, 8/10/97, p.B9)
1942 Union Square was renovated to
include an underground parking garage.
(SFC, 7/24/97, p.A1)
1942 The Spanish style St. Gabriel
Church in the Outer Sunset opened.
(SFC, 4/23/98, p.A19)
1942 The first SF Sport and Boat
Show was held at Cow Palace.
(SFEM, 1/11/98, p.2)
1942 Mark Pommon built Tower
Market and its Art Deco spire at 634 Portola on Twin Peaks. He owned
and operated the market for 55 years. His son, Daniel Mark Pommon
(d.1997 at 79), took over when he died in 1953.
(SFC, 9/3/97, p.A20)
1942 The Rhododendrun Dell was
started in Goldengate Park.
(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A7)
1942 The SF City Planning Dept.
was created.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A27)
1942 SF held 8 State Assembly
seats.
(SFEM, 11/17/96, p.12)
1942 Passenger service on the
Southern Pacific horseshoe line, through Brisbane, South San Francisco,
Daly City and back to SF, ceased.
(GTP, 1973, p.73)
1942 The founders of Wing Nien
dubbed their soy sauce Longevity. It was 1st fermented in the basement
of an old bank in San Francisco's Chinatown.
(SFC, 10/11/03, p.B1)
1942-1993 Mario Mondin (d.2000 at 87) operated the
Blue Fox restaurant at 659 Merchant St.
(SFC, 3/28/00, p.E2)
1943 A UN concert was presented by
the SF CIO and featured Paul Robeson.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, DB p.23)
1943 The Main Library of San
Francisco reached full capacity.
(SFC, 4/14/96, EM, p.22)
1943 SF’s Fillmore merchants voted
to melt down the 14 cast-iron arches that spanned Fillmore from Fulton
to California streets to support the war effort.
(SFCM, 7/18/04, p.8)
1943 John Brucato set up a produce
market at Duboce and Market for small farmers in the local area. In
1947 the market was moved to Alemany and Crescent at the junction of
Highway 101 and 280.
(SFC, 1/14/98, Z1 p.8)
1943 Three limited tenure black
police officers were hired for the first time to serve during World War
II. Walter Ervin Threadgill (d.1997 at 86) was one of 3 African
Americans to enter the recruiting class.
(SFC, 10/7/97, p.A23)
1943 Paul Fagan, the wealthy San
Francisco businessman, shipped a herd of Hereford cattle to Hana on the
island of Maui, Hawaii. He owned the San Francisco Seals of the pacific
Coast League.
(SFEC, 9/8/96, p.T8)
1943 Golden Gate Park
Superintendent John McLaren died at age 96. He had ruled the park for
over 5 decades. The 318-acre park between the Excelsior and Visitacion
Valley was later named in his honor.
(SFC, 7/28/97, p.A8)(SFC, 2/7/98, p.A15)
1943-1947 A city-owned Farmers Market operated at a
site on Market and Duboce.
(SFC, 4/9/04, p.F10)
1943-1948 Roger D. Lapham served as the mayor of SF.
(SFC, 1/6/00, p.C2)
1944 Dec 24, The SF Ballet staged
the first US full-length "Nutcracker." Gisella Caccialana Christensen
(d.1998) was the lead dancer at the SF Opera House. Her brother-in-law,
William Christensen, developed the production on a $1,000 budget.
(SFEC, 11/24/96, DB p.44)(SFEC, 8/17/97, DB p.37)
1944 In SF Thomas C. Fleming
(1907-2006) co-founded the weekly Reporter with the owner of several
underground gambling clubs. It later merged with the Sun to become the
premier African-American newspaper of SF.
(SFEC, 8/9/98, p.D5)(SFEC, 1/31/99, DB p.29)(SFC,
11/23/06, p.B6)
1944 Sue Bailey Thurman
(1903-1996) and her husband, Dr. Alfred Fisk, pioneered the SF Church
for the Fellowship of All Peoples on Larkin St. It was the first
interracial, nondenominational church in the US. To commemorate
California’s 100th anniversary as a state Ms. Bailey wrote a series of
pieces about important black figures in the SF Sun-Reporter. They were
later published as a pamphlet called "California Pioneers of Negro
Origin." Ms. Thurman was a onetime advisor to Mahatma Gandhi.
(SFC, 12/28/96, p.A24) (SFC, 1/3/97, p.A28)
1944 The Show Folks of America,
founded by Samuel Cohn, was chartered in SF and Mary Ragan was made the
first president. It was modeled after a sister club in Chicago called
the Showmen's League of America, whose first president, Wild Bill Cody,
wanted to promote fellowship among colleagues in traveling shows. In
1999 the group planned to move to Stockton due to high SF costs.
(SFEC, 2/14/99, DB p.36)
1944 The SF Municipal Railway
(Muni) took over the operations of the Market Street Railway, the last
privately owned transit system in the city. The fare was 7 cents.
(SFC, 10/6/99, p.A4)(SFC, 4/20/01, WBb p.7)
1944-1945 Leonard Bernstein made his SF Symphony
debut.
(SFEC, 8/17/97, DB p.37)
1945 Feb 12, Mayor Roger Lapham
was informed by Washington that SF was chosen as the site of the
Founding Conference of the UN.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W39)
1945 Mar 31, The U.S. and Britain
barred a Soviet supported provisional regime in Warsaw from entering
the U.N. meeting in San Francisco.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1945 Apr 25,
Delegates from some 50 countries met in San Francisco to organize the
United Nations. Charles Easton Rothwell (d.1987) headed the 500-member
group that helped establish the UN Charter.
(AP, 4/25/97)(SFC, 8/14/04, p.B6)
1945 Apr 28, John F. Kennedy,
correspondent for the Hearst Newspapers, filed his 1st dispatch on the
founding of the UN in San Francisco.
(SSFC, 6/26/05, p.F1)
1945 May 4, John F. Kennedy,
correspondent for the Hearst Newspapers, filed a dispatch on the
founding of the UN in San Francisco in which he said: Any organization
drawn up here will be merely a skeleton. Its powers will be limited…
The hope is however, that this skeleton will put on flesh as time goes
by.
(SSFC, 6/26/05, p.F6)
1945 May 8, A spontaneous 3-day
street fete to mark the end of WW II left 11 celebrants slain and
thousands injured. Some 3,000 military troops were called in to restore
order.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, p.C3)
1945 Jun 26, The United Nations
Conference on International Organization (UNCIO) was held in San
Francisco. Officials gathered to draft a UN Charter, and 50 countries
signed the Charter on this date at what is now the Herbst Theater. This
signifies the birth of the UN. The Charter was drafted in the Garden
Room of the Fairmont Hotel.
(Park, Spring/95, p.2)(AP, 6/26/97)(SSFC, 2/4/07,
p.F1)
1945 Jul 16, Cruiser Indianapolis
left SF with an atom bomb.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1945 Aug 14, The V-J Grocery &
Delicatessen opened on Nob Hill at Clay and Taylor.
(SFCM, 6/10/01, p.24)
1945 Aug 15, A riot ensued in SF
while the city was celebrating the end of WW II. The riot left 11 dead
and some 1,000 people injured.
(SFC, 8/15/05, p.B1)
1945 Oct 24, At the San
Francisco Conference chaired by the State Department’s Alger Hiss, the
United Nations was born with the ratification of its charter by the
first 29 nations.
(CFA, '96, p.56)(TMC, 1994, p.1945)(AP,
10/24/97)(HN, 10/24/98)
1945 Jade Snow Wong (1922-2006),
SF ceramicist, authored “Fifth Chinese Daughter.” The book was made in
a PBS special in 1976.
(SSFC, 3/19/06, p.B7)
1945 A 1790 bronze Buddha, cast in
Japan, was donated by the Gump family to the city [in 1949]. It resides
in the Japanese Tea Garden and was in need of $81,000 worth of repairs.
(SFC, 12/30/96, p.A11)(SFC, 5/1/98, p.A26)
1945 The Tonga Room opened at the
Fairmont Hotel with the help of maitre d’ Robert Gee (1921-1997). The
Fairmont had been built by Hartland Law and was named after Senator
James G. Fair.
(SFC, 2/28/97, p.A24)(SFC, 9/4/99, p.A25)(SFEM,
10/31/99, p.27)
1945 Meredith Shattuck (1909-2005)
was hired to open and run Skateland at the Beach, a roller rink
adjacent to Playland at the Beach.
(SFC, 2/11/05, p.B7)
1945 J. Paul Leonard became the
4th president of SF State College.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, Z1 p.4)
1945 Florence Wysinger "Flo" Allen
(d.1997 at 84), legendary SF artist’s model, founded the Models Guild.
She was sketched, painted and sculpted by such artists as: Diego
Rivera, Mark Rothko, Elmer Bischoff, Hassel Smith, Roy De Forest, Ralph
Du Casse, Wayne Thiebaud, Eleanor Dickenson, Beth Van Heusen, Mark
Adams, Richard Shaw, Nathan Oliveira, Karl Kasten, Glenn Wessels, Helen
Salz, Art Grant, Joan Brown, Frank Lobdell and Bill Wiley.
(SFC, 6/18/97, p.A20)
1945 Steven Giraudo (d.1997 at
84), the "Sourdough King," bought the Boudin Sourdough Bakery. He
expanded the operation and sold the business in 1994.
(SFC, 10/8/97, p.A20)
1945 Joseph Alioto opened a
private antitrust practice in SF after serving in the antitrust
division of the Roosevelt Justice Dept. in Washington.
(SFC, 1/30/98, p.A10)
1945 Peter Haas Sr. joined Levi.
He later became president.
(SFC, 4/29/03, B1)
1945 Rev. Dositei Obradovich
(d.2001 at 84) started the St. John the Baptist Serbian Orthodox parish
and school.
(SFC, 2/24/01, p.A18)
1945-1950 Douglas McAgy directed the California
School of Fine Arts. It later was renamed the San Francisco Art
Institute.
(WSJ, 9/10/96, p.A16)
1945-1961 Katharine Hyde Williams (1910-2005) and her
husband Al Williams ran the Papagayo Room at the SF Fairmont Hotel.
(SFC, 9/10/05, p.B5)
1946 May 4, A two-day riot at
Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay ended after five people were
killed. Six inmates took 9 guards hostage. Inmate Joe Cretzer shot the
9 hostages but killed only one. He and 2 compeers were later shot and
killed. 2 inmates were executed for their part and one served out a
life sentence.
(AP, 5/4/97)(SFC, 8/11/97, p.A12)
1946 Sep 8, In San Francisco four
boys playing near the Paramount Theater found a package containing body
parts of Ramon Lopez (52), a flower dealer from San Leandro. Police
found 14 pairs of nylons at his room in the Mint Hotel. His skull was
found 18 years later at Hunters Point.
(SFC, 2/17/09, p.A11)
1946 New York School painter Mark
Rothko received his first one-man show at the SF Museum of Art.
(SFC,11/21/97, p.C1)
1946 Actress Mitzi Gaynor got her
start in San Francisco with the Civic Light Opera Company’s “Roberta.”
She went on to become a stage and screen star.
(SSFC, 6/29/08, DB p.58)
1946 Iwao Namekawa (d.1998 at 84)
helped found the Nichi Bei Times Japanese-English daily, a postwar
counterpart to the Nichi Bei Shimbun.
(SFC, 1/2/99, p.C2)
1946 Regina Resnik made her SF
Opera debut in "Fidelio."
(SFEC, 8/17/97, DB p.37)
1946 Paul Fagan opened the
six-room Kauiki Inn for his friends on the island of Maui. It was later
expanded and renamed the Hotel Hana-Maui. He then constructed a
ballpark in the center of Hana and brought over his baseball team for
spring training.
(SFEC, 9/8/96, p.T8)
1946 There was a recall attempt to
oust Mayor Roger Lapham after he raised bus fares from 7 cents to a
dime.
(SSFC, 8/10/03, p.D1)
c1946 After the war Henry Doelger
built some 3,000 homes in the Sunset and Richmond Districts.
(GTP, 1973, p.108)
1946 The Achenbach Foundation for
Graphic Arts was established as a gift to the city by Moore and Hazel
Achenbach. A 50 year anniversary was held in 1998 by the Fine Arts
Museums of SF. [see 1948]
(SFEC, 4/19/98, DB p.2)(SFEM, 5/17/98, p.6)
1946 Floyd Jennings built the
Camera Obscura at the Cliff House.
(SFEC, 6/6/99, p.A16)
1946 John Gutmann,
photojournalist, founded the photography department at SF State
College.
(SFC, 6/17/98, p.C4)
1946 A US Navy Radiological
Defense Laboratory decontamination center was established at the SF
naval shipyard Hunters Point.
(SFC, 4/8/05, p.F2)
1946 Thomas Edmund Cara opened the
first North Beach shop to sell espresso machines.
(SFC, 12/29/99, Z1 p.1)
1946 Lyle Tuttle (16) skipped
school in Ukiah and came to SF. He spent $4 on a hooker and $3.50 for a
tattoo. In 2002 Tuttle was recognized as "the granddaddy of modern
American tattooing."
(SSFC, 8/4/02, p.A23)
1946 The SF 49ers came to SF. They
celebrated a 50 year "Golden Gala" anniversary in 1996.
(SFC, 12/10/96, p.A1)
1947 Feb, Pres. Leonard and
students of SF State College met with Mayor Roger Lapham over the
city's opposition to a new campus. Henry and Ellis Stoneson owned
adjacent land and planned to build apartments and a shopping center.
The brothers persuaded the Board of Supervisors to oppose Leonard's
plan in Sacramento. The mayor rebuffed Leonard and the state defeated
an initial bill but appropriated money in a later bill.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, Z1 p.4)
1947 May 7, Nick DeJohn, former
capodecina in the Chicago Family, was strangled and his body stuffed
into the trunk of a car parked on a San Francisco street. DeJohn had
reportedly fled Chicago after murdering several other gang members and
was living in Santa Rosa, California, under an alias at the time of his
death.
