The Emperor Norton Trust

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

RESEARCH • EDUCATION • ADVOCACY

Filtering by Tag: Platt's Music Hall

The Sporting Emperor Norton

March 28, 2023  /  John Lumea

Emperor Norton tried his hand at riding a bike — roller skating — even jumping rope.

Later, the Emperor was a regular attendee at everything from horse races to endurance walking marathons to wrestling tournaments.

Here’s a first effort at documenting an underappreciated “sporting” thread in the Emperor’s story.

This includes:

  • many new details about known episodes (velocipede; skating), 1869–72

  • several new episodes, 1873–79

Also includes documentation of what may be the last reported sighting of Emperor Norton.

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categories / Research, Places, Original sources
tags / sport, tournament, race, competition, feat, amusement, Mechanics' Pavilion, Union Hall, Woodward's Gardens, Badger's Grand Central Park, Bay District Fair Ground, Platt's Music Hall, Platt's Hall, velocipede, boneshaker, roller skating, skates, jump rope, horse race, walking, wrestling, rink, pavilion, Eadweard Muybridge, Carleton Watkins, John Armstrong, 1869, 1870, 1871, 1872, 1873, 1874, 1879

Did the Social Drinker Emperor Norton Close Out as a Teetotaler?

March 26, 2023  /  John Lumea

By reputation, Emperor Norton did not drink much. But, he did enjoy the occasional tipple — especially if he was being treated, perhaps by a well-wisher at one of the free-lunch taverns that he often frequented.

Indeed, the Emperor issued at least one Proclamation, in 1874, that called for abstaining from "ardent spirits, as a beverage, except only for medical purposes," and that banned the manufacture, import and sale of these spirits” — but that drew a careful distinction between “ardent” liquor and “malt liquors for the working man, and ‘wine for the stomach’s sake.’”

But, in January 1879, with the temperance movement growing ever more insistent on complete abstinence, with no exceptions or carve-outs, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Emperor Norton signed an abstinence pledge.

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categories / Research, Places, Proclamations, Original sources
tags / drinking, temperance, abstinence, pledge, signature, reform, Platt's Music Hall, Lyceum for Self-Culture, Common Sense (journal), Dashaway Hall, Pacific Appeal, 1874, 1879

Emperor Norton at a Pro-Civil Rights Lecture, March 1868

February 24, 2019  /  John Lumea

Emperor Norton’s on-point attendance at an early event of the Order of Freedom’s Defenders — a Unionist-Republican political club dedicated to preserving Lincoln's legacy; advancing Reconstruction; electing Grant as President; and securing the Constitutional protections necessary to guarantee the civil rights of African-Americans — can be seen as “of a piece” with the Emperor’s broader commitment to African-American equality.

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categories / Original sources, Places, Research
tags / Order of Freedom's Defenders, General Oscar Hugh La Grange, Platt's Music Hall, Union, Republican, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Reconstruction, civil rights, San Francisco Examiner, Peter Anderson, Fifteenth Amendment, Pacific Appeal, Proclamations, 1868, 1869, 1871, 1874

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