Podcast Transcription

WNP507 – The Ave Bar (1607 Ocean Avenue)

Nicole: [00:00:00] It's Outside Lands San Francisco, podcast of Western Neighborhoods Project, your weekly dose of friendly neighborhood history.

And hello again, Outside Landers, I'm your host Nicole Meldahl.

Arnold: And I am your co-host Arnold Woods.

Nicole: So Arnold, we have been getting such a great response to the business histories we've taken on this year that, I don't know, I think we should just keep this party going. How do you feel about that?

Arnold: I think that's the correct thing to do.

Nicole: Yep. And per feedback, we've received that the longer length of our episodes are too long. I'm, I've got exciting news. For those of you who may still be listening, despite not enjoying the long form podcast, the next two episodes are gonna be on the shorter side. So travel with us dear [00:01:00] listeners, as we make our way over to the Ingleside neighborhood to grab a drink at one of the oldest remaining joints on Ocean Avenue. Arnold, what the heck am I referring to?

Arnold: Well, some of you may have guessed it already, but we are talking about the Avenue Bar at 1607 Ocean Avenue. The bar became an San Francisco legacy business in 2017, which is one reason why we decided to give it the Outside Lands San Francisco podcast treatment. And surprisingly, we found that its legacy application did not include the full story.

Nicole: Yeah, surprisingly it takes very little like history to get yourself verified. There were like, they quoted like five articles and they were like, yep, dippity dot, here we are, we're a legacy business. I was like, I'm glad that at least something in San Francisco doesn't require an insane amount of bureaucratic hurdles [00:02:00] to make happen. So that made me happy. But this means that we are here to set the record straight or paint a fuller picture. So, are you ready to dive into this?

Arnold: Absolutely. So, the Avenue Bar building at 1607 Ocean Avenue, near Capitol dates all the way back to 1922. And the earliest business on record at this location was Crown Electrical and Plumbing Company in 1923. It was run by a married couple named Joseph and Gertrude Crown, who lived nearby on Ashton Avenue. It seems like they would repair just about anything, which is pretty common for those kinds of shops back in the day.

Nicole: I love an old school, bring me your weird stuff and I will fix it, type of business. Maybe cause I, I pretty much date the boyfriend version of that. So, advertisements run in local papers through at least 193. And otherwise, the Crowns don't really appear in print much. Except [00:03:00] for February, 1925 when a man named A.T. Steel wrote him a bad check and Joseph had to report him to the police. And I know that's not exactly earth-shattering history here, but it was newsworthy enough to be covered, not only in the Examiner, but in the Italian language papers too. So, I had a fun, wild ride of translating a bunch of articles from Italian to English yesterday.

Arnold: It's not what you thought you would have to be doing when doing a podcast research.

Nicole: No, but God bless the internet because I don't know how people did this before, in the olden times.

Arnold: Anyway, starting in 1934, 1607 Ocean Avenue was home to the Balboa Shoe Repair run by Louis P. Nessier and his wife Lucille. Now, full disclosure, we, which actually means Nicole…

Nicole: That's me.

Arnold: Researched this week's podcast pretty quickly and didn't have time to sort out [00:04:00] all of the Louis Nessiers that popped up. And surprisingly, there are a lot of them.

Nicole: Yeah. So friends, let me tell you some wild things that came up when researching Louis Everything from an 1897 article about a 16-year-old Louis. Nessiair or Nessier who took part in a bloody turf war on Mission Road near Six Mile House, to selling land of the city for use as the Fairmont School in 1915 to being a witness to the murder of an Oakland bail bond broker named James G. Rohan in the 1930s. So, I'm not sure which one of these is our Louis or if it's several different Louises, I don't really know. I didn't have time to sort it out. But just know that like there's a broad spectrum of things available about this individual or individuals.

