Merola Organizes San Franciscans To Present Outdoor Opera on The Peninsula

Visit our exhibit Bringing The Opera To The People and The People To The Opera on display in the Steve Silver Beach Blanket Babylon Music Center on the 4th floor of the Main Library through January 15, 2023.

Merola's advertisement in the Pacific Coast Musical Review, April 1, 1922

Once he received financial backing and the space to present outdoor opera in 1922, Gaetano Merola had to marshal the a variety of forces to stage his festival.  Opera is far more than the great artists singing and acting on the stage -- it requires an army of supporting participants. Transporting the forces necessary for this undertaking required a charter train to carry 500 people including a chorus consisted of 150 members, the orchestra numbering 110 musicians. There was an additional ballet corps of 50 dancers.  These numbers do not account for the necessary stage hands and ticket takers. Additional trains were also added to bring the audience to Palo Alto from San Francisco and back again.

Merola was assisted by the Baker & Taylor engineering firm who had helped construct Stanford Stadium. Contractors from the University built the stage, 80 feet wide, 40 feet deep and elevated four feet off of the ground that gave every seat a clear view of the performance. Experts also worked out acoustical issues of performing outdoors constructing a sounding board at the back of the stage to assist the voices and instruments in projecting toward the audience. Ramps were placed at the rear to bring horses on stage during some scenes in Carmen.

Ray Coyle was one of the earliest of the first participants in Merola's project. Well known locally as a muralist, illustrator and interior decorator, he also had experience created scenery for the Bohemian Club's "Lo-Jinks" performed in their redwood grove. Marjory Fisher noted "The scenery in all of the productions was of necessity simple but highly artistic and adequate ... lighting, setting and orchestral effects helped to make the performance conspicuously outstanding."  

Illustration of the open-air setting for Merola's 1922 performance of Pagliacci (source: Musical America June 17, 1922)

Jeanne Lane, writing for the Chicago-based Musical Leader, gives a vivid description of the scene:

The night panorama of opera in the stadium is pure magic. The stage built at one end of the great bowl is more than 80 feet in width. The drapery of midnight blue which masks the outer circle melted into the blue of the night where the moon and the stars completed the picture. The stage sets were built especially for this outdoor need and the furniture as well. There has been no makeshift. By a clever arrangement of lights the audience was illuminated and shut out while changes of the sets were being made.

Merola boasted of "the largest picked chorus of local singers ever assembled on the Pacific coast." He recruited the 75 member Stanford University Chorus, the A Capella Choir of the College of the Pacific (then located in San Jose) and a third chorus that he trained in San Francisco. The chorus of 150 voices rehearsed at Frank Carroll Giffen's house (also called the Humphrey-Giffen house) at the corner of Chestnut and Hyde. 

image source: San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection

Arthur Bloomfield tells of a gripman hearing these rehearsals from the passing Hyde Street cable car line calling out the Chestnut Street stop as the "Rue de l'Opera." An editorial in the Chronicle noted with civic pride the appreciation of the opera stars who marveled at the assembled chorus.

"Where could you find such a chorus?" asked [Giovanni] Martinelli, amazed.

"Even the Metropolitan cannot excel in this," exclaimed [Vicente] Ballester.

Walter Oesterreicher, the orchestral manager of the San Francisco Symphony, assembled an instrumental ensemble of 100 musicians. Armando Agnini of the Metropolitan Opera, who would collaborate with Merola for many years, directed stage action. Luigi Raybaut was also a stage manager. The ballet was directed and choreographed by Natale Carossio.

The Chronicle's music critic, Ray Brown, summed up the effect of the first evening:

The setting in the great bowl of the stadium was one of beauty, under the blue-black canopy of night. The sky was cloudless, save for a few filmy veils floating slowly beneath a half-moon in the zenith. A silvery wave of fog reared its crest on the summit of the far western hills and stayed its motion there. The winds were still, and there was no intrusion of the out world upon the fairy land of make-believe, except an interrupting whistle or two from a passing locomotive.

