Have You Heard of These Lesser Known SF Legends?

We’ve all heard of Emperor Norton by now, surely. But here are some shadowy San Francisco figures you may not have heard of.

Kelly of Kelly’s Cove

Old Man Kelly, an urban legend documented by historian Woody LaBounty, was a hermit who built a shelter up on the north end of Ocean Beach. The legend is that the guy would exercise vigorously, swimming to Seal Rocks and running on the beach. 

Like many San Francisco heroes, the lines between reality and legend are blurry. Was he a hermit? A hobo? A tramp? Was Kelly’s Cove actually named after the tire shop? Who is to say. But we like to think of him as a muscled old man whose spirit still lives on the beach and enjoys when Outerlands residents pump their hearts in exertion on the sandy shore. 

The Rocking Ranger

In the 1990s or 2000s there was a national park ranger who lived above the Bottom of the Hill music venue. He became known as the Rocking Ranger because he’d come down and enjoy the shows. Source: We heard it from a longtime show attendee who had met him! The Rocking Ranger got a new assignment at a different national park, but it sounds like he took the ferry to Alcatraz daily and enjoyed late evenings at Bottom of the Hill for several years. What a life! If you knew the Rocking Ranger, send San Francisco’s love to him.

Bummer and Lazarus

In the redwood grove under the Transamerica Pyramid, there’s a plaque dedicated to two special dogs. They were The City’s early healthcare and sanitation heroes, and they were best friends who were said to have “two tails that wagged as one.” As ratters, the dogs would find nests and root out the rodents. This was an important service in the early days when hygiene was less observed. 

There’s a myth that the dogs belonged to Emperor Norton, a storied San Francisco character who first proposed the idea of a bridge between Oakland and San Francisco. But more likely these dogs were ownerless. After they died, the two were taxidermied and kept at what’s now the de Young. It must not have been a great taxidermy because they were destroyed in 1910. 

Bear the Acid King

Owsley Stanley was the sound engineer for the Grateful Dead. He also happened to be the Acid King. He was a dropout chemist who discovered the recipe for making LSD in a journal in the library of UC Berkeley. A great book on the subject is Operation White Rabbit: LSD, the DEA, and the Fate of the Acid King. 

Bear gave out the acid rather than creating an industry out of it because he, among other psychedelics enthusiasts, believed that dropping Sid would make the world a better place. One mourner lamented, “He laid the cosmic foundation with White Lighting, Purple Haze, Tangerine and so many more delightful and wonderful creations.” 

Madame Moustache

May we all have facial hair worthy of such an excellent nickname as Eleanor Dumont, known as Madame Moustache. She was a famed gambler, hustler, and general badass who got her start in San Francisco. She dealt cards at the Bella Union Hotel, where one could also find other characters like the unbreakable Oofty Goofty and Big Bertha. 

It was remarkable because women simply didn’t deal cards back then. The Alta California furiously discouraged it, but soon other establishments in San Francisco followed suit. According to the 1933 Barbary Coast informal history, “She immediately became the center of masculine interest, and her table did such an enormous business that the other gambling houses were compelled to follow the Bella Union’s example.” Her games included the precursor to Blackjack, vingt-et-un or 21, and faro. Once she raised enough money, she moved over to Nevada City to start her own establishment. 

Who Did We Miss?

There are so many more candidates for inclusion, like Carol Doda, the topless dancer who has a whole granite dome in Yosemite named after her breasts. Or the Twins, Marian and Vivian Brown, of BAS postcard fame. Who among us will be the future’s urban legend? San Francisco has plenty of characters. Only time will tell.