Arnold: But what we can verify is this Balboa Shoe Repair was around as early as 1926, at first 1611 Ocean Avenue. While at [00:05:00] 1607 Ocean Avenue, he appears to have shared the space with S&O Radio Sales Service. Louis is in business here until about 1938 and the next year he's running a cafe at 1039 Ocean Avenue. Which is a real switcheroo for professions here. From repairman to cafe owner. But the magic of San, that's this magic of San Francisco, right? That city where you can be anything you want to be.

Nicole: Yeah. And my fix-it boyfriend actually makes a pretty mean breakfast. So maybe there's something about the types of dudes who can fix anything.

Arnold: And we know somebody right now who is going from art gallery to restaurant/

Nicole: Right. But John Lindsay went from restaurant to art gallery and back to restaurant. So, I don't know, maybe this guy Louis did as well. We don't, we, as we stated earlier, we don't know everything about this man. Anyway, John doesn't listen to this podcast, so he has no idea how often we name [00:06:00] drop him or say weird things about him. By the way. Anyway, 1938, this is when the property transitions to selling alcohol as Horgan & Fex liquors, run by Dan C. Horgan and Harry G. Fex. Which now that I say it out loud, sounds like something out of Harry Potter to be honest. It's first called the Avenue Club in 1939, which is a full 10 years earlier than the date listed in the San Francisco Legacy Business Registry. Interestingly, Horgan and Fex, now I just can't get Harry Potter out of my head, interestingly, Horgan and Fex run that location as a bar while running a liquor store by the same name for just one year at 1607 Capital Avenue. And for the rest of the bar's life, it will be some variation of the name Avenue Club.

Arnold: And Horgan and Fex hold onto it until 1944 when Audrey and [00:07:00] Melvin Irwin Hertz take over. And we should point out that almost always this bar is run by West siders. The Fex family, for instance, lived at 1251 20th Avenue. The Hertzes lived at 2185 Ulloa. The Hertzes didn't hold onto the business very long, but it's wild they managed it as long as they did, because Melvin was a pretty busy man.

Nicole: Very busy man. Mel Hertz was best known as a popular organist in San Francisco in the 1920s and 1930s. He performed throughout the city, but would also have, I don't know if you would call these like residencies now, but you know, like longer term contracts with specific theaters as the house organist. So, in 1922, he was with the Pantages Theater. Then in 1933, the glorious Fox Theater on Market Street that was demolished famously. And like kickstarted the preservation [00:08:00] movement here in San Francisco. So, he was the house organist for the Fox Theater in ’33. And, in March 1924, I was very excited to find this. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. made an appearance at the Alexandria Theater, of course on Geary and 18th Street, to support his film, Stephen Steps Out. And Mel joined the Ben Black Band for the occasion. So, Ben Black was the house band for the Alexandria. And, in 1934, he could also be seen at the Parkside Theater on Taraval and the Irving Theater, both of which are gone now. So, he really was kind of out and about, but I kind of imagined that he was excited to play closer to home because, well, maybe his wife would see him more often then.

Arnold: Yeah. I think what a lot of the youngsters today don't fully understand is back in the silent film era, all these theaters had organists that came in and would play the music while the film was playing.

Nicole: Yeah. And you could, side note about organists [00:09:00] and organs, one you could buckle up for this, this wild conjecture. You can still experience this, I think at the Castro Theater, at least for now. I don't know what renovations are gonna be. And also, we just got wind, thank you Thomas Beutel, the organ that was built for the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition and was installed at Civic Auditorium, it is up for grabs right now. The city will give it to anybody who promises to put it back together and have it like accessible to the public. And I'm like, how do we get this? How do we get this thing put somewhere? So, so listeners, do you have an idea? Do you own a theater in San Francisco? Like to put this thing in it or just a big old building that you wanna let people into every once in a while. Anyways, let us know. podcast@outsidelands.org. Now we will return to our regularly scheduled programming, [00:10:00]

Arnold: Although, I should know, we should, I, I hope the San Francisco Theater Foundation knows about this.

