[Joseonggwan's Global Humanities Journey] Remembering the 'Romantic City' San Francisco

Romantic City Turns into 'Drug City' and 'Zombie City'
Birthplace of Hippie Movement, Setting for Movies like 'Princess Diary'

The city with a romantic image in the western United States is San Francisco. The Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, Lombard Street, Fisherman's Wharf, and Alcatraz.... Beyond these landmarks, we quickly recall global hit songs that include ‘San Francisco’ in their titles. Also, how many movies, including ‘The Princess Diaries’ and ‘Inside Out,’ have been set in San Francisco?

Major League Baseball (MLB) fans add Oracle Park, the home stadium of the San Francisco Giants. The outfield of Oracle Park faces the sea. When a left-handed batter pulls a home run out of the park, the baseball splashes into the ocean. During Barry Bonds' prime in the 1990s and 2000s, Giants games attracted fans who gathered on boats in the sea. In fact, Barry Bonds hit several out-of-the-park home runs that excited the fans.

I read a newspaper article stating that San Francisco has become a ‘drug city,’ with people leaving and the city heading toward decline. It said that nowadays, you can easily find people staggering like zombies, intoxicated by drugs, in broad daylight downtown. Reading this article brought back memories of my trip to San Francisco. Most people who have traveled there probably felt the same. How did San Francisco come to this!

[Joseonggwan's Global Humanities Journey] Remembering the 'Romantic City' San Francisco

Top article on the front page of the Chosun Ilbo dated July 22. Photo by Seonggwan Cho

A few days later, the legendary jazz singer Tony Bennett (1926?2023) passed away in New York. The New York Times published a two-page obituary titled “The Legendary American Songbook Champion Has Passed Away.” The Songbook refers to the ‘Great American Songbook,’ a collection of sheet music representing 20th-century American songs. The fact that the New York Times devoted two pages to his obituary shows how Americans regarded Tony Bennett?on par with former presidents.

His signature song, ‘I Left My Heart in San Francisco,’ is an anthem for the city. Let’s savor the lyrics written by Douglas Cross once again.

Paris was never my home, I left my heart in San Francisco. The hills, the cable cars, the morning fog, my love waiting in San Francisco.

Tony Bennett, who sang "I Left My Heart in San Francisco"

These lyrics express the nostalgia of an unknown writer who left his hometown San Francisco to move to New York. However, in praising San Francisco, Paris, Rome, and New York are reduced to mere shadows. These three cities might even consider filing an official protest. No wonder San Franciscans are so passionate about this song. It is also ironic that Tony Bennett, born and raised in Queens, New York, sang this song.

The song was composed in 1953 but wandered for nine years without finding the right singer. Then, in late December 1961, Tony Bennett performed it at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. The audience in the grand ballroom, including the mayor of San Francisco, was instantly moved and gave a standing ovation. Recording began in January 1961. As everyone knows, this song became Tony Bennett’s immortal hit.

The San Francisco Giants have a tradition of playing this song as a victory anthem at home games. Tony Bennett himself sang this song several times at Oracle Park during his lifetime. Recently, the National Recording Registry under the U.S. Library of Congress selected this song for preservation, citing its cultural, historical, and artistic significance.

Why has San Francisco been imprinted on the world as a city of freedom and romance? As Tony Bennett’s hit song shows, eighty percent of it is the power of music. The lyrics mention ‘little cable cars climbing toward the stars.’ Personally, I believe that what has made San Francisco a romantic city is not the Golden Gate Bridge but the ‘little cable cars.’ The city has three cable car lines that climb its hills, the most famous being the Powell-Hyde line. Riding this cable car up Hyde Street reveals Fisherman’s Wharf and Alcatraz behind you.

A cable car passing through the Hyde Street hill in San Francisco. Photo by Wikipedia

The movie ‘The Princess Diaries’ tells the story of an ordinary high school girl in San Francisco (played by Anne Hathaway) who discovers she is the hidden heir to a small European kingdom and becomes a princess. The first five minutes of the film show the protagonist riding an electric scooter to school, along a route that overlaps with the cable car line. The breathtaking scenery is captured. Who wouldn’t feel the travel instinct stir upon seeing that?

San Francisco was the birthplace of the hippie movement, which began in 1966. The song ‘San Francisco’ by Scott McKenzie, released in 1967, became a worldwide hit and fueled people’s romantic notions about the city. The song starts with “If you’re going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.”

Album cover of San Francisco released by Scott McKenzie in 1967. Photo by Wikipedia

The free spirit of San Francisco nurtured world-famous bands. Early hippies needed a classic text to solidify their identity. At that time, Hermann Hesse’s ‘Steppenwolf’ caught their attention. Although published in 1927, ‘Steppenwolf’ had initially failed and been forgotten. Miraculously, it was revived 40 years later. Hippies were fascinated by the protagonist, Harry Haller. ‘Steppenwolf’ is the German title of ‘황야의 이리’ (Hwangya-ui Iri).

John Kay formed a band in San Francisco and named it Steppenwolf. Naming the band ‘Steppenwolf’ made everything fall into place. Their signature hit was ‘Born to Be Wild.’ This song became the theme for the 1969 road movie ‘Easy Rider,’ further spreading the hippie movement.

One year before Steppenwolf, in 1966, the Latin rock band Santana was born in San Francisco. Nineteen-year-old Carlos Santana pioneered the Latin rock genre by combining rock and Latin American jazz. Santana’s debut album was ‘Abraxas,’ named after the mystical figure in Hermann Hesse’s ‘Demian.’ Santana remains active to this day. Continuing this musical tradition, the San Francisco Jazz Festival began in 1983. Along with the Montreal International Jazz Festival, which started in 1980, it is recognized as prestigious.

San Francisco has long been known as a ‘gay paradise’ in the United States. People traveling in groups to San Francisco often hear the joke, “If you get lost in San Francisco for the first time, it means you’re gay.” San Francisco is one of the cities with the most active LGBTQ+ rights organizations.

San Francisco was the gateway for Asians entering the United States. Leaders like Syngman Rhee, Ahn Changho, and Seo Jae-pil all boarded passenger ships at Yokohama Port and landed in San Francisco after crossing the Pacific. They then took transcontinental trains to the U.S. East Coast to continue their independence movements.

Personally, San Francisco is also part of my long-term city research project. The four cities?New York, Montreal, San Francisco, and New Orleans?share the common trait of being culturally and artistically developed. In places where people frequently come and go and sea (or river) breezes blow, humans tend to think openly and pursue freedom.

Although San Francisco is known as a city of freedom and romance, it carries painful scars from the early 20th century. In spring 1900, the first plague death was discovered in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Chinese stowaways on a ship from Hong Kong spread the plague into the city. A doctor who examined the bodies of Chinese victims in Chinatown confirmed the plague and recommended proper quarantine measures. However, city authorities ignored this, fearing public disorder, and the plague spread rapidly. Quarantine was only implemented by late 1900, but it was too late. The number of plague patients increased rapidly. The plague ended only after the U.S. president issued a travel ban on San Francisco in 1903.

The day was April 18, 1906. Three years after escaping the plague, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck, shaking the entire city for three days. At least 3,000 people died, and 80% of San Francisco was destroyed. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake is recorded as the worst natural disaster in U.S. history. San Francisco is a city that overcame both plague and earthquake. I hope it will revive that resilience and overcome the image of a ‘zombie city.’