History Keepers: Backyard Residential Incinerator

Backyard Residential Incinerator, 1946-55
Courtesy of Nat Isaac

They are Los Angeles’s history keepers. They research, organize, store, repair, and care for historical artifacts and make them available to us online, at exhibitions, through publications, or in their homes. This summer, from August 5 to August 27, the California Historical Society celebrates Los Angeles’s history keepers with an exhibition at the historic El Pueblo National Monument.

A series of blogs brings our online visitors a sample of objects in the exhibition. In this blog, research into the city’s history of refuse collection and disposal leads one history keeper to acquire this old backyard incinerator—and successfully find it a home in a permanent collection.

By Nat Isaac, Los Angeles Sanitation Historical Project

As all historians know, you don’t just pass up on a treasured relic of the past, especially one such as this that tells the story of L.A.’s trashy past full of issues ranging from environmental protection to traffic, to organized crime to mayoral politics.

In the 1940s Los Angeles was searching for ways to minimize the costs of rubbish collection and disposal as well as reduce smog levels. Burning refuse was then a standard method of disposal in municipal incinerators and several open pits on the outskirts of the city. In 1944 the city’s main incinerator fell into disrepair and was permanently closed. This led to a crisis in the refuse industry. Home backyard incinerators, a firmly established practice since the turn of the twentieth century, became an even more popular method of disposing trash.

While burning trash meant less garbage trucks—and less traffic—on the streets of the city, it also meant more pollution in the air.

Burning Dump, 1945

Los Angeles Public Library, Herald-Examiner Collection

“Like a miniature Vesuvius,” the Herald-Examiner reported on August 2, 1945, “this open dump belches forth clouds of eye-irritating smog to pollute the atmosphere of the entire Los Angeles County. Scores of open dumps like this one would be eliminated through a county-wide incinerator and rubbish collection system.”

In the fall of 1954, the city council approved an increase in the daily hours of rubbish burning from four hours to seven hours. Rubbish could now be burned from 6 am to 10 am and from 4 pm to 7 pm. Although only a small contributor to Los Angeles’s overall smog, backyard incinerator smoke was very visible and its odors persisted for quite some time. As a result, residents began attributing high smog levels and poor health quality to the smoke from these units and complained to the air control district, local councilmen, and county supervisors about them. 

End of the Backyard Incinerator, 1954

Los Angeles Public Library, Herald-Examiner Collection

“Backyard incinerator with a large black bow with the letters ‘R.I.P’ on it marks the end of the backyard incinerator in Los Angeles,” noted the Herald-Examiner on October 20, 1954.

Backyard Incinerator Ban, 1954

Los Angeles Public Library, Herald-Examiner Collection

“W. G. Ney and Loy E. Moore, owners of the Peerless Incinerator Company, 1854 W. Washington Blvd., display their inventory of backyard incinerators as they hear reports of banning all incinerators,” the Herald-Examiner reported on October 20, 1954.

The County of Los Angeles addressed these complaints in 1955 with a phased-in ban on backyard incinerators. To Los Angeles Mayor Norris Poulson, the writing was on the wall. If the ban were applied city-wide, the garbage would have nowhere to go but to privately-owned dumps, which were known to be corrupt through involvement with organized crime.

Poulson immediately requested the county to delay implementation of the ban pending discussions on a more efficient garbage collection system for the city. He then began investigating private waste haulers and dumps for racketeering violations while at the same time proposing a new tax-funded municipal garbage collection program for the entire city that would ensure city-owned landfills and collection trucks for years to come. Such a municipal collection program, he saw, would avoid the need for dirty backyard incinerators, corrupt haulers, and privately-owned dumps. 

Hearing Conducted by Mayor Poulson, 1955

Los Angeles Public Library, Herald-Examiner Collection

At a hearing conducted by Mayor Norris Poulson and his investigation into rubbish collection racketeering, reported the Herald-Examiner on June 20, 1955, “The crowd heard testimony that threats have been made against persons who tried to dump their own rubbish. This was described as “a customary threat.”