Nicole: Oh, I emailed them immediately. Yeah.

Arnold: And I think you can still experience an organist over, I think it's the Fox Theater in Oakland. They'll have a summer concert series and they have the organist come up and play. They pop up, you know, from underneath the stage, up to the stage and the organ is playing. I've done that a few times in the past. That's a lot of fun.

Nicole: That's cool. Oh, and the Legion of Honor. Now this is just a podcast about where you can see organs in San Francisco. Sorry.

Arnold: Anyway, back to our regular scheduled programming. So, despite consistently performing, the 1930s were rough on the Hertzes. Mel had to declare bankruptcy in 1932. He was forced to divest himself of land in swanky Ingleside Terraces by way of a trustee sale in 1933. And then he got divorced from his wife Lorraine, the same month. By the 1940s, he was [00:11:00] performing fewer gigs. He's still going on in 1944, but the next year in 1945, there are no performances for him mentioned anywhere, and that's when he's running the Avenue Club with his next wife, Audrey.

Nicole: Yeah, Mel seems to have gotten involved in real estate and he ran the bar until 1947 when he was named public relations director for the American Legion’s California department, and he stayed in the neighborhood until his death in 1952. And I kind of have to wonder if he like frequented the bar after it was transferred to J.A. Brown, Jack Benjamin and Lloyd Sundberg in 1948. Like, was he like, I'm done with bars, or was he like, oh great, I drink free for life. Questions historians will never get answered. But so, these three guys who took the bar over, they were locals as well. Jack lived at 1251 Vicente Street and just the year before he took over the bar, he was charged for being a bookie at a cigar store [00:12:00] at 1551 Ocean Avenue. Love a good bookie, because it's what I grew up with. And then Sundberg, Lloyd Sundberg was a local builder who actually had a shop next door at 1608 Ocean Avenue. So, like these are all guys who were like, yeah, sure, we'll buy the bar next door. We'll see how it does.

Arnold: These guys only had it for one year though. 1949, the Avenue Club was purchased by Johnny Schiechl and a business partner named Bob Wells. Now I kind of went down a rabbit hole with Johnny.

Nicole: Yeah, I was like, blah, blah, blah, blah, one mention he was a sports person and moved on. Arnold was like, oh no, we are gonna get into this stuff.

Arnold: Yeah. Schiechl was essentially a local celebrity and we know a fair amount about him as a result. He was a San Francisco native of Austrian descent, who attended Balboa High School and then played football at Santa Clara University. Now, he [00:13:00] didn't just play football. In his senior year, he was named to the College Football All-American team at the center position. That was for the 1939 season.

Nicole: I had one paragraph on this dude's history and I was like, sports ball, moving on. God bless you, Arnold. So, after his graduation from Santa Clara, Schiechl was drafted in the second round of the 1940 NFL draft by the Philadelphia Eagles, which was held on December 9th, 1939. Note that there were only 10 teams in the NFL then. So, Schiechl was actually the 13th player selected overall. However, he declined to play in the NFL initially.

Arnold: Yeah,, salaries for professional athletes were not the same back then. You didn't have the lucrative sponsorship deals. So even through the ‘70s, it was common for guys to own restaurants and bars on the side to supplement their income. Remember, Joe DiMaggio had his eponymous restaurant and his [00:14:00] brother had a bar here in San Francisco. So instead of playing football, Schiechl briefly worked jobs as a newspaper writer and in advertising. In April 1940 though. Schiechl opens a bar called, naturally, All American, which was located at 141 Powell Street. His cocktail lounge was only a block away from Lefty O’Doul's place.

Nicole: You know what? Silly, I didn't even Google to see if this is still a bar that we can go to. Oh my gosh, I'm gonna have to do that later. To be clear, there are some conflicting news accounts as to whether Schiechl owned the bar or was just kind of like a greeter, gladhanding patrons and acting as a draw. But you know, either way it speaks to how popular he was at the time. And it seems likely that he had at least some ownership of All American, as it was later reported that subsequent owners got the place from Schiechl.

