The Diogenes of San Francisco
For Emperor Norton Day 2017, a look at how — in both art and prose — the San Francisco Illustrated Wasp paid tribute to the Emperor on 17 January 1880, nine days after his death.
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EmperorNortonBridge.org
New cover page for The Emperor's Bridge Campaign's project to name the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge for Emperor Norton. Click above to go to the page. Background photograph © 2015 Jeru Banez.
Introducing a new cover page, a new navigational menu and a new URL to get you more quickly to information about The Emperor's Bridge Campaign's project seeking state legislation to name the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge for Emperor Norton — or, more accurately, to add a name like "Emperor Norton Bridge" — by 2022, the 150th anniversary of the Emperor's proclamations setting out the original vision for the bridge in 1872.
Read MoreThe Fourth Annual Tannenbaum Toast
View from the mezzanine as guests arrive for the First Annual Tannenbaum Toast at The House of Shields, San Francisco, in December 2013.
The annual holiday party of The Emperor's Bridge Campaign celebrates the legend that it was Emperor Norton who originally called for the raising of a great tree in Union Square every Yuletide season. By tradition, the celebration takes place on the second Sunday of December in the mezzanine of the historic House of Shields bar in San Francisco, where we'll gather for the fourth time on Sunday 11 December from 4 to 6 p.m.
Read MoreRosebuds for the Emperor, 1913
In 1918, author and literary anthologist Ella Sterling Cummins Mighels (1853-1934) recalled her childhood memory of Emperor Norton and recounted the special Decoration Day tribute that was repaid him five years earlier.
Read MoreAn 80th Birthday Party & Naming Rally for the Emperor Norton Bridge
The Emperor Norton Bridge a.k.a. the Bay Bridge, in San Francisco, as seen from Rincon Park. In the foreground: Cupid's Span (2002), by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. Photograph © 2007 Σταύρος.
On Saturday 12 November 2016, the Emperor Norton Bridge a.k.a. the Bay Bridge turns 80.
Please join The Emperor's Bridge Campaign for a celebration to wish the Emperor's bridge a happy birthday and to show your support for naming the bridge for Emperor Norton in 2022 — the 150th anniversary of the Emperor's proclamations in 1872 setting out the original vision for the bridge.
Read MoreNaming of Meadow in Golden Gate Park Would Set a Helpful Precedent for Emperor Norton Bridge Effort
There is a proposal afoot to name the Sharon Meadow, in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, for the late comedian and actor Robin Williams. The rationale being used strengthens the case for naming the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge for Emperor Norton.
Read MoreWhat Ever Happened to the Plaque of '59?
In 1959, "the Society of California Pioneers in cooperation with the San Francisco Chronicle" proposed an Emperor Norton memorial plaque at the intersection of California Street and Grant Avenue — where the Emperor collapsed and died on 8 January 1880. A design for the plaque was created by Hubert Buel, the Chronicle's art director. Indeed, the design and text for the plaque were approved by resolution of the San Francisco Arts Commission on 1 June 1959.
And yet, today, there is no Emperor Norton plaque at California and Grant. In fact, it appears that the project never made it before the San Francisco Board of Supervisors — which typically would have to have given final approval for a project like this in order for it to move forward.
How did an Emperor Norton plaque with the collaborative backing of two storied institutions like the Society of California Pioneers and the San Francisco Chronicle get pushed off the tracks — and who did the job?
Read MoreA True San Franciscan, or, What Tony Bennett and Emperor Norton Have in Common
Today, in celebration of his 90th birthday, Tony Bennett was on hand in San Francisco to receive a well-deserved tribute: the unveiling of a larger-than-life statue of him in front of the Fairmont Hotel, where he made his San Francisco debut in 1954 — and where he introduced his immortal signature song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," in 1961.
Bennett was given the tribute because — although he wasn't born in San Francisco, and although he never lived here — he was a true San Franciscan.
Emperor Norton is another gentleman who — like Tony Bennett — became a true San Franciscan by loving the city and being loved in return.
It is long past time for Emperor Norton to be honored with a tribute that rises to the level. A tribute that recognizes the Emperor for setting out the original vision for the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and for being one of the earliest champions of the values of openness, tolerance, fair play and the common good that came to be identified with San Francisco, Oakland and the Bay Area — and that celebrates him for doing all of this with the whimsical and irrepressible style that is the hallmark of his adopted city.
Read MoreAN EMPIRE DAY "DOUBLE BILL": Field Talk + Celebration
This year, we're marking Empire Day with a "double bill" of events on Saturday 17 September: an onsite Field Talk at 3 p.m. followed by a nearby brief Empire Day celebration at 4:30.
Read MoreIntroducing ARENA: Archive of Emperor Norton in Art, Music & Film
Comic, 1871, by John Steinberg. The comic appeared in a late 1871 issue of Frederick Marriott's California Mail Bag magazine, as part of a group of Steinberg's "Humorous Sketches of the War in Amador." Source: Internet Archive.
Today, The Emperor's Bridge Campaign launches ARENA: Archive of Emperor Norton in Art, Music & Film. ARENA seeks to be a comprehensive, authoritative, searchable digital archive of representations and interpretations of Emperor Norton in the visual arts, in music and in film — the mediums that are most readily presented online. The Archive includes "renderings" of Emperor Norton from the early 1860s to the present.
