Author Archive
August 25, 2018 by tomdalzell
Bitchen Kitchen(s)
This doozy is a Rite-Hite All Steel Kitchen. The complete set cost $27.95. It featured the finest girl-sized modern appliances (he Kenmore Toy Range, Coldspot Toy Refrigerator, and Happi-Time Sink with loads of built-in play value. $55.00 in 1965 had the same buying power as $217.20 in 2018. Pricey toy! It is, I submit, a bitchen kitchen. […]
August 24, 2018 by tomdalzell
Another Addison Sale! Jewelry that rocks.
Geneva Addison will be selling a store full of antique and vintage jewelry this Friday through Sunday. I posted about the sales that Addison and her mother put on for Eli Leon and Ron Morgan – they were spectacular and popular. This too is spectacular. Shown above are African trade beads, which are also known […]
August 20, 2018 by tomdalzell
Hunter Thompson on the Free Speech Movement and Outsiders
Hunter Thompson moved to San Francisco in 1964. In 1965 Carey McWilliams, editor of The Nation, hired Thompson to write a story about the Hells Angels motorcycle club in California. The article appeared on May 17, 1965. Random House published Hell’s Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs in 1966, Here is the article from the Nation: Last […]
August 18, 2018 by tomdalzell
Barbara Garson – The Berkeley Years
Barbara Garson came to Berkeley from New York in 1962. She was ours for seven years. She left with fame in her pocket as a result of the success of her satirical play MacBird. This is an review of those seven years. There is nothing quirky about this story, not the usual fare. But – it is all […]
August 18, 2018 by tomdalzell
Barbara Garson’s Free Speech Movement Letters
During the very busy fall of 1964, Barbara Gerson found time to write a series of very detailed letters about the Free Speech Movement. These are not for the casual reader, but to a reader who is seriously interested in the ins and outs of the FSM they are gold. I have left out the […]
August 11, 2018 by tomdalzell
Roger Carr – Having Fun Making Things
Roger Carr has fun every day, tinkering, using his lifetime of serious physics. I said to him, “This seems like it is a whole lot more fun than what you did at the linear accelerator at Stanford.” “No, it’s just different fun.” So here is a look at the different fun that Roger Carr has every […]
August 5, 2018 by tomdalzell
Pinball and I
For your listening pleasure -click the album. It was an anthem for me in the summer of 1969. Hot, humid, green and lush Pennsylvania summer. I was going to start college in the fall. I had mixed feelings. I had been rejected by Harvard – OUTRAGE! – and felt like I was settling […]
August 4, 2018 by tomdalzell
Playland Not at the Beach About to Be Not At All
The wrecking ball took Playland at the Beach in San Francisco in 1972. It was the end of clean outdoor fun, laughs and thrills. Playland Not at the Beach, at 10979 San Pablo, El Cerrito, will meet the same fate. Oh no! The end of a ten-year run of being open to the public. It […]
July 28, 2018 by tomdalzell
Bulwinkle – Making Big Art Look Easy
“Then through all our proud land let us proudly proclaim / As we march to the front / “Remember the Maine!” Which is relevant because: I don’t simply confess, I proudly proclaim that I have posted about Mark Bulwinkle a great deal. When I was first kicking around the idea of Quirky Berkeley, I asked my mentor, […]
July 21, 2018 by tomdalzell