author archive
Saturday, April 1st, 2006
#53: The Bella Union and the Barbary Coast
All sorts of San Francisco legends shared her stage and its Barbary Coast history, among them Oofty Goofty, Big Bertha, Lola Montez, Emperor Norton and little Lotta Crabtree. Today’s podcast tells the story of the 60 years in which the “Bella” was the most popular show in town. For further edification: » The Barbary Coast […]
3 Comments » - Posted in San Francisco history podcasts by richard - sparkletack
Friday, March 31st, 2006
#52.5: The Trolls of San Francisco
The history of one of these hidden layers is, however, little known and rarely spoken of – I refer of course to the San Francisco trolls. Though some hold that the trolls are a primitive people original to this area, and were in the hills even before the native american Ohlone, other, more reputable sources […]
6 Comments » - Posted in San Francisco history podcasts by richard - sparkletack
Saturday, March 25th, 2006
#52: Adolph Sutro, the Populist Millionaire
This week’s podcast explores the history of the millionaire philanthropist who gave so much to our city and whose story is — amazingly — almost forgotten. For further edification: » The Western Neighborhoods Project– outsidelands.org » Sutro bio from 1898 – sfmuseum.org » Sutro Baths – National Park Service » Sutro Baths – San Francisco […]
4 Comments » - Posted in San Francisco history podcasts by richard - sparkletack
Tuesday, March 21st, 2006
Tour Review — Chinatown Alleyway Tours
Here’s the thing — I love San Francisco, I love history, and I love walking. Luckily for me, there are a billion walking tours out there, and every so often I take one. I do my best to keep my know-it-all mouth shut and learn a thing or two, pick up a few ideas for […]
3 Comments » - Posted in Walking tour reviews by richard - sparkletack
Saturday, March 18th, 2006
#51: The Columbarium and the Caretaker
In an attempt to answer the oft-voiced question "what is that thing, anyway?", in this week’s podcast a visit is finally paid to this sumptuous Victorian repository for cremated remains, the baroque center of what was once a 167 acre cemetery in the center of San Francisco. It’s a spectacular building, but the real discovery […]
4 Comments » - Posted in San Francisco history podcasts by richard - sparkletack
Friday, March 10th, 2006
#50: The Balclutha and the Chantey Sing
The Park Service website reads simply "sing traditional working songs aboard a floating vessel." The songs? Sea chanteys. The vessel? A majestic iron-hulled squarerigger called the "Balclutha". I had no idea how inspiring the experience could be, nor how powerful. It turned out I had inadvertently wandered into a 25 year old San Francisco tradition: […]
9 Comments » - Posted in San Francisco history podcasts by richard - sparkletack
Friday, March 3rd, 2006
#49: Sam Clemens and the Celebrated Jumping Frog
Though the rest of the country thinks of Samuel Langhorne Clemens as a southerner, it was a spell in San Francisco and the wilds of California which turned young Sam into "Mark Twain". This week’s podcast tells the story of how a misfired duel, a bungled gold-mining claim, a suit for libel — and yes, […]
4 Comments » - Posted in San Francisco history podcasts by richard - sparkletack
Friday, February 24th, 2006
#48: Mark Twain and the Great Earthquake of 1865
By now just about every San Franciscophile has been alerted to the fact that April 18th of this year will mark the centennial of the 1906 earthquake — the Big One which destroyed the city that once was, and gave rise to the one which we inhabit today. But the “Great Quake” of 1906 was […]
4 Comments » - Posted in San Francisco history podcasts by richard - sparkletack
Friday, February 17th, 2006
#47: Robert Louis Stevenson — Chinatown Treasure
San Francisco has a long-standing reputation as a literature-loving town, as evidenced by government statistics ranking us as having the highest per-capita spending on books in the country. Over the decades this city has nurtured a number of notable writers from Mark Twain to Dashiell Hammett. However, there’s one literary memorial in town that has […]
3 Comments » - Posted in San Francisco history podcasts by richard - sparkletack
Friday, February 10th, 2006
#46: San Francisco Fortune Cookie
On a tour of the alleyways of Chinatown last week I learned something that I hadn’t heard before — namely, that the world-famous Chinese fortune cookie was invented right here in San Francisco. That’s right — the fortune cookie is just about as Chinese as french toast is French. Which is to say, not at […]
4 Comments » - Posted in San Francisco history podcasts by richard - sparkletack
Friday, February 3rd, 2006
#45: Frank Chu Just Shows Up
Downtown San Francisco on a Tuesday afternoon, and every businessman’s face looks the same. Whatever happened to eccentric and iconic characters like Emperor Norton and Oofty Goofty? You search the streets, hoping desperately for a flicker of life or a flash of the eccentricity that once shaped our city. Then you spot something out of […]
2 Comments » - Posted in San Francisco history podcasts by richard - sparkletack
Monday, January 30th, 2006
Thank You!
San Francisco Magazine for the complimentary review of Sparkletack appearing in the “Snap Judgements” section of the January issue. The February issue is already out on the stands, of course, but better late than never, right? San Francisco Magazine
1 Comment » - Posted in Notes by richard - sparkletack
Saturday, January 28th, 2006
#44: Moving the Dead — San Francisco Cemeteries
There are only three cemeteries left within the city limits of San Francisco. Note the phrase carefully: “left” in San Francisco. There were once far more than just three, which makes perfect sense — after all, thousands upon thousands of San Franciscans have passed away since the establishment of Yerba Buena 170 years ago, and […]
15 Comments » - Posted in San Francisco history podcasts by richard - sparkletack
Friday, January 20th, 2006
#43: San Francisco Motorcycle Club — Since 1904
Established at the dawn of the century, the San Francisco Motorcycle Club has thrived for over a hundred years.There are plenty of fossils in this town, relics of another age, but the SFMC represents living history, from the days when motorcycles were little more than heavyweight bicycles with engines squeezed into their frames — suspension […]
7 Comments » - Posted in San Francisco history podcasts by richard - sparkletack
Friday, January 13th, 2006
#42: Alexander Leidesdorff — The Black Millionaire
It was 1841, and like so many of those who have washed up on these shores, then or since, William Alexander Leidesdorff was a man on the run from his past — a man trying desperately to reinvent himself on the blank canvas of the western coast. Though hardly anyone remembers his name these days, […]
Sparkletack was the blog and podcast of a guy obsessed with diggin' up San Francisco history. The site is on permanent hiatus.
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