Gaetano Merola conducted with admirable authority and control of the large orchestra and the choral cohort. When he appeared on the stage at the close of the opera, the embrace that he exchanged with Martinelli was a symbol of congratulation to which the audience shouted approval.

source: San Francisco Examiner June 15, 1922

Bibliography:

Brown, Ray C.B., "600 Witness Opera In Open At Stanford," San Francisco Chronicle June 4, 1922

Bloomfield, Arthur, The San Francisco Opera, 1922-1978 (Comstock Editions, 1978).

Brown, Ray C.B., "600 Witness Opera In Opera At Stanford," San Francisco Chronicle June 4, 1922

Fisher, Marjory M., "Open-Air Opera A Far West Magnet," Musical America June 24, 1922.

"The Golden Gate of Music: Our San Francisco Chorus Amazes the Great Stars of the Opera World," San Francisco Chronicle June 9, 1922.

"Great Chorus To Sing in Stanford Event," San Francisco Chronicle May 13, 1922.

Hughes, Edan Milton, Artists in California, 1786-1940, 3rd ed. (Crocker Art Museum, 2002).

Lane, Jeanne, "San Francisco's Open Air Opera A Triumph," The Musical Leader June 15, 1922.

"Merola To Conduct Open Air Opera," Pacific Coast Musical Review April 15, 1922.

"Open-Air Opera Fete Arousing Interest," Pacific Coast Musical Review May 29, 1922.

"Open-Air Opera Performances Planned for Stanford University," Musical America May 13, 1922.

"Opera Master Tests Stadium for Accoustics [sic]," San Francisco Chronicle April 23, 1922

"'Pagliacci' Begins Open-Air Opera Series at Stanford University," Musical America June 17, 1922.

The Big Game, North Beach and The San Francisco Opera

The earliest seeds of the San Francisco Opera Company were planted in two places: the City's North Beach neighborhood and in Palo Alto at the "Big Game" between Stanford and California on November 19, 1921 – the inaugural football match at the newly constructed Stanford Stadium.

Several sources state that Gaetano Merola first visited San Francisco before the earthquake in 1906 as the accompanist for Signora Eugenia Mantelli. The 1906 date given seems unlikely since Signora Mantelli gave her final recitals in San Francisco in June 1903. Merola's presence cannot be verified since no pianist is credited in the advertisements for these performances.  

He later returned as a conductor with the International Grand Opera Company while on tour in San Francisco during the summer of 1909.  He made a strong impression in his presentation of Mascagni's L'Amico Fritz; the Chronicle noted that "Merola, made the evening not only the most memorable of the present season, but also eloquently expressed the fact that the composer's lyric work has met with unmistakable favor." It was with this troupe that Merola began his long collaboration with stage director Armando Agnini.

 

Merola as one of the touring conductors with the San Carlo Opera during their annual visits to San Francisco between 1918 and 1921. In the summer of 1921 he decided to remain behind in San Francisco. According to Arthur Bloomfield he earned a living giving lessons. He also began making friends in social circles to further his aim of creating an opera company for the City.

"Opera Stars Raise Their Voices to the Open Sky" shows photographs of opera stars Bianca Saroya and Giovanni Martelli, image source: San Francisco Chronicle June 4, 1922

One of his new opera-loving acquaintances, lawyer Horace Clifton, invited Merola to Palo Alto to experience a college football match. But, as Bloomfield put it, the conductor had "tenors more on his mind than quarterbacks." Clifton's wife, Olga, recalled many years later:

My husband and I took Maestro and his wife, Rosa, to the Big Game in November of 1921," she recalled. "While we were in the grandstand the Stanford Band came out. 'My God,' Merola said, 'I've never heard such acoustics in an open air stadium. This is magnificent I've got to give opera here!

