Happy Easter, 2024 -- March 31, 2024

coverbrowser.com

Happy Easter, everyone. Here is the cover of the Easter, 1911 Collier's Magazine.

COVID-19, Vaccine, Masks, Church, Baseball and School -- March 30, 2024

cdc.gov

Covid-19 trends seem to be going down. Many people seem to be coming down with Covid-19 again, but the cases may be milder.  

More food aid is getting to Gaza, but there is still a risk of mass starvation. Israel is preparing to enter the last city in the south of Gaza, Rafah. President Biden called on the Israelis to be more careful of innocent lives. The whole world is calling for a ceasefire. 

The House is still delaying aid to Ukraine. The Republican Party is beholden to Putin. I am sorry to have to write that. 

The Giants have had a mixed record in spring training. It has been nice to see Pablo Sandoval again. He probably made his last appearance as a Giant during the Bay Bridge Series. 

Our former so-called president had until 25-March-2024 to post a huge bond after losing his real estate fraud case. His lawyers were able to get the bond amount reduced and to get an additional ten days. 

My students are making good progress with Code Avengers. 

Good Friday, 2024 -- March 29, 2024

We had a quiet day. 

The Life of John L Sullivan -- March 28, 2024

National Police Gazette, 14-October-1893

John L Sullivan, the Boston Strong Boy, was the last bare knuckle boxing champ under the London Prize Ring Rules and the first gloved champion under the Marquess of Queensberry Rules.

Sarah Vaughn 100 -- March 27, 2024

listal.com

Sarah Vaughn, one of the greatest voices of all time, was born 100 years ago today on 27-March 1924. She sang in the bands of Earl Hines and Billy Eckstine. She was present at the birth of bebop. 

Sarah Vaughan - Tenderly (Live from Sweden) Mercury Records 1958

Sarah Vaughan - Speak Low (Live @ The London House) Mercury Records 1958

Sarah Vaughan - Embraceable You (EmArcy Records 1954)

Sarah Vaughan - Misty (Live from Sweden) Mercury Records 1964

The New SS Republic -- March 27, 2024

Los Angeles Times, 30-March-1924

The SS Republic had a varied career under a variety of names. She was built in 1903 as the SS Servia by Harland and Wolff, Ltd. of Belfast. The American shipping line that ordered her failed and she was laid up for four years. In 1907, Hamburg-American (HAPAG) purchased her and renamed her SS President Grant. 

When the First World War broke out, she was interned in the US. After the US entered the war in 1917, the government appropriated her and gave her to the Navy. She became the USS President Grant and made several trips across the Atlantic carrying soldiers to and from Europe. 

In 1919 the Navy transferred her to the Army, which renamed her the USAT Republic.  In 1921, the Army gave her to the United States Shipping Board, which assigned her to the United States Lines. She sailed as a transatlantic liner until 1931, when the Army took her back and she became USAT Republic again. The Navy received her in 1941 and named her USS Republic. 

After serving all over the Pacific, the Navy decommissioned her in 1945 and handed her back to the Army. She became the hospital ship USAHS Republic, but she reverted to USAT Republic during her first voyage. She went into the mothball fleet in 1949 and was scrapped in 1952. 

Air Argonauts of Army Set Out on Globe Girdling Tour From Los Angeles -- March 26, 2024

Atlanta Tri-Weekly Journal, 20-March-1924

100 years ago this month, teams from several countries were trying to make the first aerial circumnavigation of the earth. The US Army, with the close cooperation of the Navy, made it. 

AIR ARGONAUTS OF ARMY

SET OUT ON GLOBE GIRDLING

TOUR FROM LOS ANGELES

Tentative Schedule Calls for Absence of Six Months From

America to Chart Airway to Encircled World --

U. S. Built Planes Make Start March 17,

Europe Watches Plans

SANTA MONICA. Cal., March 18. The United States Army ’round-the-world flight started from the field of the Douglas Airship plant Monday. March 17.

The United States Army Air Service proposes to make, a flight by airplane around the world for the following purposes:

-- To gain for the air service added experience in long-distance flying and particularly in the supply problems connected therewith.

-- To complete an airplane flight around the world in the shortest practicable time.

-- To demonstrate the feasibility of establishing a commercial airway around the world.

-- To secure for the United States the first place of practical aviation, the honor of being the first nation to encircle the globe entirely by air.

The squadron will proceed from here northward byway of Fresno, Stockton and Sacramento, Cal., and Portland, Ore., to Seattle, Wash. The probable date of departure from Seattle is April 1.

