{"id":17947,"date":"2021-03-15T10:44:36","date_gmt":"2021-03-15T17:44:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=17947"},"modified":"2021-03-15T10:57:17","modified_gmt":"2021-03-15T17:57:17","slug":"life-beyond-coronavirus-heres-how-sf-rebounded-after-the-1918-spanish-flu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2021\/03\/15\/life-beyond-coronavirus-heres-how-sf-rebounded-after-the-1918-spanish-flu\/","title":{"rendered":"Life beyond coronavirus? Here’s how SF rebounded after the 1918 Spanish flu"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"TIMELINE25D\/B\/16APR99\/SC\/HO--Return
TIMELINE25D\/B\/16APR99\/SC\/HO–Return of the 363rd Infantry 91st Division-from France to San Francisco, April 22, 1919 at the end of WWI.SFC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When the pandemic is over \u2014 or at least it\u2019s safe to go out again \u2014 there\u2019s worry that the annihilation of music, theater and other audience-driven entertainment may just be starting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With cautiousness becoming the new national pastime, will movie theaters go extinct? How does anyone think about stepping in a museum again, or a street parade, or a New Year\u2019s Eve party? Can we ever recover from a pandemic that leaves almost nothing unchanged?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

San Francisco faced the same questions in the past, and responded by filling the seats. When the so-called Spanish flu threat ended more than 100 years ago, the city\u2019s residents didn\u2019t shy away from gathering together. If anything, they doubled down on the future of in-person entertainment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRejoice and be exceedingly glad, my brethren, for many things this Sabbath,\u201d The Chronicle\u2019s Walter Anthony wrote on Nov. 18, 1918, the morning after live theater reopened in the city. \u201cThe Hun has been whipped, the Spanish influenza has been against the armada of a great defeat, the garbage men are functioning regularly once more \u2026 and now comes the climax of glad tidings: The portals of the playhouses are thrown open.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Spanish flu of 1918-1919 had a lasting effect locally. Businesses closed, the health infrastructure was overwhelmed and at least 6,000 people died in the Bay Area \u2014 six times the current death toll from COVID-19. But the theaters rebounded quickly, with an air of celebration and reported sellouts. Churches, schools, pools and recreation centers, and regional sports were quickly thriving as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the two biggest influenzas in San Francisco history are devastating, they are not strictly comparable. The earlier pandemic had a shorter stay, shutting down the city for about a month in October and November 1918, before returning in January for another deadly round<\/a>. Remote entertainment wasn\u2019t much of an option in the 1910s \u2014 even the first radio station, KFRC, was more than five years away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the death count in 1918-1919 was much higher. Forty-two San Franciscans died in a single day in early January, according to Chronicle records. As of this writing, well under 100 San Franciscans have died from the coronavirus during more than five months sheltering in place. Among the most affected in the city\u2019s 1918-1919 pandemic were children, who perished by the dozens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But residents rebounded quickly \u2014 perhaps because they were used to city-changing tragedy; many 1918 residents had lived through the 1906 earthquake and several fires and plagues before that. On that first opening night in November 1918, the Orpheum, Curran and Alcazar \u2014 three of the city\u2019s biggest theaters \u2014 all reported sellouts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s especially encouraging to modern San Franciscans is the way the city came together in 1919, even after the influenza returned, and a vocal anti-mask contingent had resisted government safety mandates<\/a>. Being around other San Franciscans became a point of pride among residents. (The end of World War I on Nov. 11, 1918, and soldiers returning to the city in early 1919, clearly contributed to the mood.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTONIGHT\u2019S THE NIGHT,\u201d blared one advertisement in The Chronicle, sponsored by a musician\u2019s union. \u201cPut away your smoking jacket and those ugly house slippers, get the family and Visit Your Local Theater.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Masks were still required when theaters first opened. As modern theater operators hope to see, San Francisco residents during the first pandemic were eager to pay for live performances, even with added inconveniences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Go:<\/strong> Assuming everything will be safe, Bay Area people are likely to return to past habits like attending live performances. Though, there may be adaptations to the experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMasks were de rigeur in all the showhouses, and even the seasoned Orpheum habitues managed to forgo their accustomed privilege of smoking,\u201d The Chronicle reported in 1918.