Contemporaneously, the San Francisco Examiner's music critic Redfern Mason remarked: "The artist in him was impressed by the great spectacle. It made him think of the games in the ancient Roman amphitheaters." Merola was also impressed with acoustics. Very aware of the San Francisco fog, Merola also remarked "The nights are wonderful... There is no mist to chill you to the bone. It is as delightful as a night in Naples."

Merola turned to his friends in Italian-American community for support in his venture. A later account in Etude magazine described:

The tall, wiry, gentle-mannered young Italian spoke English very well, but always with the mellifluous accent that is heard in the laughter around the Bay of Naples. This stood him in good stead, because it was to his countrymen he went first with his plan to present a season of outdoor opera, to members of the San Francisco Fisherman's Association with whom he played cards of an evening and ate pizza. These were they who gave him the first $10,000, and on the strength of which he managed to borrow $13,000 more from a bank.

Redfern Mason gave the lion's share of the credit for the stage of Merola's extravaganza at Stanford Stadium to the conductor and to the generosity of his Italian-American friends.

source: San Francisco Examiner June 22, 1922

They have set an example to San Franciscans generally which, if followed up, will make California what by genius and temperament it seems intended to be--the Hellas of the Western world.

So I will set down the names of these gentlemen in enduring type that folks may know to whom they owe a debt of gratitude. They are Gaetano Merola, A. Farina, G. Torchia, G. Napolitano, A. Napolitano, G. Milani, V. Frevola, A. Paoni, G. Brucia and G. Stradi.

Antonio Farina, manager of the Crab and Salmon Fisherman's Association, hosted the card games where Merola and company hatched the idea. Guglielmo Torchia, also known as William Torchia, ran the Agenzia Torchia and was railroad and shipping agent. He was also the publisher of newspapers like Era Democratica and L'Italia. He also organized the Federation of Italian Societies.

Giuseppe Brucia (who sometimes went by Joseph Brucia), who was an olive grower and purveyor of dried fruit, secured the loan from Amadeo Giannini and the Bank of Italy.  Giulio Stradi was successful in the produce business.  At the age of 16, Stradi's daughter Louise became Merola's secretary.

The 1922 City Directory shows that brothers Alfonso and Amedeo Napolitano worked as a foreman and a clerk respectively (the initial G. Napolitano must have been a mistake?). Redfern Mason's list includes an A. Paoni, but later account list three men with that surname - Amedeo, Amalio and Anacleto Paoni appear to have been cousins (Amelio is usually listed with the surname Paone). They variously worked a produce clerk and machinist, grocer, and fitter.

Mason lists a G. Milani among Merola's benefactors (there was a clerk named Guido Milano living in North Beach at that time). However, later accounts give the name of Milano Milani who appears as actor in the Italian language press of the 1910s. Later City Directories show him working as a bookkeeper and clerk. V. Frevola is actually James V. Frevola who also worked as a bookkeeper.

Opera at Stanford Stadium was a tremendous success -- artistically.  It, however, was a failure financially.  Merola's friends were never paid back. Merola had to work off the remaining debt by conducting in Mexico City for a spell.

The San Francisco Opera formally acknowledged the contribution of Merola's Italian-American friends with a plaque dedicated in 2003. Although they were not among the 45 sponsors for the San Francisco Opera's inaugural season, Gaetano Merola could not have stage his Stanford Stadium success and garnered wider community support.

Bibliography

"Appointed General Agent for Cunard and Anchor Lines," Weekly Commercial News August 7, 1920

Bishop, Cardell, The San Carlo Opera Company, 1913-1955: Grand Opera for Profit. (Bishop, CA, 1978).

Bloomfield, Arthur, The San Francisco Opera, 1922-1978 (Comstock Editions, 1978).

"Cook, John Douglas, "'Mr. Opera' Takes a Curtain," Etude May 1954.

"Cook, John Douglas, "Twenty Five Years of Opera," Opera and Concert September 1947.