As the mayor continued holding hearings on organized crime’s involvement with garbage collection haulers throughout 1955, public sentiment shifted in favor of his proposed municipal collection program. However, without adequate funding for such a program and with an expected increase in rubbish from the city-wide ban on backyard incineration, Poulson found himself in a difficult position.

By the summer of 1956, the city had started to phase in trash collection in areas where incinerator use was being slowly phased out. Poulson brought the proposed municipal collection program to a City Council vote on June 15, 1956. However, the council deadlocked, with six in favor and six opposed.

Ban on Residential Incinerators, 1957

Los Angeles Public Library; Herald-Examiner Collection

“All refuse burning will end October 1 when Air Pollution Control District’s ban on residential incinerators becomes effective,” reported the Herald-Examiner on July 1, 1957.

The mayor had no choice but to put the matter to a vote by the public, and on April 2, 1957, the residents of Los Angeles approved a new tax to fund a municipal garbage collection program for the city. Poulson won the battle against privately-owned haulers and dumps while enabling the ban on backyard incinerators to move forward. Later that year, on October 1, 1957, a total ban was placed upon incinerators by the county’s Air Pollution Control District, establishing the current way the city handles trash.

City Starts Combustible Rubbish, 1957

Los Angeles Public Library; Herald-Examiner Collection

“Loader Fred Mosely and driver Henry Lind are shown at Washington Boulevard and Arlington Avenue with one of 57 new garbage trucks put in use today as the City starts its combustible rubbish collection,” reported the Herald-Examiner on April 8, 1957.”

Residential Incinerator, 1960
Los Angeles Public Library, Herald-Examiner Collection

As the Herald-Examiner reported on June 25, 1960: “Patrolman Terzo explained to a new resident that incinerator burning has been banned within the Los Angeles basin since Sept. 30, 1957, and that the fire should be extinguished immediately.”

I first came across the old incinerator (depicted above) at an estate sale for a house that was listed for sale in mid-city Los Angeles in June 2007. It looked exactly like the images I had seen in my historical research on the collection and handling of trash in Los Angeles as part of my 26 years of work at Los Angeles Sanitation (LASAN). Unfortunately, the incinerator was not part of the estate sale, but rather a fixture of the house. Nevertheless, I was determined to get it as a potential item in LASAN’s collection. The only question was how? As my wife and I were already in the market to purchase a house and this one had a nice charm to it (as well as an incinerator), we purchased the house. Since then, the incinerator was carefully cleaned, disassembled, and reassembled after which it will patiently await a final resting place in the LASAN collection located in the Los Angeles City Archives.

History Keeper: Los Angeles Sanitation Historical Collection

Los Angeles Sanitation Historical Collection encompasses a history of and historical records related to municipal collection programs for refuse, recyclables, dead animals, and yard trimmings throughout the City of Los Angeles from its inception to the present day. The collections are located in the Los Angeles City Archives.

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An exhibition by the California Historical Society and LA as Subject

Presented in partnership with El Pueblo Historical Monument and the El Pueblo Park Association

El Tranquilo Gallery & Visitor Center

634 N. Main Street (entrance on Olvera Street, W-19)

El Pueblo de Los Ángeles Historical Monument, Los Angeles, California

Tuesday–Friday, 10:00 am–3:00 pm

Saturday and Sunday, 9:00 am–4:00 pm

History Keepers: Knife and Trunk of Tiburcio Vásquez

Knife and Trunk of Tiburcio Vásquez, c. mid-1800s
San Fernando Valley Historical Society  

They are Los Angeles’s history keepers. They research, organize, store, repair, and care for historical artifacts and make them available to us online, at exhibitions, through publications, or in their homes. This summer, from August 5 to August 27, the California Historical Society celebrates Los Angeles’s history keepers with an exhibition at the historic El Pueblo National Monument: History Keepers: Traversing Los Angeles. This month, several objects from the exhibition will be featured through a series of blogs. We begin with the story of an infamous Californio bandido.

