Researching Fun

Are you ready for a little "eeeiiuuw" factor today? Research can sure turn over some unlikely facts from "back in the day." (Which is what makes it fun!) While doing research for The Gunslinger and the Heiress I found a tidbit that I just had to include in my story.

What would you do it you entered a restaurant and found the ceiling crawling with spiders?

Tillman Augustus Burnes, An Irishman known for his larger-than-life personality, grew up in San Francisco. There he came to appreciate the infamous Cobweb Palace at the end of Meiggs' Wharf where spiders and transformed the saloon with swags of cobwebs decorating the ceiling and upper walls.

When 'Till' came south to San Diego for health reasons, he got his first job at the Last Chance Saloon on 5th Street. He saved his money until he could buy his own saloon, naming it The Phoenix, located just one block from the docks. He opened his doors for business in 1875 and started collecting spiders to decorate his new place. He also hunted and trapped small animals and birds in southern California to display in cages, and bought exotic animals off sailors coming from South America. At one time, his menagerie housed a coyote, a bear, an anteater, and a monkey, along with exotic birds.

"Bruin" caused a few incidences quite honorable to a bear, but not appreciated by humans. Till chained him outside the saloon to a tree. One particularly hot day, a group of children taunted Bruin. Aroused from his nap, the angry bear broke loose of his chain and scared the children, creating havoc until finally lassoed. After that, Till had an iron cage built and brought the bear inside. That worked until one particular customer who liked Bruin and regularly let the bear lick the beer off his face, had the tip of his nose bit off. After the ensuing lawsuit, Till moved Bruin to his home.


After ten years, the spiders had a foot-thick wall of webbing over the ceiling. Visitors came from far and wide to see the animals and the spiders at work. The Phoenix was a city landmark and sailors made sure to stop there frequently. Till, along with his saloon, started a stage line down to Mexico and escorted tours into the back country.

It was just before one of these tours that his regular bartender became sick and Till hired a another bartender (unfamiliar with his business) so that he could quickly leave with his scheduled tour. Ten days later he returned to find that the man had cleaned out every last cobweb in the saloon, destroying his work (or the spiders work) of ten years.

Nowadays the health commissioner would shut such place down in a fast minute, but I imagine Till's Cobweb Emporium must have been a sight to see once in a lifetime!

How about you? What unusual sights have you come across in your travels?

Kathryn's most recent title is 

Familiar Stranger in Clear Springs. 

Read an excerpt here ~

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Happy 100th Birthday, Raggedy Ann!

2015 marks Raggedy Ann's 100^th birthday! Across the country doll clubs and organizations are celebrating her birthday. She certainly is a doll that has withstood the test of time and she looks very good for being 100 years old!

A little history on this beloved rag doll ~ 

Johnny Gruelle (1880-1938) was a cartoonist and writer at the time of Raggedy Ann’s conception. He found a faceless doll in the family home and drew a face on it for his young daughter Marcella. He chose the doll’s name from two poems written by a family friend, James W. Riley—“The Raggedy Man” and “Little Orphant Annie.”

(Of:  An’ the Gobble-uns ‘at gits you

                   Ef you

                      Don’t

                         Watch

                             Out!   fame.)
On September 7, 1915, Mr. Gruelle received a patent for the Raggedy Ann doll. In 1918, he released a book of stories named the Raggedy Ann Stories. Marketed together, the doll and books did very well in sales. In 1920, Raggedy Andy, dressed in a sailor suit and hat, was introduced as Raggedy Ann's brother. He was a doll and also had his own stories - Raggedy Andy Stories. 
At first, Raggedy Ann was homemade by the Gruelle family.  You might be surprised to know that the sweet, smiling stuffed doll with yarn hair was not originally a redhead, but a brunette! During her lifespan she has also had orange and even blonde hair! The original dolls had a real candy heart inside. Many old Raggedy Ann dolls have brown stains on the chest where children tried to taste the candy through the cotton stuffing. Her nose, eyes, and lips have gone through subtle updates, depending on the company making her at the time. Even her feet changed from sideways facing to forward facing.

