Sponsored link
Wednesday, June 7, 2023

Sponsored link

Arts + CultureCultureTravel back in time, daily, with Emperor Norton

Travel back in time, daily, with Emperor Norton

Fire up the Internet machine and take a trip through SF history with the Emperor Norton's Fantastic History Vlog.

Like all tourist functions, Emperor Norton’s Fantastic San Francisco Time Machine Tour, a delightful peregrination amongst various sites of historical importance, has ceased temporarily. But you can still enjoy golden nuggets of San Francisco’s past courtesy of the new-fangled Internet machine.

Specifically, Emperor Norton’s Youtube Vlog—in which the grand figure, who proclaimed himself Norton I, Emperor of the United States in 1859 (we think we have it bad with male egos now!), holds forth from his charming little Bernal Heights home with tidbits of history and culture every day on Youtube.

It’s delightful, and there are even appearances by the Countess Lola Montez and others. I spoke with the Emperor (embodied by Joseph Amster) about his Emperor Norton Fantastic History Vlog, and how he’s carrying on through a—very familiar, to history buffs—pandemic.

48 HILLS Salutations, Emperor! I’m enjoying your videos, firing up the Youtube vlog from the comfort of my hearth. I especially love the backdrops—where are you filming the vlog? And who helps you edit and film it?

EMPEROR NORTON Hello! The vlogs are shot at our home in Bernal Heights. Some are in the downstairs studio, some are on our patio, and some are in our garden. I film and edit them on my iPhone.

48H Whoever thought that Emperor Norton would be making Youtube videos? Can you tell me how the vlog translate the vibe of the tour?

 EN I started this after a few days of boredom from the quarantine to give me something constructive to do and stay in touch with my fans. It began as a lecture about being safe, but after a few episodes morphed into the “this day in history” format. The vibe from the tour is that I doing them in character  gives me lots of leeway for being over-the-top on occasion, but also the instructional vibe from my tours remains as well.

48H How do you choose which tidbits of history to highlight, and what have been some of your favorites? I also love that you have special guests, do they also often appear on the tour? 

EN I utilize John Ralston’s book This Date in San Francisco for my lead-off San Francisco story of the day. Other than that, I scour various websites for other events, as well as births and deaths for that day.

Probably my favorite episode was the earthquake commemoration one. Since there wasn’t a commemoration that day, I got up at 4:30 a.m. and began a Facebook live video that I later posted on YouTube (episode 21).

I also really like my retrospective (episode 50), and the weekend special with the Countess Lola Montez of Landsfeld (episode 52). The Countess always is my guest on the weekend, others are our upstart neighbors. The Countess (who is my husband) does tours of his own: Drag Me Along Tours.

48H What do you think the Emperor Norton tour might look like when you can bring it back? And ho are you weathering all this? 

 EN The tour won’t change too much when it comes back, whenever that is. I will probably incorporate some stories from the current pandemic, as well as the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 and how it impacted San Francisco.

I’m doing OK overall. I worked three days a week for Big Bus Tours, so I’m getting unemployment from that, but it’s not much. The extra $600 per week extra as part of the stimulus is what’s helping the most, I’m not really sure what will happen if they don’t renew that. For my own business, however, I am not able to collect unemployment. That’s a pity. Other than that, I’m cooking a lot, gardening, and making pickles.

48 Hills welcomes comments in the form of letters to the editor, which you can submit here. We also invite you to join the conversation on our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. 

Marke B.
Marke Bieschke is the publisher and arts and culture editor of 48 Hills. He co-owns the Stud bar in SoMa. Reach him at marke (at) 48hills.org, follow @supermarke on Twitter.

Sponsored link

Top reads

The brutal cuts in the Breed budget

Child care, housing for youth, code enforcement, the Food Bank ... all are facing the axe as cops get more and big landlords get tax breaks.

Should developers bulldoze 100,000 houses on the west side of town?

It's not an idle question. It's part of the mayor's housing agenda. And it's not going to lead to more affordability.

Promoter’s plans for Castro Theater move forward on 6-4 supes vote

Now the final decision on APE's renovations moves to the Historic Preservation and Planning Commission Thursday.

More by this author

’90s arts icons confront tech dystopia in Camera Obscura’s landmark film ‘Virtue’

Returning to the Roxie, the 1997 underground star-filled sci-fi broadside against alienation and fraud stirs poignant memories

‘Our Brave Foremothers’ brings the history of women of color to life for all

Rozella Kennedy's new book 'tells the stories of women who changed the world in loud and in quiet ways'

Arts Forecast: All hail the Sandy Muffuletta (plus some fun things to do)

The Blessed Madonna, '90s graffiti zines,, CounterPulse gala, Velvet, Dance Your Style, Ensemble Sangineto... dive in!
Sponsored link

You might also likeRELATED