Route of the Flight

Leaving Seattle, the probable stops for fuel, food, supplies, etc., are as follows:
Prince Rupert, B. C.; Sitka. Alaska; Cordova, Alaska; Seward, Alaska; Chignik, Alaska; Akutan, or Dutch Harbor, Unalaska; Nazan, Island of Atka; Chicagoff, Island of Attu; Paramushiru island (Kuriles); Bettobu, Yeterofu), Kuriles; Akkeshie (Yeza), Japan; Aomori (Honshu), Japan; Tokio, Japan; Nagasaki, Japan; Chemulpo (Jinsen), Tsingtau (Shanlung), China; Shanghai (Woosung), China: Amoy, China; Hongkong, China; Haipong, French Indo-China; Tourane, French Indo-China: Saigon, French Indo-China; Bangkok, Siam; Ragoon Burma; Akyab, Burma; Calcutta, India; Allahabad, India; Delhi, India; Multan, India: Karachi, India; Chahbar, Persia; Bandar (Abbas), Persia; Bushire, Persia: Bagdad (Hinaidi), Mesopotamia; Aleppo (Haleb), Syria; Konia, Turkey; San Stefano, Turkey; Belgrade, Serbia; Vienna, Austria: Strassbourg, Germany; Paris, France; London, England; Hull, England; Kirkwall, Orkney Islands: Thorshavn, Faroe islands; Raykjaviki, Iceland; Angmagsalik, Greenland; Avigtut, Greenland; Rigollett, Hamilton Inlet, Labrador (Indian Harbor); Mingan, Quebec; Quebec-Quebec; Montreal, Quebec.

Leaving Montreal Quebec, the flyers will proceed to New York, thence to Washington, then probably to Dayton, Ohio; Chicago, Ill., and by easy stages westward to Los Angeles, the starting point.

Time Required for Flight

Officers of the air service in charge of the expedition have established a theoretical schedule which, however, it is not expected will be carried out due to local contingencies that cannot be foreseen.

However, it is certain that, if the flight is successfully done, it must be completed by the latter part of August. This is due to the fact that in the hop from Denmark, Iceland, Greenland, Labrador, etc., must be made when the northern waters around the southern end of Greenland are comparatively ice free. After August these waters will undoubtedly become too thickly congested with ice to permit of landing.

It will be seen from this that no attempt will be made for a time record, unless all goes well.

Preparations are upon the basis of completing the flight and learning as much as possible of practical benefit to commercial aviation.

In Charge of Plans

Detailed plans for the flight have been worked out by a committee, under the direction of the chief of the training and war plans division, office of the chief of air service. This committee includes the following:

Captain William F. Volandt, transportation and finance.
First Lieutenant St. Clair Streett, route, maps, general organization and information.
First Lieutenant Robert J. Brown, Jr., chairman, organization and co-ordination.
First Lieutenant Erik H. Nelson, equipment and engineering.
First Lieutenant Clarence E. Crumrine, equipment, engineering and route, advance officer.
First Lieutenant Elmer E. Adler. supply.

By authority of the chief of the air service the following personnel has been designated for the ’round- the-world flight:

Major Frederick L. Martin, commanding officer.
Lieutenant Lowell H. Smith.
Lieutenant Erik H. Nelson.
Lieutenant Leigh Wade.

Martin, Smith, Nelson and Wade are pilots.

The following officers, also pilots, have been designated as part of the flight personnel to serve as alternates:

Lieutenant Leslie P. Arnold.
Lieutenant LeClaire D. Schulze.

Six Divisions

In preparing for this epoch-making flight, Major General Mason M. Patrick, chief of the air service, has ordered every precaution taken against failure. The proposed airway around the world has been divided into six divisions, each in charge of an advance officer who has covered his section, obtained detailed information and made arrangements for the passage of the flight through the countries assigned to him.

The first division, from Los Angeles to Attu Island in the Aleutian group, is in the charge of Lieutenant Clayton Bissell. The second, ending at Chemulpo, Korean peninsula, under supervision of Lieutenant C. C. Nutt.

Lieutenant M. S. Lawton has charge of the third division, ending at Calcutta, India; Lieutenant H. A. Halvorsen the fourth, terminating at San Stefano. Turkey; Major Carlisle Walsh the fifth, ending at London. and Lieutenant Clarence Crumrine the sixth, which brings the aviators back to Los Angeles.

No Radio

Supplies have been shipped from the United States to various points on the route, and each division has a main depot with one or more subdepots where major items of supply will be allocated.

The planes will have no means of communicating with one another while in flight, equipment being reduced to a minimum for the sake of speed.

The expedition will be unable to take the northern route over Europe and Siberia because the United States his not recognized the soviet government. That means the trip is lengthened some 7,000 miles.

Preparations for Flight

The most careful preparations for the flight around the world have been made by the army air service. It has been assisted by the Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce of America. Through the Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce several score American business corporations, with representatives abroad, have cordially lent their assistance by providing letters of credit or personal letters of introduction which will facilitate the advance officers of the actual pilots themselves in case of emergency.

F. P. Snall, president of the American Express company, extended official co-operation with all American express offices throughout the world.

A vital feature of preparation was the pathfinding expedition of two officers to go over the most difficult portions of the route. Lieutenant C. E. Crumrine covered the territory from Hull, England, to Montreal with particular attention to Greenland, where two landings must be made, one on the east coast and one on the west coast, under the most difficult conditions. Lieutenant Clifford C. Nutt was sent to the Philippine Islands, then to the Asiatic mainland to make preliminary arrangements following courtesies extended by the governments of Japan, China, Great Britain, France, etc. Both of these officers, together with First Lieutenant St. Clair Streett. were members of the flying expedition which Lieutenant Streett commanded, from Washington to Nome, Alaska, several years ago.

