Sparkletack Podcast
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San Francisco History & Culture
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bite-sized chunks of history and culture from my favourite city, san francisco. from the wild days of the barbary coast to the particularities of modern life -- weekly observations and stories from america's left coast.
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#66: alma de bretteville spreckels
Author: Richard Miller
Sun, Feb 03, 2008
It’s one of San Francisco’s best-loved monuments — the figure of a heartbreakingly beautiful girl balancing lightly atop a granite column high above Union Square. She soars above both pedestrians and pigeons, gracefully clutching trident and victory laurels, lifting her shapely arms in triumph over the city of San Francisco.
It was intended to [...]
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#65: memories of an argonaut
Author: Richard Miller
Tue, Sep 25, 2007
To many of the thousands of gold-seekers pouring through the Golden Gate back in 1849, the word “Argonaut” was already a familiar one, drawn from the ancient myth of “Jason and the Golden Fleece”.
“Argonaut” was the name applied to Jason’s band of heroic companions, combining the name of his ship — the “Argos” — [...]
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#64: san francisco’s treasure island (pt. 2)
Author: Richard Miller
Mon, Aug 27, 2007
What is Treasure Island? Why is it there? And where is it going?
In the second episode of this 2-part podcast series, San Francisco’s plan for a mid-bay international airport is abruptly derailed by World War II. The US Navy seizes the island, transforming the former World’s Fair location into “Naval Station Treasure Island”. The [...]
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#63: san francisco’s treasure island (pt. 1)
Author: Richard Miller
Sun, Aug 05, 2007
Treasure Island is easily visible from San Francisco’s Embarcadero, a low-lying front porch jutting out towards the Golden Gate from Yerba Buena Island. Palm trees in a silhouetted row set off massive white buildings, dwarfed by the towering silver Bay Bridge marching across the water towards Oakland. That bridge carries over 130,000 people a [...]
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“mr. summers’ 1941 vacation” — prelinger archive
Tue, Jul 17, 2007
I’m addicted to the “moving images” section of the Internet Archive — particularly the Prelinger Archives, recently absorbed into the Library of Congress. This massive collection of “ephemeral films”, a term which covers just about anything not made for commercial entertainment (advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur) is a fantastic source for unexpected historical treasures. [...]
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#62: samuel holladay, pioneer squatter of lafayette park
Author: Richard Miller
Fri, Jun 22, 2007
On a recent Pacific Heights walking tour I found myself standing atop Lafayette Park. As I admired the spectacular view, the guide told an unfamiliar story about a mansion that once occupied this hill. The building is long gone now, of course, but its history is a wild one.
Here’s the story: Samuel Holladay, respectable [...]
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#61: lefty o’doul — the man in the green suit
Author: Richard Miller
Mon, May 28, 2007
You’ve seen the green and white signs in front of the “Lefty O’Doul Restaurant and Piano Bar” down on Geary Street, but who is Lefty O’Doul? Just another phony Irish name invented to sell beer?
Absolutely not! The silhouette of that left-handed slugger on the sign is a clue. Lefty O’Doul was a baseball player, [...]
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#60: starr king and the california civil war (pt. 2)
Author: Richard Miller
Fri, Apr 27, 2007
At the end of the Part One of this two part series, Abraham Lincoln had been elected president, the Civil War had broken out, and the question of California’s loyalty to the Union was in grave doubt. The youthful Unitarian minister from Boston was a newcomer to the scene, but his powerful voice had [...]
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#59: starr king and the california civil war (pt. 1)
Author: Richard Miller
Mon, Apr 09, 2007
Over 100,000 people a day travel the Geary Street corridor. But how many glance over and notice the grey statue standing watch at Franklin Street? Only a very few look even further, and notice the low, stone sarcophagus nestled in front of the gothic Unitarian Church. Walk right up to it and you’ll discover [...]
