Bill Graham gets ‘Lucky’ with film
Here is a look at the past. Items have been culled from The Chronicle’s archives of 25, 50, 75 and 100 years ago.
1990
Dec. 15: It may not be exactly typecasting but rock impresario Bill Graham has landed the plum role of Lucky Luciano in the upcoming movie on the life of racketeer “Bugsy Siegel” starring Warren Beatty and directed by Barry Levinson. Graham, who moved to San Francisco after a failed effort at an acting career in New York, has played minor roles in Francis Coppola movies. His role in “Apocalypse Now” — as a show business entrepreneur bringing Playboy bunnies into the jungles of Vietnam — mostly ended up on the cuttingroom floor. He had a small part as a film studio chief in “Cotton Club.” The Luciano role is the answer to a dream that vanished 25 years ago when actor James Whitmore nixed Graham as his sidekick in the TV series “The Law and Mrs. Jones” due to Graham’s “heavy physiognomy.” Luciano, the fabled “capo di capos” of New York’s crime underworld was convicted of running the entire New York vice ring in 1936. Sentenced to 40 years in prison, Luciano was released after 10 years because of cooperation he secured, from prison, with the dockworkers in New York and Sicily during World War II.
1965
Dec. 14: Calling it “no ordinary case” a San Francisco municipal judge sentenced three young men and a girl to 30-day jail terms yesterday for charges arising from their protest picketing against General Maxwell D. Taylor during his August appearance here. The four, who oppose American involvement in the Vietnam War, were arrested for trespassing and resisting arrest outside the Fairmont Hotel while Taylor was speaking inside. One of them, Jerry J. Rubin, 27, of 2502 Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley, went to jail immediately after Judge Donald B. Constine cut short the defendant’s impassioned statement of his antiVietnam war beliefs. “This,” said Judge Constine, “is no ordinary case. No real purpose will be served now to lecture, preach or admonish. The facts disclose that these defendants … intended to invite arrest and prosecution.” Rubin, on his way out of the courtroom to the jail, began reading a hastily written statement. “Our act was a political protest,” it read. “Our punishment is political. We are today political prisoners.” Judge Constine interrupted to warn Rubin that he would be held in contempt of court for his speech. The last sentence of Rubin’s statement, which went unread in the courtroom was: “And while at this moment the United States bombs, kills and destroys, and American people live in such material and moral luxury, there is only one thing a man of conscience can do — protest, and if necessary go to jail.”
1940
Dec. 16: The United States Government is no longer playing “softy” with violators of navigation regulations. Within the last two weeks four persons have been arrested by the Coast Guard for invading naval target ranges outside the Golden Gate. For some time the navy has been conducting target practice between the Farallon Islands and the entrance of San Francisco Bay and from a point north of Bolinas Bay to just south of Point San Pedro. The War Department has shown its teeth in recent warnings to small craft navigators, but violations continued unabated. Now the teeth are biting. Normal commerce may proceed through the target range in excess of five knots, while fishing vessels and other private craft must go around the danger area. Firing ceases while the larger ships pass through the range. Notices of target practice are posted at Fishermen’s wharf and radio broadcast warnings are issued by the Coast Guard. Red flags by day and red lanterns by night are displayed at Fort Cavallo and Fort Point. On Sundays, however, “the coast is clear,” and anyone may fish or boat in the restricted areas.
1915
Dec. 13: Hercules: The lives of over 1,000 men were endangered this afternoon when 1500 pounds of gelatin dynamite, one of the most explosive compounds known, exploded in the mixing-house No. 2 at the Dupont Powder Company’s plant. That no lives were lost is considered remarkable, as the great force of men was close by fighting to keep the flames from spreading when, with a roar that was heard for miles and a detonation that was felt throughout the bay district and northward to Napa, where windows were smashed, the dynamite blew up. The mixing house was removed as if by magic, and where it had stood a gaping hole in the ground appeared. Men were thrown on their faces by the force of the explosion and windows and doors in adjoining structures were shattered. E.D. Armstrong, superintendent of the plant, said that a short-circuiting of a small hoist motor caused a fire that spread to the buildings insulation. The four men engaged in handling the gelatin made a tentative attempt to extinguish the flames then hurried from the place to raise the alarm. While the rest of the men were directing their efforts to extinguish the blaze the mixinghouse disappeared.