The Secret History of FRISCO
Join us on a cinematic journey through the last wild years when San Francisco was still wide-open. The cops ran the town in the Thirties and Bones Remmer ran the town in the Forties.
Battles raged between the factions of dark and light in the hidden realms of San Francisco’s power elite, behind the headlines, from the celestial dominions of Nob Hill eateries and private clubs down to the nether depths of the dive bars in the heart of the Tenderloin, up to the Barbary Coast and jazz joints of North Beach and over to the banks and brokerages in the Financial District …
FRISCO will bring alive that wild and bygone era of the Cool Grey City of Love that seduced the world.
The Secret History of FRISCO
When Gamblers and Newspapermen Ruled The Cool Grey City of Love
Ever wondered who really pulled the strings in San Francisco during its post-war golden age? It wasn't the mayor or the board of supervisors.
When the war ended in 1946, San Francisco experienced an unprecedented boom. Servicemen who'd fallen in love with the city returned to stay, nightlife flourished, and business thrived in what appeared to be a model American city. But beneath this picturesque facade, two men – neither elected nor appointed – controlled nearly everything.
On one side was Bill Wren, a powerful newspaperman working for William Randolph Hearst's Examiner, who effectively ran both the city and the state Democratic Party through his influence and connections. His rival, Bones Remmer, was a professional gambler who had previously managed the Cal-Neva Lodge before establishing himself in San Francisco, where he systematically took over various aspects of city business. Their intense rivalry and behind-the-scenes power struggle shaped the city in ways that have remained largely hidden from historical accounts.
My fascination with this era began unexpectedly while working as a copy boy at the Examiner in the 1970s. A chance conversation with an elderly bartender led me to discover phone tap transcripts from 1950 revealing conversations between these power brokers. Most surprisingly, I learned my own grandfather had been "a player" in this shadowy world – creating a personal connection that fueled decades of research into San Francisco's secret history.
Join me as we explore the fascinating web of influence, corruption, and colorful characters that defined San Francisco from 1946-1953. From legendary establishments with their famous Pisco Punch to Hollywood connections and Bay Area criminal enterprises, we'll uncover the stories that shaped the city we know today. Have family stories from this era or research leads? I'd love to hear from you as we resurrect this crucial chapter in San Francisco's past.
Welcome to this preview episode of the Frisco the Secret History podcast. I'm your host, knox Bronson. Unlike other episodes to come, I'm just ad one, so bear with me. We are going to be covering in this podcast the post-war years of San Francisco, 1946 to 1953. Mostly there will be some background from years before that and years after, but that will be the main time frame that we'll be looking at. It will be focused on San Francisco, but there is a number of areas where there's overlap with Hollywood and Southern California, gangsters and stuff like that. Also there was other crime activity in the outlying areas in the San Francisco Bay Area. So from time to time we'll be, you know, over in Martinez, emeryville down south.
Speaker 1:So it was a boom time for San Francisco. The war was over, there was incredible nightlife industry, business it was thriving and people, a lot of people, had come here during the war and stayed when the war ended or when they came back home. They'd been here during the war like on leave. When they came back after the war to our country, they moved to San Francisco because it was so cool and it was the city the whole world was in love with and there was a lot going on behind the scenes. A newspaper man named bill wren ran the town and the state democratic party. He worked for the examiner and therefore william randolph hearst. On the other side was bones remmer, a gambler who had previously run the Cal Neva Lodge up in North Shore and Lake Tahoe and came to town and kind of took over everything. They didn't like each other, so that's kind of what we're going to be talking about.
Speaker 1:As far as patreon goes, all the main episodes of this podcast will always be free. If you want to be a supporter, subscriber, contributor, whatever you want to call it, there's a $2 tier, a $7 tier and a $12 tier for now. If you do $2, you'll get the bonus episodes that we'll be doing regularly. $7 will include e-books you can download that I'll be producing with some frequency. As an introductory offer, I'm giving everybody a sample e-book. It was a booklet called the Secrets of Pisco Punch and that was the legendary drink from the bank exchange, which was a bar in the financial district from the gold rush days until prohibition, and so you can kind of see what kind of booklets are going to be coming. So they're pretty cool. Naturally, if you subscribe at the $12 level, I'll send you a printed copy of the booklet, whether you subscribe or not. I hope you will go to either the website, which is thesecrethistoryoffriscocom, or the Patreon page and download the free e-book, because it's really cool. You can learn all about Disco Punch.
Speaker 1:The last thing I want to tell is the story of how I discovered this era. I was a. I'll tell it as quickly as I can. I didn't plan on talking this long.
Speaker 1:Back in the 70s I was a copy boy or editorial assistant wire attendant at the San Francisco Examiner. On Sunday evenings I would go over to the bar at the Pickwick Hotel, which was kitty corner from the paper, and I'd have a sandwich or something and a couple of beers at the bar. It was very quiet there, unlike the M&M, which was always noisy. I wanted some peace so I could read and there was an old guy working there and he finally asked me what I you know where I worked or something and I said, oh, with the paper. And he asked me to go look for a picture that was taken outside his bar at Pine and Jones called Cooper and Varney's in about 1950 or thereabouts, of these board of supervisors standing outside his bar with their hands cupped around their ears to see if they could hear music coming out of the place, because they were always trying to shut him down. And I knew nothing about this at the time, of course, but I was soon to find out, so I went down into the lab.
Speaker 1:I out, so I went down into the lab, I went down into the examiner library where they kept all the old clips and the photographs and stuff, and I looked at for Cooper and Varney's and what I found was an envelope with a bunch of phone taps from 1950, where Shell I didn't know his name yet Shell was being phone tapped with talking to Bones Remmer, who's one of the main characters of the pod. Well, they both are. And I was blown away. I, I mean, I had no idea and I looked through all these things and unfortunately I don't have those phone taps anymore. I would love to find them, um, but anyway, um, so I reported back that I couldn't find the picture. I don't think it was a chronicle, an examiner picture. I think it was a chronicle picture, probably.
Speaker 1:But um, anyway, you know, he started telling me about all that whole era and uh, I, it was just fascinating and um, you know, I got kind of obsessed about it and, uh, I started talking to other guys who were still alive, that had been around back then and, you know, got kind of obsessed about it and I started talking to other guys who were still alive, that had been around back then and you know, heard a few things that you know I will share. But finally, one evening he said to me what's your name, kid? And I said Knox. And he said Knox what? And I said Knox Bronson and he stopped and he said Knox what? And I said Knox Bronson and he stopped and he looked at me and said are you any relation to Knox Bronson? And I said yeah, he was my grandfather. And he stopped and put his hands on the bar and leaned into me, looked up and down the bar there was, was no one else there looked right in my eyes and said your grandfather was a player.
Speaker 1:I feel a connection to that great era of San Francisco, the last years when it was a wide, open city, and that's a story we're going to tell. One last thing before I go If you know of any history buffs, please, that might like this podcast, please let them know about it, and if you know anybody who has stories to tell from that era, whether things they've heard, you know, from their parents or grandparents, whatever, I'd love to hear from them. And if anybody has any ideas who can direct me in areas to research, do more research or stories I should look into, I'd love to hear about that as well. Naturally, I've been to the Bancroft Library, san Francisco Public Library, california Historical Society, all over the place, but I'm always looking for new leads and stories from that time. So thank you and until next time. This is Knox saying what should I say? I don't even know. What did they say back then on the radio? I'll find out for next time. Thank you you.