(SFC, 2/8/06, p.B5)(http://tinyurl.com/8fjm7)
1947 Sep 2, Parking meters, the
first in the Bay Area, were set up on Polk St.
(SFEC, 5/16/99, Z1 p.4)
1947 Oct 16, Macy's bought the
O'Connor & Moffat store.
(SFEC, 5/16/99, Z1 p.4)
1947 Joseph Henry Jackson
published his popular collection of true crime stories: "San Francisco
Murders: From Barbary Coast to Knob Hill." Anthony Bucher was a key
contributor.
(SFEC,10/26/97, BR p.2)
1947 Dorothy Kirsten sang her
first "Louise."
(SFEC, 8/17/97, DB p.37)
1947 The film "Dark Passage" with
Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall was released. It was directed by
Delmer Davis and had been shot in the SF Bay Area.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, DB, p.39)
1947 The Marine’s Memorial Club
opened as the Roof Garden on the 12th floor at 608 Sutter.
(SFC, 3/28/01, Food p.5)
1947 The Venetian Room opened at
the SF Fairmont Hotel. It closed in 1989.
(SSFC, 2/4/07, p.F1)
1947 Rev. F.D. Haynes of the Third
Baptist Church became the first black person in the city’s history to
run for the Board of Supervisors. He amassed 60,000 votes but lost the
election.
(SFC, 5/17/96, p.A-25)
1947 Richard Finis became the
first full-time black police officer in SF.
(SFC, 10/7/97, p.A23)
1947 Alice Leigh Coldwell (d.1999
at 104) and Carter Dowling founded the animal shelter Pets Unlimited.
(SFC, 12/13/99, p.A26)
1947 Gladys Sargent (1900-1996)
formed Pets and Pals, a non-profit animal protective society that went
nationwide.
(SFC, 10/1/96, p.A24)
1947 V.M. Hanks (d.1997 at 76),
press and commercial photographer and descendant of Abraham Lincoln,
moved to SF and for the next 4 decades served as a visual diarist for
the city.
(SFC, 7/12/97, p.A21)
1947 Hal Lipset (d.1997 at 78)
opened his own detective office in SF and became a premiere man in the
field. He founded the World Association of Detectives.
(SFC,12/9/97, p.A21)
1947 Friedel Klussmann a Telegraph
Hill matron, founded San Francisco Beautiful, a group of volunteers
devoted to the city’s betterment.
(SFC, 10/8/97, p.A18)
1947 Albert Pollack became a
partner in the Almond Blossom coffee shop on Van Ness. In 1951 it was
transformed to Tommy's.
(SFC, 3/10/99, p.A24)
1947 The farmer’s produce market
at Duboce and Market, set up by John Brucato in 1943 for small farmers
in the local area, was moved to Alemany and Crescent at the junction of
Highway 101 and 280.
(SFC, 1/14/98, Z1 p.8)
1947 Under Mayor Roger Lapham the
cable car system was slated to be junked until Friedel Klussmann
(d.1986 at 80), led a group of women to preserve the system and won a
battle to preserve half the system. She formed the Citizens Committee
to Save Cable Cars and stopped the city from junking the whole system.
(SFC, 12/2/97, p.A16)(SFC, 8/1/98, p.A16)
1947-1948 John Grillo, SF artist, made a series of
watercolors. He was an important member of the Bay Area’s early
Abstract Expressionist movement.
(SFEM, 3/8/98, p.8)
1947-1953 Arthur H. Connolly Jr. (1911-196)
represented SF as a Republican assemblyman from the 21st district which
included the Marina and Pacific Heights. He was followed by Caspar
Weinberger.
(SFC, 8/30/96, p.E5)
1947-1964 Father William Monihan (1915-1996), Jesuit,
supervised the construction of the Gleeson Library at the Univ. of San
Francisco and then served as chief librarian over this period.
(SFC, 6/22/96, p.A21)
1948 Jan 16, The SF Foundation was
established under the leadership of Daniel E. Koshland of Levi Strauss.
It was set up to make the most of charitable donations, getting them
into sound investments and selecting worthwhile projects. The first
$4,500 grant went to the May T. Morrison Center and helped open a
speech therapy clinic.
(SFC, 1/28/98, p.A16)
1948 May 25, KPIX went on the air
as the first TV station in Northern Ca.
(SFEC, 5/16/99, Z1 p.4)
1948 Jun, Blanco’s Cotton Club
under Barney Deasy opened at what is now The Great American Music Hall.
It was intended to be a fancy nightspot with only black artists and
black workers, but open to the public. It opened with a big splash but
only lasted a few months due to price increases for large orchestras.
(SFEC, 2/8/98, DB p.34)
1948 Jul 28, Milton Van Noland
began a long stint as a flagpole sitter at Horsetrader Ed's used car
lot on Van Ness.
(SFEC, 5/16/99, Z1 p.4)
1948 Oct 31, Halloween in the
Castro District of SF began as a children’s costume contest at Cliff’s
Variety store.
(SFC, 11/3/06, p.B7)
1948 Herb Caen, newspaper
columnist, wrote his 1st book "The San Francisco Book."
(SFEC, 2/2/97, p.A13)
1948 The film "I Remember Mama"
with Irene Dunne and Barbara Bel Geddes was released. It was directed
by George Stevens and had been shot in the SF Bay Area.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, DB, p.39)
1948 The film "Lady From Shanghai"
with Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth was released. It was directed by
Orson Welles and had been shot in the SF Bay Area. Rita Hayworth was
born Margarita Cansino and began her show career flamenco dancing with
her father, Eduardo.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, DB, p.39)
1948 Henry and Ellis Stoneson
began construction of the SF Stonestown shopping Center.
(Ind, 11/30/02, 5A)
1948 Frank Lloyd Wright designed
the V.C. Morris Gift Shop at 140 Maiden lane.
(SFEC, 11/8/98, DB p.49)
1948 The Achenbach Foundation for
Graphic Arts was established as a gift to the city by Moore and Hazel
Achenbach. A 50 year anniversary was held in 1998 by the Fine Arts
Museums of SF. [see 1946]
(SFEC, 4/19/98, DB p.2)(SFEM, 5/17/98, p.6)
1948 The SF Boys Choir was founded.
(SFEC, 5/11/97, DB p.23)
1948 Dave Rothkop founded the SF
Folk Club.
(SFC, 9/30/02, p.A14)
1948 The Say When Club on Bush St.
opened. Charlie Parker and Billie Holiday later performed there. On
Geary St. Ciro’s club also opened featuring black artists.
(SFEC, 2/8/98, DB p.35)
1948 Pacific Discovery Magazine
was begun by the California Academy of Sciences under the direction of
A. Starker Leopold.
(PacDisc, Spring ‘96, p.2)
1948 Stephen S. Lombardi opened
his Park Presidio Sporting Goods store. It was later renamed Lombardi
Sports and grew to become the largest sporting goods store in SF.
(SFC, 4/4/98, p.D1)
1948 Joseph Alioto was appointed
to the SF school board.
(SFC, 1/30/98, p.A10)
1948 Dr. Carlton Goodlett
(1915-1997) joined Dr. Daniel A. Collins as owners of the Reporter, a
community weekly. They then absorbed their competitor, the Sun, to
become the Sun-Reporter.
(SFC, 1/27/97, p.A20)(SFC, 2/6/97, p.C4)
1948 In San Francisco the new I.
Magnin store at Geary and Stockton opened. It was designed by Timothy
Flueger.
(SSFC, 12/31/06, p.E5)
1948 Earle Swenson opened his 1st
ice cream store at Hyde and Union streets in SF. In 1980 Swenson’s Ice
Cream Co. was sold to Red River Resources of Phoenix.
(SFC, 2/4/05, p.F9)
1948 In San Francisco the Pacific
Coast’s first cancer ward opened at Laguna Honda Home. Patients were
made available for experimental research.
(SFC, 8/26/08, p.B5)
1948-1950 Claire Falkenstein (1908-1997), sculptor
and painter, taught at the California School of Fine Arts.
(SFC,10/24/97, p.A22)
1948-1954 The Park Merced complex, a 13-tower
120-acre development, was built in SF.
(www.cityfeet.com/News/NewsArticle.aspx?PartnerPath=&Id=14379)
1948-1956 Elmer Robinson served as mayor of SF.
(SFC, 12/4/04, p.B7)
1949 Jan 22, Police broke into Rm.
203 of the Mark Twain Hotel in San Francisco and arrested Billie
Holiday (1915-1959) and her manager, John Levy, on charges of
possession of opium. Her defense attorney, Jake Erlich, fingered Levy
as an informer and persuaded the jury to return a verdict of not guilty.
(SFC, 5/19/96, DB,
p.39)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billie_Holiday)
1949 Jan, Electric trolley service
from SF to San Mateo ended.
(Ind, 1/9/98, p.5A)
1949 Oct 6, American-born Iva
Toguri D'Aquino, convicted of being Japanese wartime broadcaster Tokyo
Rose, was sentenced in San Francisco to 10 years in prison and fined
$10,000. She ended up serving more than six years. In 1976 she
requested a presidential pardon.
(SFC, 11/16/01, WB p.G4)(AP, 10/6/06)
1949 Oct 14, Pat Valentino
(1920-2008), SF boxer, was knocked out by Ezzard Charles in the 8th
round at the Cow Palace in a boxing heavy-weight match before a crowd
of 19,950.
(SFC, 8/8/08, p.B5)
1949 Nov 2, The 1,350 seat Coronet
Theater in SF, Ca., opened with "I was a Male War Bride." Tickets were
50 cents. In 2000 it was sold to the Goldman Institute on Aging and
scheduled for demolition. The last film was scheduled for Feb 13, 2005.
(SFC, 12/1/99, p.E1)(SFC, 7/22/00, p.E1)(SFC,
2/4/05, p.B4)
1949 Jack Jefferson (d.2000 79)
held his 1st one-person exhibition at the new Metart Gallery, founded
by students of painter Clyfford Still.
(SFC, 11/13/00, p.A24)
1949 Herb Caen published his
successful "Baghdad-by-the-Bay." It went through 7 printings.
(SFEC, 2/2/97, p.A12)
1949 KRON-TV began broadcasting.
(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A8)
1949 In SF the V.C. Morris Gift
Shop at 140 Maiden Lane was converted to the 2-story Circle Gallery
Building by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. In 1979 it became the Xanadu
Gallery.
(SSFC, 5/17/09, p.B2)
1949 The military service Golden
Gate Club was built in the Presidio in a Spanish Colonial Revival style.
(G, Summer ‘97, p.1)
1949 The first prototype Eichler
homes were built in the Bay Area. Later designs were done by the SF
firm of Claude Oakland & Assoc. Architect Robert Anshen, a disciple
of Frank Lloyd Wright, designed the initial homes for developer Joseph
Eichler.
(SFC, 7/17/96, z-1, p.1,6)(G, Summer ‘97, p.1)(SFC,
9/29/99, Z1 p.7)
1949 A Pitch and Put Golf Course
was laid out in Goldengate Park.
(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A7)
1949 Under the direction of mayor
Roger Lapham the city’s recreation and park departments were merged.
(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A5)
1949 George Christopher
(1907-2000) was re-elected as a supervisor and became president of the
Board.
(SFC, 9/15/00, p.A19)
1949 In SF Eric Nord opened a bar
in a cellar of the Sentinel Building at Columbus and Kearny and named
it the hungry i. The i stood for id. In 1951 he sold it to Enrico
Banducci.
(SFC, 4/4/07, p.E3)
1949 Grace Marchant (D.1982) began
her garden project on Telegraph Hill.
(SFC, 5/11/99, p.A15)
1949 SF State College began
offering master's degrees.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, Z1 p.4)
1949 Edward Goodman (d.1990)
founded his Goodman Lumber Co. A family dispute led to the store’s
closure in 2000.
(SFC, 4/13/00, p.D1)
1949 Amadeo Peter Giannini,
founder of the Bank of America, died. [2nd source says 1947]
(SFC,12/23/97, p.A13)(SFC, 4/14/98, p.B4)
1950 Apr 1, The SF population was
775,357. The census later said 4 of 10 people in SF owned their own
homes with a median value of $11,930. The average SF adult completed
11.7 years of school and over 19% went on to college.
(SFC, 12/28/01, WB p.G7)(SFC, 1/31/03, p.E4)
1950 Oct, Franciscan Friar Alfred
Boeddeker founded St. Anthony’s Dining Room in San Francisco to feed
the poor and luckless. He started from St. Boniface Church on Jones St.
in the Tenderloin with 350 meals a day. In 1953 his organization
acquired a farm in Sonoma County for therapeutic discourse and physical
work.
(SFC, 5/23/96, p.A24)(SFC, 1/7/05, p.B1)
1950 The Achenbach Collection,
more than 70,000 prints, drawings and watercolors, was acquired by the
Legion of Honor Museum.
(WSJ, 11/16/95, p.A-18)
1950 Renata Tebaldi and Mario del
Monaco made their US debut with the SF Opera in "Aida."
(SFEC, 8/17/97, DB p.37)
1950 Madeleine Haas Russell
(d.1999 at 84) replaced her grandfather's brick mansion in Presidio
Heights with a Bauhaus-style structure designed by Erich Mendelsohn and
nicknamed "Fort Russell."
(SFC, 4/7/99, p.A19)
1950 Jimbo’s Bop City, an
after-hours club, opened on Post St. Players such as Art Tatum, Dizzy
Gillespie, and Gerry Mulligan played there.
(SFEC, 2/8/98, DB p.35)
1950 Herb Caen quit the SF
Chronicle and joined the rival SF Examiner where he stayed until 1958.
He also wrote his 3rd book "Baghdad 1951."
(SFEC, 2/2/97,
p.A12,13)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herb_Caen)
1950 Jack Falvey (d.1998 at 84)
opened Hippopotamus Hamburgers at Van Ness and Pacific. It closed in
1987. He also operated the Monkey Inn sawdust beer joint and the
Crocodile Casbah saloon near the Hippo.