Crocker-Langley San Francisco City Directory (H. S. Crocker Co. 1922).

Fichera, Sebastian, Italy on The Pacific: San Francisco's Italian Americans. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).

"G. Brucia, 90, Olive Grower," San Francisco Examiner April 16, 1974.

Hunt, Grace Rollins, "George Hamlin Will Sing Here," San Francisco Chronicle November 28, 1909.

Jones, Idwal, "Out With The Fishers," San Francisco Examiner January 8, 1925

"Many Curtain Calls Demanded," San Francisco Chronicle July 7, 1909.

Mason, Redfern, "Al Fresco Opera at Palo Alto Will Be Done On Magnificent Scale. Great Artists to Sing," San Francisco Examiner May 21, 1922.

Mason, Redfern, "Stanford Opera Is An Ideal Expression of Latin Culture," San Francisco Examiner June 18, 1922

Rando, Maria Gloria, "The Italian Connection With The San Francisco Opera House," L'Italo Americano October 12, 2021. [webpage].

"S.F. Opera Honors Founders in Program," San Francisco Chronicle February 26, 2003.

Venturini, Donald Joseph, "La Vittoria del'Opera nel San Francisco," San Francisco Quarterly Winter-Spring 1951-1952.

Wiegand, David, "S.F. Opera honors founders in program Merola, other 'angels' on new plaque." San Francisco Chronicle 26 Feb. 2003

Exhibition: Through the Lens of Black Photographers

Doris and Virginia "Ann" on the steps with her 1st Brownie camera, 1957.  Courtesy of the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection "Shades of Western Addition".

A. P. Bedou, Photographer in a Crowd", c. 1910

“In a time when the deliberate distortion of black images in popular culture was as common as ice vendors in turn-of-the-century cities in August, the camera became a mighty weapon in the hands of pioneering black photographers. The same photographic technology responsible for the circulation of minstrel caricatures … was used to create counter images of African-American life—images of dignity, pride, success, and beauty. A wide array of figures such as James Presley Ball and Augustus Washington of the nineteenth century, and Robert McNeill and Chuck Stewart of the twentieth, wielded their cameras against the Goliath of white supremacy.”
— Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers 1840 to the Present by Deborah Willis

Since the earliest days of photography, black artists and documentarians have used the medium to assert the vibrancy and importance of their communities on their own terms. The images they captured with their cameras provided a different view that counteracted the racial stereotypes and bigotry prevalent in the visual media of popular culture.

This small-scale exhibit aims to recognize and celebrate the legacy and canon of many remarkable artists, illustrating their real-life experiences of dignity and pride.

To complement the fine art photography of well-known black artists, photographs taken throughout the decades by members of San Francisco’s African-American community round out this visual narrative. Pulling from the San Francisco History Center’s Shades of San Francisco photo project, this “community scrapbook” forms a constellation of friends, neighbors, acquaintances and relatives who used their cameras to document holidays, celebrations and moments of everyday life – authenticating experience and contributing to the visual history of San Francisco.

About the images in this exhibit

The images on display in the wall cases have been selected from the Art, Music and Recreation Center’s collections of fine art photography books, which can be found in the Dewey Decimal call number range of 770-779. A bibliography is available.

The images in the two wooden cases are reproduced courtesy of the donors of the Shades of San Francisco projects – specifically the neighborhoods Western Addition, Bayview/Hunters Point and Oceanview/Merced/Ingleside. To learn more about the San Francisco History Center’s Shades of San Francisco community history photography project, visit sfpl.org/sfphotocollections or visit the Center on the 6th floor.

