HISTORICAL SOCIETY QUIZ 3: 2017

Remember: Questions may have one or multiple correct answers.

1. From its earliest days, El Cerrito had several neighborhoods named after people from Germany or of German ancestry. Which of the following neighborhoods did not exist in El Cerrito?
a: Schmidtville, an area around Schmidt Lane, which was laid out by two gentlemen named Schmidt and Fink in 1893, one of the earliest subdivisions in the area. It was later followed by “Schmidt Village,” in the vicinity of today’s Schmidt Lane.
b: Rust, named for an early settler William (or Wilhelm) Rust, who operated a blacksmith shop and hardware store at the site of today’s Pastime Hardware store.
c: Kaiserville, named for Henry Kaiser, who developed a small neighborhood of upscale homes in the El Cerrito hills for managers at Richmond’s nearby Kaiser Shipyards during World War II.
d: Stege Junction, named after a German immigrant Richard Stege who’d been a fur trader, among other occupations, before marrying Minna Quilfelt, owner of a prosperous ranch in Richmond. Stege added frog ponds whose denizens he sold to French restaurants.

2. From at least the mid-1910s through the mid-1950s El Cerrito was awash with gambling dens, prostitution, prize fighting rings, and even a greyhound racing track. Vice flourished in our town because?
a: Big time gamblers from out of the area brought their talents to El Cerrito.
b: Few people lived in town so no one complained.
c: The territory was lawless because it was unincorporated.
d: Both lawmakers and law enforcers were on the take.

3. In the late 1990s when city officials contemplated a rebuild of El Cerrito Plaza, help arrived from a member of the royalty. The royal urban reformer was:
a: Then-Prince Willem Alexander of Netherlands, whose strong interest in infrastructure and ties to leading Dutch architects produced a conceptual plan for solar-paneled buildings.
b: Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who became emir of Dubai in 2006, and proposed in 1997 four 10-story towers alongside an outdoor souk-like bazaar to be designed by architects in Dubai along with the American firm of SOM.
c: Prince Charles of England who, working with students from the Wales Summer School of Architecture, proposed a neo-Urbanist plan for the center that was inspired by Old World models of village living.
d: Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich, a pretender to the throne of Russia, who was living in San Francisco and teamed up with the family of Paul Hammarberg, the architect who first designed the center, to modernize and refurbish it.

4. In the early 2000s when the city of El Cerrito and the new operators of the Cerrito Theater began restoring the long-closed theater, the Art Deco murals and art glass were intact, but the neon marquee was long gone because:
a: The city demanded that the prior owner remove it for aesthetic reasons.
b: In the mid-1960s the marquee caught fire due to an electrical issue. It was the final straw leading to the theater’s closure for more than 40 years.
c: The city ordered it removed in the 1970s because structural problems were endangering pedestrians.
d: No one knows why it disappeared.

5. Among the many entertainers who brought jollity to El Cerrito, one famous striptease artist occupied a special place in people’s hearts. This was:
a: Gypsy Rose Lee, who performed at the Kona Club regularly from 1935 to 1937. It is said she was discovered at the Kona Club by a Hollywood agent and went on to make her first films.
b: Donna Powers, who went on to fame as ”The Girl in the Fish Bowl” at Bimbo’s Club in San Francisco, and as a member of the Richmond City Council, developed her act in the mid 1960s at the last of the night clubs remaining in El Cerrito from the Bad Old Days, the It Club.
c: Sally Rand, who began as a silent film actress and won fame as a fan dancer with Sally Rand’s Nude Ranch at the world’s fair on Treasure Island in 1939, operated and performed at Sally Rand’s Hollywood Club in El Cerrito during the 1940s.
d: Bubble dancer Noel Toy performed in the 1940s at El Cerrito’s only Chinese-themed club, Forbidden City East, a sister club to one in San Francisco’s Chinatown.

6. For a time in the 1970s and 1980s El Cerrito emerged as a leader in the field of recorded music – at least when it came to folk and jazz and related fields. Which of the following labels were based in town:
a: Fantasy Records, which made a mint in the 1960s and beyond from the recording by the El Cerrito band Creedence Clearwater Revival.
b: Arhoolie Records, one of the leading folks labels in the world, focusing on Cajun, bluegrass, Norteno and other kickass music.
c: Kaleidoscope Records which, among other projects, reissued reissue after reissue by the great Western swing artist Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys.
d: Theresa Records, which specialized in jazz and featured such artists as Pharoah Sanders, Idris Muhammad and George Coleman.

7. El Cerrito’s city boundaries do not reach the bay. In sections the boundaries do not even go west of San Pablo Avenue. Why?
a: When El Cerrito incorporated 100 years ago, Richmond had already absorbed much of the bayside land into its territory.
b: The land was so swampy and increasingly malodorous that city leaders did not think it was worth adding to the city.
c: Gamblers who ran dens of iniquity in the area were opposed to joining the city.
d: The operators of the Vigorite powder works, which manufactured dynamite along Albany Hill, fought efforts to become part of the city fearing they would face closure.

8. By 1946, El Cerrito’s days as a Mecca of vice were coming to an end. What was causing this?
a: Prominent citizens formed the Good Government League, threw the rascals out of office and cracked down on criminality.
b: A shootout at San Pablo Avenue and Central avenues between gangsters tied to the Black Jack Jerome and Big Bill Pechart mobs shocked the community and led to police action against the gangsters.
c: Once the war ended and war workers and GIs left the area, business dried up for gamblers, nightclubs and prostitutes.
d: Attorney General Earl Warren, later chief justice of the US Supreme Court, cracked down on the evildoers.

Answers: 1. c; 2. a,c, d; 3. c; 4. a; 5. c; 6. b, d; 7. c; 8. a.