(SFC, 5/18/98, p.A22)
1950 The Mattachine Society, the
first openly gay organization in the US, was founded in Los Angeles.
Henry Hay (d.2002 at 90) was one of the original founders and won the
1999 vote to serve as grand marshal for the SF Pride Parade. In 1990
Stuart Timmons authored the biography "The Trouble with Harry Hay."
(SFEC, 6/13/99, DB p.35)(SFC, 10/25/02, p.A21)
1950 The National Maritime Museum
in San Francisco was founded by newspaper editor Scott Newhall. The
Maritime Museum at the foot of Polk St. was conceived and developed by
Karl Kortum (1917-1996), considered a leading exponent and expert on
historic craft preservation. The model ship collection of Alma
Sprechels began the endeavor. She provided money and encouragement to
young Kortum and lodging in her home.
(SFC, 5/28/96, p.A15)(SFC, 9/13/96, p.E2)(SFC,
10/10/96, p.A22)(SFC, 10/17/96, C2)
1950 The SF 49ers football team,
under owner Tony Morabito, played their first season in the NFL and won
3 games.
(SFEM, 1/4/98, p.8,10)
1950 Fred and Rose Evangelisti
(d.1998 at 90) opened the Pistola Saloon on Powell St. In 1973 she
retired and the saloon became the Washington Square Bar and Grill. Fred
won Rose in a liar’s dice game.
(SFC, 9/15/98, p.A22)(SFC, 2/5/02, p.A19)
1950 Donato Rossi (1931-2005) and
some partners purchased the Gino and Carlo bar at 548 Green St. in San
Francisco’s North Beach. He retired in 1990.
(SFC, 8/16/05, p.B5)
1950 A secret Army experiment
spread the Serratia marcescens bacteria onto the city from a mine
laying ship on the bay for 6 days. The bacteria was thought to be
harmless, but the germs sent 11 people to hospitals and killed one
person, Edward J. Nevin, from a heart infection. In 1977 Senate
subcommittee hearings the Army revealed that it had staged the mock
biological attack.
(SFC, 2/21/98, p.A15)(WSJ, 10/22/01, p.A1)
1950 In San Francisco Laguna Honda
Hospital added a rehabilitation program to help disabled people of all
ages enjoy more active, fulfilling lives.
(SFC, 8/26/08, p.B5)
1950s The noisy pile driver known
as "Alfred the Monster" was brought into the city to build the
foundations of the Bank of America building by civil engineer Charles
Graff (d.1997 at 86). Alfred was buried at sea upon completion of the
job.
(SFC, 6/9/97, p.A17)
1950s Part of Edgehill Mountain
was an active rock quarry until this time. As the quarry work died
down, developers began building homes.
(SFC, 1/17/96, p.A14)
1950s Louis Lurie, real estate
tycoon, held daily court at Jack’s restaurant.
(SFC, 12/31/96, p.B1)
1951 Feb 1, The city’s 3,300
public school teachers requested a $50 per month salary increase. The
$3,000 annual minimum was too low for a decent, independent life.
(SFC, 1/26/01, WBb p.4)
1951 Mar 16, Over 60,000 gathered
to watch the St. Patrick’s Day parade.
(SFC, 3/16/01, WBb p.4)
1951 Apr 5, In San Francisco the
first fully separate food section made its Chronicle debut.
(SSFC, 6/7/09, p.W3)
1951 Apr 14, SF lost phone service
for almost an hour when the city’s 5 main exchanges mysteriously went
dead. Chief Switchman C.H. Schiller attributed the trouble to a loose
connection in the ringing leads.
(SFC, 4/13/01, WBb p.3)
1951 Apr 17, The SF Board of
Supervisors voted 9-2 to add fluoride to a portion of the water supply
to help prevent tooth decay.
(SFC, 4/13/01, WBb p.3)
1951 Apr 18, Gen'l. Douglas
MacArthur rode up Market St. in triumph after being fired from his Far
East commands by Pres. Harry Truman.
(SFEC, 5/16/99, Z1 p.4)(SFC, 4/13/01, WBb p.3)
1951 Apr 24, Louis E. Wolcher,
local pinball king and once known as the "liquor baron of SF," went on
trial for evading $30,000 in income taxes.
(SFC, 4/20/01, WBb p.7)
1951 Apr 30, State Attorney Gen’l.
Edmund G. Brown released a report on the sudden growth in bookmaking,
gambling, and prostitution in SF.
(SFC, 4/27/01, Wba p.8)
1951 May 5, A Federal Court jury
convicted pinball king Louis E. Wolcher of tax fraud for dodging 30,000
in income taxes.
(SFC, 5/4/01, WBb p.3)
1951 May 18, National union
officials ordered Western Union employees to end a sudden walkout. Bay
Area telegraph service was paralyzed.
(SFC, 5/18/01, p.WBb5)
1951 Jun 2, The most expensive
link of the Bayshore Freeway opened for traffic.
(SFC, 6/1/01, WBb p.3)
1951 Jun 12, Mayor Elmer Robinson
agreed with state officials that tolls on the Oakland Bay Bridge should
be retained to protect plans for any future bay crossing. Robinson had
earlier supporting abandoning the tolls when debts were paid off in
1953.
(SFC, 6/8/01, WBa p.6)
1951 Jun 15, Some 490 White
Russian refugees arrived in SF.
(SFC, 6/15/01, WBb p.3)
1951 Jun 16, CIO maritime workers
called a national strike. Only essential military cargoes were exempt
from the work stoppage.
(SFC, 6/15/01, WBb p.3)
1951 Jun 17, A 1950 census result
put 775,400 people in SF; 166,400 were single; 379,500 were married;
99,000 were widowed or divorced; the rest were children.
(SFC, 6/15/01, WBb p.3)
1951 Jun 23, Riots broke out at
Pier 35 less than 24 hours after the settlement of a 6-day West Coast
maritime strike.
(SFC, 6/22/01, WBb p.8)
1951 Jul 10, Dashiell Hammett,
mystery writer, was sentenced to 6 months in prison for refusing to
tell where the Communist party got its bail money.
(SFC, 7/6/01, WBb p.8)
1951 Jul 21, Some 9,000 telephone
operators in Northern California went on strike including 5,000 at
PT&T in the Bay Area.
(SFC, 7/20/01, WBb p.7)
1951 Jul 23, A fire at the College
Court Apartments at 214 Haight St. killed at least 8 people.
(SFC, 7/20/01, WBb p.7)
1951 Aug 1, The California Street
Cable Railroad Co. went into bankruptcy. [see Jan 13, 1952]
(SFC, 1/11/02, p.G4)
1951 Aug 18, The 1st
transcontinental wireless phone call was made from SF to NYC by Mark
Sullivan, president of PT&T, and H.T. Killingworth of AT&T.
(SFC, 8/17/01, p.WB6)
1951 Aug 22, Carl Larson,
superintendent of the Broadway Tunnel project under Russian Hill,
became the 1st person to walk through via a 3-foot hole.
(SFC, 8/17/01, p.WB6)
1951 Aug 24, US Marshal Edward J.
Carrigan was sentenced to 5 years and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine for
accepting a $2,000 bribery a few months after taking office.
(SFC, 8/24/01, WB p.8)
1951 Sep 4, President Truman
addressed the nation from the Japanese peace treaty conference in San
Francisco in the first live, coast-to-coast television broadcast. The
broadcast was carried by 94 stations.
(AP, 9/4/97)(HN, 9/4/98)
1951 Sep 8, A formal Treaty of
Peace was signed by 48 other nations of the United Nations and Japan at
the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco. On the same day the US
and Japan signed a Joint Security Pact at the Presidio. The soviet
delegation refused to sign and said the deal provided for the exclusive
existence of American military bases in Japan.
(Park, Spring/95, p.2)(AP, 9/8/97)(Ind, 9/8/01, 5A)
1951 Sep 24, SF Mayor Elmer
Robinson opened the new Junior Museum on Corono Heights, named after
Josephine D. Randall, the city’s retired supervisor of recreation.
(SFC, 9/21/01, WB p.5)
1951 Oct 24, Dr. Albert W.
Bellamy, chief of Radiological Services for the State Civil Defense,
held a press conference to assure state residents that there would be
no ill effects from the atomic test explosions near Las Vegas.
(SFC, 10/19/01, WB p.6)
1951 Nov 1, A new law took effect
that required bookies, lottery operators and punchboard dealers to
purchase a $50 gambling stamp.
(SFC, 1/25/02, p.G6)
1951 Nov 3, Some 60% of SF voters
used new voting machines.
(SFC, 11/2/01, WB p.6)
1951 Nov 7, Elmer E. Robinson
defeated incumbent mayor George J. Christopher.
(SFC, 11/2/01, WB p.6)
1951 Nov 8, The new SF Overland
Limited was scheduled to make its maiden run from SF to Chicago 5 hours
faster than previous trains.
(SFC, 11/2/01, WB p.6)
1951 Nov 16, Glenn T. Seaborg
(b.1912) and Edwin McMillan of UC shared the Nobel Prize with for
discovering (plutonium) the first elements ever known to be heavier
than uranium. In 1974 Seaborg co-discovered element 106, named
seaborgium.
(SFC, 10/6/98, p.A22)(SFC, 2/27/99, p.A17)(SFC,
11/16/01, WB p.G4)
1951 Nov 18, Two 4-engine Korean
airlift planes collided above Oakland Municipal Airport. One plane
crashed and the crew of 3 were killed. The other made an emergency
landing at SFO.
(SFC, 11/16/01, WB p.G4)
1951 Dec 1, A 60 mph tempest raged
over SF and forced the first-ever closure of the Golden Gate Bridge.
The bridge closed for 3 hours.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.A1)(SFC, 11/30/01, WB p.G8)(SFC,
1/18/02, p.G8)
1951 Dec 7, Frank Lloyd Wright,
architect, visited San Francisco, and promised to design prefabricated
homes at half the current costs. He said buyers would be able to build
their own homes without union labor.
(SFC, 12/7/01, WB p.G9)
1951 Artists Gordon Onslow Ford,
Wolfgang Paalen and Lee Mullican staged a landmark show of abstraction
called "Dynaton" at the SF Museum of Art.
(SFC, 10/28/00, p.D1)
1951 Jack LaLanne (b.1914) began
hosting a daily exercise show on San Francisco’s KGO TV (channel 7).
(SFC, 10/8/09, p.A16)
1951 Lew Christensen, brother of
Willam, quit the New York City Ballet to become the director of the SF
Ballet. Lew and Willam Christensen were named co-directors of the SF
Ballet. Lew Christensen’s "Filling Station" was produced to music by
Virgil Thomson.
(SFEC, 8/10/97, p.B9)(SFEC, 8/17/97, DB p.37)
1951 The Youth Guidance Center
(YGC) on Woodland Ave. opened.
(SFC, 6/27/96, p.A8)
1951 The Greyhound maintenance and
administration center at 8th and Irwin was designed by Skidmore, Owings
and Merril.
(SFC, 8/29/96, p.C3)
1951 In SF the 1939 bathhouse at
Aquatic Park was converted into the SF Maritime Museum.
(SFC, 6/21/06, p.B3)
1951 The Morrison Planetarium was
constructed at the Academy of Sciences in Goldengate Park. It opened in
1952.
(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A7)(CW, Fall, 02, p.45)
1951 Richard A. Stephens became
president of the Academy of Art College. The college was founded by his
father.
(SFC, 11/13/99, p.B7)
1951 Gladys Cox Hansen became the
archivist for the SF library.
(SFEC, 11/15/98, p.A1)
1951 Richard and Rhoda Goldman
Fund began their SF-based charitable organization.
(SSFC, 8/10/03, p.I1)
1951 The USF football team, the
Dons, went unbeaten and untied under the leadership of coach Brad Lynn
(1916-2006), but were not invited to any bowl games because of 2 black
men in the lineup. 8 of the starters went directly to the NFL. USF
Pres. Rev. William J. Dunne dropped football at the end of the season.
In 2000 Kristine Clark, while working on a book about the team,
convinced Sen. Barbara Boxer to request a presidential apology from
Pres. Clinton.
(SFC, 7/8/00, p.A15,18)(SSFC, 10/22/06, p.B6)
1951 Incumbent Mayor Elmer
Robinson was re-elected by fewer than 3,000 votes over George
Christopher.
(SFC, 9/15/00, p.A19)
1951 SF voters approved
fluoridation.
(SFC, 3/14/03, p.E8)
1951 American writer Dashiell
Hammett, creator of the hardboiled school of detective fiction, was
jailed for six months in 1951 for refusing to reveal the names of
contributors to the bail bond fund of the Civil Rights Congress.
Hammett, who was born in Maryland in 1894, was a Pinkerton detective
for eight years and served in the Ambulance Corps in World War I before
he began his writing career. Author of The Maltese Falcon (1930) and
The Thin Man (1932), Hammett became heavily involved in left-wing
political activity in 1934. He was later a trustee of the Civil Rights
Congress. Hammett died in 1961.
(HNPD, 9/24/98)
1951 The SF hungry i nightclub
opened in North Beach under Enrico Banducci. Folk singer Stan Wilson
(1922-1983) was the 1st entertainer to play there. It was there that
such stars as Barbra Streisand, Woody Allen, Mort Sahl and Bill Cosby
got their start. It first opened in a cellar space of the Sentinel
Building, which Banducci bought from Eric Nord with $800 in borrowed
money. In 1954 the club moved to 599 Jackson St.
(SFEC, 8/1/99, DB p.28)(SFC, 6/11/05, p.B5)(SFC,
4/4/07, p.E1)
1951 Albert Pollack and his cousin
Tommy Harris, an entertainer, transformed the Almond Blossom coffee
shop on Van Ness into Tommy's Joint hofbrau.
(SFC, 3/10/99, p.A24)
1952 Jan 13, The Municipal Railway
started operating the California Street Cable Cars. [see Aug 1, 1951]
(SFC, 1/11/02, p.G4)
1952 Jan 15, Snow fell in SF and
accumulated to 0.3 inch.