Bibliography

Ashe, Jeanne. Viewfinders : Black women photographers. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1986. Print. 770.973 M867v

Ball, James P., and Deborah Willis. J.P. Ball, daguerrean and studio photographer. New York: Garland Pub, 1993. Print.  770.973 M867v

Bey, Dawoud, et al. Dawoud Bey : portraits 1975-1995. Minneapolis New York: Walker Art Center Available through Distributed Art Publishers, 1995. Print.  779.2092 B468d

Brathwaite, Kwame, Tanisha C. Ford, and Deborah Willis. Kwame Brathwaite: black is beautiful. New York, NY: Aperture, 2019. Print.  770.92 B7373f

Combs, Rhea L., Deborah Willis, and Lonnie G. Bunch. Through the African American Lens. Washington, D.C. London: National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution in association with D Giles Limited, 2014. Print.  973.0496 T4166

Cowans, Adger W., et al. Personal vision : photographs. New York: Glitterati Incorporated, 2017. Print.  779.092 C8386p

Millstein, Barbara H. Committed to the image : contemporary black photographers. Brooklyn, N.Y: Brooklyn Museum of Art in association with Merrell, 2001. Print. 779.0899 C737

Parks, Gordon, and Philip Brookman. Half past autumn : a retrospective. Boston: Little, Brown and Co, 1997. Print.  770.92 P236a

Reed, Eli. Black in America. New York: W.W. Norton, 1997. Print.  779.9973 R251b

Roberts, Richard S., Thomas L. Johnson, and Phillip C. Dunn. A true likeness : the black South of 
Richard Samuel Roberts, 1920-1936. Columbia, South Carolina: The University of South Carolina Press, 2019. Print.  779.2092 R543t 2019

Shabazz, Jamel, Fab 5. Freddy, and Ernie Paniccioli. Back in the days. New York: PowerHouse Books, 2001. Print.  974.71 Sh113b

Sue, Jacqueline A. A dream begun so long ago : the story of David Johnson ; Ansel Adams' first African American student. Corte Madera, Calif: Khedcanron Publishing, 2012. Print.  779.9979 J6312s

Wallis, Brian, and Deborah Willis. African American vernacular photography : selections from the 
Daniel Cowin Collection. New York Göttingen: International Center of Photography Steidl, 2005. Print.  779.9973 Af834

Weems, Carrie M., et al. Carrie Mae Weems : Kitchen table series. Bologna, Italy New York: Damiani Matsumoto Editions, 2016. Print.  779.092 W4188e

Willis, Deborah. Black : a celebration of a culture. New York, NY: Skyhorse Publishing, 2014. Print.  779.0899 B5611 2014

Willis, Deborah. Reflections in Black : a history of Black photographers, 1840 to the present. New York: W.W. Norton, 2000. Print.  770.8996 W679r


Willis, Deborah, et al. VanDerZee, photographer 1886-1983. New York: Harry N. Abrams, in association with The National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, 1993. Print.  779.2092 V286w

Related Program:
Film:  Through a Lens Darkly
The first documentary to explore the role of photography in shaping the identity, aspirations and social emergence of African Americans from slavery to the present, Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People, probes the recesses of American history by discovering images that have been suppressed, forgotten and lost. 92 mins, 2014

The Man Who Lit Lady Liberty

The Art, Music, & Recreation Department of San Francisco Public Library is currently hosting an exhibition centering around a forgotten man of many talents and trades but whose final claim to fame would rest on him being an actor known at the height of fame as M. B. Curtis.

Born as Moritz Bertrand Strelinger, he immigrated with his family at the age of 6 from Hungary to the United States. Restless and unsatisfied, he ran away when a little older from home to try his luck at various things, including a failed attempt at joining the Union Army. He then somehow managed to get small roles in theater and as sometimes happens, one thing leading to another, he found a role of a drummer with enough opportunity present his comic side. As luck would have it, the play ran much longer than was scheduled owing to Mr. Curtis’ talent and presence in the play. He had the audience in stitches, which was not unique for those times, audiences laughing at Jewish actor responding to his Jewish or self-deprecating jokes. The main difference this time, however, resided in the fact that the audiences weren’t laughing at the Jew but with him.

