The Burlingame Voice

Slang: Blgm, Bilgum, B'game, Blingum...........

It's time again for a little fun of the historical flavor.  I loved this letter to the editor in yesterday's Daily Journal:

Although I now reside in San Mateo (past forty 40 years) I grew up in Burlingame starting in 1950. What a fabulous city to grow up in and enjoy the city in the 50s and 60s while attending Roosevelt Grammar School, Burlingame Intermediate School and Burlingame High School.

I’ve noticed the Daily Journal abbreviates Burlingame as BGAME. I contacted some old chums and they agree the abbreviation has always been BLGM (pronounced Bilgum).  Hopefully your staff can make this correction and refer to this beautiful city as it should be. Thanks.

Paul Stuppi

San Mateo

I would note we just lost our greatest Burlingame historian, Martha May, last week so the absolute best person to ask can no longer be asked.  You can find Martha's self-penned, dry-as-she-liked-it obituary here.  Martha was a stickler for accuracy, an avid archivist and a steady hand at the Historical Society.  She will be missed.  At the next meeting perhaps we can solicit all of the nicknames for our little burg.

I recall Herb Caen referring to us as B'lingame and suggesting it be pronounced Blingum.  I'll bet there is a Caen clipping or two in the archives to correct my memory!  Thanks Paul for a provocative look at our nickname--gotta tell you I still prefer B'game! Just don't call it Boringame.

Our Cupola

Let's lighten things up with a couple of normal, pre-COVID style posts.  You may have gotten the freebie magazine Punch - Spirit of the Peninsula in your driveway over the last couple of days.  If so, be sure to read the very last one-page article by our very own author-historian Joanne Garrison.  The mag asked her to explain what can seem like an odd little feature of our downtown parking lot next to Pet Express on Park Rd.  It's the cupola from the original city hall that stood on that site.

Joanne notes the original city hall was designed by Charles Peter Weeks and describes how the late-'60s plan to tear it down in favor of the architecturally-challenged city hall we still have raised preservationists' ire, spawned the Burlingame Historical Society and gave the cupola a home amid the asphalt and parking meters.  Fun story about a fun monument.

The Other Burlingame....Kansas

I got a great trip report from local B'gamer Linda Yelnick about her recent visit to Burlingame, Kansas.  The other town named for Anson is about 28 miles southwest of Topeka.  Linda prepped for her visit by contacting the Burlingame (KS) Historical Preservation Society and letting them know she would be visiting so that when she arrived she got the classic friendly mid-western reception.  Linda and her son discovered a number of interesting things about this little town of 934 people from Carolyn Strohm of the BHPS.

The other Burlingame was originally a coal mining town named Council City and is one of the oldest communities in Kansas being founded in 1854 before Kansas was a state.  Anson Burlingame passed through four years later in 1858 and gave an anti-slavery speech that impressed the folks enough to rename the town after him.  Anson never lived in either town named for him.  B'game, KS is known as the place where "rail meets trail" as the Santa Fe rail and Santa Fe trail cross there.

Linda was impressed by the small-town feel where the main street is about two blocks long and everything is closed on Sundays unless the restaurant owner decides to open and make a meal for a visitor as he did for Linda and her son.  The street is quite wide so that the ox caravans of old could make a U-turn downtown.  As Carolyn Strohm told Linda "everybody knows everybody and we feel safe and secure".  Old timers in 94010 remember something similar.  The old Lincoln school building that dates from 1902 has been re-purposed into a impressive historical museum.  Oddly enough, the school mascot is the Burlingame Bearcat!  San Mateans cannot be happy about that.

The other Burlingame also has a prominent citizen named Jerry Hill who is most famous for award-winning kettle corn.  The two Jerry's have been in touch and kettle corn was exchanged.  The next time I see our Jerry I will ask him what he sent out to their Jerry.  Check out the entry sign to Burlingame, KS 66413.  Plenty of room to grow there.

Bing in B'game

Chronicle columnist Beth Spotswood is remembering her mother remembering Bing Crosby as the local celebrity for B'gamers.  In her Datebook column she notes

Wherever you grew up, there’s probably some famous person with a connection to your hometown or home region. And the celebrities for every nook and cranny of the country change from generation to generation.

