Berkeley, a Look Back: Downtown merchants unveil their fall 1926 lineups

A century ago, downtown Berkeley merchants unveiled new shop display windows and offerings for autumn goods on Aug. 25, 1926, along with a parade of new automobiles from local car dealers.

“While the south sweltered in the hottest day of the year, Berkeley faced the new business season with rain-washed air and streets, a zippy temperature and the spur of action in the air” the Berkeley Daily Gazette reported. “Seldom in the history of the San Francisco Bay has rain fallen in August, and the novelty went well with the novelties everywhere displayed.”

“Berkeley serves you best” was the fall opening slogan. “Horn and siren notified the start of the auto parade promptly on time,” according to the Gazette. At the same moment (2 p.m.) curtains were pulled back in businesses, showcasing the newly decorated display windows throughout the city’s downtown.

“Here were costly and glittering drapes of sheerest film, silks of rainbow tints contrasting with heavy furs of winter. Figures exquisitely draped were set off by pearls and jewels. Flowers and blossom-laden branches backed ensemble and gown.”

“In the stores afterwards, models wore the lovely things. … Floral shops most nearly exposed the spirit of the season. Massed in the displays were gorgeous dahlias, marigolds, autumn foliage and cannas. …Candy stores put out most tempting assortments of sweets.”

Even the grocery stores and markets got into the act with “piles of luscious autumn fruits and melons, vegetables and strawberries … huge joints of beef, tender sides of mutton, appetizing flitches of bacon, (the) plumpest of hams and great slices of steaks.”

City picnic: On Aug. 28, 1926, as many as 300 Berkeley city employees and the City Council held the annual municipal picnic at “Madrone Park, Redwood Canyon”, in the Oakland hills. They were transported there from City Hall on “special street cars,” then an excursion train from Oakland.

“Grandville Thomas, director of the city playgrounds, has planned an interesting program of games, stunts and dancing” the Gazette reported. “Special music for the dancing will be furnished by an orchestra compounded of members of the sanitary department.”

City Manager John Edy praised the event as “a real aid in creating a fine ‘esprit de corps’ among the municipal employees.

State election: Berkeleyans were preparing to vote in the Sept. 1, 1926, California primary election, and a glitch was reported the preceding Aug. 27. Someone had stolen a tent put up at Ninth and Gilman to house a voting station. “(A) search is now being made … for a vacationer with a large family to house who has put the new tent to private use.”

On Aug. 26, California Gov. Friend Richardson appeared at a campaign rally on the Berkeley High School campus where he “was given a wholehearted homecoming reception … by his fellow townsfolk. A gathering which perhaps set a record for a local political meeting cheered the governor repeatedly during his address.”

A hundred prominent Berkeley residents, including state Supreme Court Chief Justice William Waste, sat on the stage behind Richardson. Waste was up for his first election to confirm his position but had an enviable situation. He was not only the incumbent but was widely respected and his sole opponent, Thomas J. Lennon, had died before the primary.

Campaign ads for Waste reminded voters they still needed to mark their ballots to give him a full term, and confirm him in the partial term he was then serving through Jan. 3, 1927.

Religious revival: In late August 1926, those Berkeleyans interested in a religious revival could visit the “Bible Chautauqua” in a big tent at University Avenue and Grove Street. Bible lectures were accompanied by harp and choir music.

Bay Area native and Berkeley community historian Steven Finacom holds this column’s copyright.