Arnold: So, despite going into business instead of football initially, Schiechl accepted an invitation to play at the College All-Star Game in [00:15:00] 1940, where a group of college, you guessed it, All Stars, took on the reigning NFL champion Green Bay Packers on August 29th at Soldier Field in Chicago. Some of you may remember the College All-Star game from your youth, as it was placed regularly up until the year 1976. Anyways Schiechl plays in the 1940 game. And the very next day after the game, August 30th, 1940, Schiechl gets married to his high school sweetheart, Norma Rubiolo.

Nicole: Adorable. Although spoiler alert, this doesn't end well. So maybe the College All-Star game scratched an itch, because after sitting out the 1940 NFL season, Schiechl opted to return to football in 1941. Reporters thought the decision was perhaps because the bar wasn't doing well, and when asked about it, Schiechl replied, and I quote, “I made enough so that I didn't have to play pro football…if I hadn't wanted to.” [00:16:00] End quote.

Arnold: So, when Schiechl had been drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles, Bert Bell was the owner and coach of that team. He is very famous in football circles. I believe he is in the Hall of Fame today.

Nicole: Sure.

Arnold: Through an extremely complicated sales process, which we're not gonna give you the full details of, but here are the quick details. So, Bell facilitates a deal where Steelers, Pittsburgh Steelers owner, Art Rooney, sells his team and acquires a half interest in Bell's Eagles. Rooney and Bell, then swap the Eagles to the new owner of the Steelers, and all player and player rights were switched as well. So essentially, The Eagles team becomes the Steelers team and vice versa in terms of the players and management and everything. So, at that point, Rooney and Bell then owned the Steelers with Rooney acting as general manager and Bell as the head coach.

Nicole: So, Bell remembered Schiechl, and now that he was with the [00:17:00] Steelers, decided to make another run at him. Ooh, is that a football pun? Did I just read a football pun?

Arnold: Hey.

Nicole: Well done Arnold. Schiechl was feeling the football juices again, oh boy, and agreed. Football juices, I'm sorry. Isn't a football a pig skin? I don't even know what that means. I don't wanna know what this means. Okay, so excuse me. He was described at the time as being 6’3” and 230 pounds, which is a common playing weight for linemen back then, but which would be woefully undersized today. Newspapers do talk about how big he is a lot. They're like, this dude was like 300 pounds. Schiechl, played for the Steelers in the 1941 season and began the 1942 season with them before being traded to the Detroit Lions/ [00:18:00] Which was my great grandmother's team. She never missed a Detroit Lions or a Detroit Tigers game. She had season tickets to the Tigers. Like, so what's that?

Arnold: I feel sorry for being a Lions fan. It'd a long time since their last championship.

Nicole: Well, like, we're from Detroit, Michigan, so, you know, like she never knew anything different, right? It's like it's totally fine when it's the only thing you've ever known. So anyway, like so many young men, Schiechl then paused football career to serve with the US Navy during World War II.

Arnold: He returns home to San Francisco in 1944 from the war. At that time, there was a West Coast professional football league called the American Football League. One of the teams in the league was the San Francisco Clippers, and they, of course, ask the local football hero to play for them. Since it was close to home, Schiechl agreed and was considered a star of the team as they finished the season with a 7 and 3 [00:19:00] record in 2nd place. And on November 12th, 1944, game against the Los Angeles Mustangs, Schiechl even intercepted a pass and returned it 38 yards for a touchdown. The league folded though after that season.

Nicole: You know, I would love a podcast on all the random, like B, C, D-list, like sports teams and leagues that have been in San Francisco. Remember the hockey league that was here?

Arnold: Yeah.