(SFEM, 12/22/96, p.20)
1952 Mar 1, Municipal Railway
workers received a wage increase of 9.4 cents effective July 1. This
raised their hourly rate to $1.73.
(SFC, 3/1/02, p.G8)
1952 Mar 4, The Community Chest of
SF joined a consolidated charity drive, the SF Federated Fund, after 20
years as an independent fund-raiser.
(SFC, 3/1/02, p.G8)
1952 Mar 6, George Koltanowski,
chess column writer for the SF Chronicle, beat Humphrey Bogart in a
chess match.
(SFC, 2/7/00, p.A21)
1952 Mar 16, An estimated 100,000
people turned out for the St. Patrick’s Day parade up Market St. to the
Civic Center.
(SFC, 3/15/02, p.G8)
1952 Mar 28, SF attorney Vincent
Hallinan was named Progressive Party candidate for president. 3 days
later he was sent to jail for 6 months over defense tactics during the
perjury trial of union leader Harry Bridges.
(SFC, 3/29/02, p.AG4)
1952 Mar 29, Archbishop John J.
Mitty announced that Pope Pius XII had elevated Mission Dolores to the
status of a Minor Basilica, the 1st west of the Mississippi and the 4th
in the US.
(SFC, 3/29/02, p.AG4)
1952 Apr 1, Some 12,000 AFL
carpenters in SF, Alameda, San Mateo and Marin went on strike
(SFC, 3/29/02, p.AG4)
1952 Apr 5, Archie R. Schaffer
(Mr. Big), millionaire real estate investor, was sentenced to 6 months
in jail for running an illegal bookie business on Market St.
(SFC, 4/5/02, p.G2)
1952 Apr 13, Pierre Monteux
conducted his final concert at the War Memorial Opera House with the SF
Symphony.
(SFC, 4/12/02, p.G6)
1952 Jun 1, The Municipal Railway
fares went up to 15 cents. It led to a decline in ridership and a 20%
increase in automobile traffic downtown.
(SFC, 6/8/02, p.G8)
1952 Jun 7, Mortimer J. Adler
announced that the newly formed Institute for Philosophical Research
will have its headquarters in SF.
(SFC, 6/8/02, p.G8)
1952 Jul 13, An oil fire at the
Union Oil Co. pier at Oleum wrapped 2 tankers in flames. One man died
and 2 were missing and presumed dead.
(SFC, 7/12/02, p.E9)
1952 Jul 16, The US Navy decided
to assign the SF naval Shipyard a $62 million carrier-conversion job
and planned a $218 million super carrier.
(SFC, 7/12/02, p.E9)
1952 Jul 17, Acting Mayor John J.
Sullivan officiated at the grand opening of the new Emporium store at
Stonestown.
(SFC, 7/12/02, p.E9)
1952 Jul 17, Homer Curran (67),
founder of the Curran Theater, died.
(SFC, 7/12/02, p.E9)
1952 Jul 30, Anthony Gelini, De
Soto cab driver, helped police arrest 3 men who robbed the American
Trust Co. at 16th and Valencia of $20,000. He drove the robbers to Reno
and then escaped back to SF with most of the money locked in his cab.
(SFC, 7/26/02, p.E9)
1952 Aug 5, In LA, Ca., 14
Communist leaders were convicted of conspiring to overthrow the US
government. 6 of the defendants were from SF, one was from Oakland.
(SFC, 8/2/02, p.E4)
1952 Aug 9, Anthony Gelini, De
Soto cab driver, was indicted on charges of receiving and concealing
stolen bank funds as well as harboring and aiding robber Charles
Frederick Will. [see Jul 30]
(SFC, 8/9/02, p.E2)
1952 Sep 1, Developer George K.
Whitney Sr., owner of Playland-at-the-Beach and the Cliff House,
purchased the Sutro Baths. George K. Whitney Jr. (d.2002 at 80) sold
the Cliff House properties to the National Parks Service in 1976.
(SFC, 4/14/99, Z1 p.4)(SC, 9/1/02)(SFC, 10/19/02,
p.A21)
1952 Sep 6, The 9th US Circuit
Court of Appeals upheld a conviction against Harry Bridges as a
Communist who lied to obtain US citizenship.
(SFC, 9/6/02, p.E3)
1952 Sep 21, Over 20,000 people
attended Angel Island Day, the 2nd public visiting day in 100 years.
(SFC, 9/20/02, p.E6)
1952 Sep 26, In SF Police Officer
Robert E. Walters died from wounds suffered during a Sep 19 holdup on
Market St. Boyd Van Winkle pleaded insanity but was convicted of the
murder in 1953.
(SFC, 1/17/03,
p.E8)(http://online.ceb.com/calcases/C2/41C2d525.htm)
1952 Oct 2, Superior Judge Melvyn
I. Cronin ruled that the SF Housing Authority’s policy of barring
blacks from all but one permanent low-rent public housing project was
unconstitutional.
(SFC, 9/27/02, p.E2)
1952 Oct 4, Pres. Truman arrived
in SF to campaign for Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson.
(SFC, 10/4/02, p.E4)
1952 Oct 8, Dwight D. Eisenhower,
Republican presidential candidate, arrived in SF and drew a crowd of
100,000 for a downtown ticker tape parade.
(SFC, 10/4/02, p.E4)
1952 Oct 24, The Recreation and
Park Commission voted to restore the name Japanese Tea Garden to the
area in Golden Gate Park that was called Oriental Tea Garden after the
Pearl Harbor attack.
(SFC, 10/18/02, p.E2)
1952 Oct 29, A syndicate headed by
SF oil man Ralph K. Davies bought control of American President Lines
with an $18.4 million cash bid.
(SFC, 10/25/02, p.E8)
1952 Nov 8, The Morrison
Planetarium opened and tickets cost 74 cents.
(CW, Fall, 02, p.45)
1952 Nov 10, San Francisco
columnist Stanton Delaplane introduced Irish coffee to America at the
Buena Vista Cafe at the end of the Hyde St. cable line. He discovered
the drink at Shannon Airport in Ireland, served by Joe Sheridan and
perfected it with the help of Buena Vista owners Jack Koeppler and
George Freeberg.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W30)(SFC, 11/16/02, p.A1)(SSFC,
11/9/08, p.B6)
1952 Nov 29, A Pacific Heights
mansion at 2030 Broadway opened as the American Academy of Asian
Studies, the 1st accredited US graduate school devoted exclusively to
Asian lands and people.
(SFC, 11/29/02, p.E9)
1952 Dec 21, A celebration led by
Mayor Elmer Robinson marked the opening of the $7.3 million Broadway
Tunnel.
(SFC, 8/17/01, p.WB6)(SFC, 12/20/02, p.E5)
1952 Dec, In San Francisco Paul C.
Smith resigned from The Chronicle and Charles de Young Thieriot, the
grandson of co-founder M.H. de Young, picked Scott Newhall as executive
editor of the paper.
(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A8)(SSFC, 6/7/09, p.W3)
1952 The Spanish conductor Enrique
Jorda succeeded Pierre Monteux to lead the SF Symphony.
(SFEC, 8/10/97, p.B9)
1952 The bowling alley that became
the Rock & Bowl at 1855 Haight was built.
(SFC, 8/20/96, p.E1)
1952 June Degnan (d.2001 at 82)
co-founded San Francisco Review, a magazine featuring the works of
poets, playwrights and novelists.
(SFC, 9/28/01, p.D7)
1952 Janet Pomeroy (1912-2005)
founded the Recreation Center for the Handicapped in a small room off
the Fleishacker Pool in SF. In 1993 she authored her memoir “Among the
Roses.” In 2003 her 5½-acre nonprofit center off Skyline Blvd.
was renamed the Jane Pomeroy Center.
(SFC, 11/30/05, p.B7)
1952 Richard Shephard (d.1998 at
84) helped establish the Crown Zellerbach Foundation dedicated to
educational, scientific and general philanthropic purposes. It later
became the Montgomery Street Foundation.
(SFC, 6/13/98, p.A21)
1952 The State Assembly seats for
SF dropped to 6.
(SFEM, 11/17/96, p.12)
1952 Alvin Edlin (1912-2008)
bought Bud’s Ice Cream store in Noe Valley from his cousin Bud
Scheideman for $8,000. Revenue at the time was about $30,000. He
increased the quality and by 1976 revenues rose to about $1 million. In
1980 Edlin sold the operation to a group of Bay Area businessmen. In
the 1990s the operation was sold to Berkeley Farms.
(SFC, 6/10/08, p.B5)
1952 A Beach Chalet "smoker"
featured an event with gambling, strippers, and lewd films. Salvatore
(Tarbaby) Terrano was one of those arrested. He was described as a
member of the Waxey Gordon narcotics ring.
(SFC, 12/26/96, p.C1)
1952 American President Lines was
sold to oil tycoon Ralph K. Davies. He moved the company into the age
of containerization. APL traced its lineage to the Pacific Mail
Steamship Co.
(SFEC, 11/22/98, p.B7)
1952 Britex Fabrics opened on
Union Square.
(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.F3)
1952-1959 Francis Lawrence McCarty (d.2000 at 92)
served on the Board of Supervisors. He served as president in 1958 and
1959. He was made a judge by Gov. Pat Brown in 1960.
(SFC, 9/22/00, p.D7)
1952-1965 The Actor’s workshop of San Francisco
performed plays during this period. In 1960 and 1961 the company staged
the US premiers of Harold Pinter’s “The Room” and “The Birthday Party.”
(SFC, 1/8/09, p.E3)
1953 Jan 17, In SF 40 leading
fashion models formed the Professional Fashion Models of SF and
demanded a $5 fee for fitting time and rehearsals.
(SFC, 1/17/03, p.E8)
1953 Apr 8, A Federal Grand Jury
in SF indicted Hugh Bryson, pres. of the National Union of Marine Cooks
and Stewards, on charges that he falsely claimed that he was not a
communist in a Taft-Hartley affidavit.
(SFC, 4/4/03, p.E6)
1953 Apr 29, Joseph Magnin (87),
pioneer SF merchant, died in Hillsborough.
(SFC, 4/25/03, E4)
1953 Jun 7, Four civics groups
demanded that the SF Housing Authority give up its insistence on racial
segregation.
(SFC, 6/6/03, p.E2)
1953 Jun 24, The 6th annual World
Trade Fair opened in San Francisco at the Palace Hotel with products
imported from 21 nations.
(SFC, 6/20/03, p.E2)
1953 Jul 10, In San Francisco The
Chronicle newspaper began calling itself “The Voice of the West” on its
editorial pages. It adopted the name for Page One on August 9, 1953.
(SSFC, 6/7/09, p.W3)
1953 Jul 17, Stanford University's
trustees voted to move the Medical School from SF at Clay and Webster
to the Stanford campus in Palo Alto.
(SFC, 7/11/03, p.E6)
1953 Jul 22, The Theodore Hamm
Brewing Co. of St. Paul, Minn., purchased the Rainier Brewing Co. at
1550 Bryant St., SF, for $1,809,937. The trade name had already been
sold to Sick Brewery Enterprises of Seattle.
(SFC, 7/18/03, p.E5)
1953 Jul 24, The Key System went
on strike.
(SFC, 7/25/03, p.E6)
1953 Aug 2, Spreckels Lake in
Golden Gate Park was officially opened for children's fishing.
(SFC, 8/1/03, p.E5)
1953 Aug 21, The SF Chamber of
Commerce reported that the city's 1951 per capita gross income was
$1,512, 40.8% above the state average.
(SFC, 8/15/03, p.E9)
1953 Aug 30, Gaetano Merola (72),
founder and general director of the SF Opera Company, collapsed and
died on stage at Sigmund Stern Grove while conducting.
(SFC, 8/29/03, p.E3)
1953 Aug, Beverly Sills came to SF
shortly after the death of Gaetano Merola. She spent the next few weeks
in a Market St. hotel and made her SF Opera debut in "Mefistofele."
(SFEC, 8/17/97, DB p.41)(SFEC, 8/31/97, BR p.1)
1953 Sep 2, The SF Board of
Education decided to require newly hired teachers to sign statements
that they are not members of the Communist Party in addition to taking
the Levering loyalty oath required by the state Constitution.
(SFC, 8/29/03, p.E3)
1963 Sep 15, The Alou
brothers-Felipe, Matty, & Jesus-appeared in the San Francisco
outfield for 1 inning.
(http://www.baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=20238)
1953 Sep 26, A 2-mile link of the
Bayshore Freeway opened from Army to Bryant. The 2-year project cost
$9,312,000.
(SFC, 9/26/03, p.E4)
1953 Oct 23, The State Supreme
Court ruled against the SF Housing Authority in its attempt to continue
segregating blacks, Chinese Americans and whites and its public housing
projects.
(SFC, 10/17/03, p.E9)
1953 Oct 31, Alice Eastwood (94),
curator of botany at the California Academy of Sciences in SF, died.
(SFC, 10/31/03, p.E2)
1953 Nov 6, Albert Croxson (35)
and Donald Hogan (35) were killed when their 25-ton steel and timber
scaffold tore loose from beneath the Golden Gate Bridge. They were part
of a 28-man crew installing lateral bracing beneath the roadway of the
bridge.
(SFC, 11/7/03, p.E3)
1953 Nov 15, Vincent Hallinan was
convicted of income tax evasion. 5 counts included unpaid taxes of
$36,739.32 from 1947-1950. [see Dec 9]
(SFC, 11/14/03, p.E8)
1953 Nov 28, John V. Tadich (98),
SF restaurateur, died. He had arrived in SF in 1871 and after a few
years took over an operation that he named the Tadich Grill, which
burned down in 1906. he re-opened it in 1912.
(SFC, 11/28/03, p.E2)
1953 Dec 2, Rival maritime unions
and police officers battled in a riot caused by a dispute over hiring
rights on the 300-passenger liner Aleutian.
(SFC, 11/28/03, p.E2)
1953 Dec 8, Damon Miller and his
SF Seals Corp. offered the public 10,000 shares of stock in the
baseball club at $10 a share.
