Created by June Morrall
(Photo courtesy Maria Demarest.)
The remains of Amesport Pier (at Miramar) built circa 1865 and repaired in the 1900s. And when the Mirada Road locals enjoyed their drinks around sunset at Albert’s Miramar Hotel, they made bets on when they wouldn’t see the pilings any more. I never did find out who won.
During Prohibition rumors circulated that the escape artist Harry Houdini had been hired by the US Treasury to dive for a hidden cache of booze at Princeton bay. In the mid-1920s the indie Peninsula Studios, located in Burlingame, made a film at Princeton called “Let Women Alone,” starring Wallace Beery. Printed on fragile nitrate film, the “Let Women Alone” is assumed lost, but if found might provide scenes of early Princeton.
In the “Continental Op,” a collection of pieces by Dashiell Hammet, the author includes a story about Half Moon Bay called “The Girl with the Silver Eyes.” A young woman is missing and she’s tracked down to Half Moon Bay, to a place called the “White Shack” run by “Tin Star Joplin.” The “White Shack” is a prohibition-era roadhouse and the place where booze is picked up and distributed to San Francisco.
“The dope is that,” writes Hammet, “half the booze put ashore by the Pacific rum fleet is put ashore at Half Moon Bay.”
For Lauren
I go into the workplace
Without love
No one has caressed me
No kiss goodbye
The home is cold
The wind outside is cold
The world is cold
I am left cold
The phone at work is shrill
Belying its promise
I answer. I must.
I listen and I talk
I am warmed by the voice
By the pleasantness
By the interest and the implied smile
By the quiet humor
I am in love
With someone a thousand miles away
Whom I shall never see
With whom I shall never speak again
I am in love
I am warm
I am happy
Love comes from within. I smile
Anonymous
at <a href="Coastsider.com" http://coastsider.com/ Thank you!
You can view the 60-minute doc there, too. Very painless and fun to see the characters who were here. Here’s the link: http://coastsider.com/index.php/site/news/2097/
According to “Rum War At Sea,” by Malcolm Willoughby, a book published by the US government (and not likely to be found on the “best seller” list) during Prohibition Half Moon Bay was the biggest supplier of illegal booze on the West Coast.
In the 1920s the Coastside was sparsely populated. While there was an abundance of isolated beaches, where the booze was landed, there was a lack of prohibition agents to arrest anyone. One reason was because the roadhouse owners had their “connections.” If an agent was headed for the Coastside to raid the Patroni House or the Miramar Beach Inn or the Moss Beach Distillery, a quick phone call alerted the owners in advance–so they could hide the bottles of whiskey in secret hiding places that had been custom-made by local carpenters.
…to be continued…
Some of the Coastside “stars” that appeared in the “Mystery of Half Moon Bay.”
I was the writer/producer on this project. Stewart Cheifet was the smooth, rich voice and the executive producer. Rick Zanardi directed. Jim Threlkeld on camera.
Famous for his long-running, innovative “Computer Chronicles” t.v. series, Dr. Cheifet is the one who took the old video, fixed it up, and put it online for all to enjoy.
Thank you Stewart Cheifet, very cool.
Photo: Arnold Drapkin
June,
“…over the years I have mentored a lot of people, and its always nice to hear from them.
My best “acquisition” was hiring a summer intern named Mary Anne Golon
and mentoring her…she is now Time’s Director of Photography.
“If you get a chance go to http://www.workshop.org/ and click on the FotoFusion tab at top. FotoFusion is a yearly week long festival of photography and digital imaging each January which I helped start 12 years ago and I continue to be its Director. I was very lucky finding the Palm Beach Photographic Centre here when I retired in 1988 and have been active with them since.
Incidentally, one of the other things I do is lecture on photography on cruise ships…a tough job but someone has to do it.”
Allbest
Arnold
Check out http://www.workshop.org/ and click on the Fotofusion tab at the top–there’s a very cool photo you must see.
Larry McCloskey, the husband of my childhood friend, Lynn, won 1st prize in the Alternative Photography category at the Marin County Fair for his fascinating photo, “St. Peters, Rome.”
