April 1, 2006
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:
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» Emperor Norton - Sparkletack
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- #8: corpseflower at san francisco conservatory
- #9: schadenfreude and san francisco high society
- San Francisco Timecapsule: 02.02.09
- Vintage snapshots of San Francisco pt. 2: Google-mapped
- #62: Samuel Holladay, Pioneer Squatter of Lafayette Park
Musical support:
Thanks to Tom Brown’s player piano for this week’s music, discovered at , thanks to a Creative Commons license.
3 responses to “#53: The Bella Union and the Barbary Coast”
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trackbacks & pingbacks:
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Pingback from Timecapsule podcast: San Francisco, November 3-9 » Sparkletack - the San Francisco History Podcast
November 3, 2008 at 1:01 am[...] San Francisco was crazy for vaudeville, had been more or less since birth — remember the Bella Union? — and these two clowns hit the local variety circuit right in the [...]
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Pingback from Gangs of San Francisco » San Francisco History Podcast – Sparkletack
December 13, 2009 at 6:33 pm[...] Devil’s Acre — From the most nefarious district of North Beach’s already infamous Barbary Coast [...]





Sparkletack is the blog and podcast of a guy who's obsessed with diggin' up San Francisco history. 
October 21, 2007 at 11:30 pm
this is a fantastic website! thank you sincerely. it is just the type of thing that brings the past to life and personalizes the city making it a joy to live in.
thanks and please keep the pod casts coming!