Hometown San Francisco: Sunny Jim, Phat Willie, & Dave (U)

San Francisco reporter Jerry Flamm has compiled a treasure trove of facts and anecdotes about the colorful personalities who roamed San Francisco in the first third of this century. 'Hometown San Francisco' shows us the city as it was from 1906 to the middle of the century, during the Great Depression. History, biography, reminiscence and anecdote are here woven together to form a tapestry of San Francisco when it was a wide-open town, when anything could happen, and often did.

The book features Mayor Sunny Rolph, who ruled the city with a smile and had a weakness of pretty girls. Other characters include a comical prizefighter named 'Phat Willie' Meehan who beat Heavyweight Champion Jack Dempsey twice, in the days of the Four Round Game. Before his fights he often sang a song or two to warm up the audience. There was also Policeman David Flamm who kept stability and order on his downtown beat, hobnobbed with gamblers, bookies, boxers, boorblacks, madams, millionaires and eccentrics. There was also the great female impersonator Walter Hart, star of Finocchio's show, who was sentenced to 30 days in jail for singing naughty songs. Finally, there was the officer who arrested Inez Burns, the abortion queen and found a fortune in cash hidden in her piano. She told him to keep it; he refused and used it as evidence instead.