By now he had adopted a stage name of M. B. Curtis and with foresight, he purchased the play and produced it with his brother’s help. This catapulted him to the national fame, thus becoming the first Jewish male to portray a Jewish character with depth. So far, the field had always in the hands of gentile actors. But Mr. Curtis showed during his extra ordinary journey in the realm of performing arts that he was much more than an actor.

As luck would have it, the Statue of Liberty had recently arrived and Congress refused to fund the lighting of the statue. The lights went off on Nov. 1, 1886. Mr. Curtis was in New York and felt horrified at the darkened spectacle, so he decided to foot the bill from his own pocket. Another feather in Mr. Curtis’ hat was when Mark Twain approached him to perform in the theatrical version of the Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Local historian Richard Schwartz tells us that Mr. Curtis agreed on one condition, even willing to shell out $20,000 to produce it, if and only if Mark Twain would let Curtis portray the main character as a Jewish immigrant a la Sam’l of Posen, the play which had catapulted the actor to fame.

The current exhibition The Man Who Lit Lady Liberty is a result of the tremendous patience and passion, all in all some twenty years, from the time Mr. Schwartz began looking into Mr. Curtis’ connection to the city of Berkeley; he kept on digging deeper and deeper for more information, reading countless out-of-print books and hunting newspaper databases. As people became aware of Mr. Schwartz’ larger than life project, help in collecting memorabilia poured in from varied sources, including Library of Congress, which succeeded in unearthing a rare footage of Mr. Curtis’ silent film. Mr. Schwartz plans on showing the film during his talk.

Richard Schwartz is fascinated by the history of the Bay Area and the San Francisco Public Library is pleased to have several of his titles in our collection. We recommend them here:


The Man Who Lit Lady Liberty: The Extraordinary Rise and Fall of Actor M. B. Curtis (RSB Books, 2016).

Eccentrics, Heroes, and Cutthroats of Old Berkeley (RSB Books, 2007).

Earthquake Exodus, 1906: Berkeley Responds to the San Francisco Refugees (RSB Books, 2005).

Berkeley 1900: Daily Life at the Turn of the Century (RSB Books, 2000).

Hit Parade: Inspired by the Musical Archives of the San Francisco Public Library

Public Knowledge is an ongoing project of the The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  It is an effort to bring art to the community and the community to art and to the museum.  Public Knowledge involves collaborations with scholars, artists and community members.  The current project is a collaboration with the San Francisco Public Library called Hit Parade.

This is our second time working with the Museum of Modern Art. During the summer of 2014 we hosted the Chimerenga Library in collaboration with them and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

The current project includes many components, including public rehearsals and performances - Mission Branch on July 11, 2017, Bayview / Linda Brooks Burton Library on July 12 and Western Additional Branch on July 13.  These same branches had "storytelling" sessions where members of the community spoke of the musical memories.

Another aspect of the project has been researching the library's archival resources for histories and sheet music.  They have created a lively blog that presents some of the treasures they have unearthed from the San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection and the Art, Music and Recreation Center of the Library.

Keep returning to visit the Hit Parade blog to see what else the researchers turn up!

Ten Years of The San Francisco Public Library, Art, Music and Recreation Center blog

"Two Decorative Figures" by Leo Lentelli at the Mission Branch Library, 24th Street and Bartlett

 
The San Francisco Public Library, Art, Music and Recreation Center blog began on March 7, 2007.  During that time we have had more than 50,000 readers visit our 436 blog entries.  This blog has given us an opportunity to highlight programs and exhibitions, and to share reference and reading resources.

Here are the most read entries from our blog year by year.

Leo Lentelli: Sculptor of the City Beautiful (June 18, 2007)

Leo Lentelli was a sculptor who was heavily involved with the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition.  He also created works of public art visible to all who visit San Francisco.  Our blog entry has become well read because it is cited in the Wikipedia article about Lentelli.

