FRISCO—The Secret History
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.
FRISCO—The Secret History
FRISCO TALES - APRIL 27, 1938 - A trailer
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On April 27, 1938, San Francisco woke up to a banner headline: “Jury Indicts Dolly Fine as Boys Tell of Vice Den.” In this bonus episode of Frisco: The Secret History Podcast, I zoom out from Dolly Fine’s indictment to take you inside one extraordinary spring day in the city.
I explore the political optics behind Dolly’s charges, the lingering fallout from the Atherton corruption investigation, and the broader culture of tolerated vice that defined Frisco in the 1930s. From a shocking “white slavery” trial to a police sergeant’s scandalous midnight “auto ride” with an arrested streetwalker, the day’s stories reveal a city caught between reform and routine corruption—while the rest of the world edged closer to war.
This is a Patreon-only bonus episode available to members at the $5 tier and above.