San Francisco: A Cultural and Literary History (Cities of the Imagination Series)

276 Pages·2003·33.799 MB·English

by  Mick Sinclair

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Cities of the Imagination
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New York City by Eric Homberger
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A cultural and literary history
Mick Sinclair
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InterlinkBooks
AnimprintofInterlinkPublishingGroup,Inc.
NewYork• Northampton
Firstpublished 2004by
INTERLINKBOOKS
An imprintofInterlinkPublishingGroup, Inc.
46CrosbyStreet, Northampton, Massachusetts01060
Copyright©MickSinclair, 2004
Foreword©SedgeThomson, 2004
Allrightsreserved.Thewholeofthiswork,includingalltextandillustrations,isprotected
bycopyright.Nopartsofthisworkmaybereproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,or
transmittedinanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,
recording,orotherwisewithoutpriorwrittenpermissionfromthepublisher.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-Publication Data
Sinclair, Mick.
San Francisco : acult—uraland literaryhistory/ byMickSinclair.
p. cm. (Citiesofthe imagination)
Includesbibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 1-56656-489-1
1. San Francisco (Calif.)—Sociallifeand customs. 2. Popular
culture—California—San Francisco—History. 3. Cityandtown
life—California—San Francisco—History.4. San Francisco
(Calif.)—Intellectual life. 5. American literature—California—San
Francisco—Historyandcriticism.6. Cityandtown life in literature.
7. San Francisco (Calif.)—Biography.8. Authors,American—Homesand
haunts—California—San Francisco. 9. Literary
landmarks—California—San Francisco. I.Title. II. Series.
F869.S35S56 2003
979.4'6i—dc2i
2003013413
DrawingsbyNickiAverill
CoverImages:James DavisTravel Photography; MaryEvans Picture Library;
RedfernsMusic Picture Library
Printed and bound inCanada byWebcom
To requestourcomplete40-pagefull-colorcatalog,
pleasecall ustollfree at1-800-238-LINK,visitour
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e-mail: [email protected]
FOREWORD bySedgeThomson (vii)
PREFACE (x)
INTRODUCTION
Navigating San Francisco
HistoricalGeography (1);The Modern City (2); Upand Down in
San Francisco (4); Maritime Navigation (4)
PART ONE
The Instant City
AGreatand Magnificent Port (5); Gold: Halfthe Size ofa Pea (10);TheWorld
Rushes in (11);Winners, Losers—and Emperor Norton (16)
PART TWO
Shaping San Francisco
Rubbish and Bones (23);The O'Farrell Plan (25); Elegantand Handsomely-
furnished Homes (26);The NobsofNob Hill (29); Pacific Heights (32);
Tamingthe Hills:Andrew Hallidie'sCableCars (34);Away From the Hills (35);
San Francisco in Ruins (36);April 18, 1906 (37);AllTomorrow's Parties (42);
CitadelsofCommerce (43);Willis Polk: Architect,Visionary, Drunkard (45);
Manhattanization and Urban Renewal (47);The Ultimate High Rise (48);
Yerba Buena Center (49)
PART THREE
Crime and Culture, Punishment and Pleasure
Fires, Ducks, Hounds,and Hangings (54);A LowSetofPoliticians (58);
Pandemonium Let Loose (61);Tom Maguire: Napoleon ofthe Stage (64);
The MesmerizingAdah Menken (66); Spider-Dancing Lola Montez (67);
Lotta Crabtree's BeautifulAnkle (69); Isadora Duncan:The California Faun (72);
The BarbaryCoast (73); PrettyWaiterGirls (76);AVoyageto Shanghai (78);
Three Hundred PoundsofPassion: 50cents (79);The BreastsofCarol Doda (84);
AGolden Era: Literary Life intheWest (86);A Literary Fog (88); Bohemia in
Russian Hill (89);AStoryofSan Francisco: Norrisand Hammett (92);
Atherton, Sterling, and Demarest (94); Shootings, Stabbings, and Feuds:
NewspapersandTheirOwners (96);William Randolph Hearst's Examiner (99);
HerbCaen: NostalgiaAin'tWhatit Used to Be (101)
PART FOUR
Landmarks, Ruins and Memories
Alcatraz Island, 1775, 1934, 1969 (105);The Sutro Baths, 1896 (110);The Ferry
Building, 1898 (114); City Hall, 1899, 1915, 1999 (117);The St. Francis Hotel,
1904/The Palace Hotel, 1875 (119);The Palace ofFineArts, 1915 (123); Coit
Tower, 1933 (126); Golden Gate Bridge, 1937 (130);Treasure Island, 1939 (134);
TheTransamerica Pyramid, 1972/The Montgomery Block, 1853 (136)
PART FIVE
United Nations
AMission (142);The Mission District (146); Chinatown (150);A New
Chinatown (156); PaperSons, PaperDaughters (157); Celebrated
Chinatown (158); Japantown (160); "Ajap's aJap" (162);
Unhappy Returns (164);TheWesternAddition and the Fillmore District (165);
Leidesdorffand Mary Ellen Pleasant (165);The Rise ofthe Fillmore (168); Black
Panthersand St.John Coltrane (169);The Richmond (172); North Beach (174)
PART SIX
Turning America on its Head
AHowl in North Beach, 1955 (180); SixPoetsatthe SixGallery (185); Naked
Before theWorld (188); BeatGoes Beatnik (189);Acrossthe Bay: Berkeleyand
the 1960s (191);The Free Speech Movement (192); Powertothe People
Park (195);APrivate Revolution: Haight-Ashbury, 1964-7 (197);Altered
States (198); CanYou PasstheAcidTest? (199); Electric Musicforthe Mind and
Body (202); SummerintheCity (205); It's Free Because It'sYours (207);The