Upon the data returned from Lieutenants Crumrine and Nutt, together with that provided by other air service officers and air attaches throughout the world, a detailed study of the route was made in the office of the chief of air service. The United States coast guard obtained data on facilities between Seattle, Wash., and Attu Island in the Aleutian group which is the point of departure of the flight from the United States possessions.

Difficulties

The crossing of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans will present the greatest difficulty to be encountered in the flight around the world. It is impractical to attempt either the flight across the Atlantic or the Pacific oceans, except by way of Iceland and Greenland in the Atlantic, and the Aleutian Islands in the Pacific.

Long water flights are not considered practical with the present equipment and facilities available to carry out the intricate navigation problems which would attend such an undertaking. It is also felt that a successful flight over the present route would not only be a greater accomplishment. but would afford an opportunity to open up realms to aviation that heretofore remained closed.

Unless the flight moves throughout the entire route with a regularity which will allow it to pass through the danger zones during a given period the eventual success of it is doubtful.

Air service officials are confident that with anything at all like an even break of luck all of the four planes will return to their starting point on schedule. Previous attempts to encircle the globe by air have been unsuccessful but the forthcoming attempt of the American army has been so carefully planned in every detail that success is practically assured.

It should be borne in mind that should any condition relating either to weather conditions, or the facilities for landing, come to the attention of the advance officers, which has not been foreseen by this office, and which will in the opinion of the advance officers entail undue danger, they will immediately communicate with office stating the circumstances clearly, by the most rapid means of communication available to them.

Where Engines Will Be Changed

It is expected that the flyers will arrive about April 28 at Kasumigaura on Choshi Ko, where motors will be changed. Calcutta. India, will be reached probably about May 24; here new wings will be fitted, new motors installed and pontoons replaced with landing gears. At San Stefano is a Turkish airdrome just outside Constatinople. The flyers hope to reach this port about June 16 and motors will be changed there if necessary. Arriving at Brough, near Hull, England, about July 7 the engines will be changed again for the last time and landing wheels replaced with pontoons for the final and perhaps most dangerous lap, the hop across the northern Atlantic by way of Iceland and Greenland.

New Cat #117 -- March 25, 2024

I took the photo on 22-March-2024.

Rainbow Over Pacifica -- March 24, 2024

Yesterday we went to the Palm Sunday vigil mass at Saint Peter's. We went to have dinner at the Hawaiian Barbeque in the Linda Mar Shopping Center. When we left, the owner was excitedly taking a photo of a beautiful rainbow. My photo does not do it justice.  

Rickenbacker -- A Car Worthy of Its Name -- March 24, 2024

Montgomery Advertiser, 09-March-1924

Captain Eddie Rickenbacker was America's Ace of Aces in World War One. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. In the 1920s, he joined with industrialists to found the Rickenbacker Company, which built luxury automobiles in Detroit from 1921 to 1927. The Hat in the Ring logo was the symbol of the 94th Aero Squadron, which Rickenbacker commanded during World War One.

Seals on the Air -- March 23, 2024

The Peninsula Times Tribune, 18-March-1949

I remember Don Klein as announcer for Stanford and the 49ers. Despite his rough start as a broadcaster for the PCL San Francisco Seals, he became a well-respected broadcaster. The Seals beat the major league Saint Louis Browns 7-5 in an exhibition game.

Dink Templeton
Fagan of Seals was afraid 'Aunt Maggie' lingo
would offend some of his Hillborough chums

Jack McDonald of the Call-Bulletin gave the Seals' new broadcaster Don Klein a big hand on the voicing of the first baseball telecast Wednesday, and I am happy to report that Klein wasn't doing it because the guy was pretty bad, failing for innings at a time to identify the batters, who certainly couldn't' be identified from what you saw on the screen.

Klein is a nice lad who has been imported from Honolulu to step into about as tough a setup as I can think of -- replacing the crack announcer Jack MacDonald who was the Voice of Baseball to many thousands of Bay Area baseball fans. Jack was summarily fired by Paul Fagan at the end of last season after building up tremendous gobs of goodwill for the Seals over 10 years.

"There it goes right out Aunt Maggie's window -- broken glass all over the place," Jack would holler when someone belted a homer, and the cultured Mr. Fagan would shudder at such colorful language, feeling that some of his Hillsborough chums might be looking down their long noses in disdain.