(SFC, 12/5/03, p.E13)
1953 Dec 9, Vincent Hallinan was
sentenced to 18 months in jail and fined $50,000 for income tax
evasion. [see Nov 15]
(SFC, 12/5/03, p.E13)
1953 Dec 12, Damon Miller and his
SF Seals Corp. were rescued in part by the Pacific National Bank with a
no collateral loan of $50,000.
(SFC, 12/12/03, p.E2)
1953 Dec 20, Over 5,000 members of
the Wong family gathered for a mammoth party at 39 Waverly Place, their
1st get-together in Chinatown.
(SFC, 12/19/03, p.E2)
1953 Dec 21, Members of the
Dolphin Club staged their 55th midwinter hike and dip.
(SFC, 12/19/03, p.E2)
1953 Dec 24, Pierre Salinger, SF
Chronicle reporter, won the 1953 McQuade Memorial Award for his
articles on poor conditions in California county jails. He had himself
arrested under an alias in Bakersfield and Stockton for an inside look.
(SFC, 12/19/03, p.E3)
1953 Eugene Riordan, SF city
property director, said he would ask the Board of Supervisors for $500
to defend San Francisco's only overseas possession: the house in which
Father Junipero Serra (1713-1784) was born in Petra on the island of
Mallorca off the coast of Spain.
(SFC, 9/19/03, p.E8)
1953 Herb Caen, SF newspaper
columnist, wrote his 4th book "Don’t Call It Frisco."
(SFEC, 2/2/97, p.A13)
1953 Jack Lord published "Where to
Sin in San Francisco."
(SFC, 1/14/99, p.D10)
1953 Sir Georg Solti made his US
opera debut conducting "Elektra."
(SFEC, 8/17/97, DB p.37)
1953 The 2-level Embarcadero
Freeway opened along the waterfront from the Bay Bridge to Broadway. It
was torn down in 1991 due to aesthetics and damage from the 1989
earthquake.
(SFC, 6/17/00, p.A13)
1953 Architect A. Quincy Jones
designed the Daphne Funeral Home at Duboce and Church St. In 1998 it
was slated for demolition to make room for low-income housing.
(SFEM, 12/6/98, p.16)
1953 Karl Kortum (1917-1996) and
friends acquired the sailing vessel Pacific Queen, a derelict on the
Sausalito mud flats, and restored the ship with its original name,
Balclutha. [3rd source says 1954]
(SFC, 9/13/96, p.E2)(SFC, 10/17/96,
C2)(SFEC,11/23/97, p.D3)
1953 Robert Duncan (d.1988), SF
poet, and his partner Jess (Burgess Collins, d.2004) along with Harry
Jacobus founded the King Ubu Gallery at 3119 Fillmore St. In 1954 a
group of artists took it over and it became the Six Gallery.
(SFC, 5/26/96, Z1 p.3)(SFC, 1/7/04, p.A19)(SSFC,
3/14/04, p.F2)
1953 Lawrence Ferlinghetti and
Peter D. Martin opened City Lights Bookstore, the 1st all-paperback
bookstore in the US, opened in San Francisco's North Beach. In 1993 it
was designated a national literary landmark.
(SFEC, 4/6/97, p.C4)(SFC, 6/5/03, p.F11)
1953 Pauline Kael (d.2001)
published her first movie review in City Lights, a small SF magazine.
(SFC, 9/4/01, p.A16)
1953 Leo Krikorian (1922-2004),
artist and photographer, and fellow Black Mountain student Knute Stiles
founded a bar on Grant St. in North Beach they called The Place. It
became a center for Beat life in SF until it closed in 1960.
(SFC, 1/18/05, p.B4)
1953 The Chronicle praised the
Christmas edition of "The Hidden Treasure" by Balzac that was printed
by the handpress of Lewis Mayhew Allen (d.1998) and his wife Dorothy.
The Allen Press later published "Printing with the Handpress."
(SFC, 1/26/98, p.A17)
1953 Hal Call (d.2000 at 83), Don
Lucas and others took over the Mattachine Foundation, one of the
earliest gay rights associations, from founder Harry Hay and renamed it
the Mattachine Society. They set a new conservative course of public
education and services for the gay community.
(SFC, 12/22/00, p.D9)
1953 The Red Light Abatement Act
was passed.
(SFC, 3/29/02, p.AG4)
1953 Merrill’s drugstore opened at
Fourth and Market streets. It shut down in Jan 1997 when the landlord
declined to renew the lease.
(SFC, 1/10/96, p.B2)
1953 John Mitchell (d.2007 at 89),
his younger brother Larry, and brother-in-law Bob Davis turned an old
liquor store in the SF Mission District into Mitchell’s Ice Cream
parlor, which became a Bay Area tradition.
(SFC, 6/16/07, p.B6)
1953 Federal regulators forced the
Bank of America under S.H. Amacost into a cost cutting campaign that
included the sale of the BofA headquarters, the closure of 187 branches
and the company’s first layoffs.
(SFC, 4/14/98, p.B4)
1953 The Morrison Planetarium
began its holiday presentation "The Christmas Star." It depicts that
night sky as it is believed to have appeared to the wise men in
Nazareth at the birth of Christ.
(SFC, 1/1/96, p.D1)
1953 SF Opera founder and director
Gaetano Merola died at the podium in Stern Grove. He was succeeded by
Kurt Herbert Adler.
(SFEC, 8/10/97, p.B9)(SFEC, 8/17/97, DB p.41)
1954 Jan 14, NY Yankee Joe
DiMaggio married actress Marilyn Monroe in SF City Hall. They were
divorced in Oct.
(SFC, 1/1/99, p.A13)(SFC, 2/9/99, p.A21)(MC, 1/14/02)
1954 Jan 24, A winter storm
brought snow to the Bay Area Hills.
(SFC, 1/23/04, p.E3)
1954 Jan, Leonard Moskowitz
(1917-2008), whose father was the founder of Rochester Big & Tall,
was kidnapped in San Francisco. He was freed when the kidnappers, who
had demanded $500,000, were captured 3 days after the kidnapping.
(SFC, 7/3/08, p.B5)
1954 Feb 14, The Kaiser
Foundation's $3.25 million "dream" hospital was set to open at 2425
Geary St.
(SFC, 2/13/04, p.E4)
1954 Feb 19, The Ford Foundation
donated $113,724 to KQED, the Bay Area's 1st community television
station. The SF Foundation in this year helped launch KQED public radio
and the legal Aid Society.
(SFC, 1/28/98, p.A16)(SFC, 2/13/04, p.E4)
1954 Feb 20, Patty Hearst Shaw,
famous kidnap hostage (Tanya), was born in SF.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1954 Feb 23, Caspar Weinberger,
incumbent Assemblyman for the 21st District, announced his candidacy
for re-election.
(SFC, 2/20/04, p.E4)
1954 Mar 5, The new SF police
super vice squad, led by Inspector Frank Ahern, made its 1st gambling
raid at the South-of-Market Barrel House cardroom.
(SFC, 2/05/04, p.E8)
1954 Mar 12, The new SF police
super vice squad raided the apartment of Mabel Malotte (48) at 1275 Bay
St., striking a major blow to the SF call-girl racket.
(SFC, 3/12/04, p.F8)
1954 Mar 14, Some 60,000 people
gathered on Market St. for the 3-hour St. Patrick's Day parade.
(SFC, 3/12/04, p.F8)
1954 Mar 19, Prince Onaga of the
Watusi of the Belgian Congo and his consort, Princess Muana, feted for
a month in SF, were exposed as frauds from East St. Louis. Fred and
Margaret Williams proceeded with their Mar 27 dance recital at
Marines Memorial Theater.
(SFC, 3/19/04, p.F4)(SFC, 3/26/04, p.F7)
1954 Mar 26, A City Planning
report said the 1st phase of the embarcadero Freeway will force out 57
firms. Construction was set to begin in July.
(SFC, 3/26/04, p.F7)
1954 Apr 11, The California
Brewing Co. began producing California Gold Label Beer at its plant on
Fulton between Webster and Buchanon.
(SFC, 4/9/04, p.F10)
1954 Apr 15, Benjamin Swig led a
syndicate in the purchase of 3 downtown buildings for $7 million. They
included the 10-story Mills Building on Montgomery, the 21-story Mills
Tower on Bush, and the 5-story Chamber of Commerce building on Pine
Street.
(SFC, 4/9/04, p.F10)
1954 Apr 16, Police Chief Michael
Gaffey disbanded the super vice squad claiming that prostitution,
gambling and bookmaking had dropped to an "irreducible minimum."
(SFC, 4/16/04, p.F5)
1954 Apr 18, Some 20,000
worshipers celebrated Easter atop Mount Davidson.
(SFC, 4/16/04, p.F5)
1954 Apr 24, California state
narcotics agents seized a tape, "Marijuana, Some Notes and Comments on
the Use of the Narcotic," from KPFA that allegedly praised the use of
marijuana. Attorney Gen'l. Edmund Brown ordered his agents to release
the tape the next day.
(SFC, 4/23/04, p.F5)
1954 Apr 30, KQED, SF-based public
television, began broadcasting.
(SFC, 4/28/04, p.E1)
1954 May 5, The largest store in
the Safeway chain opened at Duboce and Market in SF.
(SFC, 4/9/04, p.F10)
1954 May 7, A San Francisco jury
decided that Harold Jackson and Joseph Lear should be executed for the
January kidnapping of Leonard Moskovitz. Their sentences were later
changed to life in prison and both men died in San Quentin.
(SFC, 5/7/04, p.F2)(SFC, 7/3/08, p.B5)
1954 Jun 9, SF voters approved
Prop. E which froze into the city charter the exact locations of the
cable car lines.
(SFC, 6/4/04, F2)
1954 Jun 10, SF Mayor Elmer
Robinson formally dedicated the 2½ acre Miraloma Playground at
Omar and Sequoia.
(SFC, 6/4/04, F2)
1954 Jun 17, SF Mayor Elmer
Robinson pulled a light switch at 1550 Bryant to light up the largest
commercial sign west of Chicago with Hamm Brewing Co. president William
Figge.
(SFC, 6/9/04, F7)
1954 Jun 18, Final development
work was announced for the former site of the Laurel Hill Cemetery on
Masonic Ave.
(SFC, 6/18/04, p.F2)
1954 Jun 18, Supervisor Clarissa
McMahon served as acting mayor of SF, the city’s 1st female mayor.
(SFC, 6/18/04, p.F2)
1954 Jun 29, The Goebel Brewing
Co. opened its new Circus Room in SF.
(SFC, 6/25/04, p.F6)
1954 Jul 18, A thief stole a
miniature painting attributed to Peter Paul Rubens from the main
gallery of the M.H. de Young Museum in the midst of a throng of museum
goers. The next day Lloyd Galloway (26), an unemployed teamster,
confessed. Chronicle reporters Bill O’Brien and Pierre Salinger
convinced him to return the painting.
(SFC, 7/16/04, p.F4)
1954 Jul 23, Bob and Jean Wilkins
were found guilty of pandering. They had operated a prostitution racket
out of Mickey’s soda fountain at 253 Leavenworth.
(SFC, 7/16/04, p.F4)
1954 Jul 30, Fleishhacker Pool
closed because ocean sand blocked the tank’s pipeline. The 6.5
million-gallon pool was to have been emptied for a regular cleaning.
(SFC, 7/30/04, p.F2)
1954 Aug 12, The 1880 mansion at
1000 Chestnut St. built by Thomas Blythe, a Welsh drifter who made a
fortune in SF real estate, was torn down to make room for a 14-story
apartment.
(SFC, 8/6/04, p.F6)
1954 Aug 23, A rolling earthquake
measuring 6.5 hit northern California and Nevada.
(SSFC, 8/22/04, p.F4)
1954 Aug 29, The SF International
Airport’s (SFO) Terminal 2 opened with a ceremony led by Mayor
Robinson. Mills Field became SF Airport.
(SFEC, 5/16/99, Z1 p.4)(SSFC, 8/22/04, p.F8)
1954 Sep 11, The Miss America
pageant made its network TV debut on ABC; Miss California, Lee Ann
Meriwether of San Francisco, was crowned the winner.
(AP, 9/11/97)(SFC, 11/16/99, p.G9)
1954 Oct 4, Marilyn Monroe and Joe
DiMaggio separated after 9 months of marriage.
(SFC, 10/1/04, p.F5)
1954 Oct 17, The SF Palace Hotel
became a part of the Sheraton hotel chain.
(SFC, 10/15/04, p.F13)
1954 Nov 13, A 2.3-mile section of
Skyline Blvd. freeway, extending south from Alemany, was completed at a
cost of $1 million.
(SFC, 11/12/04, p.F11)
1954 Nov 16, The US government
launched a civil suit to deport Harry Bridges (54), Australian-born
leader of the Int’l. Longshoreman’s and Warehousemen’s Union.
(SFC, 11/12/04, p.F11)
1954 Nov, SF voters approved a $5
million bond measure for a baseball stadium at Candlestick Point.
(SFEC,12/797, Z1 p.4)
1954 Dec 3, The Public Housing
Administration announced rent increases in federally owned war housing
throughout the Bay Area. Average cost including utilities would be $49
a month.
(SFC, 12/3/04, p.F8)
1954 Dec 6, The US Supreme Court
cleared the way for the $6,286,000 Diamond Heights redevelopment
project. The project will turn 325 acres on the south slopes of Twin
Peaks into building sites fro 2,300 residences.
(SFC, 12/3/04, p.F8)
1954 Dec 20, The new A.P. Giannini
Junior High School at Sunset and Ortega, designed for 1,100 students,
was reported to already be overcrowded with 1,557 students.
(SFC, 12/17/04, p.F2)
1954 Dec 21, Arturo Casiglia (63),
director of San Francisco’s Pacific Opera Company, died.
(SFC, 12/17/04, p.F2)
1954 Dec 23, Safeway stores in the
Bay Area announced they will stop welling comic books and pocket-size
books due to their emphasis on horror, crime and sex.