Tiburcio Vásquez 

Tiburcio Vasquez, c. 1874

Reproduction, California Historical Society

In the mid-1800s the legendary, controversial Tiburcio Vásquez—son of a prominent Californio family—traversed the passes and foothills of the state, robbing and terrorizing inhabitants and romancing others. Remembered for his womanizing and crimes purportedly committed in the name of justice for his people, the bandido/outlaw—and folk hero to some—traveled with this trunk packed with his personal effects. The knife is all that remains of its contents.

 

Knife and Trunk of Tiburcio Vásquez, c. mid-1800s
San Fernando Valley Historical Society 

Active in the Antelope Valley, Vásquez left the trunk with the first settler in the region, Timothy Nava of Barrel Springs, near Pear Blossom. He never returned for his possessions. He was captured (a woman was reputedly his downfall) at an adobe in the San Fernando Plains (present day Melrose Place in West Hollywood), and hanged for murder on March 19, 1875, at age 39, at the Santa Clara County jail in San Jose. Vásquez Rocks in the Antelope Valley, one of the bandido’s hideouts, and other landmarks bear his name today. 

  

Benjamin Truman Cummings, Map of the Scene of Vasquez’ Capture, 1874 
“Tiburcio Vasquez, The Life, Adventures, and Capture of the Great Californian Bandit and Murderer”; http://www.lamag.com/

Invitation to the Hanging of Tiburcio Vásquez, 1875 
California Historical Society

Noose used at Vasquez' Execution and the Cravat He Wore, which was removed to accommodate the Noose, 1875

California State Library. Tiburcio Vasquez Collection

Vasquez Rocks Natural Area County Park, Agua Dulce, California, 2009 
Courtesy Rennett Stowe

Timothy Nava’s granddaughter, Mrs. Lastenia Tapia Weatherwax of San Fernando, an artist with early California roots, preserved the trunk and the stories passed down by her grandfather. She donated the trunk (with portraits of President and Mrs. McKinley on the inside lid) to the San Fernando Valley Historical Society.  

 

Trunk of Tiburcio Vásquez, c. mid-1800s
San Fernando Valley Historical Society

History Keeper: San Fernando Valley Historical Society 

The San Fernando Valley Historical Society serves as caretaker of the historic Andrés Pico Adobe in Mission Hills and the Pioneer Cemetery in Sylmar. The society’s mission is to share and make known the organization’s significant archive and collections of San Fernando Valley history. 

Shelly Kale
Publications and Strategic Projects Manager
skale@calhist.org

Sources 

John Boessenecker, “Bandido: The Countless Love Affairs of Tiburcio Vasquez,” California State Library Foundation Bulletin, no. 102, 2012; http://www.cslfdn.org/pdf/Bulletin102.pdf  

Tiburcio Vasquez, Agua Dulce/Vasquez Rocks; http://www.scvhistory.com/scvhistory/aguadulce.htm 

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An exhibition by the California Historical Society and LA as Subject 

Presented in partnership with El Pueblo Historical Monument and the El Pueblo Park Association 

El Tranquilo Gallery & Visitor Center 

634 N. Main Street (entrance on Olvera Street, W-19) 

El Pueblo de Los Ángeles Historical Monument, Los Angeles, California 

Tuesday–Friday, 10:00 am–3:00 pm 

Saturday and Sunday, 9:00 am–4:00 pm 

Opening reception: Friday, August 5, 2016, 6:00–8:00 pm 

50 years ago today: the Mysterious Death of the 'Mayor of the Fillmore'

Charles Sullivan

Fifty years ago today, businessman and music promoter Charles Sullivan died in San Francisco. His death remains a significant and controversial mystery. However, what is undeniable is that Sullivan played a critical role in San Francisco’s cultural life during the mid-1960s and paved the way for some of the most significant music events in California history.