Jack got his degree from the University of California and naturally couldn't be expected to drip with culture (say that and duck quick, Templeton). I don't know where Mr. Fagan picked up his degrees, but he had made it tough for young Don Klein. It's bad enough to have the sponsor telling you how you have to broadcast. On top of that you expect the club owner to have rules you can't break on the air, such as at Seals Stadium when the wind is blowing a gale you can't mention that, and if it's cold enough to freeze your gullet, that is not a topic to be discussed. But when the club owner also dictates the tone and inflection of the voice, the idioms, similes and nicknames which must not be used, and sets a temperature gauge on the among of excitement allowed, the sportscaster is apt to have a very difficult time keeping his fans from going to sleep or turning him off, because cultured diction is something not one out of a carload of baseball fans gives a damn about.

Pressure on new diamond announcer is 'terrific'

The pressure on Don Klein is terrific and I find myself pulling for him hard but on top that he draws the assignment of telecasting the two games a week along with his regular radio broadcast. The two just do not fit together. When you see the action it's hard to take the entire description necessary for a radio broadcast. Don Leibendorfer, doing his regular public address job, would be just about perfect for television, but Don Klein, even if he is good as the old Walnut Famer on the radio job, certainly can't well fit that to television at the same time.

Bucky Walters of the News quoted the KPIX studio folk as saying the cameras were located down the third base line, which was typical of what was the matter with the telecast. Of course they were really located down the first base line, but it seemed no one handling the assignment knew anything about baseball. Once the ball was hit the camera would invariably be trained on the wrong place to pick up any part of the play. With men on first and second, the batter bunts down the third base line. The camera swings to first. The announcer gives the play at third, calling Dillinger out and protesting all over the lot. The camera never does get over to third base, so it comes as a surprise when, after the first pitch to the next batter the announcer suddenly wakes up and says "they called him safe at third, and the bases are loaded."

It seems to me that a camera behind the plate is an absolute necessity for showing a ball game, so that you could see the pitcher throw, the ball coming up to the plate and the hitter all at once, though Seals Stadium, with its glass backstop, makes that quite a problem to figure out. Certainly if all of the action is taken from the side, a much wider lensed camera is needed. The KPIX camera, when focused on the hitter, only took in the area about halfway to the pitcher's box.

After seeing that first one I can only fell more certain than ever that television will never keep fans away from the ballpark and will create more interest to bring new ones out than anything ever known before. I felt that was after the first ice hockey telecast, and Walter Mails tells me that television increased the SF Shamrocks attendance 50 per cent, even with a losing team.

Three Daylights Daily to Los Angeles -- March 22, 2024

Richmond, Daily Independent, 14-March-1949

The Coast Daylight was a prestigious train which the Southern Pacific Railroad operated on a twelve-hour schedule between San Francisco and Los Angeles. 

Tiny Room Inner Sanctum of Be-Bop School of Jazz -- March 21, 2024

Tampa Tribune, 25-March-1949

Newspaper and magazine writers liked to play up the exoticism of bebop, but Thelonious Monk was eccentric and he was one of the creators of bebop.  Most of his compositions were not meant to be played at "breakneck pace."  Personally, I can dig bebop and the old masters like Bunk Johnson, Sidney Bechet, or Louis Armstrong.

Tiny Room Inner Sanctum of Be-Bop School of Jazz

New York, March 24. -- (AP) -- The spark that ignited the be-bop school of jazz music is a lonely and rarely seen pianist who lives in the San Juan Hill section of New York -- a Negro tenement neighborhood in which all the dime novel plots you ever saw about the joys and sorrows of jazz musicians are continually going on.

The pianist's name is Thelonious Sphere Monk. Not for one minute does he consider himself eccentric. But: 

He wears a thin and scraggly goatee because he hates razors. He wears blue berets because he hates hats. He is partial to green knit neckties, and he wears gorgeous spectacles of gold and silver whose ear-hooks are half-inch wide. 

Despite a history that is as mixed and varies as a mythical Balkan country with a dozen claimants to the throne, jazz historians and critics are pretty well agreed that Thelonious is the true originator of be-bop. 

This form of music an offshoot of swing with twitching rhythms and unmelodic harmonies which began to make itself felt 10 years ago and has grown into a recognizable movement only in the last two years.

Orrin Keepnews, a current jazz writer, credits Monk with being "One of the very first to play this style."

Monk says flatly that he is originator of the school. Such be-bop greats as Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Parker and others say they gathered at Monk's feet 10 years ago to "hear the new sounds" as he worked out the chords in after-hour sessions in Minton's Playhouse in West Harlem.

Great Imagination

They found Monk a man with "great musical imagination," whose piano has been likened to the surrealism of Dali. In the little seven by eight room where Monk broods and culls his mystical rhythms there is a photograph inscribed "To Thelonious, my first and only inspiration -- Your Boy Dizzy." Gillespie is a talented trumpeter whose band is billed "King of Be-Bop."

Technically, be-bop is characterized by the accenting of passing notes, especially flatted fifths and ninths. It is a dissonant and staccato spasm, played at breakneck pace. As boogie-woogie went back to Bach, be-bop must have some kind of kinship with Stravinsky, for nearly all be-boppers are Stravinsky fans.

Aside from occasional professional appearances and in record cutting sessions at Blue Note Records, Thelonious is rarely seen.