(SFC, 12/24/04, p.F2)
1954 Dec 27, UC scientist Daniel
I. Arnon reported that, after 6 years of research, he had succeeded in
isolating chloroplasts in a test tube.
(SFC, 12/24/04, p.F2)
1954 A group of artists took over
the King Ubu Gallery at 3119 Fillmore St. and renamed it the Six
Gallery. The 6 founding members included: Jack Spicer, David Simpson,
Wally Hedrick, John Ryan, Hayward King and Deborah Remington.
(SSFC, 3/14/04, p.F2)
1954 In San Francisco a new
9-story downtown garage, designed by architect George A. Applegarth,
was built at 325 Mason.
(SSFC, 6/28/09, p.C2)
1954 San Francisco State Prof.
Ruth Witt-Diamant founded a Poetry Center at SF State.
(SFC, 2/19/04, p.E1)
1954 A SF supervisor said the YGC
(Youth Guidance building) was so badly put together that it should be
abandoned.
(SFC, 6/27/96, p.A8)
1954 SF Archbishop John J. Mitty
consecrated John Joseph Scanlon (1907-1997) as a bishop. Scanlon then
served as bishop of Honolulu from 1954-1981.
(SFC, 2/6/97, p.C4)
1954 Alfred Addy began editing the
Council News, a newspaper issued by Bay Area Teamster Joint Councils 7
and 38.
(SFC, 10/15/98, p.C6)
1954 The Telegraph Hill
Neighborhood Center, founded in 1890, moved from 1736 Stockton St. to
660 Lombard St.
(SFC, 6/1/01, WBb p.3)(SFC, 6/7/01, p.A17)
1954 The Telegraph Hill Dwellers
formed to fight the closure of the 39-Coit bus route.
(SFC, 11/27/00, p.A18)
1954-1974 Charles Griffith (d.1998) served as the
city architect. Under his supervision 68 school buildings, 22
firehouses, 5 health centers and 8 branch libraries were designed and
constructed.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A21)
1955 Jan 6, The SF Mint announced
that it would cease coin production before June 30, but continue as the
nation’s largest refiner of gold and silver and as an assay office and
repository.
(SFC, 1/7/05, p.F6)
1955 Jan 9, Danny Mills (27),
nightclub entertainer also known as Peter George, was arrested at a
Turk Street bar as a key figure in a nationwide counterfeit case along
with 2 others.
(SFC, 1/7/05, p.F6)
1955 Feb 3, AFL grocery clerks
struck against the 400-members of the Retail Grocers Association and
began picketing 2 stores in SF. Negotiations had broken down over union
demands for $3 per week wage increase. An employer’s lockout soon
closed at least 100 stores.
(SFC, 2/4/05, p.F9)
1955 Feb 8, Mary O’Haire, former
call girl who married SF Police Inspector John O’Haire, was brutally
beaten and threatened just days before her appearance as chief
prosecution witness in the Mabel Malotte vice trial.
(SFC, 2/4/05, p.F9)
1955 Feb 10, The M.H. de Young
Museum received 37 Renaissance paintings donated by Samuel Kress
including works by Goya, El Greco, and Titian.
(SFC, 2/11/05, p.F10)
1955 Feb 10, Bud Abbott and Lou
Costello arrived in SF to headline entertainment at the 29th SF
Automobile Show at Civic Auditorium.
(SFC, 2/11/05, p.F10)
1955 Feb 14, Mary O’Haire, former
call girl who married SF Police Inspector John O’Haire, testified as
chief prosecution witness in the Mabel Malotte vice trial. She said
that she earned $20-100 per day working as a prostitute for Malotte.
(SFC, 2/11/05, p.F10)
1955 Feb 18, A diamond robbery
took place at 185 Post St. within days 3 suspects were taken into
custody and 2 fences were charged.
(SFC, 2/18/05, p.F4)
1955 Feb 19, An explosion aboard
the submarine Pomodon at Hunters Point left 2 sailors dead and 3 more
presumed dead.
(SFC, 2/18/05, p.F4)
1955 Feb 25, A tentative agreement
to end a 3-week-old grocer’s strike and lockout was ratified in SF by
the Retail Grocers Assoc.
(SFC, 2/25/05, p.F4)
1955 Mar 1, A SF jury of 8 women
and 4 men found Mabel Malotte guilty 2 charges relating to prostitution.
(SFC, 2/25/05, p.F4)
1955 Mar 1, The SF Chronicle
reported that a Univ. of California survey found that Americans spend
more money on comic books that all the country’s elementary schools and
high schools spend on textbooks.
(SFC, 2/25/05, p.F4)
1955 May 2, Mabel Malotte,
grand-dame madam, was sentenced to serve 1-3 years in prison after
being found guilty of conspiracy to violate SF prostitution laws.
(SFC, 4/29/05, p.F2)
1955 May 3, The SF Sky Tram opened
as a tourist attraction offering a cable ride from the Cliff House to
Point Lobos.
(SFC, 4/29/05, p.F2)
1955 Mar 17, UC Medical Center
dedicated 2 new buildings. The 15-story Herbert C. Moffitt Hospital and
the 14-story Medical Sciences Building on Parnassus Heights cost $21
million.
(SFC, 3/18/05, p.F2)
1955 Mar 19, USF won the 17th NCAA
basketball championship over LaSalle 77-63. Bill Russell scored 23 and
set a 5-game tournament record of 118 points.
(SFC, 3/18/05, p.F6)
1955 Mar 20, Some 20,000 people
marched on Market St. for the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
Spectators numbered around 100,000.
(SFC, 3/18/05, p.F6)
1955 Apr 1, A 4-alarm fire at the
Ferry building caused damage estimated at $500-750k. One spectator was
killed by afire hose entangled in the wheel of a Muni bus.
(SFC, 4/1/05, p.F8)
1955 Apr 4, Redevelopment Director
Eugene Riordan selected 60 blocks in the Western Addition as the 1st
neighborhood rehabilitation project in SF.
(SFC, 4/1/05, p.F8)
1955 Apr 22, Weekend gambling
raids in SF netted about 120 gamblers and card game operators at 4
locations and one after-hours liquor joint.
(SFC, 4/22/05, p.F2)
1955 Apr 25, Some 4,800 children
were inoculated on the 1st day of vaccinations in SF.
(SFC, 4/22/05, p.F2)
1955 Aug 3, SF police disbanded
the Chinatown squad.
(SFEC, 5/16/99, Z1 p.4)
1955 May 16, Rocky Marciano
defeated Don Cocknell in 9 rounds in San Francisco’s Kezar Stadium to
retain his world heavyweight title. This was the 1st international
heavyweight bout in Kezar since 1940.
(SFC, 5/13/05, p.F2)
1955 May 22, Weldon Kees and
Michael Grieg rented out the Polish-style barn on Folsom near 21st St.
for jazz concerts, dance festivals and art exhibits.
(SFC, 5/20/05, p.F3)
1955 May 25, Barbara Graham was
sentenced to die alone on June 3 at San Quentin. John Santo and Emmett
Perkins were scheduled to be executed later the same day. They had been
convicted in the 1953 murder of wealthy Burbank widow Mabel Monahan.
(SFC, 5/20/05, p.F9)(SFC, 6/3/05, p.F2)
1955 May 27, A runaway furniture
van jumped a sidewalk on Clay St. killing 6 men and one woman and
smashing 11 automobiles. It was SF’s worst traffic disaster on record.
(SFC, 5/27/05, p.F5)
1955 Jun 12, The 12-ton Benjamin
Bufano sculpture titled “St Francis” was reported to have arrived in SF
and destined to stand in front of St. Francis Church at 610 Vallejo St.
(SFC, 6/10/05, p.F4)
1955 Jun 20, The 10th
commemorative session of the UN opened in SF with delegates from 60
nations. Pres. Eisenhower pledged a US policy of “peaceful and
reasonable negotiations” with all other powers.
(SFC, 6/17/05, p.F3)
1955 Jun 30, James Day, KQED
general manager, said the public radio has succeeded in raising $65,000
to finance operations for the next 6 months.
(SFC, 6/24/05, p.F7)
1955 Jul 10, Jack LaLanne in
handcuffs swam from just south of Alcatraz to Fisherman’s Wharf in 56
minutes, where he knocked of a dozen one-handed pushups.
(SFC, 7/8/05, p.F6)
1955 Jul 11, In SF a 4-alarm fire
destroyed the Italian Village nightclub at 915 Columbus.
(SFC, 7/8/05, p.F6)
1955 Jul 27, City-wide
fluoridation of SF drinking water was scheduled to begin. Fluoridation
had begun in the city’s western neighborhoods in August, 1932.
(SFC, 7/22/05, p.F3)
1955 Jul, Weldon Kees, poet,
painter and artist, jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge. Kees had
recently completed a short film called “Hotel Apex,” which showed the
destruction of a hotel near his home in Point Richmond.
(SFC, 6/8/06, 96 Hours p.41)
1955 Aug 27, An 18-foot granite
statue of St. Francis, created by Beniamino Bufano in Paris (1927-1928)
was set in place in front of the Church of St. Francis of Assissi at
Vallejo and Columbus in San Francisco, Ca.
(SFC, 8/26/05, p.F2)
1955 Aug 29, In San Francisco the
new owners of the Pacific Heights mansion at 2090 Jackson St., occupied
by the Mortimer J. Adler Institute for Philosophical Research, said
they plan to convert the building to an apartment house when the lease
expires in Sep. 1956.
(SFC, 8/26/05, p.F2)
1955 Oct 7, Allen Ginsberg (29)
his 3,600-word "Howl" at the Six Gallery at 3119 Fillmore. Kenneth
Rexroth was the host. Jack Kerouac and Lawrence Ferlinghetti were in
the audience. Other readers included Philip Lamantia, Philip Whalen,
Michael McClure and Gary Snyder. The Gallery was run as a co-op by poet
Robert Duncan, his lover Jess (Burgess Collins) and another artist. In
2004 Jonah Raskin authored "American Scream: Allen Ginsberg's "Howl"
and the Making of the Beat Generation." In 2006 Jason Shinder edited
“The Poem That Changed America.”
(SFEC, 8/29/99, p.D7)(SFC, 10/28/00, p.D1)(SSFC,
4/4/04, p.M2)(SSFC, 4/16/06, p.M3)
1955 Oct 7, A 2-alarm fire burned
the top floor of the Julius Castle, a restaurant at the end of
Montgomery St. on Telegraph Hill.
(SFC, 10/7/05, p.F2)
1955 Oct 11, In San Francisco The
Big Dipper, a 33-year-old roller coaster at Playland at the Beach, went
under demolition due to structural concerns.
(SFC, 10/7/05, p.F5)
1955 Oct 14, A new US Navy
6-story, windowless structure was dedicated at the SF Naval Shipyard at
Hunters Point, Ca. The $8 million laboratory was to be devoted
exclusively to the development of defense against radiation.
(SFC, 4/8/05, p.F2)
1955 Oct 14, In SF, Ca., a US Navy
attack bomber crashed on the eastern shore of Yerba Buena Island. Pilot
Gilbert David Reeve died in the wreck.
(SFC, 10/14/05, p.F2)
1955 Oct 16, In SF, Ca., Dick Poe
(9) swam the Golden Gate channel in 38 minutes accompanied by his
father Rupert Poe.
(SFC, 10/14/05, p.F6)
1955 Oct 26, Over 2,500 Masons,
gathered in SF for the 106th meeting of the Grand Lodge of California
and Hawaii, attended ground-breaking ceremonies for a $5.5 million
Memorial Masonic Temple at California and Taylor streets.
(SFC, 10/21/05, p.F6)
1955 Oct 28, Suey Lee kept a low
profile in SF after winning $56,000 in the Irish Sweepstakes.
(SFC, 10/28/05, p.F3)
1955 Oct, Del Martin (1921-2008),
Phyllis Lyon and 6 other SF women founded the Daughters of Bilitis, the
1st national lesbian organization. It was named after “The Songs of
Bilitis” (1894) a book of lesbian love poetry by French poet Pierre
Louys.
(SFC, 6/23/00, p.A26)(SFC, 8/28/08,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daughters_of_Bilitis)
1955 Nov 2, The Crocker First
National Bank and the Anglo California National Bank announced plans to
merge. Their combined assets of $1,309,098,720 made it the largest
merger in California history.
(SFC, 10/28/05, p.F3)
1955 Nov 28, Boston Red Sox
General Manager Joe Cronin announced the purchase of the SF Seals
baseball team for $150,000.
(SFC, 11/25/05, p.F2)
1955 Marion Hewlett Pike (d.1998
at 84), portrait artist, had her first one-artist show at the Palace of
the Legion of Honor. She was also named Woman of the Year by the Los
Angeles Times. Later portraits included that of Ronald Reagan and Coco
Chanel.
(SFC, 2/9/98, p.A19)
1955 The 183-foot clock tower on
San Francisco’s Rincon Hill was completed. In 2005 it was scheduled to
be replaced by a pair of towers 55 and 45 stories high.
(SFC, 9/29/05, p.E1)
1955 In San Francisco the 25-story
tower at 100 Montgomery was completed. The Equitable Life Building,
designed by Wilbur D. Peugh, was the city’s first tower since the
Depression. Flawed marble panels were later replaced by crystallized
glass.
(SFC, 4/7/09, p.E1)
1955 The SF development of Diamond
Heights began. It was mostly completed in 1978 with some 2,146 homes.
(SFC, 10/24/03, p.E4)
1955 The Nob Hill Fountain of the
Tortoise was set up in Huntington Park as a gift of the Crocker estate.
(SFCM, 6/10/01, p.24)
1955 Elizabeth Schwarzkopf made
her US debut with the SF Opera in "Der Rosenkavalier."
(SFEC, 8/17/97, DB p.41)
1955 The Kress Wing was added to
the de Young Museum to hold the Old Master paintings from the Samuel H.
Kress Foundation.
(SSFC, 12/24/00, DB p.8)
1955 Phyllis Diller, housewife
turned comic, began her career at the SF Purple Onion.
