The Emperor Norton Trust

TO HONOR THE LIFE + ADVANCE THE LEGACY OF JOSHUA ABRAHAM NORTON

RESEARCH • EDUCATION • ADVOCACY

Filtering by Tag: New Orleans

The Papers Outside San Francisco That Published Emperor Norton's Original Proclamation

It appears that the San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin was the only San Francisco paper that ran Joshua Norton’s Proclamation of 17 September 1859 declaring himself “Emperor of these United States.”

But, it turns out that there were six other papers outside San Francisco that published the Proclamation as news during the 2½-month period from mid September to early December 1859.

Three of these six papers were in Northern California. Two were in the South. And one was on the East Coast.

Only one of the six — the Daily National Democrat of Marysville, Calif. — published verbatim the text that appeared in the Bulletin, including the Bulletin’s editorial headline and introduction.

The other five papers all featured some combination of a different headline; no headline; or a different intro text.

Click below to see the Proclamation as it appeared — and the Emperor as he was introduced — in each of these six newspapers. If other examples surface, we’ll add them here.

Read More

Emperor Norton's Hunch: "Lu Watters Original" or Variation on an Earlier Theme?

Many who follow Emperor Norton are fond of a Dixieland revival tune, “Emperor Norton’s Hunch,” that was performed, recorded and popularized in the late 1940s by Lu Watters and his Yerba Buena Jazz Band.

For decades, Lu Watters has been credited as the composer of the song. But, on a 1950 album released by Watters and the band, the composer credit went to someone else.

Getting under the surface of that exception suggests that, perhaps, Watters is not the original composer of “Emperor Norton’s Hunch” but is better understood as an arranger who produced a variation on an existing theme — and who also, in this case, was a self-promoter who was able to brand himself as the composer simply by being the first to say so in a public, official way, gambling that the risk of a serious challenge was low.

Read on to learn the fascinating story of the sometime composer Wilbur Watkins Campbell — and about why there is reason to believe that the roots of “Emperor Norton’s Hunch” lie in an earlier work by him.

Read More

© 2024 The Emperor Norton Trust  |  Site design: Alisha Lumea  |  Background: Original image courtesy of Eric Fischer