Read MoreThe Emperor Norton Sundae: Vintage Ghirardelli Menus Edition
For at least 40 years, it appears, the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company featured on the menu of its shops an Emperor Norton Sundae. Ghirardelli discontinued the Emperor Norton in 2004, possibly earlier — but, evidence of the Emperor remains in this little collection of Ghirardelli menus from the 1960s, '70s and '80s.
Read MoreThe "Emperor Norton Bridge" By 2022
The Emperor's Bridge Campaign proposes that the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge be additionally named for Emperor Norton in 2022 — the 150th anniversary of when Emperor Norton set out the original vision for the Bay Bridge in 1872. On 10 May 2016, Campaign president John Lumea sent to Campaign supporters and followers a letter outlining the bridge-naming proposal and options for pushing it forward.
Read MoreThe Emperor's 198th: A Birthday Party in Salute of Emperor Norton
This 9-layer cake was created in 1916 to celebrate the 35th birthday of a large women's-goods store in Columbus, Ohio. The cake weighed nearly one ton. Source: Popular Science Monthly
Please join The Emperor's Bridge Campaign as we celebrate Emperor Norton's 198th birthday on 4 February 2016.
Read MoreAn Empire of the Heart
A portion of remarks offered by Emperor's Bridge Campaign founder and president John Lumea at the Campaign's inaugural celebration of Empire Day in San Francisco's Redwood Park on 17 September 2015. The event was held to mark the 156th anniversary of Joshua Norton's declaration of himself as "Emperor of these United States" on 17 September 1859 and to welcome the 157th year of the Nortonian realm and reign.
Read MoreThe Original Public Advocate
In the current San Francisco mayoral election, one of the challengers to sitting mayor Ed Lee has offered an anti-corruption plan that includes a proposal that San Francisco create a new elected office for a Public Advocate.
Other major cities already have Public Advocates; the level of authority depends on the city.
But the general idea is that the Public Advocate is a kind of official watchdog — someone who helps to ensure that the citizens are being treated fairly; that government agencies and private companies are properly maintaining basic utilities and services like streets, public transit, water, electricity and gas (and not gouging the people in the process); and that corruption that affects the general populace is called out wherever it is found.
Sound familiar? It should.
The original Public Advocate is Emperor Norton.
A Plaque for the Emperor (With His Birth Date in Bronze)
On a beautiful if blustery afternoon yesterday in Colma, about 40 friends of Emperor Norton gathered for the laying of a special historical plaque for the Emperor at Home of Peace — the cemetery of Congregation Emanu-El, where the Emperor attended synagogue every Saturday.
Read MoreMr. Hutchinson's Mementos
It long has been known that, upon Emperor Norton's death in January 1880, many of his personal effects — including his regimentals, a hat, his sword and his treasured Serpent Scepter, an elaborate walking stick given him by his subjects in Oregon — went to the Society of California Pioneers (only to be lost 26 years later in the earthquake and fire).
Many, but not all. This week, we discovered archival traces of an early 1880 donation to the Odd Fellows' Library Association of San Francisco. The donation — by David Hutchinson, Emperor Norton's longtime landlord at the Eureka Lodgings — included the stamp the Emperor used to place his seal on his proclamations. It might also have included the Emperor's final proclamation: written and sealed, but not yet delivered and published.
Read MoreA Jewish Memorial for the Emperor
Detail of 1866 photograph of the newly completed second synagogue building of Congregation Emanu-El, located on Sutter Street between Powell and Stockton in San Francisco. Emperor Norton attended services here every Saturday. After the interior of the building was destroyed by fire following the earthquake of 1906, the structure was rebuilt and continued to be used by the Congregation until the present third synagogue building was dedicated in 1926. Original photo: California Views Photo Archives.
Emperor Norton was an English Jew. In San Francisco, he attended synagogue services at Congregation Emanu-El every Saturday. But he was never given a Jewish funeral or burial.
Now — 135 years after his death in 1880 — those who admire and revere the Emperor have an opportunity to participate in an afternoon of activities — on Sunday 3 May 2015 — intended to help mend this historical tear in the fabric of the Emperor's story. The ceremonial highlight of the afternoon will be the laying of a special plaque for Emperor Norton at Home of Peace, Emanu-El's cemetery in nearby Colma, Calif.
Read MoreAngels in the Architecture
A hotel driveway entrance is not the sort of thing to which one generally pays much, if any, attention. It's a hotel driveway entrance. How exciting can it be? But, in the case of the Parc 55 Hilton, in San Francisco, that assumption would be a big mistake. Emperor Norton, it seems, can appear in the most unexpected of places.
Read MoreThe Emperor & His Widow
On 15 February 2015, a number of us from The Emperor's Bridge Campaign attended the 40th anniversary of the International Court's annual pilgrimage to the graves of Emperor Norton and José Sarria, the Widow Norton. Rev. Lyle Beckman of San Francisco Night Ministry offered especially touching keynote remarks drawing parallels between the Emperor and his widow.
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