April 11, 2008
When last we encountered this goddess-behemoth, she was being blown up by the Navy at the end of the ’39 Pan-Pacific Exposition. The mythical goddess Pacifica — symbol of the Fair — had loomed over Treasure Island for the duration, a sternly imposing concrete figure of some 80 feet tall.
Though sculptor Ralph Stackpole had proposed that she be allowed to stay on as a sort of Statue of Liberty of the Pacific, the powers that be were unsympathetic — Pacifica was destroyed and hauled away with the rest of the rubble.
Now, almost 70 years later, the goddess is returning to San Francisco — albeit a bit reduced in scale. An 8-foot replica, reproduced in fiberglass from Stackpole’s original 3-foot working model, will be installed next week at the Community College of San Francisco (CCSF):
WHEN: Thursday, April 17th, 12:30-1:30 p.m.
WHERE: City College of San Francisco
Ocean Campus, 50 Phelan Avenue
in the garden next to the Diego Rivera Theater.
The Rivera connection
Connoisseurs of San Francisco art secrets will already know that the CCSF campus is the repository for one of the great surviving treasures of that fair, the mural “Pan American Unity” — a piece actually painted by Diego Rivera on Treasure Island as Fair patrons gawked.
Rivera’s original connection with San Francisco came from Stackpole, who traveled to Mexico to meet him in the ’20s and helped the lefty Mexican genius get his first mural commissions in the City. The Pacifica statue will be located in the “Olmec Head Plaza” — appropriately facing Rivera’s Treasure Island masterpiece.
The swimmer and the statue
But here’s an odd angle; one of the figures immortalized by Rivera in that mural is responsible for bring Pacifica back — one Mr. Salvatore DeGuarda. Salvatore was working as a swimmer in Billy Rose’s Aquacade, happened to catch Diego’s eye, and now here he is — the one in the white swimming trunks.
After a long and colorful career, Mr. DeGuarda is now retired — but not very: after getting involved with Treasure Island’s fifty-year anniversary celebrations a couple of decades ago, he became obsessed with the re-creation of “Pacifica”:
“If it wasn’t for this statue, I would probably be dead by now. I have great memories, and I love sharing them with people. I want my legacy to be the re-creation of Pacifa on Treasure Island and the sharing of my stories.â€
His donation of this relatively tiny version to CCSF is just a stop along the road — he’s already given a copy to the town of Pacifica (the statue’s namesake) — Salvatore won’t be satisfied until the full-scale 80-foot statue rises again above the Pacific.
For more about Salvatore DeGuarda’s non-profit group “Pacifica II Project”, visit www.pacificastatue.org.
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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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April 11, 2008 at 12:06 pm
We cooould just get all the burners together and give them a copy of the design… we’d have an 80 ft Pacifica in no time. Granted she’d be made of hemp, neon-pink faux fur and Velveeta… but we’d get our Pacifica!
April 11, 2008 at 12:13 pm
That’s a weirdly compelling idea … Burning Man artists take notice!
April 14, 2008 at 10:33 am
Richard,
Thanks so much for this great bit of history!
I remember stumbling across the Diego Rivera mural in my first few months of living in San Francisco nearly twenty years ago! Reading your post, I had that same feeling of awe and discovery. Everything I love about California, everything that fills me with a sense of sweet homesickness is in your podcasts.
On another note, in St. Paul, another city filled with historical gems (i.e. tough midwest gangsters on the lam from police in Chicago in the 20’s, and one very famous author’s old haunts on Cathedral hill)we have a very fine piece of sculpture sitting in city hall. It’s called the Vision of Peace. It’s noted for many reasons. It’s the largest piece of sculpture made from white onyx (60 tons and 38 feet tall) and it turns around!
I know you would appreciate it. It’s housed in the beautiful Ramsey COunty Courthouse building. It was unveiled in 1938, and even though it has that Olmec feel like the Pacifica statue, it is definately in that classic art deco 1930’s style.
Perhaps one day when you come to Minnesota ( I say that selfishly) you will see it.
Take Care Richard!
Allison
April 14, 2008 at 11:00 am
Hi Allison,
Thanks for sharing that “sweet sense” of nostalgia … your note is beautiful. It’s humbling to have evoked such a strong remembrance of discoveries long past.
I just looked up the St. Paul Courthouse statue that you mentioned, and found a photo. Not only spectacular, but the thing rotates too! Wow. One of these days, I will visit the land o’ lakes, I promise.
In the meantime, sounds like St. Paul could use its own history podcaster, hint hint hint. (In your spare time, okay? ;)
May 29, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Thanks for the history. That is too bad they tore that down. It would be a great landmark to see.
January 10, 2010 at 11:48 am
Too bad it’s only an 8′ Fiberglass Replica.
Obviously it would have been 10 times the cost in materials but the mold builder for the 8′ replica could have scaled up the model to 80′ and some history would have been brought back to life with the same impact on the eye of the viewer as the original concrete version.
With the right gel-coat, fiberglass cloth, paints and sealer the big lady could last hundreds of years with little or no maintenance.
I think they should have thought bigger, but at least they made the effort to recapture a bit of history. However at 8′ she can hardly be called the “Statue of Liberty” of the Pacific.
Cigar Store Indians are eight feet. Doesn’t the goddess Pacifica deserver more? Doesn’t San Francisco deserver more?
Just my 2 cents,
Steve