The Dewey Decimal System and Music Scores (December 10, 2008)

The San Francisco Public Library uses the Dewey Decimal System to classify much of its nonfiction material.  The score collection uses an earlier version of this classification system. This entry explains some of the idiosyncrasies of our use of the system.


Color and Music (Marcy 17, 2009)

In early 2009, our Department and the Business, Science and Technology Department presented an exhibit called Color Amour that celebrated the history, art and science of color.  This entry focused on one aspect of the exhibition.

Jim Marshall (1936-2010) (November 8, 2010)

The passing of famed San Francisco photographer was the occasion for a small display of his work in our department.

Art in America Annual Guide, Museums, Galleries, Artists (June 22, 2011)

This entry highlights an important reference source that is available to San Francisco Public Library card holders as a special magazine issue in a magazine database.

Jews and the Brill Building - by Richie Unterberger (January 29, 2012)

Richie Unterberger is a local expert on popular music who frequently presents programs at the Library. This is one of the few blog entries written by a non-San Francisco Public Library librarian.

Richard Diebenkorn and Ingleside (September 19, 2013)

At this time, the DeYoung Museum presented the exhibit Richard Diebenkorn: The Berkeley Years, 1953–1966.  This was one of a pair of blog entries that looked at Diebenkorn's connection to San Francisco.  This entry focuses on the Ingleside neighborhood where he grew up.

Bobby Womack's I Left My Heart in San Francisco (July 1, 2014)

This entry was a tribute to the rhythm'n'blues musician Bobby Womack that examined his performance of an iconic San Francisco song.

"John McLaren" by M. Earl Cummings

M. Earl Cummings, pt. 2 - Sculpture in Golden Gate Park (August 9, 2015)

This was one of a pair entries discussing a San Francisco artist who played an important role in the City's cultural life during the first half of the 20th century.  This essay looks at his many works of public sculpture in Golden Gate Park.

Dorothy Starr Interviewed (November 17, 2016)

The Dorothy Starr Collection is a unique and important resource in our department.  This entry features an interview with Dorothy Starr herself where she talks about her life and vocation.


Please keep checking in to our blog to learn about our activities, our collections and about San Francisco's artistic, musical, and recreational activities.

San Francisco Neon: Survivors and Lost Icons

The Art, Music & Recreation Center is currently hosting an exhibit of images from the book San Francisco Neon: Survivors and Lost Icons through October 30, 2016.  These images taken by Al Barna and Randall Ann Homan were taken over a nearly 40 years period and document signage past and present.

Tom Downs' introduction provides an appreciation of what neon light does for a cityscape.  He recalls that fifty or more years ago, when neon was at its peak, the "collage effect" that it created within the night-scape.  Neon is especially effective in the fog-socked city like San Francisco where it creates a film noir-ish atmosphere.  In the book's "Neon Notes," Eric Lynxwiler writes that neon began to wane in the City in the 1970s as many locally owned shops shut down.

The endnotes of San Francisco Neon, written by Barna, Homan, Downs and Lynxwiler, provide addresses and background information for every image in the book.  The images in the exhibit also provide this background.  There is also a very helpful "Photo Index by Neighborhood."  The entries in this index are color coded to indicate whether a sign exists and continues to be illuminated, exists but the neon tubes are damaged or gone, or has been removed.

For a wider, historical context, Architecture of the Night: The Illuminated Building, by Dietrich Neumann, traces the evolution of light as a feature used to enhance a structure and as signage.  This became a feature beginning with the various World's Fairs beginning with Chicago in 1893. The first Neon sign appeared at the Grand Palais in Paris in 1910.  The first American Neon signage appeared in 1923 with the brand "Packard" illuminated at a Los Angeles Car dealership

Companies started advertising in San Francisco newspapers to install neon lights around 1929.  A search of the San Francisco Chronicle Historical database shows evidence of the growth in neon lighting in the City.