Nicole: Yeah. I would love a podcast that has nothing to do with the West side, but like all ye history podcasts out there, I'm here for it. So, Schiechl returned to the NFL in 1945 and picked up where he left off, playing with the Chicago Bears until 1946, and then our own 49ers in 1947, which was just their second year of existence in the All American Football Conference. This is, of course back when the Niners were playing at Kezar Stadium. And Schiechl was listed as a center in football references. But those were the days when [00:20:00] players often, you know, kind of played around. He started at 11 of 14 games with the 49ers in 1947. The most games he started in any year of his professional career. And, on the defensive side of the ball, snared two interceptions.

Arnold: So, we could not find out why Schiechl ended his pro football career after that 1947 season. We do know that he was hired as an offensive line coach for a San Francisco semi-pro team called the Ocean Athletic Club in 1948. He had sold whatever interest he had in the All American cocktail lounge by then, and as we previously noted, purchased the Avenue Club in 1949.

Nicole: I wonder if the semi-pro team was as boozy as the semi-pro softball team that my dad played on in the 1970s. Because it seemed like they were drinkers with a side of playing softball, not like softball players with a side of drinking. I wonder if it was the same vibe. [00:21:00]

Arnold: Probably.

Nicole: A Herb Caen quote from April 1949 read, “Joe DiMaggio, after his first spat with his bride, sulking all alone in All American, Johnny Schiechl’s saloon on Powell Street. Johnny wasn't there. A few minutes before Joe arrived, he had actually gone to dinner at Joe DiMaggio's.” So remember we said that all these guys owned restaurants and bars as well. This is just another example of it, and actually Herb was wrong about Schiechl still owning All American then, but we don't doubt that Scheichl may have still been frequenting the joint back then, and perhaps it was part of the deal that Johnny still had to hang out there occasionally to help draw a crowd. Which, you know, I feel like Woody can get to one of these days, right? Like I feel like Woody is pretty close to being that elusive and having the local star power where you'd be like, oh my god, Woody, is at Plough and Stars? We should get over there right now to hang with him.

Arnold: Which, [00:22:00] you know, by the way, Woody is frequently at the Plough and Stars. So just start hanging out there and you may run into him.

Nicole: Please don't tell him we told you though, cause I think he'll be mad.

Arnold: But he'll take a picture of you for his, for San Francisco Story.

Nicole: That's true.

Arnold: So by this time, Johnny was a really big dude, like 300 pounds big at this point, according to a Herb Caen quip. In another 1950 column, Caen reported, “financial note, Johnny won $2,500 on the 49ers-Washington Redskins game Sunday. Scheichl is obviously no sentimentalist,” end quote because he had bet on Washington to win.

Nicole: Hah!

Arnold: Caen goes on to note that he had operated the bar on Powell Street since at least 1947. Again, he's wrong about that, but in his free time, he also coached high school football. Sadly for Johnny, his wife divorces him in 1950 and a [00:23:00] nervous breakdown puts him in St. Mary's Hospital.

Nicole: Yeah, which surprised me, cause I didn't think in the ‘50s we like acknowledged nervous breakdowns. You know, full Mad Men area where they're like, oh, you've got terrible PTSD from the war? Just drink more whiskey. You're fine. So, I was surprised to see that note. Also sad that his wife left him. But according to the Ingleside Light, he sold his interest in the Avenue Bar to his partner Bob Wells that same year. The history here is really mushy, like there aren't a lot of concrete sources. The Ingleside Light article that I found seemed to understand a lot about the bar’s, like transfers and movements in an era that we couldn't actually find first person or second person accounts for. So, I'm interested where they got their info. But anyways, Wells operated the bar as the Avenue Club through 1957, when he sold it to James E. and Hallie L. Emmett, and the couple renamed it Jim's Avenue Club. They lived in Pacifica and Jim spent his free [00:24:00] time sailing. We see him in articles here and there where they're like, boat things. And you don't really hear much about them or the bar until July 1959, when their beloved Dalmatian named Debbie escaped from Pets Unlimited hospital.

Arnold: So, this story made the news a lot.

