Newman raises funds for ACT
Here’s a look at the past. Items have been culled from The Chronicle’s archives of 25, 50, 75 and 100 years ago.
1990
Feb. 6: American Conservatory Theater, hardest hit of all the arts outfits by last year’s earthquake, has signed Paul Newman to stump for a new ACT Emergency Fund. The goal: to raise $1 million by May 31. John Sullivan, ACT managing director, said yesterday that Newman was eager to help draft a letter pleading for money “… just so we can finish the current season. The money has nothing to do with rebuilding the Geary; it’s just to keep us afloat for our current season.” Newman, no arm-twisting required, got involved because he is a longtime friend (in fact a former roommate) of Ed Hastings, ACT’s artistic director, both Yale drama students years ago. The low-profile Newman occasionally attends ACT performances. ACT is pulling out all the stops with the Newman campaign. 200,000 Newman letters were sent last week to potential donors in the Bay Area.
1965
Feb. 2: A doughty little feminist from freedom-loving University of California held her ground yesterday against the Establishment on the steps of a Powell Street cable car. Mona Hutchin, 19, boarded the car at the Market Street turntable peacefully enough at 2:30 p.m. taking a position squarely on the steps outside. The gripman and the conductor asked the coed to step inside, it being Municipal Railway policy to bar the outside steps to female passengers. Miss Hutchin, of 3031 Colby Street, Berkeley, simply took a firmer grip on the handrail. A crowd formed. Other cable cars clanged angrily up to the turntable. The gripman and conductor pleaded. Miss Hutchin refused to budge.
“This isn’t funny, young lady!” a more conventional, if no less aggressive woman shouted. Miss Hutchin’s reply was to the point. “This is an outmoded, asinine law.” Finally, with six cable cars backed up at the turntable and numerous side arguments raging among the crowd of 100, patrolmen Charles Bates and Homer Hudelson and police sergeant Robert McKee appeared. They too urged Miss Hutchin to step inside with the rest of the ladies. “There is no reason,” she replied, “why the Muni should take more interest in my safety than his.” And she gestured at her red-faced male companion, who shrank into the crowd. Recognizing a steadfast opponent, the three officers began gently peeling Miss Hutchin’s fingers from the handrail. Protesting vigorously, she was taken to the Hall of Justice, remonstrated with and released. Wesley Mason, the Muni’s transportation superintendent, explained that the cable car policy is simply an “accident prevention measure.” Another Muni man said at the scene that men simply “know how to fall better.” Besides, he added, “It wouldn’t do to injure a potential mother.”
Miss Hutchin, who had this explained to her, was unconvinced. “The law,” she insisted, “should apply to men as well as women.” Officers noted that she wore, with considerable pride, a button reading; “I’m a Right-Wing Extremist.”
1940
Feb. 7: International diplomacy yesterday reduced Adolph Hitler’s chances of returning 512 crew members of the scuttled Nazi liner Columbus to Germany before the end of the war. Japan announced Japanese steamship companies had been instructed not to accept as passengers any more Germans liable for military service. The Japanese determination to accept no more belligerent passengers aboard their ships apparently cut off the last avenue of escape for the Nazi sailors now held virtual prisoners on Angel Island by U.S. immigration authorities. Members of the Columbus crew were unexpectedly jubilant over the announcement. They were described as “the happiest people in the world” by San Francisco Immigration Commissioner John J. McGrath. McGrath said the sailors smiled when they were informed Friday that they might have to spend the rest of the war period interned on Angel Island.
“They seemed joyfully contented just to be on an island in the United States of America, where they can eat well, sleep well and live a life of ease at the expense of their German steamship company,” McGrath said. “Personally I consider them very lucky, for Angel Island is a beautiful place.”
San Francisco attaches of the German Consulate received the news of the Japanese decision grimly.
1915
Feb. 2: Mrs. Blanche Payson — six feet four inches in height, weight 200 pounds and decidedly goodlooking is San Francisco’s first special police woman. And she is going to do the stunt, under authority granted her last night by the Police Commission, at one of the Exposition amusement concessions. Mrs. Payton is not a copette. She is a special police woman — the very first. She appeared before the Commission last night clad in a stunning black riding habit, topped off by knee-length boots, and presented with her request a letter of introduction by the famous detective, William Pinkerton. The Commission didn’t hesitate.