He was born in the same small shabby apartment on San Juan Hill where he lives today with his mother.

So peculiar in habit is this brooding musician he has been known to refuse jobs which were sorely needed, preferring to remain in the little room which some call the inner sanctum of be-bop. Here the initiate gather from time to time to hear him play. On occasion they bring food.

Photo on Ceiling

This room is lighted by a single dim bulb. In addition to the scarred piano there is a single couch and a chair. Plastered to the ceiling is a photograph of Billie Holiday, Negro night club singer.

"When Thelonious closes his eyes and leans back," says a friend "Billie smiles down on him."

Though Thelonious at 30 is heavy with inspiration, he doesn't work much at commercializing his wares -- a circumstance that makes his mother unhappy.

"Thelonious lacks push," she has said to friends. 

His behavior at the piano is similar to his life -- he broods and composes for two days and nights without pause. He is as likely to eat four or five meals in a few hours and sleep for two days.

"I get my rest," says Thelonious.

There is seldom a casual acceptance of be-bop. It is all the way, or not at all. Some critics refer to it as evidence of a neurotic world.

But its communicants can tolerate no other. To hear straight swing or jazz causes them acute physical distress. The New Yorker magazine wrote recently: "Upon hearing the solos of Bunk Johnson, Sidney Bechet, or even Louis Armstrong, regarded by their admirers somewhat as the cathedral of Chartres is my medievalists, the be-boppers shudder convulsively, as if someone were rasping a fingernail down a blackboard...'How can they play that square stuff,' they ask?"

El Generalissimo Wheeler -- March 20, 1899

San Francisco Call, 01-March-1899

During the Spanish-American War, the armored cruiser Cristóbal Colón was part of the Spanish squadron that was penned in by the US Navy at Santiago de Cuba. The squadron tried to run the blockade and escape on 03-July-1898. Cristóbal Colón was the last surviving Spanish ship before her crew beached her to avoid sinking. 

El Generalissimo Wheeler must have been named after General Fighting Joe Wheeler, who served the Confederacy as a general and volunteered to serve in the US Army during the Spanish-American War. 

EL GENERALISSIMO WHEELER

His Stirring Transition From the Cristobal 

Colon to Golden Gate Park.

WHEN the young: student of natural history goes out to Golden Gate Park to study the buffalo, the deer, the llama and other wild animals from American forests he will see Generalissimo Wheeler rooting contentedly for worms in the paddock. The Generalissimo came under, the American flag with Porto Rico, the Philippines, Guam and other spoils of war, and while he was not mentioned in the peace protocol or the subsequent treaty, he was none the less won by Yankee valor.

He was first seen industriously swimming away from the luckless Cristobal Colon when that Spanish warship was dying under the Oregon's battering shells off the Cuban coast. He was picked up by a boat's crew from the American vessel and carried, expressing his gratitude in hearty grunts, aboard the Oregon. He probably had been intended for a juicy roast on the table of the Spanish skipper, but the Oregon's guns saved his bacon, and Generalissimo Wheeler, as he was then christened, renounced allegiance to the baby King of Spain forever.

Piggy Wheeler accompanied the Oregon on her return trip around the Horn, and aboard of her reached Honolulu. The crew decided that the Generalissimo had seen enough of Spanish misrule, and fearing to take him to Manila, where some American soldier would steal him for the centerpiece of a camp  bean bake, they decided to present him to Golden Gate Park. He was therefore carried, squealing. vociferously, aboard the Australia and given in charge of Captain Houdlette. To-day his pigship will be presented to Mayor Phelan, with a letter and the compliments of the Oregon's gallant crew, and then Generalissimo Wheeler will be one of the 200 freaks of the park "zoo."

San Francisco Call, 31-August-1899

STATE FAIR WILL HAVE

A HERO OF THE WAR

EL GENERALISSIMO WHEELER, FAMOUS PIG.

EL GENERALISSIMO WHEELER, the great black pig, wallowing in happy contentment in the corral at Golden Gate Park, will be one of the features at the Sacramento State Fair. This pig has a history for bravery and daring, but his greatest accomplishment is a knack of avoiding danger and

coming out of all difficulties with an unharmed skin. When the Oregon was knocking sections out of the Christobal Colon, the pig jumped off the Spanish warship and swam toward the Oregon. He was picked up by a boat's crew and placed safely on board the pride of the navy. When the Oregon made her trip

around the Horn this prize bacon remained on board. At Honolulu the pig threatened to destroy the discipline of the ship, he was placed on shore. Captain Houdlette of the Australia guaranteed to freight the live animal to San Francisco, bestowing his individual care and attention upon it during the trip to this city. This was done, and in the last days of February Mr. Bacon Generalissimo Wheeler arrived. He was presented to Mayor Phelan and given special quarters in the park Zoo.

When Sacramento learns of the treat in store for it no doubt a reception welcome will be arranged in "Wheeler's" honor.