San Francisco Sound (209);The Death ofHippie (211);TheCastro: the Riseof
GaySan Francisco (214); Harvey Milkand theCastroClone (217);AFury
Unleashed (221);AIDS:ANew Battle (222); QueerCapitaloftheWorld (225);
ACybernetic Ecology: SoMa, 1985-2001 (227); South ofthe Slot (227);
Multimedia Gulch (229); Silicon Suburbia (231)The Rise and Fallofthe
Cyberhood (233);Archiveofthe Future (236)
FURTHER READING (239)
INDEX (247)
Foreword
—
Acityis howwe encounterit both in terms ofourlives in itand how
we come to know it. MickSinclair's take on San Francisco is revelatory
for someone who thought he knew the citywell.
Such an effect this small city has on the world. Compared to the
longevityofEuropean towns, San Francisco isachild. Comparedtothe
vast acreage ofNew York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, San Francisco's
geography is that ofa small town. Yet its intellectual life reflects a polis
of the mind in great scope. The blending of architecture and the
natural landsc—ape is unexcelled. It's the inspiration ofsongs, yet there is
also th—e grim "all made out ofticky-tacky and they all look just the
same" sung ofthe hillside housing in southern San Francisco.
I've been inspired by San Francisco's place and history as a port
city, wherenovel ideas are born, wherewriters and explorers bringtheir
own visions to a welcoming place. I started a radio cultural talk and
performance show to bring these voices to a larger world, because I
found the sensibility ofSan Francisco to be distinct in the US. Its elan
and worldliness feels European, yet it has an economic boisterousness
that George Babbitt would bathe in with glee.
San Francisco is a favorite city of travelers, according to many
Chamber-of-Commerce-drivenpolls. I findthisamusinggiventhatthe
liberal politics and libidinous behavior ofour citizens lead to invective
andjokes made on late-night talkshows: "Onlyin San Francisco!" Yet,
as Mick Sinclair astutely sets forth in his engaging account of this
disparity between the conventional "other" ofour land and the desired
ways of life as practiced by San Franciscans, we've touched the
subconscious imaginations ofAmericans aswell as the restoftheworld
since the 1840s.
So how did this place, San Francisco, a city ofrealities, as well as
imagination, come to be what it is? This guide has answers both for
visitors and for residents. "United Nations" gives some discomforting
insight to our self-illusioned liberality, and "Turning America on Its
Head" depicts the seduction and maturation of Free Love. What a
frisson to come across Richard Brautigan's 1968 ode to "mutual
programmingharmony" as computers and humans find theirwayback
CitiesoftheImagination/San Francisco
to nature hand-in-keyboard. Mind-blowing, to coin a phrase.
San Francisco looks north and south for comforting comparisons:
Seattle dwellers for years felt like second stringers to the City by the
Bay,Angelenos travel north for bookstores and cleaner air... butwe do
nurture our own little sibling envy ofNew York. What does it mean
that the largest readership of the New Yorker magazine and the New
York TimesoutsideNewYorkis in the BayArea?Thereisavision, aself-
appreciation ofthe residents that we are in the know, as we put others
in the know, and want to read about ourselves in the most national of
organs. Yet with this narcissism comes both arrogance and insecurity.
Herb Caen, our city's Sam Pepys, claimed that the phrase "the
more things change the more they stay the same" sounds better in
English than in the original French. I'm reminded ofthis phrase when
I read Mick Sinclair's depiction of the mayors who are marked as
honorable and visionary, and those who were as mendacious
rapscallions. Sex can be (and will be) straight or gay, or both. The
where's and who's ofit are here, through the decades, as an important
partofthecity's history.We'vebeen aviolentplace, asensual place, and
also a place ofimagination and fervent desires to preserve the beautyof
it. Along the way, we've not treated immigrants well. I cringe to read
that history, because it clashes with my imagined city.
Our history is similar to those other rambunctious and wealth-
infused Western towns that went through booms and busts, fires and
fancies ofnewwealth: Seattle, Skagway, Dawson City. San Francisco is
still a town ofthe Wild West.
Fortoo longSan Franciscowas known, even in the mediabusiness,
aswhereyou'd go in afreezing East Coast Februaryto do astoryon the
"fruits and nuts." I wanted the world to know that San Francisco is
more than its kooks and freaks, that thoughtful people live here, in a
harmony born ofthe acceptance ofothers. As this history shows, San
Francisco has overcome early isolation, to become a mediating
influence in the world. Filmmakers including Francis Ford Coppola
make this city their production center as away to protect the integrity
oftheir art from their tawdrier cousins in Hollywood.
San Francisco's history includes the voiceless struggling to speak,
often in great conflict with recalcitrant legal and social conventions.
Sinclair offers again the voices ofthe immigrants, ethnic, sexual, and