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were worries about safety. Across the Bay in Berkeley, the new California Theatre advertised its superior ventilation for the flu-concerned, boasting, \u201cOur air is drawn from the roof and forced through the entire theater. The air is completely changed every three minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the case numbers dropped near zero, crowds swarmed back. City leaders sounded the all clear for the last time on Feb. 1, 1919, and by Chronicle accounts it was one of the most entertaining months in San Francisco history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still early in the silent movie era, the city premiered Ethel Barrymore in \u201cThe Divorcee\u201d to packed houses at the Tivoli Theater, while Gloria Swanson opened Cecil B. DeMille\u2019s \u201cDon\u2019t Change Your Husband\u201d at the Imperial. (The latter theater would later become the XXX-rated Market Street Cinema, demolished in 2016.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the Curran, in another sellout, the San Francisco Symphony debuted a performance on a mechanical player piano, executing a preprogramed performance from star pianist Harold Bauer. Meanwhile, the rest of the city crowded to watch a new six-cylinder Studebaker, which accomplished the then-impossible task of climbing steep California Street without stalling, with five passengers in the cab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On April 22, 1919, less than 60 days after the second mask order was lifted, Market Street hosted what The Chronicle called \u201cthe greatest ever\u201d spectacle in the city\u2019s history: a World War I parade for returning soldiers of the 347th and 363rd regiments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the end of 1919, there was almost no mention of a pandemic that had killed almost 1% of the city\u2019s population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNEW YEAR\u2019S EVE PROMISES TO BE GAYEST OF ALL,\u201d the front-page Chronicle headline read on Dec. 31, 1919. \u201cDowntown Hostelries Report Every Inch of Room Has Been Taken.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That happened to be the last night before Prohibition laws went into effect. The Chronicle reported that all hotels were full, and every major live music and theater event sold out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere has been many a wild night in San Francisco since the 49ers \u2014 hardy men who took their whiskey straight \u2014 lighted the first candle and drew the first cork in revelry, but last night outshone them all,\u201d The Chronicle reported on Jan. 1, 1920. \u201cThis year the desire to take part in the last \u2018wet\u2019 New Year\u2019s Eve brought out everybody in the city able to walk, and some who had to be carried.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next year was booming for San Francisco, as The Chronicle reported an increase in conventions. The new de Young Museum was completed in 1919, and in early 1920 plans were revealed for the Steinhart Aquarium, a gift to the city by heirless banker Ignatz Steinhart<\/a>, in honor of his brother Sigmund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The word \u201cinfuenza\u201d barely appeared in the newspaper a year after the crisis ended, except for a few advertisements for suspiciously unscientific mail-order flu cures. The 1920s became arguably the greatest decade for the Market Street theater district, with the ultra-grand Fox Theatre opening and a train-full of Hollywood stars attending. San Francisco grew quickly as a tourism destination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Closing thoughts are from Walter Anthony, written in the same 1918 column that opened this article.More from the Throughline<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt took the influenza to show us our mutual dependency. \u2026 There can be no sound where there is no ear. There can be no play where there is no audience,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIt never occurred to me until this epidemic came along how completely I am in debt to the profession. It positively made me shudder. If there were no theaters and no concerts, I\u2019d probably have to go to work somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter Hartlaub is The San Francisco Chronicle’s culture critic and co-host of Total SF. The Bay Area native, a former Chronicle paperboy, has worked at The Chronicle since 2000. He covers Bay Area culture, hosts the Total SF podcast and writes the archive-based Our San Francisco local history column. Hartlaub and columnist Heather Knight co-created the Total SF project and event series, engaging with locals to explore and find new ways to celebrate San Francisco.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"HEARST<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u00a92021 Hearst
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