From left: Charles Sullivan, known as “the mayor of the Fillmore”; Ralph J Gleason, jazz and rock critic for the San Francisco Chronicle; Lionel Hampton wearing Wesley Johnson’s 10-gallon Stetson hat; two unknown men at Wesley Johnson’s Texas Playhouse. Photo: Wesley Johnson Jr Collection

Sullivan was born on a farm in Monroe County, Alabama, but ran away at the age of thirteen. Making his way to California, he arrived in Los Angeles in 1928 at the age of eighteen, and washed cars while going to night school to become a machinist. He worked his way up to the position of journeyman machinist, only to be refused admission to local unions because he was black so he came to San Francisco at the height of the Great Depression. When Sullivan found Northern California unions also closed to minorities, he began working as a chauffer and mechanic for George Nicholls, Jr.—a Hollywood film director living in Hillsborough.

He and his first wife, Iola, scrimped and saved for six-odd years, and opened a hamburger stand in San Mateo in 1939. He soon purchased a bar in Pacifica for $7,000 solely to acquire its liquor license and expand Sullivan’s Cafe. Sullivan was getting his first taste of success, but not everyone was pleased with his triumph. San Mateo residents initially petitioned City Hall to block the transfer of the liquor license. Sullivan claimed the move was motivated purely by racism.   Ultimately, Sullivan prevailed and, in June of 1944, he was issued a permit to put a “dark room” in his pool hall and café. He expanded Sullivan’s to include a card room, becoming the first black man to own a gambling license on the Peninsula, and set his sights on opening a “colored USO” to accommodate America’s unserviced servicemen.

In addition to the aforementioned enterprises, he also worked as a machinist in the shipyards throughout the World War II—allegedly admitted to a union that previously refused him following the personal intervention of President Roosevelt. With his Café running soundly, he opened a jukebox rental business called Sullivan’s Music Co., and later rented cigarette vending machines. Soon, the son of illiterate Alabama farmers was living in a comfortable two-story house near Alamo Square in San Francisco.

In the city, Sullivan continued his reign of success and earned the nickname “Mayor of the Fillmore.” The Fillmore was a bustling neighborhood in San Francisco’s Western Addition district that would soon be known as “Harlem of the West” for its numerous jazz clubs and African-American businesses. Sullivan bought the Booker T. Washington Hotel and also acquired a liquor store, renting rooms above in his newly renamed Sullivan Hotel. In 1949, a local musician named Slim Gaillard borrowed money from Sullivan to open a chicken and waffles joint. Named Vout City, the club and Gaillard were immortalized by Jack Kerouac in On The Road; in the novel, Kerouac recalled “a little Frisco nightclub” where “great eager crowds of young semi-intellectuals sat at his feet and listened to him on guitar, piano and bongo drums…he does and says anything that comes to his head.”

Bop City

When Gaillaird chose greener pastures in Los Angeles, Sullivan convinced John “Jimbo” Edwards—the first black car salesman working in downtown San Francisco—to take over the joint. Sullivan paid the first three months of his rent to help establish him, and Edwards opened Jimbo’s Waffle Shop. Local musicians would come by for food after shows downtown and an unused room in the back soon became a well-known jam space. To capitalize on this, Edwards installed a stage, brought in a piano, and renamed the spot Bop City after a recently closed club by the same name in New York City. Local musicians came by after work and shared the stage with big-time acts like Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holliday thanks to Edwards’ friendship with big band leader Billy Eckstein.

Fillmore Street, looking south from Post Street, taken late 1940s. Photo: David Johnson

Sullivan had the Midas touch. In 1952, he became the master lease-holder of The Ambassador Dance Hall at 1805 Geary Boulevard. By the 1950s, The Ambassador had already been through many changes. Built in 1912 as an Italianate-style dance hall by Emma Gates Butler, it was originally known as the Majestic Dance Hall & Academy and the venue hosted socials and masquerade balls. The name changed to the Majestic Ballroom and then the Ambassador Dance Hall, which hosted big bands in the 1930s, and was operated as a roller rink from 1939 through 1952. Throughout the venue’s lifespan, “people of color” were allowed to perform at but not to attend the shows until Sullivan took over the lease, and changed the name to something more familiar to contemporary concertgoers, something that better reflected the neighborhood: The Fillmore Auditorium.

