The Emperor Norton Rooms of 1961
A Hotel Bar on Geary Street and a Lunch Spot on Maiden Lane
Postcard for the Hotel Stewart, San Francisco, 1930s–40s. Source: Tattered and Lost Ephemera.
On 25 March 1961, an item in the San Francisco Examiner reported that
THE CHAMP ROOM at Hotel Stewart closed on a somber note last Sunday — black hearse in front, black crepe on door and a black-clad fighter in front. Mgr. Norman Wulf will rebuild it, open around May 1 as the “Emperor Norton Room.”
The Stewart — at 351 Geary Street, a half-block west of Union Square — had been built in 1907; and, by the time Harry Handlery bought the hotel in 1948, it was established as a fairly swank destination.
Adjacent to the Hotel Stewart, Handlery built the Handlery Motor Inn in 1964. In the late 1980s, the two hotels were combined into the new Handlery Union Square Hotel, which continues today.
One can guess, from the March 1961 “obit” for the Champ Room, that the place had succumbed to a fire.
Two days later, also in the Examiner, the following ad appeared:
Ad for the Emperor Norton Room at the In Between, on 51 Maiden Lane, San Francisco. San Francisco Examiner, 27 March 1961, p. 16. Source: Newspapers.com
The In Between had just opened up as a new cocktail lounge and lunch spot at 51 Maiden Lane — a block-and-a-half east of Union Square. Whether the In Between was a single-room establishment or this Emperor Norton Room was a front, back or anteroom within a larger space is unclear.
But, a couple of months later, on 20 May 1961, the Examiner noted that the Emperor Norton Room at the Hotel Stewart, on Geary Street, now was “set for an early-June opener.”
Two days later, on 22 May 1961, the San Francisco Chronicle ran this photograph.
Photograph of painting of Emperor Norton by William H. Weber. San Francisco Chronicle, 22 May 1961, p.4. Full page here. Source: San Francisco Public Library.
According to the caption:
A new portrait of the renowned Emperor Norton was painted recently by the artist William H. Weber for The Chronicle. It will be hung in the “Emperor Norton Room” in the In Between restaurant on Maiden Lane.
That construction “for The Chronicle” begs the question: Who was William H. Weber?
It seems that Weber was active in San Francisco as a working artist during the period when he painted the portrait of the Emperor. The Chronicle ran listings for several shows and exhibits of Weber's work at various local galleries during the early 1960s.
In Fall 1963, Weber was a judge for juried exhibition at the de Saisset Museum at Santa Clara University. A notice for the exhibition identified Weber as “director of special art projects” for the Chronicle.
When I asked veteran Chronicle columnist Carl Nolte about all this, he suggested that Weber’s portrait of the Emp may have been commissioned by Chronicle editor Scott Newhall as part of Newhall’s broader Norton-based marketing promotion of the time — epitomized by the Emperor Norton Treasure Hunt, which had its ninth running in 1961.
Nolte:
Special projects, huh? Well, that was one of Scott Newhall’s deals. He was the mad genius who saved the Chronicle with stunts and tricks from a life of dull but honest newspapering. The Emperor Norton Treasure Hunt was one of his promotions. He dazzled the public with amazing stories, over the top headlines and a sense of fun. The paper had a lot of talent in those days, and it won the region’s last great newspaper circulation war. I am the last person left at the paper from that era, but I was only a spear carrier in Newhall’s great newspaper opera. All this has been forgotten by the present regime. As I recall, Milt Monroe was the art director, and Weber, who must have been a contract worker, did material on the side.
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ON SUNDAY 11 June 1961 — three weeks after William Weber finished his portrait for the Emperor Norton Room on Maiden Lane — the Examiner reported that the Emperor Norton Room at the Stewart Hotel, on Geary, was “due to open Tuesday.”
As you might guess, with two spaces opening with the same name at the same time, a legal shoe would drop.
The relevant item appeared in the Examiner on 19 June 1961:
THE HANDLERY HOTEL CHAIN settled a little lawsuit in order to open its Emperor Norton saloon in the Stewart. Maiden Lane’s In Between, which has an Emperor Norton Room, hired Lawyer Bob Tarbox to stir a little trouble, and he did, if only four figures’ worth.
Two months later, on 12 August 1961, the Chronicle headlined that “The Norton Room Is Booming.” The paper was referring to the one on Geary Street.
“The Norton Room Is Booming,” San Francisco Chronicle, 12 August 1961, p.11. Full page here. Source: San Francisco Public Library.
The Norton Room Is Booming
Seeking something different in the way of a bar, Paul R. Handlery, vice president and general manager of the Handlery Hotels, California’s largest hotel chain, turned to a young designer, Val Arnold.
Arnold and his associates delved into early San Francisco lore, and came up with the idea of designing, building, decorating, and refurbishing a spot with some new character in it.
What could be better than San Francisco’s “first character,” Emperor Norton?
The Emperor Norton room, indeed, has served to stir up action on Geary street, where it gives the Stewart Hotel a “street entrance” bar on the famed old thoroughfare. The Stewart, incidentally, still keeps its tasteful Highland Room going night and day as well.
Ray Green, strolling guitar player, and a bevy of Emperor Norton Bar-Belles do their bit to amuse and entertain and provide for the delights of the E.N. customers.
A large display ad that appeared in the Chronicle a month earlier (right) — together with an uptick of mentions in entertainment gossip columns — left no doubt that, starting in summer1961, the Emperor Norton Room at the Hotel Stewart was a place to be in San Francisco.
The Chronicle noted on 8 July 1961 that “the ‘new’ Emperor Norton doorman at the Hotel Stewart is a drama student, Wayne Wengirt, who loves portraying the legendary San Francisco character who 100 years ago declared himself Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico.”
