San Francisco History Podcast - Sparkletack » From the community

Bimbo’s 365 Club

richard - sparkletack — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 20:23:42 +0000

A couple of days ago, Toby of Bimbo’s 365 Club dropped me a line: “Here at Bimbo’s, we’ve recently stated to scan some of the amazing things we have in our archives here at the club. We have soooo much stuff. We’ve posted some things in our blog and galleries. We’ve just started this and [...]

Inspiration! “Secret Histories of San Francisco”

richard - sparkletack — Mon, 25 May 2009 23:16:28 +0000

"Thank you for making such an awesome show. It's really helped me out with this art project I've been working on.
I'm in an art show at the San Francisco Arts Commission and the theme is "Trace Elements", or uh, Hidden Histories of San Francisco, so I'm making an illustrated map of San Francisco with bits of its hidden history. I probably wouldn't be where I'm at with this thing if it wasn't for your podcast."

How cool is that?! read on ...

The mysterious letter “E”

richard - sparkletack — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 19:49:39 +0000

I get a lot of history questions here at Sparkletack — some I can handle, but others stump me completely. A few weeks ago, a longtime listener named Demetrios hit me with one of those stumpers: “This is regarding the Sparkletack posting I sent you with regards to the letters ‘E’ that I keep seeing [...]

Zoe the Pirate returns to Treasure Island

richard - sparkletack — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:00:49 +0000

Since writing and recording the (epic!) Sparkletack two-podcast series on the history of Treasure Island, Anne Schnoebeln Schnoebelen of the Treasure Island Museum Association has been a regular correspondent of mine — keeping me posted about the struggle to reopen the long-shuttered Treasure Island Museum. To get you quickly up to speed, as plans for [...]

Lana Turner — a San Francisco noir

richard - sparkletack — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:15:54 +0000

Yet another one for the "there's always a San Francisco angle" files ...

Years before the discovery of the platinum haired Lana Turner at a Hollywood cafe propelled her into a life of glamour and super-stardom, her lifeline intersected San Francisco -- and with tragedy.

I suppose we could begin the tale in Oklahoma, 1920.

check out the rest of the post ...

Vintage snapshots of San Francisco pt. 2: Google-mapped

richard - sparkletack — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:25:38 +0000

A couple days after I passed on this alert to the amazing Charles Cushman photo collection, another reader immediately saw possibilities for this carefully filed and annotated archive of our city in the '30s, '40s, and '50s.

He's created a Google map, digitally mapping over 200 of the enormous collection's slides to their places of origin.

This looks like it must have been a TON of work, but as Dan wrote, "Richard -- this wasn't so much effort as it looks. Google maps has a geocoder which takes street intersections and turns them into GPS coordinates. I wrote a script to download the Cushman archive pages, look up the street addresses in the geocoder, and add them to the map."

Right -- it's easy if you know how! And I suspect that slightly more energy went into this project than Dan is letting on.

Though just a bit over 10% of the 1791 images in the San Francisco portion of the archive were readily identifiable, it's more than enough to pull you back into a visceral, three-dimensional experience of our city in the era of Kodachrome.

And I quote: “Buried Treasure in San Francisco?”

richard - sparkletack — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:29:09 +0000

I love this blog, if for no other reason than the jawdropping diversity of the email that slips over the digital transom. This note from a few weeks ago just about takes the biscuit. In breathless terms it tells the story of a decades-long treasure hunt, a project just brimming with danger, doggedness and derring-do! [...]

SFist: “A Jitney Elopement” — Charlie Chaplin’s San Francisco film

richard - sparkletack — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:30:35 +0000

File this — again — under “there’s ALWAYS a San Francisco connection”. A reader recently alerted me to the fact that Charlie Chaplin, America’s favourite clown (and perhaps the most influential performer in motion picture history), shot one of his bazillion-odd silent movies on location in and around Golden Gate Park. “A Jitney Elopement” is [...]

Pacifica is back!

richard - sparkletack — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 17:29:54 +0000

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 [...]

tour review — san francisco ghost walk

richard - sparkletack — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 18:09:38 +0000

I love San Francisco, I love history, and I love walking. Luckily for me, there are a billion walking tours out there. Every so often I participate in one of these, try to pick up a thing or two, and take some notes for you. Ratings systems provide a useful shorthand, but your mileage may [...]

1907 harrison street mainline — photographic google map

richard - sparkletack — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 18:11:51 +0000

It’s my favourite thing, finding physical evidence of times past in the landscape of contemporary San Francisco. That’s why I was delighted when Aaron, a Sparkletack reader, sent me to a page of photographs snapped by a railfan in 1907. The website displaying the photos is the passion of Amtrak engineer (and native San Franciscan) [...]

book review — “The Bottle Imp”

richard - sparkletack — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 21:14:24 +0000

I read a lot of books on San Francisco and California history. And though these posts are labeled “book reviews”, the only books you’ll ever see here are those that I’ve really enjoyed. In short, if you see it here, it’s a great book — I’ve no urge to write about the stinkers! And if [...]

’39 world’s fair butterfly

richard - sparkletack — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 22:50:09 +0000

What is it exactly? It’s built like a notebook, with a couple of sheets of green and magenta construction paper sandwiched between its plastic wings … but it can’t really be opened for writing, and on the opposite wing — the Oakland side — there’s a patent number and the tiny word “bookmark”. Bookmark it [...]

screwball time-traveling noir: the bay time detective

richard - sparkletack — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 16:48:07 +0000

An email showed up last week which I found impossible to overlook, beginning as it did with the words “Hail, Sparkletack!” Clearly a writer of taste and intelligence! But wait — could a person of “taste and intelligence” be responsible for words like these?: Here’s the tale of three typically offbeat San Franciscans who do [...]

1938 san francisco street map

richard - sparkletack — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 16:00:24 +0000

Mark Pritchard over at San Francisco Metroblog has alerted us to a fabulous new Flickr find; a 1938 street map of San Francisco in vivid pinks, blues, and greens. And why fabulous? In 1938 there are no freeways yet in sight. Lefty O’Doul’s Seals Stadium is still in place — as are the Sutro Baths. [...]

a sparkletack tour of san francisco

richard - sparkletack — Fri, 04 May 2007 15:00:50 +0000

My long-time supporter Michael Roberts sent an email several months ago that absolutely made my day: After listening to your podcasts for the last six months, I couldn’t wait any longer and took a trip to the city so that I could experience some of your “brand” of history. He’s in good company. This isn’t [...]

mission street railroad graphic

richard - sparkletack — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 21:03:05 +0000

I have more than a passing interest in transportation and urban infrastructure issues — not because I have any expertise in the subject, mind you — I just find it fascinating to ponder the way technology and movement have shaped our surroundings. Craig Butz, a listener of mine, feels the same way. While examining his [...]