She has had quite an extraordinary life (along with her brother Andy.) Apart from of extensive legal battles brought on by an overreaching woman who tried to wrangle the trademark away from Johnny Gruelle, she has had McCall’s patterns made for her (1940-1990), three film shorts, a comic book (Dell), an animated full length film, a Halloween television special, a Christmas television special, a stage play, a Broadway stage musical, an animated television series, a Macy’s Thanksgiving balloon, a jigsaw puzzle, an annual Raggedy Ann & Andy Festival in Johnny Gruelle’s town of birth and the Raggedy Ann and Andy Museum. Raggedy Ann even has her own Facebook Fan Page! In 2002, Raggedy Ann was inducted in the National Toy Hall of Fame. Just listing all that makes me think she is one tired little doll!

Besides all that hoopla, many, many books have had Raggedy Ann as their heroine, most of them were written by Johnny Gruelle. Some books introduced other characters that have enjoyed being famous by association such as the Camel with Wrinkled Knees, Marcella, and Little Brown Bear.

Raggedy Ann and Andy harken back to a simpler time—before the internet and before battery-operated toys became all the rage. I’m afraid Raggedy Ann has a lot of competition from technical toys nowadays and many young girls don’t know the joy and comfort of having a rag doll to cuddle and love.

Do you remember your first doll? 

What is one special gift you remember receiving when you were a child? Is it still around today?

Comment to have your name placed in a drawing for my book 

The Gunslinger and the Heiress 

 a sweet western historical! 

(Sweepstake is open to continental U.S. only and lasts until midnight 11/11/2015)

Kathryn Albright's newest book is a sweet western historical that takes place in early San Diego. You can pre-order Familiar Stranger in Clear Springs here.  Although there is no Raggedy Ann in this particular tale, dolls have been known to make their appearance in other stories by Kathryn. 

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San Diego's Colorful Past

One of the things I enjoy most about writing historical romances is intertwining real history with the story that I am creating. I am often inspired by true happenings of the past--some well-known and some not so well-known. I believe this lends authenticity to the setting and it also adds depth to the plot.

My newest release, The Gunslinger and the Heiress, takes place in 1888 San Diego when the Hotel Del Coronado was first opened. I've posted about that in a previous post so I won't go into it here.  I did, however, want to give a little bit of history about San Diego at that time.

During the time of The Gunslinger and the Heiress, the influx of emigrants and land speculators changed the town from a sleepy border town with distinctly Mexican flavor to more of a "wild west" town.

During the 1880s, the town's real estate book and the plans for the Santa Fe Railroad attracted many colorful characters. Wyatt Earp was one such character, arriving with his third wife, Josie, five years after his famous gunfight with the Clanton gang at the OK corral in Tucson, Arizona. Thirty-seven year old Wyatt ran and/or leased four gambling halls in the city, speculated on land, and officiated at boxing matches during the seven years he lived in San Diego. When he won a trotter in a card game, he took interest in horse racing at the nearby track just north of town.

At his saloons, men played faro, blackjack, poker and keno. It is said, Wyatt could count on profits of as much as $1,000 per night during the years just before San Diego's real estate bust. A few of his saloons were located in the red light district known to locals as the Stingaree. Here bars, bordellos and opium dens saturated the landscape. It was said a man could get stung as badly in the Stingaree as he could in the waters of the nearby bay by the stingray fish.

Above ~ one of Wyatt Earp's restored saloons as it looks today. 

photo credit: Bernard Gagnon

The renovated Horton Grand Hotel, actually a combination of two historic buildings, rests on the very plot of ground where Ida Bailey's "cat house" once stood in the heart of the Stingaree "red light" district during the boom days of early San Diego.

It wasn't long before street cars and electric wires bisected the streets. San Diego was growing and changing from a booming cowboy town to a fledgling city in the blink of an eye...

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Kathryn Albright writes stories that celebrate courage and hope and love against all odds. She writes American-set historical romance with a dash of grit thrown in and of course…a happily, ever, after. 

Visit her at www.kathrynalbright.com, on Facebook , Twitter, Pinterest or Goodreads.