Although he did very little to promote The Fillmore, distributing a few handbills in the neighborhood and running a short commercial on black radio station KSOL, he drew a huge, integrated audience. He wore a suit and tie every day, and insisted that his performers always looked sharp—often picking up their suits after shows to personally ensure they were cleaned and pressed for the next. In addition, he was known to carry a large roll of cash in this pants pocket to use “whenever he needed to take care of somebody.” He booked the biggest and brightest acts of the era, from James Brown to Ike & Tina Turner—whose band included a young guitarist named Jim James, known better today as Jimi Hendrix. But jazz was on the way out by the 1960s, and venues began to close as audiences swayed towards electrified rock-n-roll. The Fillmore District was also changing as the city moved forward with drastic redevelopment plans that would decimate the physical and cultural landscape in a few short years.

To stave off both of these encroaching forces, Sullivan, the Mayor of the Fillmore, allowed white promoters to use his venue in the hopes that it would save the building from redevelopment. In December 1965, Sullivan allowed an up-and-coming promoter named Bill Graham the use of his dance hall license to hold a benefit for the San Francisco Mime Troupe at The Fillmore. A success, Sullivan thereafter allowed Graham to book the venue’s off nights along with another promoter, Chet Helms—a generous act that effectively started a legendary Bay Area rock music rivalry. However, residents of the neighborhood took issue with the new music these new promoters brought to the neighborhood, and Sullivan encouraged Graham to apply for his own license under pressure from officials who, in turn, encouraged Sullivan to stop subleasing The Fillmore. In early 1966, Graham and Sullivan came to an agreement: Graham secured a contract for all open dates at The Fillmore that year, and a four-year lease option on the Auditorium if anything unforeseen happened to Sullivan.

The Fillmore Auditorium

On August 1^st of that year, Sullivan returned to San Francisco from Los Angeles with $6,000 in receipts from a Southern California gig. After driving a female companion home to Oakland, Sullivan crossed the bridge and exited the freeway in San Francisco at 5^th Street, instead of taking Fell Street to his west side home. For reasons unknown, he turned left into what was then an industrial district, and was never seen alive again. Charles Sullivan was found shot to death in the early morning hours of August 2^nd, sprawled on the street next to his rented Chevy near 5^th and Bluxome Streets. The car headlights were left on, his empty valise and keys were found in the open trunk, and Sullivan had a single .38 through the heart—the gun resting on the ground beside his hand. Finding a black man dead from a weapon still on the scene in South of Market, the San Francisco Police ruled Sullivan’s death a midnight suicide. The City coroner ruled it a 2:00am homicide, and Sullivan’s wife, Fannie, and brother, Marion, believed he had been robbed and murdered for the contents of his valise: the missing $6,000; although, newspaper reports at the time noted the police later found the missing cash. Other acquaintances of Sullivan agreed with the family and City coroner, and stated Sullivan was too selfish to commit suicide.

To this day, the case remains unsolved. Homicide inspector Jack Cleary stuck with the suicide theory, despite Diane Feinstein’s attempts to convince him otherwise. The African-American newspaper, Sun-Reporter, assigned Belva Davis to investigate the story, and she was told that powerful interests were behind Sullivan’s murder…before she was pulled of the story and the newspaper stopped covering it. Sometime later during a raid of Marion Sullivan’s speakeasy, a participating police officer made the family connection and told Marion he knew who killed his brother, but Marion was too afraid to follow up on the officer’s claims.

So what happened to Charles Sullivan? Perhaps the better question is: what wouldn’t have happened without Charles Sullivan? Without Charles Sullivan, San Francisco would have been short a few essential after-hours jazz clubs, and Jack Kerouac may never have been inspired to stay and think and write his signature bop prosody. The Majestic Ballroom might have remained a derelict (and segregated) roller rink, certainly wouldn’t have been renamed The Fillmore Auditorium, and would never have given rise to “The Fillmore Sound” that became synonymous with the Summer of Love. For a man who ran a dozen eponymous businesses and was crowned the Mayor of the Fillmore, very little is left to mark his presence on the neighborhood—largely due to the San Francisco Redevelopment Authority’s wrecking ball. The Fillmore survived a stint as a Black Muslim Temple and a punk club called The Elite before the Sullivan name was restored but associated with one of the most famous names in rock and roll. Graham always credited Sullivan with paving the way for his success. “Had that not happened, I would have done anything Charles wanted,” Graham said. “Just out of gratitude.”