Nicole: Oh yeah.

Arnold: Deb, the reports note that Debbie had a rough go of it, suffering a stroke in January,1959, after which Hallie said she hadn't, quote, “been herself.” End quote. Debbie was a bar stool regular at the Avenue Club. Remember, this is the dog.

Nicole: The dog, yeah.

Arnold: And as Hallie told a San Francisco Examiner journalist, quote, “we haven't any children, so Debbie is all we have. We have a nice cabin cruiser though. We call that Debbie too.” End quote.

Nicole: I don’t know why they called everything Debbie, but…

Arnold: So, note that the Examiner ran a giant photo of Debbie with a [00:25:00] pretty long article titled, quote, “Dog In Peril: Lost Dalmatian Needs Digitalis Pill Every Day.” End quote. And you know what? They found her! Thank God.

Nicole: They did find her. An article ran a month later. That was Hallie being like, hey everybody, thank you so much for all the coverage in the Examiner. Don't worry, Debbie's been found and she's doing pretty good. I was like, this is the news content that we need every day in our lives. It's a beautiful dog too. The photo's great. Anyway, the Emmetts owned the bar through the 1970s. Then according to the Ingleside Light again, it was taken over by Kim Young Cha in 1985, after which the name reverted to simply Avenue Club. Cha sold the bar to Bernard and Suki Williams in 2000. And then it changed hands again in 2006, when Bomani Caungula and his wife, Lucia Fuentes Zarate, purchased the business [00:26:00] with two partners, Franco Calzolai and Rodney Glover.

Arnold: Now according to a 2010 Examiner article, Rodney is the actor Danny Glover's son. But internet says Danny Glover only has one child, a daughter with his wife, Asake Bomani named Mandisa. So, it might be a brother or nephew as we found stories that when Danny, Danny's mother, Carrie died in an auto accident, her son Rodney Glover, Sr. and grandson Rodney Glover, Jr. were in the car but survived. Glover himself has mentioned that his brother and nephew were in the car but didn't give their names, so, and we don't find references to Danny's brother being named Rodney. So, it's all a little hazy here. But maybe there's a family connection between Rodney Glover and Bomani Caungula. But per our prior note about this research being quick, we have not made [00:27:00] that link.

Nicole: You know, absolute respect for Danny Glover, for the fact that there is very little information about his personal life online. And I hope Danny never listens to this, because we are trying to get him to be our next live podcast guest at some point. I would hate for him to listen to this and be like, these people can't do research, and they have no idea what they're talking about. But like, we love you, Danny Glover, and whoever your family is. Thank you for being an S.F. State alumni with me and for just being a cool person anyways. And so, and then also it brings us to the present. Bomani and Lucia are now sole owners of the bar, and they are very, very awesome. They have created this true neighborhood joint that everyone should experience. Great beer selection, cool local vibe. Everyone should go. The Ave Bar. 1067 Ocean Avenue at Capital

Arnold: 1607 Ocean Avenue.

Nicole: Oh gosh. [00:28:00] Every time.

Arnold: But it's a legacy business now. You should go visit.

Nicole: Just Google the Ave bar. Don't listen to us about where, what the address is. Google can help you there. Okay. Arnold, I think it's time we move this train along and we get to Say What Now?

Arnold: So, this is absolutely nothing to do with anything.

Nicole: No, it's a true tangent. Like, like the Say What Now section was first envisioned as.

Arnold: Exactly. But while Nicole was researching the Bob Wells era of the bar, she learned that Nat King Cole’s famous holiday diddy, The Christmas Song, was written by a man named Bob Wells and Mel Torme back in 1945. We mentioned that here because it was impossible to research Bob Wells in the 1940s because there are a [00:29:00] million Bob Wells. And this other Bob Wells had massive Christmas success. So, he turns up in all this internet searches. But, in any event, we sincerely hope it was the same Bob Wells, even though it almost assuredly is not.

