Scenes from the Emperor Norton Devotion of Melvin Belli

A Celebrity Lawyer Who — Like the Emperor — Fought For Justice & Had a Flair for the Eccentric

THE LEGENDARY San Francisco attorney Melvin Mouron Belli (1907–1996) was — among many other things — an enthusiast of the Emperor Norton.

No doubt, this — and Melvin Belli’s way with a pen — is why William Drury enlisted Belli to write the Foreword for his 1986 biography of the Emperor.

Here’s a photograph that may be familiar to some other Norton enthusiasts. Belli is the figure in dark glasses.

Dedication of the Belli Building at 722/728 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, 19 January 1960. The three figures in the center are Melvin Belli (center, with dark glasses); Donald A. Wells, Master of California Lodge No. 1, Free and Accepted Masons (left); and Emperor Norton cosplayer Earle Wright. Source:  San Francisco Public Library

The photo is in the collection of the San Francisco Public Library. The catalog title is spare: “Donald A. Wells, Melvin M. Belli and Emperor Norton standing in front of the Belli Building.” An additional note in the listing adds the following detail from an inscription on the back of the photo: “First Masonic Lodge in Calif. New Plaque on Belli Bldg.”

But, it’s the date attached to the photograph — 19 January 1960 — that led me this week to a San Francisco Chronicle article published the next day (see below) that fills in the blanks as to what’s going on here.

In 1959, Belli had acquired and restored two Gold Rush-era buildings on the east side of Montgomery Street between Washington and Jackson: (a) No. 722, originally built in 1849 or 1850 and first known as Langerman's Tobacco and Segar Warehouse, then rebuilt in 1851 after most of the interior was destroyed by fire; and (b) the adjoining No. 728, built in 1853–54.

The buildings are just steps from the former site of an adobe at the northeast corner of Montgomery and Jackson, where Joshua Norton rented his first office space from James Lick in mid 1850.

Belli moved his law firm into 722 Montgomery, naming this the “Belli Building,” and leased 728 Montgomery — historically known as the Genella Building, after Joseph Genella, the china and glassware merchant who built the structure to house both his business and his residence — as office space; he called 728 “Caesar’s Annex,” after his grandfather, father, and son, all of whom shared this name. It became common to refer to the whole two-building “complex” as the Belli Building.

In October 1849, the first meeting of Freemasons in California was held in a building that previously had stood on the site of 728 Montgomery. In the photograph, Belli is unveiling a bronze plaque placed on the building by California Lodge No. 1 of Free and Accepted Masons, while handing the Master of the Lodge, Donald A. Wells, retroactive written permission for the Lodge to install the plaque. “Emperor Norton,” played by Earle Wright, looks on. This was part of a two-day celebration that Belli staged to celebrate the restoration of 722 and 728.

The Chronicle article features another photograph from the January 19 event showing Belli being “knighted” by “Emperor Norton” — and reports that members of E Clampus Vitus (“Clampers”) were on the scene.

"Belli Brings Back the Gold Rush," article, San Francisco Chronicle, 20 January 1960, p. 5. Source: Genealogy Bank

Here are the Montgomery Street buildings in March 1966, a little more than six years after Belli restored them. 722 Montgomery is the building on the right, with 728 on the left:

Belli's Buildings in March 1966. The Belli Building, at 722 Montgomery, is on the right; 728, on the left, was known as "Caesar's Annex" — so named for Belli's grandfather. Photo: Renald Rosewood. Source: SF Memory (sfmemory.org / sfm008–00167)

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PROMPTING this little investigation into Melvin Belli’s affinity for Emperor Norton is the following photograph that I stumbled across on Facebook this week, showing Belli himself dressed as the Emperor:

Melvin Belli as Emperor Norton, 1987. Source: Facebook profile of former Belli employee John Hagen–Brenner 

It took a little longer to suss the provenance of this photo. But, eventually, I discovered that it was used in a special feature that appeared in the San Francisco Examiner's Sunday magazine of 1 March 1987. The magazine on this date had a focus on San Francisco history, as this was the "centennial" issue of the paper. Presumably, given the Examiner’s founding in 1863, "centennial" referred to the beginning of the paper’s Hearst era in 1887.

The photo feature, which spilled across a 2-page spread (pages 12 and 13 of the magazine), served as an illustration for a commentary titled "A Rakish Tradition," by Cynthia Robins.

In the feature itself, titled "The Way They Were," 10 different San Francisco public figures — including Belli — are dressed as historical characters of San Francisco, with each modern figure offering a quote. Belli’s is taken from his Foreword for William Drury’s biography of the Emperor, published the year before:

Life Magazine once acclaimed me “the king of torts,” which proves that almost anyone can aspire to royalty in this delightfully crazy city of ours — but Emperor Norton — well, he was something special.

Here's page 12, with Belli as the Emperor at top left:

Left side of 2-page feature spread, "The Way They Were," with Melvin Belli as Emperor Norton at top left, San Francisco Examiner, 1 March 1987, Sunday magazine, p. 12. Source: Newspapers.com

Here’s the right side of the spread, on page 13:

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FIVE YEARS earlier, shortly after Melvin Belli turned 75 in July 1982, Belli appeared on the Mike Douglas Show.

Early in the following video segment — starting 20 seconds in — Belli talks about throwing a 75th birthday party for himself and inviting the whole City of San Francisco to come feast on “40 hams, 80 cheeses, and 5 gallons of wine that we diluted.” He told Douglas:

I had the biggest birthday party they’ve ever had since Emperor Norton in San Francisco….

Apparently, Belli enjoyed the riff. When he turned 80 five years later — some four months after posing as Emperor Norton in March 1987 — he threw another splashy party, telling the San Francisco Examiner a few days later that it was “the damndest birthday party San Francisco has seen since Emperor Norton celebrated his.”

Excerpt from article, "For Whom the Belli Toils," San Francisco Examiner, 14 July 1987, p. E3. Source: Newspapers.com 

It’s clear enough that Melvin Belli was fond of Emperor Norton.

But, more than that: In the specific ways that Belli repeatedly and habitually associated himself with Emperor Norton, Belli seemed to suggest that — as with the Emperor — his own eccentricity was a key to his influence.

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