(SFC, 5/24/97, p.E1)
1955 Collin Wilcox 1925-1996),
mystery writer, opened a custom lamp store on Union St. The store gave
him time to write some 30 books. His first book was "The Black Door"
(1967) and his favorite protagonist was police lieutenant Frank
Hastings.
(SFC, 7/18/96, p.A22)
1955 The restored square-rigged
Balclutha went on display at Pier 43.
(SFEC,11/23/97, p.D3)
1955 The SF African American
Historical and Cultural Society was founded.
(OAH, 2/05, p.A6)
1955 In SF Walt and Magana
Baptiste opened their Yoga Philosophic Health Center. Walt Baptiste
(d.2001) was Mr. America in 1949.
(SFC, 8/15/05, p.C1)
1955 The USF Dons won the NCAA
basketball championship under the leadership of center Bill Russell.
(SFC, 1/11/02, p.A24)
1955 Louise B. Edwards (d.1997 at
81) took her children door-to-door in the Sunset gathering pennies for
the purchase of an elephant for the SF Zoo to replace one that had
recently died. The campaign culminated in the purchase of an elephant
named Penny that resided at the Zoo for 40 years.
(SFC, 6/25/97, p.A16)
1955 Mayor Elmer Robinson named
Joseph Alioto to the board of the SF Redevelopment Agency. Alioto by
this time was a heavy contributor to Democratic Party candidates.
(SFC, 1/30/98, p.A10)
1955 Willie Brown helped Terry
Francois get elected president of the SF branch of the NAACP by
rounding up bums on the street and bringing them to a meeting to vote
for Francois. The national board nullified the election.
(SFEC, 10/20/96, BR, p.6)
1955 SF planned to broaden Portola
Dr. and assigned 55 homes for demolition from Waithman Way to
Dorchester Way on Portola.
(SFC, 9/2/05, p.F3)
1955 Charles Thieriot was named
publisher for the SF Chronicle.
(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A8)
1955 SF had 4 daily newspapers.
(SFEC,12/28/97, p.D5)
1956 Jan 2, SF Mayor-elect George
Christopher charged that the wholesale resignations of political
appointees demanded by Mayor Elmer Robinson imperiled the smooth
functioning of city government.
(SFC, 12/30/05, p.F2)
1956 Jan 3, The SF Board of
Supervisors approved a freeway route straight in front of the Ferry
Building.
(SFC, 12/30/05, p.F2)
1956 Jan 4, In SF the Crystal
Plunge at 775 Lombard St., aka the Crystal Palace Salt Water Baths,
closed abruptly due to damage from recent storms.
(SFC, 12/30/05, p.F2)
1956 Jan 5, Engineering
consultants recommended the construction of a 123-mile network of
high-speed electric trains to serve the Bay Area. The 6-county BART,
the SF Bay Area Rapid Transport system, was estimated to cost $716.5
million.
(SFC, 12/30/05, p.F2)
1956 Jan 9, George Christopher was
sworn in as mayor of SF. He served to 1964.
(SFC, 1/6/06, p.F6)
1956 Jan 9, The first Dear Abbey
column appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle. It was written by
Pauline Phillips under the pen name Abigail Van Buren. She began her
career as advice columnist "Dear Abby" under editor George Stanleigh
Arnold (d.1997 at 78). In 2002 her daughter took over the column.
(SFC, 5/30/97, p.A26)(SFC, 1/24/09, p.E1)
1956 Jan 12, Frankie Albert (36)
was appointed as head coach of the SF 49ers.
(SFC, 1/6/06, p.F6)
1956 Apr 1, Giovanni Giotta opened
the Cafe Trieste in San Francisco’s North Beach district at the corner
of Grant and Vallejo.
(SFEC, 4/6/97, p.C1)(SFC, 4/1/06, p.A1)
1956 Apr 25, John W. Powell
(1919-2008), former editor of the China Weekly Review, was indicted by
a federal grand jury in San Francisco on charges of sedition. Powell
had published articles about alleged military use of germ warfare
during the Korean War. A 5-day trial in 1959 ended in a mistrial and
the judge said the charge should been treason. A charge of treason was
dismissed 6 months later. All government charges were dropped in 1961.
(SSFC, 12/21/08, p.B6)
1956 May 16, Record temperatures
reached 91.
(SFC, 5/17/97, p.A1)
1956 Jun 27, Martin Luther King
was the featured speaker at the NAACP convention held at the SF Civic
Auditorium. Thurgood Marshall, NAACP council, called King "a boy on a
man’s errand."
(SFEM, 2/2/97, p.10,14)
1956 Aug 1, Tommy, the last work
horse in the Bay Area was put out to pasture in Los Altos.
(SFEC, 5/16/99, Z1 p.4)
1956 Aug 20, The Republican
Convention opened at the Cow Palace.
(SFEC, 5/16/99, Z1 p.4)
1956 Aug 22, President Eisenhower
and Vice President Nixon were nominated for second terms in office by
the Republican National Convention in San Francisco.
(AP, 8/22/97)
1956 Dec 30, Sgt. Joseph Lacey, SF
police officer, was shot and killed while trying to stop a robbery.
(SFC, 2/17/07, p.B5)
1956 Glenn Gould made his debut
with the SF Symphony.
(SFEC, 8/17/97, DB p.41)
1956 Plaza East housing project at
1250 Eddy St. was constructed. It was wrecked in 1997 in favor of a 193
Victorian-style townhouses.
(SFC,11/4/97, p.A17)
1956 Moffit Hospital was completed
at a total cost of $24 million after 16 years of construction.
(SFC, 5/12/96, p.A-10)
1956 Frederick Walter Kuh opened
the Old Spaghetti Factory at 478 Green St. in North Beach. He sold it
in 1984.
(SFC,11/12/97, p.A22)
1956 The first Black and White
Ball in SF was held.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W30)
1956 Lawrence Ferlinghetti
published a 1st edition of "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg. The 1st 1000
copies were printed in Europe and passed Customs without incident.
(www.citylights.com/His/CLhowlhist.html)
1956 Ruth Weiss (28) began reading
poetry onstage at the Cellar on Grant Ave. accompanied by Jazz drummer
Sonny Nelson and trumpeter Jack Minger. In 1961 she made a film based
on her poem "The Brink."
(SFC, 8/6/93, p.E1,5)
1956 Judge John B. Molinari
(1910-d.2004) presided over the trial of SF madam Mabel Malotte.
(SFC, 9/15/04, p.B7)
1956 The Paul L. and Phyllis
Wattis Foundation was formed. It showered Bay Area institutions with
$26 million until it was dissolved in 1988.
(SFEC,11/30/97, p.C13)
1956 Helene Rivers (1916-1996),
writer and editor, was appointed to the Chronicle’s This World
magazine, editing the back section on Music, Art and Books.
(SFEC, 10/9/96, C2)
1956 The cable car system was
reduced from 6 to 3 lines.
(SFC, 12/2/97, p.A16)
1956 There was a big earthquake.
(SFEM, 2/2/97, p.15)
1957 Jan 2, The SF Stock Exchange
merged with the Los Angeles Stock Exchange and formed the Pacific Coast
Stock Exchange.
(SFC, 7/24/98, p.B1)
1957 Mar 22, An earthquake,
centered in Daly City, Ca., hit the SF Bay Area and caused extensive
damage to Mary’s Help Hospital.
(Ind, 8/11/01, 5A)(CW, Winter 04, p.45)(DCFD,
Centennial, 2007)
1957 Mar 25, US Police and customs
agents seized copies of “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg. In May Ferlinghetti
was arrested along with City Lights manager Shigeyoshi Murao (d.1999)
on obscenity charges. The defending attorney was J.W. Ehrlich. By the
Fall Judge Clayton Horn found the poem of "redeeming social
importance." Shig later managed City Lights and authored the occasional
"Shig's Review." In 2006 Bill Morgan and Nancy J. Peters edited “Howl
On Trial: The Battle for Free Expression.”
(SFEC, 11/28/99, BR
p.10)(www.citylights.com/His/CLhowlhist.html)(SSFC, 11/5/06,
p.M3)
1957 May 28, The National League
approved the move of the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants baseball
teams to Los Angeles and San Francisco. This marked the end of the
Seals of the Pacific Coast League.
(AP, 5/28/97)(SFEC,12/797, Z1 p.4)
1957 Jul, Work began on San
Francisco’s Central Freeway with construction costs at $7.8 million. It
opened in 1959.
(SFC, 8/21/96, p.A16)(SFC, 1/3/07, p.B1)
1957 Oct 7, The SF 49ers owner,
Tony Morabito, died during a game with the Chicago Bears. The 49ers
were behind but rallied after hearing of his death and won the game
under quarterback Y.A. Tittle. Tittle won this years NFL Player of the
year award and was the first recipient of the Len Eshmont Award, chosen
by the players as the most inspirational member of the team.
(SFEM, 1/4/98, p.10)
1957 Nov 8, Romance of the Skies,
a Pan Am luxury airliner enroute to Hawaii from San Francisco, crashed
in the Pacific Ocean. Only a handful of bodies and some wreckage were
found. A crew of 6 and 38 passengers had been booked on the flight.
(SSFC, 11/4/07, p.A1)
1957 Samuel Dickson authored
"Tales of San Francisco."
(SSFC, 1/27/02, p.D6)
1957 C.Y. Lee authored his novel
"The Flower Drum Song," a story of San Francisco’s Chinatown. It
inspired a Rogers and Hammerstein musical and was made into a film in
1961.
(SFC, 9/18/02, p.A1)
1957 Leontyne Price made a SF
Opera debut.
(SFEC, 8/17/97, DB p.44)
1957 Herb Caen, SF newspaper
columnist, wrote his 5th book "Caen’s Guide to San Francisco."
(SFEC, 2/2/97, p.A13)
1957 Mrs. Leonard "Etya" Gechtoff,
owner of the East and West Gallery in SF coined the term "beatnik"
following the launch of Sputnik. For the self-labeled Beat Movement of
the 1950s and '60s, "beat" originally meant "exhausted." It was later
sometimes interpreted as "beatific" and also derisively as "beatnik."
Centered in the Bohemian artist communities in California and New York,
the movement was social and literary with adherents adopting a style of
seedy dress and the "hip" vocabulary of jazz musicians. Major figures
of the movement were novelist Jack Kerouac and poet Allen Ginsberg.
(SFC,11/11/97,
p.D3)(www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/conner74.htm)
1957 Newspaper columnist Herb Caen
picked up the term "beatnik" to describe the Beat poets of San
Francisco.
(www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/conner74.htm)
1957 The UCSF Bookstore was
founded.
(SFEC, 12/13/98, Z1 p.5)
1957 The San Francisco News and
the Call-Bulletin were the afternoon newspapers.
(SFEM, 2/2/97, p.14)
1957 SFC reporter Hale Champion
blasted the SF Main Library as a disgrace.
(SFC, 4/14/96, EM, p.22)
1957 The SF BART District was
established.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A27)
1957 In San Francisco Cyril
Magnin, mercantile family head, and George Killion, chief executive of
American President Lines, founded the World Trade Club. In 2006 the
club dissolved due to declining membership and financial losses.
(SFC, 10/24/06, p.B3)
1957 SF established a sister-city
relationship with Osaka, Japan.
(SFC, 4/18/97, p.E2)
1957 A shipment of "Howl" by Allen
Ginsberg was seized by customs officials on its arrival in San
Francisco. The book was published as part of the Pocket Poets Series by
Lawrence Ferlinghetti and printed by the British printer Villiers.
(SFC, 5/16/96, p.A-12)
1957 Tempest Storm, born as Annie
Banks in Eastman, Georgia, signed a $100,000 contract in SF to tour the
burlesque circuit. In 1987 she published her autobiography: "The Lady
Is a Vamp."
(SFC, 7/15/99, p.B7)
1957 The C.A. Thayer, a 3-masted
wooden schooner, made its last voyage to SF from Puget Sound under the
command of Adrian F. Raynaud (d.1997 at 102). The ship was berthed at
the SF Maritime National Historic Park. It was built as a lumber
schooner in Eureka, Ca., in 1895 and made its last commercial voyage as
a cod fishing boat in 1950. In 2007 it was re-christened at the Hyde
Street Pier following a $14 million rebuild in Alameda.
(SFC,12/9/97, p.A24)(SFEC, 7/12/98, DB p.31)(SFC,
4/13/07, p.B1)
1957 The Standard Building Company
of Carl and Fred Gellert built 14,000 houses.
(SFEM, 11/17/96, p.9-10)
1957 Satguru Sivaya
Subramuniyaswami (d.2001 at 74) began teaching in SF and founded the
nation’s 1st Hindu temple. He was born in Oakland, received
enlightenment in Sri Lanka, died in Hawaii.
(SFC, 11/21/01, p.A25)
1957 Swami Vishnu-devananda, a
student of Swami Sivananda, came to San Francisco. In 1971 he set up a
yoga farm in Grass Valley.
(SSFC, 10/3/04, p.D5)
1957 The National Park Service
moved into the old SF Mint.
(SSFC, 1/28/03, p.E6)
1957 Café Malvina in North
Beach opened.
(SFC, 2/13/98, p.B1)
1958 Apr 14, A crowd of some
200,000 swarmed Market St. to welcome the Giants baseball team
translocated from New York.
(SFEC,12/797, Z1 p.6)
1958 Apr 15, The Giants baseball
team of Horace Stoneham, brought from New York to San Francisco, opened
at Seal Stadium against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Giants won 8-0.
(SFC, 10/8/97, p.A20)(SFEC,12/797, Z1 p.4,5)
1958 Apr 19, The last Key System
train left Oakland for SF. Ferry service from the Ferry Building ended
the next day when the Southern Pacific "Eureka" made its last crossing
from SF to Oakland.
