TO HONOR THE LIFE + ADVANCE THE LEGACY OF JOSHUA ABRAHAM NORTON
RESEARCH • EDUCATION • ADVOCACY
Through the magic of television, Emperor Norton paid a memorable visit to the Ponderosa ranch on 27 February 1966. That's the date that the episode "The Emperor Norton" originally aired on the popular television series, Bonanza. Watch the full episode here.
Read MoreOur friend, Joseph Amster, discovered this fabulous little Monty Python-esue video that tells the story of what happened when an overzealous local policeman, Armand Barbier, tried to throw Emperor Norton in jail.
Read MoreWritten in 1944 by Lu Watters, "Emperor Norton's Hunch" became a signature song for Watters and his Yerba Buena Jazz Band. In this video, a recording of the song by the band is the musical setting for a quick look at answers to the two questions raised by the song's title: Who was Emperor Norton? and What was his hunch?
Read MoreIn the opening episode of Alistair Cooke's classic 1973 13-episode television documentary series, America: A Personal History of the United States, Cooke visits San Francisco, where he offers a brief 3-minute reflection on Emperor Norton starting at 8:25.
The episode, titled “First Impact,” originally aired on 12 November 1972, and much of the information now is dated and incorrect. But, Cooke is a charming storyteller, and this may be one of the earliest “documentary” segments on the Emperor to appear on film
Video on the flip.
Read MoreThe first episode of Up to Speed, Timothy "Speed" Levitch's brilliantly offbeat 2012 travel series on Hulu, is about San Francisco. The episode includes a fabulous segment on Emperor Norton that concludes with Levitch calling for the whole Bay Bridge to be named for him.
Read MoreFrom the collection of the California Historical Society comes this wonderful silent film from 1933. The film, by Charles G. Kirk, features views of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge under construction, as well as some great scenes of downtown San Francisco and Fisherman's Wharf.
Read MoreOur friend, Michael Mattis, flags this mini-documentary, made in 2004 by Nick Crummey, Nina Hirten, Anna Kocherovsky and Zach Shiner.
Read MoreRespected San Francisco singer-songwriter and guitarist Chuck Prophet has been a public champion of the effort to name the Bay Bridge for Emperor Norton. Here's a video of an aptly titled song from Prophet's 2012 album, "Temple Beautiful."
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