Daring Rescue at Devil’s Slide in the 1950s
Tense scene at Devil’s Slide: A crowd of onlookers watch County Sheriff Earl Whitmore lower himself on a rope to rescue hikers stranded hundreds of feet below.
Downtown…Downtown…Downtown
Recognize this scene?
And across the street, where the main HMB Post Office used to stand (the flat-roofed yellowish building). And that’s Denise Steele, former owner of Paradise Lost & Found, posting a letter. Both photos, 1970s.
Devil’s Slide Lives Up To Its Name In This B-Grade 1960 Flick
If you miss Devil’s Slide, and the estimated four-month repair time is just too long, you might want to rent the 1960 melodramatic film, “Portrait in Black” starring the beautiful Lana Turner, the darkly handsome Anthony Quinn and Sandra Dee, the cuddly ingenue of the moment.
Here’s the web’s description of the movie: The wife [Lana Turner] of an invalid shipping tycoon [Lloyd Nolan, a Stanford grad] is having an affair with his doctor [Anthony Quinn], and, together, they [Turner & Quinn] plot his [Nolan’s] murder, but getting away with it is no easy task. (Sandra Dee plays the daughter)
As the Coastside’s evil cliffy place, a perfect isolated place to cover-up the desperate lover’s crime, notorious Devil’s Slide carries off an appropriate scene in this B-grade flick–
Rent the movie to see what it’s all about.
Sami, the fat Coastside cat, loves to spin more than he loves to eat
Ok, here’s the (youtube.com) video starring Sami, our Japanese bobtail. Please turn down the sound. I think he should get his own cable tv show.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2Y8hO8bD80]
Dirigible, Zeppelin, Airship over Moss Beach
What is that thing in the air?
Adobes in Half Moon Bay
Location of the original 5 adobes (Vasquez and four belonging to the Miramontes family) in downtown Half Moon Bay (first called San Benito, then Spanishtown before becoming HMB).
Courtesy San Mateo County History Museum. Visit the museum at the historic Redwood City Courthouse.
Video Professor Revisited
Some posts back, the TV’s indefatigable Video Professor had driven me to the following desperate observation:
“Dear Mr. Video Professor,
I know you’re from the ‘old school’ and your tv sales pitch is directed to computer illiterates—but I am sick and tired of you, the lady and the three- and-a-half-year- old daughter who knows more about computers than all of you.
BTW: If the kid exists at all, she’s probably in juvenile hall…”
Whether because of our critique, or the ad agency– whatever the reason, at least we see some fresh commercials.
No, Video Professor, I’m not ready to sign up, but at least you’ve given me some new material to criticize.
Leon Kunke’s Latest
You can call Leon at 650.599.9978
Update on Shipwreck of San Juan (1929)
A few posts back I wrote a three-part story about the shipwreck of the San Juan near Pigeon Point in the summer of 1929. Some 72 people died when the San Juan, a vessel that commuted between San Francisco and L.A., was struck by an oil tanker.
It was a horrible tragedy taking the life of Mountain View resident, Emma Granstedt, a wife and mother. Her husband, Theodore, survived but perhaps in a much grimmer way (if that’s possible) than what I found during my research .
Some of Theodore Granstedt’s descendents, including granddaughter Annette Granstedt, read the story at my website and she kindly emailed me the following:
“I was told that my great-grandmother did not want to go on the boat and that when
it wrecked my great-grandfather was found ashore and that he was put in a pile
with the other dead and that someone walked by and noticed he was breathing.”
Annette’s version has the ring of truth.
Could this be movie material?