Nicole: I got really excited, cause I was like, oh my God, if this bar is connected to The Christmas Song, I know what WNP is gonna be doing every December. Hey, you know what, we can still just post up in that bar and play The Christmas Song over and over and over again. Anyways.

Arnold: We declare it to be so.

Nicole: I don't think the bar will want that. I wouldn't if I won that bar, but it's just a bunch of drunk historians listening to one record consistently for hours. Oh, good times. Arnold, should we maybe read some listener mail now?

Arnold: [00:30:00] Absolutely. So, if you want to send us listener mail, very simple, just send an email to podcast@outsidelands.org or go visit us on our social media platforms on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, cause we will post the podcast there and you can post a comment underneath. And I think that's what happened this week.

Nicole: Yeah. Man, comments were rolling in after last week's Burning Man podcast, but we picked what we thought was maybe one of the best ones. Alexis said, “this podcast solved a debate. My high school boyfriend showed up at my place and took me to a ‘party,’” in quotes, “in 1987. I said it was one of the first Burning Man, and he said it was just a party. He had been invited by a friend. I. I distinctly remember the burning effigy. So it seems that both of our memories are in fact intact.”

Arnold: And that would've been the year of the second [00:31:00] Burning Man.

Nicole: Yeah.

Arnold: So, I hope Alexa did in fact get to see that. And thank you Alexa for your comment.

Nicole: Yeah, I love that they both ended up being right. It was some dude's party and it was also one of the earliest Burning Mans.

Arnold: So, our dear friend David, also recently contacted us to say, quote, “the podcast with the two Nicoles and Laura was almost as funny as the one with Chelsea and Nicole last year. Almost, but not quite.” End quote. And David, as somebody who had to transcribe that podcast, you are correct.

Nicole: David Friedlander? Oh, wait, no, I thought David, oh my God. Nevermind. I was like, oh, David Friedlander transcribed it, podcast. Yeah I'm with you. I'm here now. I understand the comment. Yes. Yes. Yes. David Friedlander is of course, one of our dear friends who's been on the podcast many times, and he has brought up that podcast with Chelsea and [00:32:00] I numerous times. It's very sweet.

Arnold: So Nicole?

Nicole: Ugh, yeah.

Arnold: Our good friend David Friedlander is, of course, a member of the Western Neighborhoods Project, for which there are so many, dare I say infinite, benefits.

Nicole: Oh.

Arnold: Which might include what Nicole?

Nicole: They might be finite benefits, except that we keep coming up with new ones all the time, so the future is open, I guess. But right now, currently, if you clickity, clickity, clack the big orange buttons that we've put on every page of our websites, outsidelands.org and OpenSFHistory.org, you can give us $50 or more and get perks like the quarterly membership magazine, which is either mailed directly to your home residence or beamed into your inboxes through the magic of the internet. You also get discounts on [00:33:00] events, which, if I may be so bold, our events are popping these days, Arnold. They are almost always sold out or almost sold out. We've even got like a hundred folks who are gonna be with us at our virtual event, which is happening, which has already happened. Which happened on Thursday through the magic of recording. So, you know, and even if you just wanna give us money and not come to any events or enjoy our membership magazine, you know, all that money goes into all the good work we do, that we try really hard to keep free. Right? We're not a paywall or paywall organization. So, our OpenSFHistory archive, which you can download and use however you want. This podcast always free. And you know, complicated things that we got ourselves into with your help. Like the Cliff House collection, it's care and exhibition, which is an ongoing weight on my soul. All of your [00:34:00] contributions help us do the history. So, thank you to those who are already members. Thank you to those who are maybe on the fence and this podcast pushed you over the edge and you made the donation and you got the email and then you got the other email from me saying, hey, I know you got the first email, but I just wanted to make sure that you know that I'm excited that you're part of the WNP family now.

