L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2016 www.italoamericano.org L'Italo-Americano 9 The Monaco Legacy Brings the Past to the Present I n the last issue of L'Italo- Americano, we explored the legacy of 20 th century North Beach photographer, J .B. M onaco, a legacy that has endured decades of change to the fabric of San Francisco's Italian community. Recently, L'Italo- Am er icano s poke w ith Rick Monaco, son of Richard (Dick) Monaco (J.B.'s grandson) about his great-grandfather's enduring legacy. We as ked how the Monaco legacy brings the past to the present. "A w riter for the San Fr ancis co Chr onicle once observed that Monaco's pho- tographs often felt like s till frames from a moving picture, such that the observer had a dis- tinct feeling of being in the mid- dle of something that had an ori- gin and that would continue after the image was snapped. I think this is interesting to consider within the context of the Monaco family history, and the fact that J.B.'s son Dante was a motion picture pioneer. It's also interesting because we are flooded with images in present day life. Just about every citizen owns a phone capable of recording every image, be it motion or still, that one encoun- ters in his daily life. J.B. was really like a man who owned an iPhone, albeit a primitive version of one, a hundred some years before its time. This is the link between past and present. It's a rare opportunity to look back in time at scenes that weren't that unlike many we might capture today. He was able to capture the "city in motion." The idea that a photograph didn't have to be "s taged" w as novel, but unlike today he was the excep- tion and not the rule." This abil- ity is clearly evident while view- ing Monaco's documentation of the 1906 disaster. Changes to the upholstery of our urban fabric seem to occur subtly, over time. As the often quoted saying goes, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." In this photograph of Columbus Avenue at P acific S treet w e can s ee s treetcars that are now long gone. Street cars also rumbled along on Broadw ay. Today, parking spots are at a premium so what if streetcars were still in place carrying residents effi- ciently through the streets? Dick Monaco's 2000 oral his- tory als o documented many aspects of city life in the Italian quarter. A particularly entertain- ing excerpt is the one in which Dick describes the discovery of pirate treasure in San Francisco. "My father told me a story that had been in the family about when those flats my grandfather had built at 2430 Leavenworth Street were under construction in 1904. During the excavation the contractor discovered a buried pirate treasure chest. You know, the bay wall used to be all the way up to Jones Street at one point, just one block downhill from Leavenw orth. S o it's entirely plausible that the guys just walked up from the Bay and stashed their stuff! But we don't know who claimed the treasure chest when it was discovered during the excavation." In 2015 the new J oe DiMaggio playground opened in North Beach named after the leg- endary, Bay Area born baseball player and husband of Marilyn Monroe. On that subject Dick explains: "There used to be the dairy right down on Bay Street where the projects, as we called them, are now. The old Golden State Dairy. We called it the old horse lot. That's where kids played baseball. And I was just a little kid. They had cleaned up the area there and put in a baseball field. So the younger kids used to choos e s ides there at the creamery and when the horses went out, we got the manure and made first base and second base and third base. Joe DiMaggio played there. A lot of great ball players came from there." Dick still fondly recalls the first time he hit a ball over the fence at the original North Beach playground, a rite of passage and milestone for any kid of his gen- eration logging hundreds of hours of cement-s urface softball. Gino Cimoli a North Beach legend, who would even- tually play major league ball with the Dodgers and six other teams, cleared not only the fence but the roofs of the houses oppo- site the playground on Powell Street. Needless to say, much has changed s ince J .B., his s on Dante, and Dante's son Dick w ere boys in N orth Beach's Italian quarter. Dick shares, "My father recalls Italian news- papers for sale on every corner and the vas t majority of his classmates speaking the lan- guage at home". One tradition still lives on to this day. The Italian newspaper! At least we s till have one, L 'Italo- Americano. Viewing the Monaco collec- tion is time well spent since you are likely to walk by the very same locations today. Photos are available online at www.jbmona- co.com. The J.B. Monaco photo- graphic collection is located at the S an F rancis co H is tory Center, Main Library Branch along with the full transcript of Dick Monaco's oral history. 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Fugazi ha e hat com at com and t tha and uage e g e e ar to . W We ar v v. W c to our rc to B a ea r y A ay A B Ba ants Streetcars on Columbus Avenue, 1915. Copyrights: J.B. Monaco Collection (SFP 48), San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library Dante sits in the ruins of his father's (J.B. Monaco) studio, 1906. Copyrights: J.B. Monaco Collection (SFP 48), San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library

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