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#58: the crocker spite fence
Author: Richard Miller
Wed, Feb 21, 2007
History is rife with bizarre confrontations and grand feuds, but in San Francisco none were more bizarre than the showdown between Charles Crocker (bellicose railroad robber baron) and Nicholas Yung (unassuming German undertaker).
Call it “a tale of two egos”. It was over a very small piece of land, but this property was located on [...]
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#56: lotta crabtree — the san francisco favourite
Author: Richard Miller
Sun, Apr 30, 2006
in this week’s podcast we’ll marvel at beautiful lotta crabtree, quintessential star of the late 1800s. she was the protege of lola montez, the highest paid performer on broadway, the darling of the entire nation, and the most popular comedienne of her era.
as you may already suspect, her story begins right here in california, [...]
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#55: caruso, the palace, and the 1906 earthquake
Author: Richard Miller
Sun, Apr 16, 2006
this week’s podcast chooses just one of the many thousands of individual stories to emerge from the catastrophe, following the eccentric italian superstar and the storied hotel through their respective trials and tribulations. one survives… but the other does not.
for further edification:
» “the san francisco earthquake” - gordon thomas.max morgan witts
» “lest we forget” [...]
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#54: the notorious lola montez
Author: Richard Miller
Sat, Apr 08, 2006
this week’s podcast grapples with the unbelievable legend of lola montez, trailing her across the world from london to paris to munich to san francisco. she was self-created diva royalty who, in her own words, was “always notorious, never famous”.
for further edification:
» research files from bruce seymour’s lola montez : a life, an incredible [...]
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#52.5: the trolls of san francisco
Author: Richard Miller
Sat, Apr 01, 2006
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 [...]
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#52: adolph sutro, the populist millionaire
Author: Richard Miller
Sat, Mar 25, 2006
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 public library
» sutro properties [...]
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#51: the columbarium and the caretaker
Author: Richard Miller
Sun, Mar 19, 2006
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 [...]
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#50: the balclutha and the chantey sing
Author: Richard Miller
Sat, Mar 11, 2006
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 [...]
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#49: sam clemens and the celebrated jumping frog
Author: Richard Miller
Sat, Mar 04, 2006
though the rest of the country thinks of samuel langhorne clemens as a southerner, it was a little time 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 [...]
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#48: mark twain and the great earthquake of 1865
Author: Richard Miller
Sat, Feb 25, 2006
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 that “great quake” of 1906 was [...]
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#47: robert louis stevenson — chinatown treasure
Author: Richard Miller
Sat, Feb 18, 2006
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 great number of notable writers from mark twain to dashiell hammett.
however, there’s one literary memorial in town [...]
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#46: san francisco fortune cookie
Author: Richard Miller
Sat, Feb 11, 2006
on a tour of the alleyways of chinatown last week i learned a story 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, [...]
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#45: frank chu just shows up
Author: Richard Miller
Sat, Feb 04, 2006
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 [...]
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#44: moving the dead — san francisco cemeteries
Author: Richard Miller
Sat, Jan 28, 2006
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, [...]
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#43: san francisco motorcycle club — since 1904
Author: Richard Miller
Sat, Jan 21, 2006
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 — [...]
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#42: alexander leidesdorff — the black millionaire
Author: Richard Miller
Sat, Jan 14, 2006
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, [...]
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#41: the golden gate bridge, a modest proposal
Author: Richard Miller
Sat, Jan 07, 2006
“so what do you think of that beautiful bridge?” i started to say, but she suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, an odd, wistful look in her eyes. “what is it?” i asked. she turned to me with a grave expression and said — “at the risk of sounding crazy, is there a reason [...]
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#40: luisa tetrazzini and christmas eve
Author: Richard Miller
Sat, Dec 31, 2005
“i will sing in san francisco if i have to sing in the streets, for i know that the streets of san francisco are free.”
it was 1910. san francisco was still in a bad way following the great earthquake and conflagration of 1906, and in fact, the whole decade had been kind of rough. [...]
