San Francisco then and now: Can the old San Francisco with its middle-class values coexist with the new San Francisco and the new San Franciscans?

Recently I had lunch with Carl Nolte, who writes the Native Son column for the San Francisco Chronicle. Carl is a young whippersnapper compared to me, but we find common ground whe... Read More

Back Story

Hard times but good times: S.F. in the Great Depression

By Ernest Beyl

Boom and bust is not unknown to San Franciscans. The bursting of the dot-com bubble in 2000 was a shock to me. I suppose it shouldn’t have been. Remember those Super Bowl ads... Read More

Back Story

The world’s best jazz festivals

By Ernest Beyl

In spite of pop, punk, rap, country, R&B, metal, new wave, new world, and other new sounds rattling around in our brains, jazz — still America’s unique gift to the worl... Read More

Back Story

Oscar-winning movie kid Claude Jarman Jr.

Nashville’s loss became San Francisco’s gain

By Ernest Beyl

Claude Jarman Jr. will be 80 on Sept. 27. He doesn’t look it. He doesn’t act it. He doesn’t live it. Many years ago I saw a movie with a youngster named Claude Ja... Read More

Back Story

The glory days of saloon piano players in North Beach

By Ernest Beyl

The other day I cleaned out a closet and found a March 1970 Holiday magazine, then a big glossy publication read by big, glossy, discerning travelers with lots of discretionary inc... Read More

Back Story

Finnochio’s: What a drag

By Ernest Beyl

Recently I wrote a column called “Broadway Kaleidoscope,” the Back Story about what I called the Golden Years of Broadway in North Beach. I said that in the 1960s — m... Read More

Back Story

A resurgence of the arts and artists in North Beach

By Ernest Beyl

From reading my monthly column, Sketches from a North Beach Journal, one might get the impression that poet, painter, and free-range radical Lawrence Ferlinghetti so dominates the ... Read More

Back Story

Fatso and Frida in San Francisco

By Ernest Beyl

Diego Rivera, the internationally renowned and controversial Mexican artist, had warm associations with San Francisco. He found it to be a fascinating bohemian city and a source fo... Read More

Back Story

A Broadway kaleidoscope: The golden age of North Beach street life

By Ernest Beyl

The nineteen sixties — if your personal history allows you to remember back that far — gave us the golden age of Broadway, that southern boundary of North Beach. At least that&... Read More

Back Story

The horse that swam the Golden Gate

By Ernest Beyl

“The Horse that Swam the Golden Gate.” I love that headline. Even before my friend Jimmy Schein told me about Blackie — the horse we’re talking about here — I... Read More

Back Story

A holiday tea party and a dear john letter

By Ernest Beyl

The other day I was invited to a tea party. Now, I don’t usually go to tea parties — not my cup of tea, I am emboldened to add. As you may know, I’m more of a salooni... Read More

Back Story

The evolution of San Francisco newspapers from 1846 until today, Part 3

Three part series

By Ernest Beyl

Correction: Before launching into Part 3 of this series, let me correct an error in Part 2. Harry Rabin, a San Francisco City Guide called it to my attention. I confused Commodore ... Read More

Back Story

The evolution of San Francisco newspapers from 1846, Part 2

By Ernest Beyl

On July 9, 1846, Commodore John D. Sloat, commander-in-chief of United States Naval Forces in the Pacific, arrived at what would later be called San Francisco aboard his sloop of w... Read More

Back Story

The evolution of San Francisco newspapers from 1846, Part 1

in a three-part series

By Ernest Beyl

Today most newspapers in San Francisco are tame lap dogs whose bark is worse than their bite. But it wasn’t always that way. This three-part series is about newspapers from 1... Read More

Back Story

The Cliff House celebrates 150 years

By Ernest Beyl

Isn’t it exciting to live in a city that has such wonderful old restaurants? I’m thinking of places like the Old Clam House, founded in 1861; the Cliff House, 1863; Sam... Read More

Back Story