Black Cat Magazine March 1899 -- March 19, 2024

philsp.com

The Black Cat Magazine was launched in Boston in 1895. It published short stories and was known for printing stories by new writers. The cover is decorated for Easter. This issue is labelled "California Stories." The authors are from Larkspur, Independence and San Francisco. The only writer whose name I recognize is Mary Austin. 

Coulter -- Ferry Steamer General Frisbie in Tow of the Rainier -- March 18, 2024

San Francisco Call, 27-December-1900

From the 27-December-1900 San Francisco Call. William A Coulter did many maritime drawings for the newspaper. Click on the image for a larger view.

The Hatch Brothers, originally from Monticello, New York, founded the Monticello Steamship Company to operate fast ferries from Vallejo to San Francisco. Learn more about it on my ferryboat site:
http://www.cable-car-guy.com/ferry/

Happy Saint Patrick's Day, 2024 -- March 17, 2024

San Francisco Examiner, 18-March-1924

Happy Saint Patrick's Day, everyone. 100 years ago today, San Francisco was having a busy day. 

Albert Bierstadt -- Yellow Butterfly -- March 16, 2024

artgallery.yale.edu

Albert Biersdadt created "Yellow Butterfly" about 1890. The colors are beautiful.

Kodak in the Home -- March 15, 2024

Photoplay, March, 1924

George Eastman's Kodak cameras allowed many people to take up photography. "A Kodak record of the children catches them just as they are and keeps them just as they were."

Great American Dirigible -- March 14, 2024

New York Daily News, 16-November-1924

Both sound like fun. 

Time Magazine -- Eugene O'Neill -- March 13, 2024

Time, March 17, 1924

Eugene O'Neill was a realist playwright. 

Alta California, 15-June-1884

His father, James O'Neill, spent a significant portion of his career playing Edmond Dantes, The Count of Monte Cristo. James O'Neill played the part over 6000 times between 1875 and the early Twentieth Century. He grew sick of the role and felt that it stunted his growth as an actor, but the public demanded that he play the Count.

After Eugene was expelled from Princeton, he joined the merchant marine. He fought with depression and alcoholism, but he gathered material for many of his plays. He joined the IWW's Marine Transport Workers Union.

Topeka State Journal, 21-October-1922

listal.com

Struck by tuberculosis, he spent time ashore in a sanitarium. He began to write plays. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1936. This gave him enough money to buy a house in Danville, California. Tao House is a national historic monument. I have never visited there.

Many of his plays were successes on stage and went on to become movies.

New York Tribune, 03-November-1921

Casper Daily Tribune, 21-December-1923

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 16-November-1924

listal.com

All Kinds of Soda Water Including Dr. Pepper and Red Diamond Root Beer -- March 12, 2024

Columbia Star, 27-March-1924

I have been having trouble finding ads for Dr Pepper. I had a Diet Dr Pepper this afternoon. I'm not sure about Red Diamond Root Beer, but it may have been manufactured in Birmingham, Alabama. 

And Now They Fear You May Get Drunk Sipping Coca Cola -- March 11, 2024

Sheboygan Press, 29-March-1924

Not an advertisement this month; I thought this was an interesting article.

AND NOW THEY FEAR

YOU MAY GET DRUNK

SIPPING COCA COLA

Enforcement of the ruling made on Friday by the state prohibition department at Madison that the Coca Cola Co. of Georgia must obtain a license in Wisconsin to sell non-intoxicating alcoholic beverages, may mean that the Sheboygan soft drink parlors, restaurants and other places where the famous drink is sold may be searched by dry officers and that they may be compelled to secure the city license for the sale of non-intoxicating beverages at a cost of $50 per year, or discontinue handling the beverage.

The ruling was made after an extended analysis of Coca Cola which is perhaps the most intensively advertised soft drink manufactured in this county.

The department in a letter to Attorney General Herman L. Ekern, declared that its analysis showed that Coca Cola contains a small amount of alcohol and that firms selling the drink must obtain a state permit as well as the main company.

It had been contended by the Coca Co. that its beverage contains no alcohold and that it could be sold in the state without a warrant under state prohibition laws.

Two analyses were made of the beverages, both bottled and from soda fountains. The first method showed that samples of the beverage contained from 0.05 0.08 per cent for the fountain drink and 0.07 to 0.10 per cent for bottled drink. Results of the second test were similar to those of the first, it was said.

Best Colored Band in the U.S. -- March 10, 2024

Omaha New Era, 21-March-1924

Robinson's Plantation Band of New Orleans, "10 -- Harmony Playin' Colored Jazz Hounds -- 10," played at the New Diamond Theater in Omaha. I do not know if this Robinson is trombonist Jim Robinson. 

Radio Program Received in Coal Mine -- March 9, 2024

Washington Times, 19-March-1924

A test proved that radio could be listened to 500 feet down in a coal mine. In light of yesterday's story about the Castle Gate Mine disaster (https://cablecarguy.blogspot.com/2024/03/175-dead-in-mine-march-8-2024.html), it is interesting that "The test also demonstrated the feasibility of mine rescue work by means of radio. 