For example, my mother grew up in Burlingame in the 1950s and ’60s and as such, her claim to local fame is having wrapped Bing Crosby’s Christmas presents during a holiday gig at Burlingame Hardware. She’d mentioned this connection to Crosby a dozen times — and I don’t think she was even a fan. Ask anyone from Burlingame circa 1965 who their hometown celebrity is and they’ll say Bing Crosby.

Spotswood's mom is not the only one with fond memories of Bing in B'game.  Whenever Burlingame Historical Society events start down the "remember when" path during Q&A, Bing is a common memory.  My 1952 directory shows Burlingame Hardware at 1208 Burlingame Ave. where North Face has recently arrived, wedged between the Luggage Center and Copenhagen Bakery.  It does give me an opportunity to say how lucky we are to have the Ace Hardware on Park Rd. in town.  No gift wrapping that I am aware of, but they pack a lot of stuff into a small space.

Any other nominees for local celebrity besides Bing? 

 

Historical Find from La Pinata

Things have been quite serious here at the Voice over the last few months.  It goes with our mission to "inform and empower the Burlingame community", but we do have a lighter side.  So here is the first of two posts that are a bit like a light summer breeze blowing through the blog.

A friend with a great eye and a sense of B'game history rescued this La Pinata ashtray as it was on its way to the trash.  He knew that many people remember La Pinata fondly.  In fact, we were still a paper-based Burlingame Voice when it closed and we interviewed customers on the last day.  The fondness for the restaurant extended to their cheeky ashtrays.  I won't translate it for you--but if you do, you'll know how fun it is.  Many thanks to the guy with the great eye!

 

Cow Palace History

Let's keep the local historical thoughts flowing today courtesy of Bob Greene and his Wall Street Journal piece on the Cow Palace.  His main point is how quaint historic arenas are that do not draw the attention of corporate naming sponsors a la Oracle, Chase, AT&T or SAP.  But along the way he gives some nice local history which I will excerpt

Amid the cacophonous cheering at the corporate-arena National Basketball Association Finals, think a kindly thought about the Cow Palace just south of San Francisco.  But the sturdy old Cow Palace, where the Warriors played until 1971, still hosts rodeos and livestock shows.

The Cow Palace represents a lost American age when there was a certain charm to the idiosyncratic localness of hometown sports arenas. It opened its doors in 1941, and its major client was a livestock exposition. Its name was derived from a critical newspaper article, published when its construction was beginning in the midst of the Great Depression, which asked: “Why, when people are starving, should money be spent on a palace for cows?”

Over the years the Cow Palace was stocked with stars—not only the Warriors, but Elvis Presley, the Beatles and Rolling Stones, the 1956 and 1964 Republican National Conventions, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. When the era of glittering corporate-branded arenas commenced later in the 20th century, though, the Cow Palace was left behind.

At least it still stands and has clients. Other grand old big-city arenas are a memory.  As for the Cow Palace, has any thought been given to spiffing up its image by finding a corporate underwriter? Lori Marshall, the venerable arena’s CEO, told me: “I have only been at the facility for four years; however, to my knowledge we have not had any inquiries or inclination to sell naming rights.”  Probably just as well. If there’s anything that cows should be leery of, it’s branding.

I saw my first Sharks game at the Cow Palace as they awaited completion SAP arena.  And it has hosted a number of great rock shows beyond Elvis and the Beatles including U2 and ZZ Top.  As the historical and very local character of the mid-Peninsula gets hollowed out by over-development, we need to cherish the bits that are remaining.  It's hard to look at the new Facebook building crashing onto our bayfront without reminiscing about the drive-in.  Or pondering the demise of the last independent gas station in town with its quirky mannequin sitting in an old British sports car.  What is your favorite lost local landmark?

Herb Caen: Memorial Day 1949

Herb Caen's column helped introduce me to the Bay Area in 1981.  I loved his daily columns and later his book Baghdad-By-The-Bay from 1949.  Here is a excerpt of Chapter 13 for Memorial Day

You think about things like this today.  About the kids who bought a one-way passage to North Africa and Tinian, Normandy and Attu.  Especially the kids from San Francisco, because you're back and they're not, you were lucky, they weren't--and who knows why it was like that?

