Berkeley, a Look Back: December 1925 had city in full swing of Christmas
The broadcasting schedule for Berkeley-based radio station KRE, located in the Claremont Hotel, was laid out in detail in the Berkeley Daily Gazette a century ago. Much of the hyperlocal programming involved community organizations, including churches that broadcast their services and choir concerts on Sundays.
Berkeley’s junior high schools also provided programming. On Dec. 8, 1925, it was the turn of Willard Junior High, which had a varied program involving “short papers” read by students chosen “for the resonant quality in their voices.”
The Willard Senior Orchestra and the Willard Junior Glee Club also performed. A featured performer, who got his photo in the Gazette, was student and singing soloist Chester Caldecott, who was also the son of city Councilman Thomas Caldecott (and yes, the Caldecott Tunnel is named for the father, who would later advocate for its construction when he served on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors.)
On Dec. 31, 1925, the sound of the Liberty Bell would be broadcast by radio for the first time, the Gazette also reported.
Holiday shopping: The December issues of the Gazette were full of Christmas-themed advertising a century ago. Berkeley had mainly local stores in that era, but a few chains were present, prominent among them Piggly Wiggly, which advertised its presence “all over the world.” Berkeley had no less than six Piggly Wiggly grocery markets, on Shattuck, Solano, Telegraph, Alcatraz, University and College avenues.
On Dec. 11, 1925, they were advertising specials on cranberry sauce (15 cents), “prime roast beef” (25 cents a pound), grapefruit (5 cents each), coconuts (10 cents each) and rather disturbingly named “African layer cakes” (“chocolate butter cream and chopped citron icing”) for 59 cents each. They also had Piggly Wiggly coaster wagons for children ($5 each).
Christmas charity: A century ago Berkeley had a robust holiday season charitable program centered around an annual “Municipal Christmas Tree Fund”. On Dec. 9, 1925, 14,000 letters were mailed out to “representative citizens of Berkeley,” asking for donations.
“We cannot fail to answer the pleas of hundreds of little children” said J. Henry Wolbold, the fund’s general chairman. “Santa Claus will not come for these poor and needy children unless the Christmas tree committee is allowed to function by contributions from representative people.
“With the growth of the city naturally comes a greater charity problem. This year the Christmas tree committee must supply in some 500 homes. Added to this is an orphan list.”
Hoover Dam: The Gazette reported that Congress made progress toward damming the Colorado River on Dec. 10, 1925, when Bay Area native and Commerce Secretary (and later President) Herbert Hoover said that a dam in Boulder Canyon was feasible to build and that the federal government could probably supply some of the funding.
Hoover noted that the dam would serve a “triple purpose — flood control, irrigation and power” and that the growing population and industry of Southern California supplied a nearby market for the power.
This huge public works project would eventually be built and later be named Hoover Dam, which still stands. In 1925 Hoover was not the discredited president blamed for the Great Depression but a rising star in the Republican Party who would be the GOP’s successful 1928 presidential candidate.
Newspaper circulation: The Gazette proclaimed on Dec. 11, 1925, that it had a daily circulation of 7,396 copies that year, “96% delivered by Carriers to Berkeley Homes” and was “the cleanest newspaper of the West” with a “highly concentrated circulation in a city of wealth and refinement.”
Home subscriptions appeared to be densely concentrated around the UC campus, in southeast Berkeley and in central North Berkeley extending north from the downtown area.
Bay Area native and Berkeley community historian Steven Finacom holds this column’s copyright.