Nicole Meldahl

CHS Intern

Sources

·         Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror and Deliverance in the City of Love by David Talbot: https://books.google.com/books?id=-WIlCFe-iB4C&pg=PA60&lpg=PA60&dq=san+francisco+fillmore+%22charles+sullivan%22&source=bl&ots=e8IqFU-B87&sig=65Tj3llT5cdljOTTfOt04zNAeo8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiRjITAu5nOAhVS4mMKHR9FAjo4FBDoAQhDMAg#v=onepage&q=san%20francisco%20fillmore%20%22charles%20sullivan%22&f=false

·         Harlem of the West: The San Francisco Fillmore Jazz Era by Elizabeth Pepin, Lewis Watts: https://books.google.com/books?id=CmXozgOGN3wC&pg=PA126&lpg=PA126&dq=san+francisco+fillmore+auditorium+%22charles+sullivan%22&source=bl&ots=OGwRGBcThN&sig=NUJavHgSB57pPFYz8qk9r4Y3rGc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi4quWKiZnOAhVW2GMKHUPECJIQ6AEIQjAF#v=onepage&q=charles%20sullivan&f=false

·         The Two Underdogs: Sly Stone & The Great Fillmore Whitewash by Chris Stroffolino: https://web.njit.edu/~newrev/3.0/stroffolino3a.html

·         “Western Addition: A Basic History” by Gary Kamiya: http://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Western_Addition:_A_Basic_History

·          “Who Shot the Mayor of Fillmore” by Gary Carr, The New Fillmore, 4 September 2014: http://newfillmore.com/2014/09/04/who-shot-the-mayor-of-fillmore/

·         Becoming Jimi Hendrix: From Southern Crossroads to Psychedelic London… by Steven Roby, Brad Schreiber: https://books.google.com/books?id=5dclAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA102&lpg=PA102&dq=san+francisco+fillmore+%22charles+sullivan%22&source=bl&ots=m0mNeVdw1p&sig=COO6z6xiVTTeh77FC8h0B2DO6uc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiRjITAu5nOAhVS4mMKHR9FAjo4FBDoAQgbMAA#v=onepage&q=san%20francisco%20fillmore%20%22charles%20sullivan%22&f=false  

·         “Permits for June 7, 1944,” The Times (San Mateo), 8 June 1944: https://www.newspapers.com/image/38868002/?terms=Charles%2BSullivan  

·         Landmark Designation Report, Landmark No. 266: Marcus Books / Jimbo’s Bop City, 1712-1716 Fillmore Street, 18 September 2013: http://www.sf-planning.org/ftp/files/Preservation/landmarks_designation/Final_Adopted_LM_DesignationReport_266_Marcus.pdf

·         “Obituary of Marion Floyd Sullivan,” San Francisco Chronicle, 21 February 2014 : http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sfgate/obituary.aspx?pid=169766483

·         “Jim Edwards: In remembrance”: http://users.rcn.com/jazzinfo/v10n01May00/FinJimbo.html

·         Contemporary Jewish Museum Complete Wall Text for “Bill Graham and the Rock & Roll Revolution”: http://www.thecjm.org/storage/documents/Exhibitions/2016/03_Mar/2_BillGraham_CompleteWallText.pdf

·         “Council Hears Protest Over Colored USO,” The Times (San Mateo), 8 August 1944: https://www.newspapers.com/image/38869898

·         “Sullivan’s Death Probe,” The Times (San Mateo), 3 August 1966: https://www.newspapers.com/image/52513696/

·          “About”, The Fillmore, http://thefillmore.com/about/

·         “Fillmore History,” The Fillmore: Heart and Soul of San Francisco, http://www.thefillmoredistrict.com/history4.html

·         “Blues for Charles” Indiegogo Campaign Website, https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/blues-for-charles#/