Arnold: And you just mentioned all the events that have happened and will be happening, and we have some announcements about them. So, you can still stop by our home right here at 1617 Balboa Street to see the amazing Restoring our Windmill, Golden Gate Park Windmills exhibit in our front windows. But, if you can't make it here, maybe you're like David Friedlander and you don't live nearby anymore, you can go to our online version of it at outsidelands.org. So, just go to the website there, you'll [00:35:00] see links to it on the front page.

Nicole: Yeah. And I wanna make sure folks know, like, you don't have to contact us. You know, our office is by appointment only right now, but this is completely experienceable. Oh, it's not a word, but I think you understand what I mean. You just get to stand outside and enjoy the magic that is Lindsey Hanson's windmills exhibition. So, we don't even need to be there. It can be early morning, it can be late at night. It can be on one of the days we're working from home or inside and too scared to answer the door. So just, just go and you can check it out.

Arnold: Now, coming up on July 6^th, we are back in our Zoom room for an event called San Francisco: Then and Now. On this webinar, our good friend, former National Park Service Ranger John Martini demonstrates and he uses. rephotography of historical images to research iconic Bay Area [00:36:00] locations like Alcatraz, Fort Point, and Sutro Baths. You'll see dozens of comparisons showing San Francisco in the 19th century alongside views of today. And this program is free, cause it's a Zoom event. But if you could toss a few bucks, maybe a suggested donation of $10 to us, when you sign up for that to get your Zoom link, we will split all the proceeds we get between us and John.

Nicole: Yeah, and fun fact, John's like, you know, back in the day was a photographer too. So not only does he know the history, he documented and made the history in the olden times that is now present times. Oh, we need to wrap this up, cause I am, it's been a long day and I'm starting to lose my mind. Also, one more thing that I forgot to mention. August 1st, we are doing another neighborhood trivia night with Fort Point Beer Company. This one's not in the West side. We're sort of dipping our toe into the [00:37:00] OpenSFHistory world here. It's gonna be at one of my favorite bars of all time, Specs. Now we don't have a registration link for you yet and it will be free. But you’re gonna wanna register and then get there very early because registration does not guarantee you a seat and Specs is small. And we were at packed house with 23 teams last time at The Little Shamrock. So, keep an eye on our website, our, for that listing.

Arnold: What we do have on our website, it just dropped today.

Nicole: Yeah.

Arnold: The day that we're recording this, not the day you're listening to it. But we have an event on Thursday, August 3rd, called Fort Point from Army Post to Historic site. So, this is another one that John Martini is gonna be helping us out with. It's another Zoom event, so it'll be free. But again, throw a few bucks our way. These Zoom events are gonna be great. So join us for that one as well.

Nicole: John's absolutely magic. And remember everyone, you can [00:38:00] find all of our events on our website outsidelands.org, and you can also join over 350 followers on our dedicated Eventbrite page. Now when you follow us there, you just click a button and you follow. As soon as that event hits the internet, you get pinged so that you can be one of the first to get to your tickets to these events. And, you know, just follow us on all the things we're doing, all the things all the time.

Arnold: Indeed. And this brings us to the close of the podcast. Nicole, do we have a preview for next week?

Nicole: Yep. We're taking our beers and walking down Ocean Avenue to this iconic burger joint with a space age theme. Can you guess where we're going? We'll keep it to yourselves, because you're gonna spoil the surprise. So, until next time, I'm Nicole Meldahl.

Arnold: And I'm Arnold Woods.

Nicole: And this has been another episode of Outside Lands San Francisco. Thanks [00:39:00] for being with us history friends.

Ian: Outside Lands San Francisco is recorded by Ian Hadley. Content creation and media production at ihadley.com.

Nicole: To learn more about the Western Neighborhoods Project and more on San Francisco history, go to Outsidelands.org. You can also find us on social media at Facebook, which is outsidelands with an S, at Twitter, which is outsidelandz with a Z, and on Instagram, which is outsidelandz, also with a Z. And check out our historic San Francisco images website at OpenSFHistory.org.