(SFC, 8/10/98, p.A5)(SFC, 9/4/98, p.A25)(SFC,
8/7/07, p.A6)(SFC, 4/18/08, p.B1)
1958 Apr 20, The last Key System
train left San Francisco for Oakland. Ferry service from the SF Ferry
Building ended when the Southern Pacific "Eureka" made its last
crossing to Oakland. Train tracks were taken off the lower deck of the
Bay Bridge and the lanes were paved in for car traffic.
(SFC, 8/10/98, p.A5)(SFC, 9/4/98, p.A25)(SFC,
8/7/07, p.A6)(SFC, 4/18/08, p.B1)
1958 May 9, The film "Vertigo"
with James Stewart and Kim Novak was released. It was directed by
Alfred Hitchcock and had been shot in the SF Bay Area. "Vertigo"
premiered in San Francisco.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, DB, p.39)(AP, 5/9/08)
1958 Jun, The June issue of
Playboy featured a 15-page guide to SF nightlife.
(SFEC, 3/26/00, DB p.33)
1958 Dec 17, Howard Hickey (41)
was named coach of the SF 49ers to replaced Frank Albert, who had
retired unexpectedly.
(SSFC, 12/14/08, p.54)
1958 In SF the new $5.5 million
Memorial Masonic Temple opened at California and Taylor streets. It
included a 38-by-48-foot mural by Emile Norman, who used images made of
glass, fabric, metal shells and dirt between sheets of translucent
plastic. The 45-panel work depicts the Mason’s role in the development
of California.
(SFC, 10/21/05, p.F6)
1958 New York papers reported that
San Francisco writer and bon vivant Barnaby Conrad was dying due to a
goring wound received in a Spanish bullfight. Conrad survived and later
opened the Matador nightclub in SF.
(SSFC, 11/16/03, p.E3)
1958 Herb Caen, SF newspaper
columnist, was lured back to the SF Chronicle following 8 years with
the SF Examiner. Caen returned to the Chronicle at a $38,000
salary.
(SFEC, 2/2/97, p.A12,13)
1958 Lew Christensen created
"Beauty and the Beast" for the SF Ballet.
(SFEC, 8/17/97, DB p.41)
1958 The film "The Lineup" with
Eli Wallach and Warner Anderson was released. It was directed by Don
Siegel and had been shot in the SF Bay Area.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, DB, p.39)
1958 In San Francisco Lawrence
Swan (d.1999 at 77) originated KQED's first children's science program.
He was born and raised in Darjeeling and authored "Tales of the
Himalaya: Adventures of a Naturalist."
(SFC, 5/15/99, p.A22)
1958 In San Francisco the 21-piece
John Cordoni Big Band was formed. The group backed Vic Damone, Frankie
Lane, the Four Lads and many others.
(SFC, 9/18/96, p.A22)
1958 The 528 room Airport Hilton
opened in South San Francisco with a 40 year lease. Airport expansion
in 1998 led to the demolition of the property.
(SFC, 4/1/98, p.A14)
1958 The SF Hall of Justice was
completed at 850 Bryant St.
(SFC, 11/8/05, p.B1)
1958 A time capsule was buried at
SFO. It was later put on display at Gate 82 and then moved to the
employee's cafeteria. It was scheduled to be opened in Feb, 2000.
(SFEC, 1/2/00, p.D4)
1958 In San Francisco the
Carmelite Monastery of Cristo Rey was built on Parker St. across from
USF.
(SFCM, 3/29/02, p.48)
1958 In SF Enrico Banducci, owner
of the hungry i nightclub, opened his North Beach sidewalk café
on Broadstreet and named in Enrico’s.
(SFC, 4/4/07, p.E3)
1958 Lefty O’Doul (1897-1969),
former baseball player and manager, opened a saloon opened at 333 Geary
St. in San Francisco where friends and family could come to eat and
meet with sports stars. Increased rents forced the bar to close at the
end of 1997. It later re-opened as a bar and restaurant.
(SFC, 7/18/97,
p.A1)(www.leftyodouls.biz/whoislefty.html)
1958 In San Francisco the Sentinel
Building was bought by Nella and Rob Moor(d.1997 at 85) and restored by
architect Henrick Bull. They renamed it Columbus Tower and sold it
after 1 1/2 years to the Kingston Trio singing group. The Trio later
sold it to Francis Ford Coppola who renamed it back to the Sentinel.
(SFC, 6/16/97, p.A20)
1958 In San Francisco Millie
Robbins (1905-1996) was assigned a daily column called "Millie’s
Column" in which she told tales of the fabled first families of the
city. A collection of her columns was published in 1971 by Chronicle
Books: "Tales of Love and Hate in Old San Francisco."
(SFC, 12/28/96, p.A24)
1958 The SF Golden Grain pasta
company introduced the SF treat "Rice-A-Roni." The company was owned by
the DeDomenico family, who learned the recipe from Armenian neighbors.
A 15th century Damascus cookbook titled "Kitab al-Tibakha" included a
recipe that said "brown noodles in the oven and cook them with rice."
Golden Grain was later headquartered in San Leandro, Ca.
(SFC, 11/25/98, Z1 p.5)
1958 Arnold Gridley (d.2004),
invented the motorized cable car after buying and converting some old
SF California Street cable cars. The cars were used in 1961 Rice-A-Roni
commercials. Gridley was the great grandson of G.W. Gridley, sheep
rancher, rice farmer, and founder of Gridley, Ca.
(SFC, 5/15/04, p.B6)
1958 In San Francisco the Anchor
Brewing Co. was sold to Laurence Steese, who move the operation to
Eighth St. between Bryant and Brannan.
(SFC, 3/3/99, Z1 p.9)
1958-1966 Jay DeFeo (d.1989), SF artist, created her
massive painting "The Rose." She was married to artist Wally Hedrick.
(SFEC, 8/25/96, BR p.39)(SSFC, 1/25/04, p.E5)
1959 Jan 27, Aldous Huxley (64),
British author of Brave New World (1932), attended a conference at the
Univ. of California Medical school and warned that manipulation of
personality by drugs is already here.
(SSFC, 1/25/09, DB p.50)
1959 Jan, The SF Board of
Supervisors rejected the freeway building plans of the Calif. Dept. of
Transportation.
(SFC, 8/21/96, p.A16)
1959 Mar 3, A SF Bay Area
earthquake measured 5.5 on the Richter scale in Berkeley.
(SSFC, 3/1/09, DB p.50)
1959 Mar 3, The new home of the
San Francisco Giants baseball team was officially named, Candlestick
Park. The name was chosen in a contest to name the newly-built stadium.
Al Dermody (1910-2004), the contest winner didn't have to look far, as
the windswept and chilly confines of the National League's least
favorite stadium are located just a few hundred feet from Candlestick
Point, on San Francisco Bay. In 1995, the venerable name, Candlestick
Park was changed to 3COMM Park, after a relatively small area computer
software developer bid a half-million dollars for the rights to the
stadium name – beating out such giants as Apple Computer, IBM and
others.
(HC, Internet, 3/3/98)(SFC, 9/24/04, p.B6)
1959 Mar 20, In SF Harry Bridges
spoke to a crowd at the Commonwealth Club luncheon regarding his recent
trip to Russia. The Longshore Union president gave his audience the
challenge he received in Russia: Within 10 years the Soviet Union will
give its workers the highest standard of living in the world, the
highest wages, the shortest work week, the best free medical care, the
best education, and no unemployment.
(SSFC, 3/15/09, DB p.50)
1959 Mar 22, American Airlines
landed the first commercial jet, a Boeing 707, at SFO. It carried 106
passengers from Chicago to SF.
(Ind, 4/20/99, p.3A)
1959 Apr 22, In SF dignitaries
opened the new 1.4 mile extension of the Central Freeway from 13th and
Mission to Golden Gate Ave. and Franklin St. In 1999 SF and the
California Dept. of Transportation agreed replace it with a
ground-level thoroughfare. Octavia Blvd. was dedicated in 2005.
(SFC, 8/21/96, p.A13)(SFC, 1/3/07, p.B1)
1959 Apr, In San Francisco the
Crystal Palace Market at Eighth and Market and its 75 concessionaires
were ordered to close shop within 90 days. A new $8 million, 800-room
luxury motel was scheduled for the site.
(SSFC, 4/26/09, DB p.50)
1959 May 7, In San Francisco
Albert C. Kogler, a SF State college student, died 2½ hours
following a shark attack while swimming off Baker Beach. Shirley
O’Neill (19), also a SF State College student, had risked her life to
pull her friend to the beach. In June she was awarded the Carnegie Hero
Fund Commission’s silver medal.
(SSFC, 5/3/09, DB p.50)(SSFC, 6/14/09, DB p.50)
1959 May 25, In San Francisco
Walter S. Johnson, president of the Palace of Fine Arts League, said he
would save the monument if nobody else would. He soon pledged $2
million to save the plaster relic that dated back to the 1915 Panama
Pacific Expo.
(SSFC, 5/24/09, DB p.39)
1959 May 31, In San Francisco a
fire gutted the Jefferson Elementary School at 19th Ave. and Irving. A
12-year-old boy later confessed to setting the fire in order to destroy
a spelling test in which he spelled “ran” as “rin.” Damages were
estimated at $300,000.
(SFC, 6/2/09, p.B2)
1959 Jun 2, Allen Ginsberg wrote
his poem "Lysergic Acid," in SF.
(SC, 6/2/02)
1959 Jun 4, The Soviet Union’s
Bolshoi Ballet company arrived in San Francisco following performances
in New York and Los Angeles. They were scheduled for 4 performances at
the War Memorial House. In LA troupe members bought furs, rugs, china
and curtain rods.
(SSFC, 5/31/09, DB p.50)
1959 Jun 5, In the San Francisco
Bay Area 40 teachers were subpoenaed by the House Un-American
Activities Committee. Hearings were to open on June 17. The ACLU said
it would do everything it can to block the San Francisco hearings.
(SSFC, 5/31/09, DB p.50)
1959 Jun 25, In San Francisco a
new Safeway grocery store opened on Marina Boulevard adjacent to Gas
House Cove. Murals by John Garth flanked the store’s two entrances.
(SSFC, 6/21/09, DB p.50)
1959 Jul 13, In San Francisco city
barbers decided to increase the price of haircuts by 25 cents to $2.00,
following a meeting of some 300 of the city’s 700 barbers.
(SSFC, 7/12/09, DB p.42)
1959 Sep 20, The last ballgame at
Seals Stadium was played.
(SFEC,12/797, Z1 p.4)
1959 Sep 22, Soviet Premier Nikita
Khrushchev visited San Francisco and dropped in at the ILWU union hall
near Fisherman’s Wharf.
(SSFC, 9/20/09, DB p.50)
1959 Sep 26, In San Francisco the
Pacific Festival held a Youth Parade up Market Street and thousands of
teenage girls mobbed Edd “Kookie” Byrnes (b.1933), star of the TV
series “77 Sunset Strip” (1958-1964).
(SSFC, 9/27/09, DB
p.50)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edd_Byrnes)
1959 Oct 5, In San Francisco
workers began demolishing Seals Stadium at 16th and Bryant.
(SSFC, 10/4/09, DB p.50)
1959 Oct, The San Francisco Board
of Education invited parents, teachers and students to discuss the
issue of who should be allowed to apply corporal punishment in schools,
and whether spankings should be done by hand, strap or paddle.
(SSFC, 10/11/09, DB p.46)
1959 Nov 4, In San Francisco a
protest meeting was staged at Portsmouth Square to oppose plans for an
800-car garage at a cost of $3.2 million. 100 foot trees in the plaza
were later felled for the underground parking structure.
(SSFC, 11/1/09, DB p.42)
1959 Attorney Thomas Blanchard
(d.2000 at 88) convinced Avery Brundage, a Chicago millionaire, to
donate his 6,000 piece Asian art collection to an Asian Art Museum in
SF. Marjorie Bissinger (d.2003) helped in the process.
(SFC, 4/22/00, p.A19)(SFC, 1/10/03, p.A25)
1959 The SF Opera performed the US
premier of Strauss’ "Die Frau ohne Schatten."
(SFEC, 8/17/97, DB p.44)
1959 Elizabeth Schwarzkopf made
her SF Symphony debut singing Strauss’ "Four Last Songs."
(SFEC, 8/17/97, DB p.44)
1959 The Old Spaghetti Factory in
North Beach, backed by Fred Kuh, began to feature flamenco dancing. The
venue continued until it closed in 1985.
(SFEC,10/26/97, DB p.41)
1959 The Crown Zellerbach building
was constructed. It was restored in 1988.
(SFEM, 2/22/98, p.24)
1959 The double-decker Embarcadero
Freeway was erected and separated the city from the bay.
(SFC, 5/19/96,Mag, p.11)
1959 Shunryu Suzuki (1904-19710, a
Buddhist missionary from Japan, arrived in SF. He founded the SF Zen
Center. In 1999 David Chadwick, who was ordained by Suzuki, published
"Crooker Cucumber: The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki. In 1999
the center was located at Page and Laguna.
(SFEC, 4/4/99, BR p.3)
1959 Sam Jordan, a former boxer,
Sam Jordan’s Restaurant and Bar on Third St. He became known as the
mayor of Butchertown.
(SFEC, 3/16/97, p.B1)(SFEC, 11/15/98, p.A14)
1959 Nikita Khrushchev, premier of
the USSR, visited the Bay Area.
(SFC, 4/24/97, p.A26)
1959 The SF News, a Scripps-Howard
paper, that had been acquired by the Hearst interests, was merged with
the former Call-Bulletin to form the News Call Bulletin.
(SFC, 3/8/96, p.A21)(SFC, 11/22/05, p.B5)
1959 The 1st gorillas “Bwana” and
“Missus” arrived at the SF Zoo. Storyland opened.
(SFC, 7/30/04, p.E15)
1959-1969 Robert Helen (d.1998 at 91) served as
president of the SF Healy Tibbits engineering and consulting firm.
(SFC, 8/1/98, p.A19)
1959-1974 Marc H. Spinelli (1919-1996), aka Count
Marco, ran a column on glamour in the SF Chronicle.
(SFC, 10/29/96, p.B2)
Go to SF1960-1969