175 Dead in Mine! -- March 8, 2024

Seattle Star, 08-March-1924

100 years ago today, on 08-March-1924, series of explosions at the Castle Gate coal mine in Utah killed 171 miners underground and the leader of the team that tried to rescue them. The shift before the crew that faced the explosion had failed to suppress coal dust. 

175 DEAD IN MINE!
BLAST
WRECKS
SHAFT!

Workers Buried Alive by Death
Explosion Shattering Works in Utah
Mine; Hope Is Abandoned

ROCK SPRINGS, Wyo., March 8. -- One hundred and seventy-five men, trapped in Utah Mine No. 2, at Castle Gate, Utah, today by three terrific explosions from an unknown cause, are all dead, according to the belief of officials this afternoon.

No one could possibly be alive in the mine, officials reported in messages here.

At 1:30 p. m. black damp was pouring out of the portals in such a deadly stream that rescuers were driven back and were being compelled to remain helplessly outside until more equipment arrives on the scene.

Without a single survivor to give them hope, or a person who can explain the cause of the explosions within the mine, relatives of the unfortunates by hundreds crowded about the gathering number of rescue crews.

Air shafts were totally wrecked. There is no avenue left by which entrance can be made without the best of equipment for battling gas.

HEARTRENDING SCENES ARE
WITNESSED AT TUNNEL MOUTH

Scenes at the tunnel mouth are heartrending in the extreme. There is not even the customary amount of hope for those entombed in similar explosions. Guards have been compelled to fence off enough space to give room for workmen, as the mass of relatives surge toward the entrance.

Fifteen rescue parties had arrived at the scene but no headway was being made and it was evident days probably would pass before all details of the disaster become available and all bodies recovered.

SERIES OF EXPLOSIONS
SHATTER MINE WORKINGS

A series of explosions occurred shortly after the men went to work today, reports stated. After that -- silence. What caused the disastrous blasts has not been learned. Officers of the company immediately rushed out of Salt Lake on a special train to take charge of the attempt at rescue.

Fire equipment from the other camps of the Utah Fuel Co., and from the Spring Canyon Co. were rushed to the scene. The mine rescue car at Butte left for the scene and experts with oxygen tanks were also sent.

A corps of doctors and nurses from all available points in adjacent territory went to the scene. First reports stated that 183 men entered the mine. This ‘number was later changed to 175 and a telephone message from the scene late this afterncon said it was possible that only 173 were in the wrecked shaft, three men being sick and unable to go to work.

Lynching -- Poor, Foolish Men -- March 7, 2024

Elizabeth City Independent, 07-March-1924

Pasquotank County is in North Carolina. 

Poor, Foolish Men

That little band of foolish men who tied handkerchiefs about their faces and gathered outside the Pasquontank County jail Sunday night calling for the blood of two negro prisoners, must feel thoroughly ashamed of themselves now; and surely they must feel thankful that they did not carry out the heinous crime of lynching that was in their minds.

Happily the mob lacked leadership and sufficient liquor to fire its passions. Given a frenzied leader and an abundance of liquor the mob might have shoved aside protesting citizens, battered down the doors of the jail and engaged in such an orgy of lynching as this county has never known. There hasn't been a lynching in Pasquontank County within the memory of its oldest citizens. It is a late date to sully so fine a record. Lynchings are going out of fashion.

Only brute men and ignorant men engage in lynching. If there were not brutal and ignorant they would never so much think of taking the law in their own hands. 

These lynching parties are so pitiably silly. They curse the law because it does not move to suit them. And then they set up a law of their own which convicts its victims without giving them a hearing and kills them without weighing the evidence at all. That mob Sunday night might have killed one negro of a crime of which he is only suspected. They would have killed another negro for a murder which may be proved accidental. Let us hope the would-be lynchers are now thoroughly ashamed and penitent and that Pasquontank will be spared another such demonstration. 

Comic Book -- The Shadow -- March 6, 2024

coverbrowser.com

"The Shadow Nips the Nipponese." Please excuse the racism. 

Pulp -- The Shadow -- March 5, 2024

coverbrowser.com

When I was a kid, Gene Nelson on KSFO played old radio shows at night. He often played episodes of The Shadow. At some point, I found a copy of Jim Harmon's The Great Radio Heroes in the library and read that the Shadow was a very different character in the pulp magazines. That character sounded more interesting. The whole "clouds men's minds" didn't make a lot of sense, but wearing dark clothes and hiding in the shadows sounded cool. Later still, I got to read reprints and found that they were pretty cool.

This cover seemed appropriate for the year of the dragon. 

Tenth Annual Buster Keaton Blogathon -- March 4, 2024

Photoplay, March, 1924

Lea at Silent-ology is hosting the Tenth Annual Buster Keaton Blogathon. A blogathon that has lived for ten years is a rare creature. 