On 9 October 1961, an Examiner listing for the Geary Street room described it as “[a] colorful smart lounge dedicated to the memory of Emperor Norton and full of antiques and relics of his reign as well as a 200-year-old music machine made in Amsterdam, 12 feet long and 8 feet high full of sound and fury.” (An earlier Examiner item, from 29 July 1961, noted that the “musical machine…cost a chunk.”)
And, check out the drink prices proclaimed in the ad: 6 Bits. That’s 75 cents!
A later version of the ad promised “just 50 cents for girls on Emperor Norton’s List.”
On 11 August 1961, Herb Caen reported having seen — or heard about — “[t]wo ex-champs gobbling peanuts, drinking drinks and trading lies in the Stewart’s Emperor Norton bar: Jack Dempsey and Lefty O’Doul.
Presumably, the champs paid pull fare.
Ad for the Emperor Norton Room at the Hotel Stewart, 351 Geary Street, San Francisco. San Francisco Chronicle, 15 July 1961, p.9. Source: San Francisco Public Library.
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SO, WHAT ABOUT the other Emperor Norton Room — the one at the In Between, on Maiden Lane?
On 2 September 1961, the Chronicle reported on a fire that had “swept through” the tavern, causing $30,000-worth of damage.
The Chronicle ran a couple of items in 1962 that referenced the In Between.
But, there’s no ad for an Emperor Norton Room there after May 1961 — which suggests that William Weber’s portrait of the Emp may have been damaged or lost in the fire, with the “Emperor Norton Room” concept dropped after that.
On 4 April 1965, the Chronicle carried an ad for a public auction of the bar and restaurant equipment for the In Between.
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AS TO the Emperor Norton Room at the Hotel Stewart, on Geary…
Ads and mentions of this institution dry up after the end of 1962.
Perhaps the writing was on the wall: 1962 turned out to be the tenth and last running of the San Francisco Chronicle’s legendary Emperor Norton Treasure Hunt, which had launched in 1953.
It would be another 20 years before San Francisco would see its next “Emperor Norton Room” — a buffet lunch, bar and event venue that opened in spring 1983 at the New Montgomery and Jessie Street corner of the Palace Hotel building: the space currently occupied by Flatiron Wines and Spirits. This Emperor Norton Room appears to have had a run of about five-and-a-half years, up until the Palace closed in January 1989 for a major two-year renovation.
The moment of the two Emperor Norton Rooms of 1961 — shining as it was — was all too brief.
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UPDATE — 18 January 2023
In my February 2019 article above, I include an image of William H. Weber's 1961 painting of Emperor Norton — in fact: an image of the database scan of the photo as it appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on 22 May 1961. At the time, this was the only image of the painting that was readily available. But, as one can see, this 5th-generation copy of the original painting is pretty rough. Barely legible.
Too: Non-paywalled online information about Weber was sparse. Indeed, the few details I included remain more or less the sum total of what is available on the "free Internet."
Occasionally, over the last four years, I've returned to this in the hope of finding a better image of the painting and better information about the artist.
Finally this week, some gold!
Knowing that the Chronicle's culture critic, Peter Hartlaub, spends a lot of time in the paper's extensive photo archive, I dropped Peter a line to see if there might be a good negative or print of a photograph of William Weber's painting of the Emperor.
Peter was able to put his hands on the following wonderful photo within minutes.
Painting of Emperor Norton, 1961, by William H.M. Weber (1920–1996). Photograph: Ken McLaughlin (1911–1966); date of photograph unknown. Source: San Francisco Chronicle Photo Archive
There are so many wonderful details here, both in (a) the painting itself — Bummer and Lazarus as angels in the clouds; the bag of rice; the boneshaker; Weber's whimsical signature "Baron von Weber" — and in (b) the real-life Chronicle office "staging": the clipboard, the parcel, the phone, the pre-Post It notes tacked to — and sometimes scribbled directly into — the wall. What appears to be a darkroom light next to the top-right corner of the picture frame.
The photo is by Ken McLaughlin (1911–1966).
Click to enlarge and look closely, though. You'll see what appears to be a large canvas scratch in the top right of the painting — as well as significant bubbling across the entire surface.
As I noted in my original piece: On 2 September 1961, the Chronicle reported a major fire at the In Between, the new Maiden Lane cocktail lounge and lunch spot whose "Emperor Norton Room" was to be the home of Weber's painting.
My bet: The McLaughlin photograph is a post-fire record of the salvaged painting. Which suggests that there may yet be an earlier photograph of the painting in a more pristine condition.
One possible tell: The photo of the painting that ran in the Chronicle in May 1961 does not appear to show a telephone at the bottom right corner of the frame. The photo above does.
We’ve added the McLaughlin photograph of the Weber painting to the “flat works” gallery of The Emperor Norton Trust’s digital ARchive of Emperor Norton in Art, Music & Film (ARENA) here.
As to the artist…
Better (paid) digital research tools reveal more information:
His full name was William Hamilton Maximillian Weber.
Born 1920 in Wyomissing Hills, Pa. — a small community near Reading that lies in the center of the area triangulated by Philadelphia, Allentown and Harrisburg.
Art education in Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Academy of Art (now Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts) and Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art (now the School of Art at the University of the Arts).
In Portland, Oregon, by 1942. Married to Marilyn Blasen, 1942. 5 children.
In San Francisco by 1958. Divorced, 1958. Married to Judith Maraniss, 1960. Divorced, 1973 ― but possibly remarried to Judith later.
Died in Santa Rosa, 1996.
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