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#39: the great diamond hoax
Author: Richard Miller
Sat, Dec 17, 2005
it was 1871. william ralston had become one of the richest and most powerful men in california, partly on the strength of his shrewd business maneuverings, but largely on the fact that he was an incorrigible gambler, a exemplar of his optimistic age. he lived so largely, and spent so lavishly, on his beloved [...]
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#38: rudyard kipling in san francisco
Author: Richard Miller
Sat, Dec 10, 2005
in 1889 this talented young writer, the son of a british colonial schoolteacher and future winner of the nobel prize for literature, visited san francisco on his way from india to england. it was not only his first visit to the city, but his first time in america — he was on assignment to [...]
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#37: philo t. farnsworth
Author: Richard Miller
Sat, Dec 03, 2005
riding around the chilly streets of san francisco this week i spotted a bumpersticker that i hadn’t seen for some time: “kill your television”. the rich irony of seeing that particular message displayed in san francisco struck me as it always does. why? because television was invented right here in fog city, a fact [...]
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#36: birth of san francisco #3
Author: Richard Miller
Sat, Nov 26, 2005
part three of the pre-history of san francisco, the early life of the village of yerba buena. (if you missed ‘em, listen to part one and part two first.)
this is the concluding episode on this theme, taking you right up to the edge of 1848. in this episode: goats, bears, mormons!
for further edification:
» bear [...]
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#35: birth of san francisco #2
Author: Richard Miller
Sat, Nov 19, 2005
part two of the pre-history of san francisco, the early life of the village of yerba buena. the epic sweep of mexico’s revolution and the annexation of california to the united states for all intents and purposes passed the town by. monterey, sonoma, and the great californio ranchos were where most of the action [...]
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#34: the san francisco twins
Author: Richard Miller
Sat, Nov 12, 2005
Ask anyone, the twins are just “The Twins”. They walk alike. They talk alike. But most of all, they look and dress exactly alike, and would not have it any other way. Vivian and Marian Brown are always ready to stop and chat, always ready with a pair of matching smiles and wrist-up hand-waves [...]
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#33: andrew smith hallidie — father of the cable car
Author: Richard Miller
Sat, Nov 05, 2005
many people who came to seek their fortune in the gold country failed to strike it rich, but ended up contributing their unique abilities and energies in much more interesting ways. this show is dedicated to just such a man — andrew hallidie, the inventor of san francisco’s world famous cable cars. he was [...]
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#32: letter from the gold rush, 1850
Author: Richard Miller
Fri, Oct 28, 2005
there have been a great number of letters written from and about san francisco through the decades, some by visitors and some by citizens, some known around the world, others anonymous. it is fascinating to hear voices from the past brought temporarily back to life, to see the city and its environs through the [...]
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#31: carville — a lost neighborhood
Author: Richard Miller
Sat, Oct 22, 200
5 +0000 02:00:00,
san francisco is famously made up of an eccentric patchwork of neighborhoods. what is less known is that some of the most interesting and unusual have come and gone, leaving very little trace of a once vigorous existence. one of these was carville, an eccentric community made up of abandoned streetcars converted into clubs, [...]
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#30: streets of san francisco #2
Author: Richard Miller
Sat, Oct 15, 2005
show number two in the “streets of san francisco” series, still walking westwards, one street at a time. today’s show moves from powell street to polk, with a couple of historical detours along the way. if you missed the first one, have a listen here.
for further edification:
» buena vista irish coffee
» san francisco [...]
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#29: the legend of black bart
Author: Richard Miller
Fri, Oct 07, 2005
summer of 1875, and the wells fargo stagecoach is slowly rattling through a mountain pass in the sierra nevada gold country, bearing a cargo of passengers, u.s. mail, and gold.
the driver pulls the horses to an abrupt halt at the sight of a man standing confidently on the side of the road. he wears [...]
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