San Francisco History Podcast – Sparkletack
Stories unearthed from the history of San Francisco, the "city that knows how".
- Update frequency
- every 6 days
- Average duration
- 17 minutes
- Episodes
- 98
- Years Active
- 2005 - 2009
#59: Starr King and the California Civil War (pt. 1)
Over 100,000 people a day travel the Geary Street corridor. But how many glance over and notice the grey statue standing watch at Franklin Street? Only a very few look even further, and notice the lo…
00:39:09 |
Mon 09 Apr 2007
#58: The Crocker Spite Fence
History is rife with bizarre confrontations and grand feuds, but in San Francisco none were more bizarre than the showdown between Charles Crocker (bellicose railroad robber baron) and Nicholas Yung …
00:33:40 |
Wed 21 Feb 2007
#56: Lotta Crabtree — the San Francisco Favourite
In this week’s podcast we’ll marvel at beautiful Lotta Crabtree, quintessential star of the late 1800s. She was the protege of Lola Montez, the highest paid performer on Broadway, the darling of the …
00:27:34 |
Sun 30 Apr 2006
#55: Caruso, the Palace, and the 1906 earthquake
This week’s podcast chooses just one of the many thousands of individual stories to emerge from the catastrophe, following the eccentric Italian superstar and the storied hotel through their respecti…
00:44:00 |
Sun 16 Apr 2006
#54: The Notorious Lola Montez
this week's podcast grapples with the unbelievable legend of lola montez, trailing her across the world from london to paris to munich to san francisco. she was self-created diva royalty who, in her …
00:36:55 |
Sat 08 Apr 2006
#52.5: The Trolls of San Francisco
The history of one of these hidden layers is, however, little known and rarely spoken of – I refer of course to the San Francisco trolls.
Though some hold that the trolls are a primitive people orig…
00:10:00 |
Sat 01 Apr 2006
#52: Adolph Sutro, the Populist Millionaire
This week’s podcast explores the history of the millionaire philanthropist who gave so much to our city and whose story is — amazingly — almost forgotten.
For further edification:
» The Western Ne…
00:27:58 |
Sat 25 Mar 2006
#51: The Columbarium and the Caretaker
In an attempt to answer the oft-voiced question "what is that thing, anyway?", in this week’s podcast a visit is finally paid to this sumptuous Victorian repository for cremated remains, the baroque …
00:28:55 |
Sun 19 Mar 2006
#50: The Balclutha and the Chantey Sing
The Park Service website reads simply "sing traditional working songs aboard a floating vessel."
The songs? Sea chanteys. The vessel? A majestic iron-hulled squarerigger called the "Balclutha". I ha…
00:18:24 |
Sat 11 Mar 2006
#49: Sam Clemens and the Celebrated Jumping Frog
though the rest of the country thinks of samuel langhorne clemens as a southerner, it was a little time in san francisco and the wilds of california which turned young sam into "mark twain". this wee…
00:16:20 |
Sat 04 Mar 2006
#48: Mark Twain and the Great Earthquake of 1865
By now just about every San Franciscophile has been alerted to the fact that April 18th of this year will mark the centennial of the 1906 earthquake — the Big One which destroyed the city that once w…
00:17:23 |
Sat 25 Feb 2006
#47: Robert Louis Stevenson — Chinatown Treasure
san francisco has a long-standing reputation as a literature-loving town, as evidenced by government statistics ranking us as having the highest per-capita spending on books in the country. over the …
00:30:48 |
Sat 18 Feb 2006
#46: San Francisco Fortune Cookie
the fortune cookie is just about as chinese as french toast is french. which is to say, not at all.
00:16:15 |
Sat 11 Feb 2006
#45: Frank Chu Just Shows Up
downtown san francisco on a tuesday afternoon, and every businessman's face looks the same. whatever happened to eccentric and iconic characters like emperor norton and oofty goofty?
00:20:05 |
Sat 04 Feb 2006
#44: Moving the Dead — San Francisco Cemeteries
There are only three cemeteries left within the city limits of San Francisco.
Note the phrase carefully: “left” in San Francisco. There were once far more than just three, which makes perfect sense…
00:40:14 |
Sat 28 Jan 2006
#43: San Francisco Motorcycle Club — Since 1904
Established at the dawn of the century, the San Francisco Motorcycle Club has thrived for over a hundred years.There are plenty of fossils in this town, relics of another age, but the SFMC represents…
00:35:25 |
Sat 21 Jan 2006
#42: Alexander Leidesdorff — The Black Millionaire
It was 1841, and like so many of those who have washed up on these shores, then or since, William Alexander Leidesdorff was a man on the run from his past — a man trying desperately to reinvent himse…
00:27:53 |
Sat 14 Jan 2006
#41: The Golden Gate Bridge, a Modest Proposal
“So what do you think of that beautiful bridge?” I started to say, but she suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, an odd, wistful look in her eyes. “what is it?” I asked. She turned to me with a grave …
00:25:20 |
Sat 07 Jan 2006
#40: Luisa Tetrazzini and Christmas eve
“I will sing in San Francisco if I have to sing in the streets, for I know that the streets of San Francisco are free.”
It was 1910. San Francisco was still in a bad way following the great earthqua…
00:19:06 |
Sat 31 Dec 2005
#39: The Great Diamond Hoax
it was 1871. william ralston had become one of the richest and most powerful men in california, partly on the strength of his shrewd business maneuverings, but largely on the fact that he was an inco…
00:32:36 |
Sat 17 Dec 2005
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