For the first annual blogathon, I wrote about Buster Keaton's time in vaudeville: The 3-4-5 Keatons.
For the second annual blogathon, I wrote about Buster Keaton and the Passing Show of 1917, the show he signed for after leaving vaudeville.
For the third annual blogathon, I wrote about Buster's transition from vaudeville to the movies, Buster Keaton: From Stage to Screen.
For the fourth annual blogathon, I wrote about Buster Keaton's time in the US Army: Buster Keaton Goes to War.
For the fifth annual blogathon, I wrote about Buster Keaton's time making short comedies with Roscoe Arbuckle, Comique: Roscoe, Buster, Al and Luke.
For the sixth annual blogathon I wrote about Buster Keaton's First Feature: The Saphead
For the seveth annual blogathon I wrote about Buster Keaton's Silent Shorts -- Reel One, a series of films produced during 1920-1921. Buster and his team had a very high batting average.
For the eighth annual blogathon, I started to write about the Buster Keaton shorts produced for the second season, 1921-1923. Buster Keaton's Silent Shorts -- Reel Two

For the ninth annual blogathon, I wrote about the rest of the Buster Keaton shorts produced for the second season, 1921-1923. Buster Keaton's Silent Shorts -- Reel Two and a Half

For the tenth annual blogathon, I have written about the first feature that Buster Keaton had control over, The Three Ages:

https://bigvriotsquad.blogspot.com/2024/03/buster-keaton-three-ages-what-well.html

Toonerville Trolley -- Never Place the Ladder on the Side Against Which the Wind is Blowing -- March 3, 2024

Perth Amboy Evening News, 26-March-1924

I love Fontaine Fox's The Toonerville Trolley That Meets All the Trains.

Lewiston Sun-Journal, 25-March-1924

Hamilton Ohio Journal News, 28-March-1924

Washington Times, 30-June-1918

Krazy Kat -- I'm So Lonesome Without That Lil Kitten Ket -- March 2, 2024

Lancaster Intelligencer-Journal, 08-March-1924

I love George Herriman's Krazy Kat. Click on the image to see a larger version.

Washington Times, 30-June-1918

March, 2024 Version of the Cable Car Home Page -- March 1, 2024

I just put the March 2024 version of my Cable Car Home Page on the server:
http://www.cable-car-guy.com/

It includes some new items:

1. Picture of the Month: "Ascending an Inclined Plane." Source: History of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company by William Bender Wilson, 1895.
2. On the Cable Cars in Pennsylvania page: A ten year update about the Allegheny Portage Railroad, the first railroad to cross the Alleghenys, using inclined planes.
3. Added News and Chronology items about cable cars being dedicated to Willie Mays and Tony Bennett

Ten years ago this month (March, 2014):

1. Picture of the Month: The Pittsburgh Traction Company's double reverse curve on Soho Hill. (Source: "Pittsburgh and Allegheny," The Street Railway Journal, October, 1891.)
2. On the Pennsylvania page: Excerpts from "Pittsburgh and Allegheny," an article from the October, 1891 Street Railway Journal about street railways in the two cities
3. Also on the Pennsylvania page: A new article about the Allegheny Portage Railroad, the first railroad to cross the Alleghenys, using inclined planes.
4. On the Who page: Added a profile from the Street Railway Journal about MK Bowen, who worked on the Kansas City Cable Railway and the Chicago City Railway
5. Added News items about the Chinese New Year Parade and proposed fare gouging on the F line

Twenty years ago this month (March, 2004):

1. Picture of the Month: An elevator full of grips at Washington/Mason
2. Started to migrate some items from the Cable Car Museum site:

1. Historic American Engineering Record, San Francisco Cable Car System (assembled by Alan Kline)
2. Cal Cable's Hyde and California Street Car Barn and Powerhouse by Walter Rice and Emiliano Echevarria
3. San Francisco Cable Car - The Gripping Tale of an Aged Compact, an April, 1962 Road and Track article collected by Val Lupiz
   Thanks to Allan Kline, Val Lupiz, Walter Rice, and Emiliano Echevarria for allowing me to be the new host of this material

In January 2024 I started on a long overdue process of cleaning things up on my site. I started with the development pages. Actually, I guess I started last year with making the thumbnails 200 pixels instead of 100.

Coming in April, 2024: On the Cable Car Kitsch page: More collectible items.

125 Years Ago This Month (March, 1874): Mar 23 - Baltimore City Passenger Railway (Baltimore, Maryland) converted from cable to electricity

The Cable Car Home Page now has a Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/CableCarHomePage/

The Cable Car Home Page also has an Instagram page:
https://www.instagram.com/cable_car_guy/

Joe Thompson
The Cable Car Home Page (updated 01-March-2024)
http://www.cable-car-guy.com/
San Francisco Bay Ferryboats (updated 29-February-2024)
http://www.cable-car-guy.com/ferry/
Park Trains and Tourist Trains (updated 29-February-2024)
http://www.cable-car-guy.com/ptrain/
The Pneumatic Rolling-Sphere Carrier Delusion (updated spasmodically)
http://cablecarguy.blogspot.com
The Big V Riot Squad (updated obsessively)
http://bigvriotsquad.blogspot.com/