Advertisement from the San Francisco Chronicle April 5, 1929 

The rise of neon lighting also result in the jobs for those who created and fabricated oneon light, as well as the profession of neon light salesmen.

Want ad from the San Francisco Chronicle March 27, 1931

By the early 1930s, San Francisco's Chinatown must have been bathed in neon light.  A review of the 1933 film The Son Daughter, set in Chinatown, remarks that the of the film "The scene is not Grant Avenue today, but the Dupont street of the pre-Neon light era..." (San Francisco Chronicle (January 23, 1933)).  Downs, in his forward to San Francisco Neon, notes how many remnants of Chinatown's neon light era remain in signs that no longer work that are still attached to building above street level.

The images and the book San Francisco Neon perform the excellent of service of documenting elements of our City's past and present.  They also give us cause to notice our surroundings more carefully and appreciate these beautiful illuminations.


Bibliography:

Architecture of the Night: The Illuminated Building by Dietrich Neumann with essays by Kermit Swiler Champa, et al. (Prestel, c2002).

San Francisco Neon: Survivors and Lost Icons: Photographs 1976-2014 by Al Barna and Randall Ann Homan; foreword by Tom Downs ; neon notes by Erick Lynxwiler (Giant Orange Press, 2014).

"Quotation Marks"

There is a new exhibit to see in the Art, Music and Recreation Center!

When:

Saturday, 11/07/15 - Thursday, 1/28/16

Where:

Art, Music & Recreation Center
Main Library
100 Larkin St.
SF, CA 94102

"Quotation Marks"

The members of Plexus Art Group make art that sheds light on social and political issues.  Their goals are multifaceted in that they hope to heighten the value of books, stories and words to the patrons of the library, as well as show that art, inspired by books and quotes, can highlight important social issues, such as literacy.  Art-inspired quotes can stimulate new ideas and creative thinking for all ages.

This show, "Quotation Marks", was approached from two different, but related angles: Each member chose an individual quote and created an artwork inspired by it.  Additionally, using one particular quote as inspiration, "BOOKS ARE A UNIQUELY PORTABLE MAGIC" by Stephen King, each artist picked a specific book about which they made a  12"x12" art piece.  Utilizing a multiplicity of techniques and materials, including thread, fabric, wire, paper, re-purposed objects, photographs, etc, they create two and three-dimensional artwork, reflecting varying interpretations from personal to metaphoric.

The group was formed 7 years ago and all of its members reside in the Bay Area.

Dirty Laundry

Pamela Leith

Vintage tablecloth and napkins, embroidery, metal plates

"Who has the highest incarceration rate?  America."

The Days of Yay are Here!  Wake Me Up When They're Over"  by Jared Kintz

Forever Free  

Juline Beier

Thread, wire, paper, beeswax and found objects

"Once you learn to read, you are forever free."   Frederick Douglass

Books from the San Francisco Public Library you may enjoy:

Adventures in mixed media : collage, stitch, fuse, and journal your way to a more creative life / Jane Davies. 

Art journal art journey : collage and storytelling for honoring your creative process / artist, Nichole Rae.

The art of whimsical lettering / Joanne Sharpe.

An artist once said : an inspiration book / Hannah Rollings.

An artist's book of inspiration : a collection of thoughts on art, artists, and creativity / compiled and edited by Astrid Fitzgerald.

The cloth paper scissors book : techniques and inspiration for creating mixed-media art / [edited by] Barbara Delaney.

Creative lettering and beyond : inspiring tips, techniques, and ideas for hand-lettering your way to beautiful works of art / Gabri Joy Kirkendall, Laura Lavender, Julie Manwaring, Shauna Lynn Panczyszyn.

Journal fodder 365 : daily doses of inspiration for the art addict / by Eric M. Scott and David R. Modler.

Lutradur and the new fibers : creating mixed-media art with spunbonded materials / Wendy Cotterill.