You can't help thinking about the guy from the Sunset who stopped a sniper's bullet at Saint Lo, and the paisano from North Beach who cashed in at Guam, and the boy from Pacific Heights whose last C-47 mission over the Hump ended in a question mark.

I was thrilled to read about the C-47 that led the D-Day invasion being found, restored and flown to Normandy for the 75th anniversary.  Check it out here.

Nearly 75 years ago, on June 6, 1944, That’s All, Brother led the main airborne invasion of Normandy. Piloted by Lt. Col John Donalson, the plane led over 800 C-47s that dropped over 13,000 paratroopers into a battle that changed the course of mankind. Our mission is to bring this great airplane back to the skies over Normandy for the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of D-Day.

My Dad flew C-47's during the war and pulled gliders full of paratroopers behind.  Here's remembering all of our vets and the other loved ones who have passed on to the other side.

Spring Brings Fun to B'game

Spring is here and not just going by the calendar.  Flowers are blooming, hummingbirds are humming and pollen is everywhere.  Spring's arrival also heralds more community activities like music, plays and art which we desperately need.  I'll just mention a few that come to mind over the next two weeks.  We will never garner our own section in the Pink Section but it's a start.  Feel free to add a comment with more that you like.

The 33rd annual Silicon Valley Open Studios event returns to Burlingame on May 4th and 5th.  Details of this free event are here that describe the art studio locations in B'game and surrounding areas.  There are three artists participating plus the full Peninsula Museum of Art studios (with 28 artists) at 1777 California Dr.

St. Catherine's annual play is also a lot of fun and this 23rd iteration promises to deliver the same.  It runs May 10-11 and 17-18 at 7:30 pm with Singin' in the Rain as this year's program.  Staying very local, the Burlingame Historical Society's quarterly meeting will be on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 in the Lane Room.  These are always well attended and interesting especially since this meeting will focus on the old Post Office--it's history and some of it potential future.

A great example of entertainment we need more of comes to the Burlingame Womens Club on May 9th when Il Sapore is sponsoring a night of food, wine and Italian opera with Pasquale Esposito.  Given our lack of clubs with space for a larger production, it's great to see the Womens Club be used to assuage the entertainment drought.  You can get tickets here.  One venue that has been quietly ramping up music is the Vinyl Room.  Aside from the salsa and comedy nights, Friday nights (starting early around 6:30 or 7pm) have become a reliable rock 'n roll gig.  The bands are usually local drawing a local crowd that knows them already.  Here is last week's show by Up and to the Right.

Chocolate History in B'game

Monday night a jam-packed Lane Room audience, drawn in by the promise of a chocolate tasting, heard Amy Guittard talk about the history and quality of her family's business.  Amy is a fifth-generation Guittard and current Director of Marketing at the long-time Burlingame business that provides the sweet smells that often waft through our little burg.  Amy started the history lesson with her great-great grandfather Etienne who realized there was opportunity amongst the gold miners for something other than picks, shovels and whiskey.  She then walked the Historical Society membership through the early days in EssEff and the eventual move to B'game in 1955.  As their website notes

Guittard remained on Main Street until selling the property to the city to make room for the Embarcadero Freeway. It was at that time, that Horace A. moved the company to Burlingame, California

The audience got an education in the growing of cocoa around the world and the stringent quality control and product development that is on-going at Guittard.  The public only sees a small portion of the company's output since a lot goes to other consumer brands like See's and to chefs around the world.  I was struck by how similar a rigorous tasting of chocolate is to wine tasting.  Here's Amy with the step-by-step Chocolate 101 lesson

 

Welcoming Anson Back to B'game

The unveiling of the new bust of Anson Burlingame in the downtown library Friday night was quite the affair.  More than 100 people attended to hear an excellent recap of Anson's career (delivered by Dr. George Koo and David Chai), some words about his family from family member and recently arrived Burlingame resident Lisa Lillelund along with a few politicians.  Sculptor Zhou Limin spoke about his inspiration for creating the bust and we heard a few words about the Burlingame Foundation from its president, Dr. Walter Christman.  All in all great event and a wonderful way to welcome Anson (and his descendants) back to B'game.  Here are Lisa, Dr. Koo and the unveiled bust with the US and Chinese flags of the period.  The program was also streamed to China for added viewers.