abandon all hope, ye who enter here

Despite the size of the heart, sometimes intention just isn't enough.

This week has been full of massive declarations, explosions, creation, and solitude. I haven't appropriately adventured in a good while. And in meditating on this week's entry and analyzing my newest painting, I kept finding myself overrun with the desire to make everything even more beautiful than before. 

As a child, I was told that as long as you leave this place better than you found it, that you are honest with your heart, that you give love freely and openly, you will have lived a good life. But then, there's reality again, the small things that still manage to bog us down.

"Out of work, I'm out of my head

Out of self- respect,

I'm out of bread,

Under loved and underfed,

I wanna go home...

It never rains in California, 

But, girl, don't they warn ya,

It pours, man, it pours." (Maupin)

But I'm not alone. Again, San Francisco, in it's self-love and constant celebration, has a few stories of people trying to create places of wonder. I'm thinking specifically of Playland-at-the-Beach, Woodward's Gardens and the Midwinter Fair.

From 1866-1891, San Francisco could boast a wonderful attraction; part zoo, amusement park, museum and garden. Before this, in 1849, Robert Woodward opened the What Cheer House hotel, one of the largest hotels in the city. Housing a bunch of sailors and world travelers, people would leave trinkets behind out of gratitude. It was these trinkets which induced him to begin what later became a massive collection from all over the world.

"Over the years, San Francisco locals became so intrigued by his mysterious home, that they would often attempt to get an invitation inside. It became such a popular idea that in 1883 the San Francisco Examiner wrote, 'Woodward realized that it was only a question of being pestered forever or quietly throwing open his place."

The property was located between 13th and 15th streets, Mission and Valencia. He even built a tunnel (could it still be there?) that went under 14th street so people wouldn't have to cross traffic. 

It was the largest zoo on the West Coast and animals roamed freely through the property.  "Woodward's goal was to keep the animals in as natural of a setting as possible, and he made a lot of effort to keep the bars and confining small cages to a minimum. There were also hundreds of stuffed taxidermy animals on display at the various indoor buildings, as well as a selection of animal 'curiosities' - including a five-legged dog and a calf with two heads.'"

In 1873, he opened one of the the first aquariums in the world, and then the West Coast's largest skating rink. You could ride a hot air balloon, or ride the Rotary Boat - a merry-go kind of ride with a boat in a small lake. "The gardens also boasted one of the few Edison phonographs, advertised as 'an instrument so wonderful in its powers that it not only repeats the human language as distinctly as a man, but also imitates the peculiarity of the voice uttering it.'"

Eventually, it was closed due to "odors and horrible noises." At an auction, there was little public interest, allowing Adolph Sutro to buy the bulk of it, putting his purchases on display at Sutro Baths. 

In 1894, in direct response to the economic slump, the "Panic of 1893", the city decided to host a World's Fair, the California Midwinter International Exposition; the brain child of M.H. de Young. Golden Gate Park Superintendent John McLaren fought the fair, claiming that the environmental effects on Golden Gate Park would take decades to rectify...

According to FoundSF, "More than a hundred buildings were erected around the Central Plaza. Among them were the Moorish Village, the Japanese Tea Garden, the Vienna Prater and the Turkish Village (which featured an erotic dancer known as Little Egypt)."

De Young, having gone to Chicago for the White City World's Fair exhibit (the one in which Ferris presented his wheel, Frank Lloyd Wright stretched his architectural prowess, and America's first serial killer, H.H. Holmes built his macabre hotel of torture), he came back inspired, ready to show the world the majesty of California. 

Sadly, everything but a few things were destroyed: the de Young (remodeled), the Japanese Tea Garden and the Dore Vase (brought by de Young from the Chicago's fair), still dot the Music Concourse.

"When Golden Gate park wasn't restored, as had been promised, John McLaren had his revenge. His men tore down the buildings and sold the lumber. They dynamited Bonet's Tower and sold the metal as scrap. McLaren kept the proceeds for the park improvement fund. Makoto Hagiwara's Japanese Village made a deep impression on McLaren. He asked that Hagiwara make the village a permanent  part of Golden Gate Park. Hagiwara obliged and the Japanese Tea Garden was born. Hagiwara and his family cared for the garden until 1942 when the federal government ordered the family into a relocation camp."

Finally, the greatest gift intended for the city (and the longest surviving endeavor), Playland-at-the-Beach got it's start in 1913, with Shoot the Chutes. Before that, the area was a 19th century squatter's settlement, "Mooneysville by the Sea."  In 1913, Arthur Looff leased the land for his carousel, Loof Hippodrome (now located at Yerba Buena). He and John Friedle tried creating "The grandest amusement park on the Pacific Coast."

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, "by 1921 the owners had spent $150,000 to produce ten spectacular new rides ('clean, safe, moral attractions') which were open from noon to midnight every day." 

1923 brought George Whitney and his photographic process that allowed people to take their photos home the same day, as opposed to the more common form of having to wait weeks. By 1926, he was making enough money to start buying the Playland, piece by piece, eventually including the Cliff House and the Sutro estate. 

Open until Labor Day Weekend of 1972,  Playland produced several legendary San Francisco relics. As previously mentioned there was the carousel. There was Laffing Sal (now permanently housed at the Musee Mechanique), the Camera Obscura building, and Topsy's Roost restaurant (now closed). The most notable (if you ask me) is the invention of the It's It, an ice cream treat only available at Playland until the late 1960s.

Having grown up in the South Bay, I went to Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk a lot as a kid. Even then, I remember thinking the place run down and shabby, especially in comparison with Great America and their whirlwind, death-defying rides. Even still, I can't envision any of these things. World's Fairs are obsolete, eccentric wealthy people certainly don't enjoy sharing with the world anymore, and in sitting on the freezing sand at Ocean Beach, it's almost impossible to imagine the place lined with shops and rides.

At it's peak, Sutro had installed his train and had opened his baths, hoping to bring many people in for cheap. At Playland, you had your choice of restaurants, including an upscale roadhouse restaurant inside the Cliff House, and the aforementioned Topsy's Roost. This restaurant was designed in such a way, that each booth mimicked a chicken coop. In the center was a dance floor, and should you wish to dance, you took a slide from the second floor balcony directly to the dance floor. 

Granted, this was all before technology. Society has become so sophisticated to be bored by such spectacles. And yet, I think of the haunted houses...

One of Sutro's purchases from the Midwinter Fair was a Mystic Maze and the Haunted Swing which he put on display at the baths. Whitney opened a fun house at Playland that was exactly replicated at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk until being torn down in 1983. Even at the Midwinter Fair there was Dante's Inferno, "who's 'Jaws of Death' entrance easily swallowed the tallest of visitors along with their bowlers."

"Abandon all Hope, ye who Enter Here."

Perhaps I shouldn't bitch about the botched efforts of these "entertainers", for they created such monumental memories and relics that still pepper San Francisco culture. I'm just saddened by the idea that as technology continues, our sense of adventure and play keeps dwindling. And that, despite all of my attempts at bringing a simple beauty to life, it just isn't enough.

But that's not true. It always takes one visionary to steer a new course for the rest of the world to mimic. 

Some photos for you: