Under the Gables
Volume XIX, Number 2
Summer 2014
RADIO PERSONALITIES
OF WEST MARIN
A look at 100 years of the wireless industry and its people in West Marin
Exhibit at the Jack Mason Museum of West Marin History
August 1 - November 30, 2014
Jack Mason Museum of West Marin History
Inverness Way at Park Avenue, Inverness
Phone 415-669-1099
www.jackmasonmuseum.org
NEW EXHIBIT: Radio Personalities of West Marin
It was on September 24, 1914 that the giant wireless station in West Marin
built by Guglielmo Marconi began its commercial life. On that day President Woodrow Wilson sent a message to the Governor of Hawaii. The
sleepy little agricultural communities of Marshall and Bolinas became
part of a new communications network which would soon cover the
globe.
To celebrate the centennial of that internationally significant event,
the Jack Mason Museum of West Marin History has created an exhibit
called “Radio Personalities of West Marin,” looking at the people who
have been involved in the local wireless industry. The exhibit also includes some of the historical events of the day, which helped shape the
new wireless industry and/or which were reported on by it.
The photos and most of the printed source materials are primarily
drawn from the archives of the Point Reyes National Seashore and from
our own museum archives; curators for the exhibit are Tom Branan and
Ann Read. The open house for this exhibit will held on August 9, 2014
during the annual Inverness Fair, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. Our previous
exhibit, “Inverness is 125” will be reinstalled on December 1, to allow
those who missed it another opportunity.
JACK MASON
MUSEUM COMMITTEE
Tom Branan, Chair
Andrew Buckingham
Carola DeRooy
Mary Kroninger
Meg Linden
Dewey Livingston
Michael Mery
Ann Read
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Sue Baty
Mary Cardwell
Dian Carpenter
David Donlon
David Elliott
Under the Gables
The articles in this issue look at the very beginnings of the commercial
wireless industry abroad and in the US, and how it moved to, and flourished in, West Marin. We have used the device of looking at the careers of
three people, Guglielmo Marconi, Richard Johnstone and Frank Geisel,
as a way of understanding the growth of the “new” wireless industry
and also as a way to understand the fascination which wireless held
for its early disciples. The life of a shipboard wireless operator, or even
Continued on next page
THE JACK MASON MUSEUM NEEDS VOLUNTEERS
FOR ARCHIVAL, ORGANIZATIONAL, OUTREACH,
AND COMPUTER RELATED TASKS. PLEASE CALL
DEWEY AT 669-7706, OR THE MUSEUM AT 669-1099.
“POINT REYES PENINSULA”
Copies signed by the authors, Carola DeRooy and
Dewey Livingston are available at Museum Open
Houses and from the Archives for only $20.00. The
proceeds benefit the Museum.
ON THE COVER:
KPH workspace and message carousel at the Point Reyes
receiving station, 1964. Clockwise from left: Bill Meloney,
Les Burger, Fred Baxter, Joel Medina, Jack Martini.
2
Gayanne Enquist
Robert Kroninger
Dorito Marringa
Vivian Mazur
Linda Mendoza
Jenefer Merrill
Maidee Moore
Connie Morse
HONORARY MEMBER
Barbara Mason McClellan
THE JACK MASON MUSEUM
OF WEST MARIN HISTORY
IS AN AFFILIATE OF THE
INVERNESS FOUNDATION
Editor:
Meg Linden
Design and layout:
Dewey Livingston
Maidee Moore passed away on July 18 at the admirable
age of 101. Maidee, an Inverness resident for 70 years,
was closely involved with the Jack Mason Museum of
West Marin History ever since its founding in 1985. She
was active on the Museum Committee until 2008, when
she “retired” to the Advisory Committee. Maidee’s contributions became traditions at the museum and in the
community. Every Christmas she set up a tree and crèche
in the museum; she invited Kathy Munger and others
to read holiday stories for children coming down from
Inverness School. Besides being a vital member of the Museum Committee, she
created a number of exhibits and, along with her very good friend Scotty Mendoza,
saw to it that school children came to the Museum to see history exhibits, and they
also took special exhibits to the schools to show children what life was like in earlier
times. In 2001 she created an exhibit called “Our Town: Inverness Then and Now”
which profiled many of the organizations that make Inverness an interesting place to
live. Her dear friend Michael Mery recalled: “It was under her direction that I put up
the photo exhibit on the fence opposite the firehouse on the 4th of July. This year (2014)
Maidee and the exhibit were both absent, the first time in roughly 15 years.” One of
their memorable and long-lived exhibits was “Queens of Western Weekend,” which
still is seen annually at Toby’s. Maidee was also a great supporter of the Waterdogs,
which taught swimming to children at Shell Beach, where her eldest daughter Deedee
taught many years ago. She will be missed, and the Museum Committee extends its
deepest condolences to the family.
Continued from previous page
Pt. Reyes Station Historical Walking Tours
The walking tours will continue this year under
the auspices of the Museum, the Tomales Bay
Youth Center and the West Marin Chamber of
Commerce, every Saturday until the end of October. Tours start at the visitor’s kiosk next to the
Grandi Building at 10 a.m. and are limited to 10
persons (first come-first served). A donation of
$10 is requested.
that of a land station operator, was not an easy one
during the first few decades of the industry, but
willing recruits were never in short supply. Such
was the appeal of exchanging those ethereal dots
and dashes with unseen people around the world
that, for those who experienced it, nothing was
ever to be the same.
Jack Mason Museum of West Marin History
Archives project
Our Museum is supported by donations and annual dues from those who find what we do to be
worthwhile. If you don’t know if you are a member
or if you don’t remember when you last renewed
your membership, please email us at [email protected] or give us a call at the Archives at
(415) 669-1099. Donations and dues to the Museum
are tax-deductible.
The Museum is using money donated several
years ago in memory of Scotty and Joe Mendoza
and several other large recent gifts to hire Dewey
Livingston to work in the Archives, annotating our
records with his knowledge of people and places.
Additional gifts for this purpose are welcome.
Please annotate your check “DSL fund.”
3
Guglielmo Marconi
by Tom Branan
Until the beginning of the twentieth
century, the isolation of ocean travel
remained largely unchanged from
what it had been for thousands of
years. Once out of sight of land or
of other ships, a ship and its occupants were completely on their
own. If catastrophe struck the ship,
all hands could just disappear from
the face of the earth with no one
knowing why or when.
The young Italian named
Guglielmo Marconi changed that
in 1895 when he was able to not
only greatly extend the range of
his experimental wireless broadcasts but, using Morse code, actually send messages rather than just
electromagnetic waves. He was 21 Guglielmo Marconi posed with wireless equipment. (PRNS Archives)
years old and still living with his
parents in their villa in Italy. By including antenna built by his company. By the end of 1901, Marconi
and grounds on both the transmitter and the re- had established a marine wireless telegraphy serceiver of his equipment, he was able to broadcast vice around the English coast. On December 12
messages about one and a half miles. His brother, in that same year of 1901, Marconi was able to
waiting at the receiver, fired a pistol into the air transmit a message from England to Newfoundso that Marconi, at the transmitter, would know land - something which the “experts” of the day
of the success. He proposed a demonstration for claimed was impossible. During the following
the Italian government in that same year. They year, President Theodore Roosevelt sent the first
ever trans-Atlantic message from America to Engweren’t interested.
In 1896, he moved to London, then the cen- land when he greeted both King Edward VII and
ter of the world for commerce and finance. His the English people. By 1907, enough progress had
mother was a member of the Irish Jameson family, been made to begin offering a commercial transof Jameson whisky fame, and things immediately Atlantic service. In just six years, Marconi took the
went better in London. Much better. There his science of wireless telegraphy from an interesting
mother’s social and financial connections could laboratory experiment to a commercial system
be brought to bear. On June 2, 1896, he applied of wireless ship to shore, capable of transmitting
for and received the first ever patent for wireless messages for miles.
The idea of wireless communication was in
telegraphy. After raising British financial backthe
air
and wireless communication companies
ing, the following year Marconi established his
first company, the Wireless Telegraph and Signal were sprouting up much as we saw tech start-ups
Company – quite the speculative tech start-up of spring up in Silicon Valley at the start of the Tech
Boom. Marconi’s company was already the largest
its day!
In 1899, he sent the first wireless message in the world when he acquired the San Francisco
across the English Channel between two stations ship-to-shore station, KPH. Although KPH and
4
most of its competitors were low-powered sta- Bolinas to establish station KET, with its transmittions, Marconi quite early on envisioned a world- ter in Bolinas and receiver in Marshall. This station
wide wireless “net” which would connect cities was linked with similar facilities at station KIE on
all over the planet as well as all the ships at sea. the island of Oahu, Hawaii.
Sound familiar?
Before Marconi’s arrival in West Marin, the
As soon as Marconi was recognized as a towns of Marshall and Bolinas were very small
potential threat to existing point-to-point com- farming and ranching communities. He brought
munication companies, such as the land telegraph the outside world with him in the form of jobs, new
and undersea cable companies, they began to find people, electricity, and the news of the world.
ways to obstruct his company’s progress.
Much of that obstruction came in the form
of multiple lawsuits and it quickly made
Marconi see that basing his company’s
hopes for growth on primarily international point-to-point business might not
be the best idea. Instead, he decided to
augment his point-to-point efforts with a
network of wireless shore-based stations
which could communicate with ships all
over the world. No one else was doing
that successfully. That change in emphasis was immediately rewarded with large
contracts from Lloyd’s of London and the
British Admiralty, which in turn financed
further technological innovation and
Marconi’s work eventually saved many lives at sea. (PRNS Archives)
growth. Marconi’s heavy reliance upon
English financing was to prove to be a
two-edged sword in just a few years, as least as far
The Marshall and Bolinas stations came up
as his business in America was concerned.
on September 24, 1914, when President WoodAnd, Marconi found that he could also use row Wilson sent a message to the governor of
the courts just as his competitors had been doing. Hawaii. By the next year, communication with
In 1912, he won a very large victory in court over Japan began and Marconi pulled well ahead of
his competitor, the United Wireless Company, his competitors.
for the latter’s patent infringements on Marconi
During this period of rapid expansion of the
inventions. The Marconi Company was awarded point-to-point network, the ship-to-shore station
more than 400 shipboard stations and 17 land sta- KPH remained in Daly City until 1920.
tions. Radio KPH was one of those land stations.
Probably just as important, Marconi also gained
World War I
United’s engineering department and its manufacAt America’s entry into World War I, the U.S.
turing plants where it made wireless equipment. Navy Department took over all commercial wireThe following year, 1913, saw the develop- less communication facilities, both shipboard and
ment of a plan to use high-powered wireless coastal. As part of that move, the Navy took 53
stations to provide world-wide coverage. The Marconi stations, including KPH, KET and KIE.
practical considerations of creating such a global As early as May of 1918, there were indications
system led Marconi and his engineers to search the that the Navy was no friend of Marconi. In 1919
West Coast for the best locations to establish their legislation instigated by the Navy was introduced
long-range point-to-point sending and receiving in Congress which would have given the U.S.
stations; Point Reyes proved to be the ideal spot. government a monopoly over all radio commuHis company bought ranch land in Marshall and nications, but it failed passage.
5
The American Marconi Company built its receiving station on Tomales Bay
in 1914. Top, a North Pacific Coast Railroad train passes the village of
Fishermen’s, later known as Marconi (Jack Mason Museum of West Marin
History). Center, the new Marconi hotel and power house (Geisel family).
Bottom, the new facility was sturdily built and well-designed, featuring Stickley
furniture (Helen Harris).
6
In July of 1919, those stations seized during the war
were returned to their previous owners, but for Marconi
that didn’t last long. In that
immediately postwar era, a
combination of “national security” concerns, xenophobia and
crony capitalism ensured that
an American company would
own Marconi’s stations. In that
same year the Navy blocked
Marconi’s efforts to obtain new
technologies for his company
due to concerns over foreign
ownership of much of the stock
of American Marconi. Ironically,
it wasn’t the Italian connection
but rather the British one which
caused the problem, since the
company had been formed and
financed in England. Following
the war, there was widespread
resentment in this country over
the perception that England had
somehow manipulated America
into coming into the war.
The U.S. Navy, working
with General Electric, Westinghouse, AT&T, United Fruit and
others created the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), an
instant monopoly. In November
of 1919, there was a stock merger of RCA and Marconi wherein
General Electric paid Marconi
$3.5 million for a controlling
interest of its stock.
That development marked
the end of Guglielmo Marconi’s
direct impact on the wireless
industry in West Marin, but
his ongoing influence on that
business, on West Marin and
its residents and on the entire
communications revolution
continues today.
Richard Johnstone
Early Chief Operator for the Radio Corporation of America
by Tom Branan
Richard Johnstone was older
destroyed in the earthquake
than many of the other people
and fire. He also recalled that
in this exhibit, and enjoyed
in 1907 the new PH station
an unusual career distincwas rebuilt on Telegraph Hill,
tion – his last two messages
near the current site of Coit
sent from KPH were some 47
Tower. That hill had gotten
years apart. He joined KPH
its name because of the land
almost from its start. We have
telegraph office on top of it - a
included him and his story
perfect place to observe and
because he represents some
report on sailing ships movof the very earliest people
ing into and out of the harbor.
who were drawn to wireless,
By this time he was a young
first as enthusiastic amateurs,
wireless amateur and he
and then as the early profesliked to visit PH #2 and then
sional operators.
PH #3 when the station was
His first memory of a
moved to Daly City, where it
wireless message was when
remained until 1920, when it
his family was waiting at
moved to the Marin County
the San Francisco waterfront
facilities.
for the arrival of the troopOn July 1, 1911, station
ship which was bringing his Richard Johnstone, Navy Chief Radioman at
PH became KPH, in accoruncle home from the Spanish- KPH, 1917. (PRNS Archives)
dance with an international
American War, probably in
agreement for naming wire1900. After the crowd had waited several hours, less stations. After that there were no more twoword was received that the San Francisco light- letter call signs. At about the same time, as part
ship, some 20 miles offshore, had just seen the of the settlement of a patent violation lawsuit, the
troopship and had sent that sighting to the shore Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company took over
via a wireless message.
KPH and all the ships and stations of the United
Between 1900 and 1910, there were four wire- Wireless and Massie Wireless companies on the
less companies on the West Coast, stretching from Pacific Coast.
San Diego to Seattle. They were the Pacific WireLike so many of the others who went on to
less Company, the American DeForest Company, build careers as early wireless operators, Richard
the Massie Wireless Telegraph Company, and the Johnstone was bitten by the wireless bug at an
United Wireless Telegraph Company which even- early age and never recovered. He reports that it
tually took over American DeForest and Massie. was a boyhood thrill to climb up Telegraph Hill
Mr. Johnstone remembered that there was a “...and then listen to the magic of the PH spark
wireless station located on top of the Palace Hotel transmitter as the wind whistled through the guy
at the time of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. wires”. And he wasn’t alone in his affliction. By his
That station then went by the call sign PH, reflect- own description, “There were about a dozen of us
ing the name of the building which housed it. At ‘wireless hams’ attending Polytechnic High school
that time, PH was owned by the American DeFor- in 1910-1911. All we could talk or think about was
est Company. Both the hotel and the station were the WIRELESS.”
7
Like many of the wireless pioneers, Richard
honed his craft as a shipboard wireless operator.
Following the Titanic disaster, and the changes in
law inspired by it, there was a tremendous increase
in demand for wireless operators. He and a dozen
of his high school wireless club members took the
newly required government license test, passed,
and quit high school to sign on as shipboard wireless operators. So Richard Johnstone first went
to sea as an employee of the Marconi company
since in those days, the operators worked for their
respective wireless companies rather than for the
owners of the ships upon which they practiced
their craft.
Surprisingly, considering the Titanic experience, in those early days there was much skepticism within the shipping industry concerning
the need for putting wireless operators aboard
ships. Much of that doubt came from some ships’
captains and other officers, who enjoyed being
out of touch with, and thus out of the control of,
their companies once they left the harbor. Add
to that the fact that most of these early wireless
operators had never before been to sea, had no
concept of the shipboard chain of command, called
portholes “round windows,” and were among the
lowest paid people on board ($40/month), and
the initial lack of respect accorded them becomes
more understandable. Over time, however, the
perceived value of shipboard wireless and its
operators grew.
Richard Johnstone’s tales of his years at sea
paint a picture of a young boy away from home
for the first time and often homesick or seasick – or
both. But there also emerges the image of someone
who faces one challenge after another and handles
them quite well. Working on old sailing ships,
decrepit tankers, and freighters who had seen
their best days behind them, Johnstone and the
other operators were faced with one technological
problem after another. For instance, on a sailing
ship the signal would fade in and out depending
on how the canvas sails moved. The early wireless sets took more power than most other things
on board. Ships which were wired or rewired for
electricity provided ample shorts, blown fuses and
even fires in the wireless system.
Since the operators were out there alone and
were the only person on board responsible for
both the wireless mission and for the equipment,
they improvised, they rebuilt, they found a way
to get things done. For instance, when a storm
blew away the wireless antenna and the mast it
was attached to, Johnstone’s ship was totally out
of communication with both the land and with
other ships. His solution? He built a box kite, attached 300 feet of wire to it as a guide string and
an antenna, and radioed their situation to nearby
ships who, in turn, passed it on to the shipping
company. These kinds of experiences enhanced
the image of the operators among their crews and
made for an esprit de corps among the operators
that set them apart.
In his memoir, Johnstone emphasizes how
many operators wanted to work at KPH and
how few were ever chosen to do so. As Johnstone
recalled, “To be an operator at the Marconi wireless station KPH one had to be an expert, not only
in (Continental) wireless code but also in Morse
landline code.” Johnstone didn’t know Morse
code but he decided to learn it in order to increase
his chances of getting on at KPH. After about six
months of steady practice he became proficient
at Morse code. He could also copy it on a typewriter and write with both hands. By the time he
applied at KPH he “...could copy anything on the
typewriter, either Morse or Continental codes, as
fast as a human being could send it.”
His own pleasure at being selected is quite
clear in his memoir: “At last the great day arrived. It was a joy to receive my assignment as an
operator at the KPH station on the 6th day of July,
1915.” Besides the increased status involved in being a KPH operator, Mr. Johnstone’s monthly pay
jumped from $40 to $90. For that pay he worked
seven days a week with two weeks vacation per
year. As he described it, “KPH was located at
Hillcrest, Daly City, just across the line from San
Francisco. It was in San Mateo County. The ‘wireless shack’ was at the top of a rocky cliff....”
Due to the rocky geology at the new KPH site
in Daly City, establishing a ground for the station
proved to be a problem, which was solved by
laying out over an acre of heavy galvanized wire
on the ground. This mesh was made up of about
2000 feet of wire which was welded every three
feet. The ongoing problem? Both cattle and horses
roamed free over it to graze, constantly tearing up
8
the wire. Another problem with the site was that
it had an abundance of skunks, with whom the
night crew regularly contested the right to use
the footpath to the station. Johnstone says in his
memoir that there was a .38 snub nose pistol in the
wireless shack for those operators who wanted to
push the point with a stubborn skunk. Probably
even when an operator “won” a dispute this way,
he lost.
According to Johnstone, “During my time
at ‘KPH’ the station was the most important and
active Marine station on the Pacific Coast. The
Marconi company had hundreds of ships. The
daily papers published ships positions at sea,
and dozens of ships would send in their position
report, called the TR report, nightly.”
During the winter of 1916, KPH set two records for long-distance communications. The first
record was made when Johnstone himself was
able to stay in communication with an oil tanker
for more than 5100 miles on its way to Japan.
The second record was made by operator A.W.
Peterson who communicated with an American
steamer off China – some 6000 miles. The irony
of these two records is that there were achieved
only by using a “contraband” receiver. The KPH
operators were forbidden to use any equipment
not provided by the Marconi Company, and they
seemed to all agree that the company receivers
were quite inferior to other receivers available on
the market.
As Richard Johnstone put it, “...we were
expected to use antique receiving apparatus
unworthy of the results expected of it, (so we)
supplied our own more modern receiving gear,
accomplish(ed) worthy records for the companies
and then get “hail Columbia” (apparently not a
good thing) for our improvements. It just does
not make sense, but I knew several operators who
were fired for using their own “audion” aboard
ship.”
Apparently, that same fate could befall a KPH
operator in those days because Mr. Johnstone notes
that although both he and Mr. Peterson were using
an unauthorized “galena detector” when they set
their distance records, “after each watch we would
wrap up our precious receiver and stow it away in
a suitcase in the attic, and reconnect the company
furnished receiver.”
Right, the KPH
wireless shack
in Daly City
perched on a cliff
overlooking the
Pacific Ocean.
Below, interior
of KPH wireless
shack, Daly City,
1919. (PRNS
Archives)
But bigger problems than irrational company
policies were on the way for KPH and its employees. On April 6, 1917, it and all the other West Coast
wireless stations were taken over by the Navy due
to the entry of the U.S. into WW I. As explained by
Mr. Johnstone, “On April 6, 1917, the KPH station
and its three operators enlisted in the United States
Navy.” Shortly after the end of WW I, the newly
created Radio Corporation of America (RCA) acquired all the coastal and onboard ship stations of
the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company, and in
1920, established KPH #4 in Marshall at the old
Marconi receiving station, while the transmitter
was located in Bolinas at the site of the old Marconi
transmitters.
In 1921 Richard Johnstone was honorably
discharged from the Navy but by then the Marconi Company was gone, replaced by RCA. His
9
Once KPH came back up
after WW I, it again became
the best known wireless station on the Pacific Coast. It
remained that until January
1, 1942, when it was again
seized by the military at the
outbreak of WW II. By that
time it had moved again to
its final location on the Point
Reyes Peninsula, with Frank
Geisel as manager.
And that sets up the perfect “the wheel turns” conclusion to this look at Richard
Johnstone’s career. When he
was Chief Operator for RCA,
one of “his” 300 ship wireless operators with whom he
Two unidentified KPH operators at Marshall, 1923. (PRNS Archives)
regularly communicated was
Frank Geisel. In 1964, when
job and seniority disappeared with the Marconi Frank was then Chief Operator for RCA at KPH,
Company. However, his reputation and contacts he invited Richard to come visit the station. While
served him well and he was hired to work at the there, Mr. Johnstone was asked to sit in and comRCA headquarters in San Francisco. In short order municate with a ship off the Columbia River. He
he became the Pacific Coast Chief Operator for did and described his reaction as , “This was a
RCA, where he remained until December 1945. In great thrill to send and receive a message from a
that year he re-enlisted in the Navy and retired as ship at sea and to sign KPH after FORTY-SEVEN
a Commander.
years.”
Wireless pioneers
visit the Bolinas
transmitting facility,
1969. From left, H.
I. Goode, Butler
Osborne, Corwin
Henry, Frank Geisel,
Clifton Nichols,
Richard Johnstone,
John Hortt and Leon
Bartholomew. (PRNS
Archives)
10
Frank Geisel
Chief Operator for RCA and KPH Manager
by Tom Branan
Where we were able to look at the earliest days of wireless through the lives
of Marconi and Richard Johnstone, our
discussion of Frank Geisel, who came
to be known as “Mr. KPH,” will take us
up through the 1960s, the “Golden Age”
of KPH.
Mr. Geisel was born March 4, 1902 in
the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This was
the year after Guglielmo Marconi had
sent the first wireless message from England to North America. The Geisel family
emigrated to Canada in 1906 and then to
America in 1913, where they settled in
Watts, California which was then known
as Watts Station, due to the building of a
railroad station there in 1904.
State of the art shipboard wireless station, 1923. (PRNS Archives)
During 1916-1917, he attended night
school, studying electrical engineering. In 1918, he of Commerce, a license he held for the rest of his
was employed by the Southern Pacific Railroad in life.
the Los Angeles office. Within that office he worked
In January, 1920, Frank went to work for
as a handyman for the divisional headquarters of RCA, and for six years was assigned to a total of
the telegraphers and train dispatchers. In that 18 ships at sea as a wireless telegraph operator. In
job he learned Morse telegraphy, something that those days, the wireless operators were not officers
was to change his life, just as it had for Marconi of the ships they served on but were instead RCA
and Johnstone. In that same year he dropped his employees assigned to ships by that company. It
electrical engineering studies and enrolled in night was during this time that Richard Johnstone and
classes at the YMCA Radio School in Los Angeles. Frank found themselves communicating for work
At age 16 he knew what he wanted to do.
via the wireless.
Frank Geisel’s personal story can be used
In 1926, Frank married and decided it was
to represent the stories of many of West Marin’s time to give up his seafaring ways and to settle on
wireless pioneers. As a group they were not born land. In November 1926, he began work at RCA’s
of privilege, they went to work at an early age, they wireless receiving station, KPH, then located at
worked hard, and they built careers which grew Marshall.
along with the growth of the wireless industry.
The 1920s and 1930s were a time of great
Through memoirs and interviews, two common success for RCA, with the creation of radio netthemes seem to be present with most of the wire- works through NBC, the National Broadcasting
less pioneers: a very early fascination with wireless Company, as well as the company’s growing role
communication and an impressive work ethic.
in the production of radios for the home and car,
In 1919, Frank earned his first Commercial and in motion pictures.
Radio Operator’s License from the Department
Those same years saw the expansion RCA’s
11
wireless business in Marin County. After
acquiring the old Marconi facilities in
Marshall and Bolinas, RCA moved to
reopen KPH in the Spring of 1920 and
increased the strength of the transmitter
in Bolinas.
By the late 1920s, RCA was experiencing a boom in demand for expanded
communications with the Orient and
the South Seas. To meet that demand,
they needed to buy more land in Bolinas
and to acquire new land on the Point
Reyes Peninsula. Therefore, in October
of 1928 RCA bought 120 acres in Bolinas
from Mary Strain. In Point Reyes, the
company wanted the 1,472 acres of the
McClure Ranch (formerly the G Ranch in
the old Shafter-Howard dairy system).
The land bordered the Pacific, south of
Abbotts Lagoon. However, the $100,000
RCA was offering was well below the
$130,000 the McClures wanted. In May of
1929, RCA sued for condemnation of the
ranch so that the company could provide
a “public service” of improved radio
communications. The court awarded the
McClures $127,000 and they eventually
Top, interior of the KPH wireless station, 1933. Bottom, Frank Geisel bought the Pierce Ranch.
In the years leading up to World
at the telegraph board in Marshall, early 1930s. (PRNS Archives)
War II, the RCA stations in Marin saw a
great jump in both government and military traffic. But that was to end abruptly.
RCA facility on Point Reyes. (PRNS Archives)
World War II
As had happened in World War I, the outbreak of WW II caused the U.S. government to
impose a radio silence on all ships, and to seize
commercial wireless stations. KPH closed in 1942
and was operated by the military. Due to that
development, from January 1943 until August
1945, Frank worked as a Radio Inspector, spending much of his time performing new ship radio
inspections at the Kaiser shipyards in Richmond.
Every new ship coming out of the shipyards had to
have a good quality, reliable radio upon which the
cargo and the lives of the crew would depend.
A month after the end of the war, September
1945, RCA instructed Frank Geisel to reactivate
KPH at its new location – at the RCA communi-
12
cations site on Point Reyes. Service was
officially restored on January 1, 1946,
with a staff of four, Harold Zimmer, William Meloney, Arnold Hansen and Earle
Foster.
The only problem with that move
from Marshall was that station KET and
all its personnel were already in the Point
Reyes building, so those 5 recent arrivals
and all their equipment were jammed
into the lunch room. It was a tight fit.
Counting that time at the shipyard,
Frank was to work for 41 years for KPH,
with the last 12 of those as the station
manager.
KPH operating room, Point Reyes, 1951. (PRNS Archives)
SOS
Within the society of marine wireless operators, there is a special fraterHelping Hand
nity made up of people who have sent out an
After his move to KPH, Frank Geisel and
SOS message or have been on a ship which sank.
Frank Geisel was a member of that special group. the other operators had many occasions to be on
In August, 1921, Frank was the radioman on the the other end of an SOS call and took great satissteam schooner Multnomah, which ran aground faction in being able to extend a helping hand to
in thick fog, carrying a load of lumber from Puget seamen (or airmen) in trouble. Over the course of
Sound to San Francisco. With a damaged hull, it its lifetime, KPH handled countless distress calls
was able to continue southward in thick fog until, and saved many lives.
off Eureka, its propeller shaft broke, causing the
Role in History
ship to begin drifting toward the rocky shore.
Again, using Frank as an example of the
The ship’s captain directed Frank to send an SOS,
which he did, and then repeated many times over accomplishments of KPH operators, he was conbefore receiving a response from any nearby ves- stantly in touch with events and people shaping
sels. During its wait for help, the Multnomah was history. Although West Marin was quite remote
almost run down in the fog by another steam physically, the wireless signal brought the world
schooner since emergency flares and horn blasts to the KPH operators through their headsets. Over
were both obscured by the thick fog. Finally the the years, besides being in communication with
Multnomah was contacted by another ship and hundreds of ship’s wireless operators, Frank heard
the messages and voices of history – from Admiral
towed to port.
Left to right: Admiral Byrd in Antarctica; Amelia Earhart’s flight certification, 1923; The United States Macon, dirigible
aircraft carrier; United States submarine Nautilus. (PRNS Archives)
13
Byrd at his Antarctic camp, Amelia Earhart on her
ill-fated flight around the world, the radio operator aboard the German airship, the Graf Zeppelin,
the SOS of the American airship Macon, as it went
down, and from the first American submarine
named Nautilus which, in 1931, unsuccessfully
attempted to sail across the Arctic Sea under the
ice pack.
Pearl Harbor
Perhaps the most historical wireless message
to be received by KPH came in at 6:52 AM on December 7th, 1941, when the wireless operator on
watch first heard the following:
“JPOE SOS JPOE SOS JPOE SOS.”
That message was repeated several times and
then quickly followed by a broadcast of Japanese
naval code which KPH personnel could identify
but not read. It was later determined that the
above SOS message was a prearranged signal to
draw attention to the subsequent coded message
which told Japanese ships about the attack on Pearl
Harbor and to take appropriate actions.
Frank Geisel took over the headphones 8
minutes later. Just under five hours later, Frank
broadcast the following message, at the request
of the U.S. Navy:
“URGENT. TO ALL U.S. MERCHANT SHIPS
FOLLOWING FROM COMMANDER IN CHIEF
PACIFIC. AIR RAID ON PEARL HARBOR. HOSTILITIES WITH JAPAN COMMENCE WITH
AIR RAID ON PEARL HARBOR. THIS IS NO
DRILL.”
A copy of the operators’ log book for December 1941 will be at the exhibit for inspection.
It’s quite interesting to read both for the unusual
silence in the hours before the attack and the chaos
afterwards, with attacks by submarines on American ships beginning almost immediately.
KPH as a workplace
The memoirs and comments of people who
worked there make it clear that people enjoyed
working at KPH. Part of that was due to an understanding that if you were going to work in
14
wireless, KPH was probably the most important
station in the country, and certainly so on the Pacific Coast. In addition, KPH employees realized
that they were doing important work that made
a difference in peoples’ lives. Numerous veterans
of KPH have commented on the satisfaction of
working in a place where the best was consistently
expected and delivered. But it wasn’t so much that
the corporation demanded the best job possible
but rather that the employees and management
expected it of themselves – and they delivered.
Frank Geisel most often gets the credit for setting
the work atmosphere at the station. He was at once
quite competitive and a perfectionist, but always
a very supportive manager.
Over the years, veterans at KPH have indicated that there was something of a good-natured
culture difference between the point-to-point technicians upstairs and the ship-to-shore operators
downstairs. In an interview with Dewey Livingston, Jack Martini, the last station manager of KPH,
noted that the upstairs view of downstairs could
include words like “disdain” and “reprobates.”
There was, he said, always lots of shouting and
swearing downstairs in the ship-to-shore shop
and constant practical jokes, like sticking funny
signs on peoples’ backs (visitors and employees
alike), or gluing Mercury wings onto Frank Geisel’s shoe heels.
Warren “Si” Simpson, a long-time KPH
employee, also had similar memories when he
recalled that,
“Occasionally formal visitors were ushered in
expecting to view an efficient mechanized sciencefiction array of sophisticated equipment manned
by thoughtful looking men in long white coats.
Instead they found themselves suddenly thrust
into an 18th century den of thieves, all dressed
like something out of the lower pages of Charles
Dickens.”
Another of Simpson’s descriptions of the
ship-to-shore workspace and its inhabitants was,
“...a boiler factory for brass pounding monkeys.”
Apparently no white lab coats to be seen....
About that “shouting and swearing” mentioned above. Perhaps a word of explanation is
in order. The ship-to-shore work room had the
operator’s work stations set out in a circle around
a large revolving message carousel (which had
Frank Geisel.
(PRNS Archives)
replaced the earlier “Christmas tree” board). When
there was an outgoing message for a ship, it was
placed on the carousel and the ship was notified
(and this is where the “den of thieves” comes in).
Once the ship replied that it was ready to receive
its message, it was proper protocol for the operator
who had sent the initial notice to then retrieve the
message from the carousel and send it. The ongoing challenge was for the other operators to “steal”
the message from the carousel and send it before
the initial operator knew it. The conflict inherent in
this practice was often what led to the commotion
noted by both KPH employees and visitors.
It was up to the station manager to bring
production and efficiency out of this chaos. As
Simpson described, “In the center of the operating
room Frank Geisel (FG) leaned on his saber (actually a walking cane) like a General surveying the
field of battle,” acting as a referee, and shouting
out instructions and directions.
Vietnam
Unlike what happened during the World
Wars I and II, when business dried up and the
stations closed, the Vietnam war caused a tremendous increase in business for RCA. The years
of war meant the need for years of civilian cargo
and war materiel. When a shortage of ships developed the Department of Defense activated 100 of
the mothballed cargo ships left over from World
War II. All those ships at sea had radios and West
Marin played a big part in keeping the information flowing back and forth. New operators were
hired and still it was a challenge for KPH to stay
on top of the work.
Legacy
Jack Martini, the last manager of the station,
said of Frank Geisel, “He was the man who wrote
the book. There was a right way, the wrong way
and the Geisel way. You did it the Geisel way. He
was a legend....
“He knew what was important and what was
not important...how to make decisions. He had an
incredible work ethic.”
Frank Geisel retired in 1967 and moved to
Rossmoor in Walnut Creek. Many of the West
Marin “Old Guard” who had worked for Marconi
and RCA had already retired or moved away by
then. They are all gone now.
But Frank and others of his generation did
a good job training their replacements and the
mission went on. Come to our exhibit at the Jack
Mason Museum of West Marin to pick up the story
and learn about the wireless generation which
came to the fore in the 1960s and beyond. They
experienced their own challenges and triumphs.
Come learn who they were.
15
CORNERS
Number 5 in a series of articles by Meg Linden
about local corners that have been used for business purposes
The last Corners article, about the
site now occupied by the Western
contained this sentence: “In 1898 one
of his [Salvatore Grandi’s] employees, Peter Scilacci, quit and moved a
block up the street and built a store
larger than his old boss’ with livery
stable, grain warehouse and all that
went with a first class country store.”
Now is the time to tell more of this
story, both of the man and of his
store. This is based on research by
Pietro Scilacci.
Dewey Livingston and published
as The People’s Store: A History of the Point Reyes
Emporium.
Pietro Scilacci arrived in the United States
as a 15-year-old boy in 1880. He had come from
the village of Corippo in the Canton Ticino of
Switzerland and like many young men from that
area came to the U. S. for a better opportunity. He
went to Tocaloma where a relative, Giuseppe “Joe”
Codoni, had a dairy. After a year there he worked
at Angelo Codoni’s dairy near Muddy Hollow
and several other ranches in the area. He decided
dairying was not the best career path for him and
went to San Francisco to attend Pacific Business
College. In 1889 he went to work for Salvatore
Grandi and lived in a cottage at Second and B, built
for workers at the Whitney then Grandi store (see
Corners #4). He had married Claudina Mazza and
they had three children, Wilford “Bill,” George and
Edwina, while living there.
Like most of his fellow Italian-Swiss he
worked hard and saved his money and planned for
the future. In August 1898 he left Salvatore Grandi
and built a general store of his own at the other
end of Point Reyes Station. It cost about $2,500 to
build and was a two story frame building with
a decorated false front and porch, a brick-lined
sidewalk and a large basement. The interior was
spacious, with a balcony surrounding the main
sales floor, a fireplace on the south wall and a bar
16
in the back; Scilacci had outdone his
former boss in building a grander
store. The Scilacci family lived upstairs which had four bedrooms, a
kitchen and livingroom and views
all over town. The building was
called Point Reyes Emporium and
on the side of the building, facing
Third Street, was a large sign proclaiming, “The People’s Store.” He
also built next to the store a warehouse which held larger items like
wagons, farm implements, feed and
fuels. Scilacci also took the post office which had
been at Grandi’s store with him when he left. The
post office moved back to the Grandi building
(built by Salvatore’s brother Louis and sons), and
then back to Scilacci’s several times. The story of
the post office will be told in another issue.
In 1900 he bought the remainder of the block
from Galen Burdell, the founder of the town, and
built a two-story livery stable in a style to match
the store. The current building there is a replica
of the original. He also built a house on the north
side of the lot and a sewer system that served the
north end of town. A second, smaller warehouse
was built later to handle the overflow. Goods were
delivered from the daily trains and rolled across
the street on hand trucks. The Emporium also
delivered goods to the ranches and others.
In the 1906 earthquake the brick building
housing Salvatore Grandi’s store collapsed, but
only the chimney on Scilacci’s Emporium toppled.
The Grandi store was rebuilt but remained small.
When the Grandi family bought the entire block
on the other end of town and erected the enormous
brick Grandi Building the competition between
the two was intense. There was enough business,
however, so that both stores flourished. Each store
had its own faithful clientele. Whoever had the
post office at the moment had a slight advantage.
Scilacci started the Inverness Stage, driven by Ben
The Scilacci family’s Point Reyes Emporium, seen here at right in 1927, dominated the north end of town. In the distance
at left the towers of the competing Grandi store can be seen. (Courtesy of Point Reyes National Seashore Archives)
Pedranti, taking folks to Inverness or on excursions to Bear Valley, the Lighthouse, the beaches or
Bolinas. In 1917 the horse and wagon was replaced
by a new Studebaker touring car. Eventually the
business was sold to Pedranti – but that is another
story, told well in Jack Mason’s book, Ben’s Auto
Stage.
In 1917 young Bill Scilacci went off to war and
returned home uninjured, but his sister Edwina
and his mother had both died of flu while he was
away. On December 15, 1921, he and his friend
Jesse Adams leased the store from his father for a
sum of $1,000 per year. The deal included the store
and two warehouses and the lumberyard on the
northeast corner (where the Little Yellow House
is today). Pietro continued to occupy the upstairs
of store and took to selling life insurance. Bill
married Irma Cheda and with Jesse and his wife
Lavinia, who became the town librarian later, they
worked to make the store a success. It was called
Adams & Scilacci Company but they left the old
Point Reyes Emporium sign up. Their slogan was
“Service and Courtesy, Free Information to Tourists.” They installed gas pumps on the sidewalk.
The Depression hit Point Reyes Station badly
and business declined at both stores. The railroad
pulled out in stages: first the segment from Point
Reyes Station up to the Russian River closed in
1930 and by 1933 the entire line closed down.
The lumber yard buildings burned along with the
stock. By 1932 the Bank of America took over the
property. Bill Scilacci (by this time Adams had
pulled out) started a new store in the warehouse
next door and called it the Palace Food Market. As
soon as he could he moved the store back into the
original store building. The story of the growth of
the Palace Market and the subsequent use of the
old Point Reyes Emporium is long enough to need
a separate story or even several stories.
Bill was active in Marin County affairs as
well. He sat on the Marvelous Marin commission
which proposed paved roads among other things.
He was active in passing the 1925 Road Bond Act
that resulted in the building of the Manor-to-Point
Reyes highway during 1926-1930. In a letter to the
San Rafael Independent dated July 17, 1929, Bill suggested naming the highway for Sir Francis Drake.
The name was officially adopted by the Board of
Supervisors in 1931. Bill purchased a store in Mill
Valley and then one in San Jose as well as others.
He moved his family to Santa Clara in 1938. Pietro
remarried and had another son, Calvin and finally
died at age 86 on April 11, 1952 in Point Reyes Station; he was buried at the Olema Cemetery.
17
INVERNESS FOUNDATION, MUSEUM COMMITTEE
ANNUAL REPORT 2013/14
Mission:
The Jack Mason Museum of West Marin History is a small archive and museum created to build upon
local historian Jack Mason’s extensive history collection. The Museum collects and preserves materials pertaining to the history of the Point Reyes and Tomales Bay region. Our mission is to enrich the community
through exhibits, publications, outreach programs and research opportunities. We seek to inspire public
interest in West Marin history and to highlight its connection to contemporary life.
Membership:
The Museum has a separate membership from the Inverness Association/Foundation, and anyone who
is interested in the history of West Marin is welcome to be a member of the organization. Our membership list
is about 220. In June we did a joint mailing of our newsletter Under the Gables to all members of the museum
as well as the Inverness Foundation in the hopes that people will join the part of the organization they are
not yet members of, and/or renew their memberships. The results came in July and are not yet complete so
are not reported here.
Museum Committee:
The Museum Committee, a part of the Inverness Foundation, is responsible for maintaining the Archives
and Museum. Tom Branan is Chair, Ann Read is Secretary and Meg Linden is Treasurer. Michael Mery is
the Inverness Foundation representative and we appreciate both his historical knowledge and his practical
knowledge. Other committee members at present are Andrew Buckingham; Carola DeRooy, archivist at the
Point Reyes National Seashore; Dewey Livingston, local historian; and Mary Kroninger. There are several
active volunteers and more would be welcome.
Exhibits and publications:
We have had four exhibits at the Museum during the last fiscal year:
• Thank Goodness It Didn’t Happen: This exhibit, prepared by Louise Landreth and Meg Linden, featured
what might have happened had development plans of the 1960s actually materialized and includes material
on the West Marin General Plan of 1964-1971 and maps and diagrams of plans for development of the National Seashore for active recreational use. (remained up from last fiscal year)
• M.B. Boissevain: Marin’s First Farm Advisor: This was a joint exhibition with photographs also at the
National Seashore’s Red Barn. The photos are primarily from our archives with some from other sources
including Tomales Regional History Center. The exhibit was mounted by the UC Cooperative Extension.
• Picturing Point Reyes: This exhibit consists of photographs used in the Arcadia publication by Carola
de Rooy and Dewey Livingston called Point Reyes Peninsula and has been shown before
• Inverness: the Early Years – 1889-1939: This exhibit was put together by Dewey Livingston and Meg
Linden to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the original Inverness subdivision. It will remain up through
the end of July and then return for December.
There was an Open House for each exhibit. The Museum produced three issues of Under the Gables,
our Newsletter, with background stories on the subjects included in the latter three exhibits as well as some
general articles about Museum operation and other topics. The most recent issue also included some history
of the Inverness (Improvement) Association and Inverness Foundation.
Website:
The website has been kept up to date and some additional pages created. The website URL is jackmasonmuseum.org
18
Upgrading the Museum and Archives:
• We upgraded our access to the Internet
• We completed boxing up all the newspapers for easier access
• We bought a new portable sign to announce Museum Open times (other than regular library
hours)
• We have plans in progress to update the Archives computer and the Museum cataloging software
we use.
Research and inquiries:
We get a number of inquiries and reference questions each year. For example, several people have
asked about the Randall family and the Randall house south of Olema. Others have asked for any documentation of their family in the early years, Wilsons at M Ranch, Sousa at F Ranch, Hewitt at the Point Reyes
Station hotel. We provided information on dairying in the very early years on Point Reyes and about the
Orthodox retreat center and chapel at the top of Balboa in Inverness Park. These are just examples of the
varying questions we get.
Historians’ work:
We are fortunate to have Dewey Livingston, the West Marin historian involved with our Museum
and on the committee. During this past year he was involved in training docents for the Point Reyes Station Historical Walking Tours (sponsored by C.L.A.M.) and also providing photographs to accompany the
materials. Meg Linden provided detailed chronological information and was one of the docents actually
leading the tours. Dewey has been hired to enhance the cataloging records with his knowledge of West
Marin history and has already provided detailed analysis of a number of photo albums in the collection
and some of the other records. We are using the Scotty & Joe Mendoza Memorial money for this as well as
a number of large donations that came in during the year. This project will continue into this fiscal year and
donations to increase the number of hours we can pay him are very welcome and tax-deductible.
Collecting and preserving the Archives:
During this fiscal year we received about 23 donations (ranging from one piece to 20 pieces) and the
cataloging on these is complete. We are also trying to catch up on cataloging gifts from previous years. Currently there are 6,938 records in our database, with 591 added this year.
Jack Mason’s publications:
We did not made any progress on republishing the Jack Mason books this year.
Finances:
We ended the year with $29,511.40, of which $4,506.64 is designated for Dewey’s work on the Archives.
Income was $8,401 with $4,700 in membership dues and $3,576 in donations (most used for Dewey’s
work) and a little from usage fees and sale of books.
Expenditure was $7,018.86. The largest items were $1,925 for Dewey’s work, $1,430 for additional
work on the website and updates, $1,225.17 for Under the Gables including an extra large run so we could
send it to Inverness Foundation members as well. $740.07 for administration including the new Museum
Open sign and more remit envelopes. Other expenses were normal.
Respectfully submitted, Meg Linden
19
RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED
Jack Mason Museum of West Marin History
P. O. Box 94
Inverness, CA 94937
www.jackmasonmuseum.org
Non-Profit Org.
US Postage
PAID
Permit No. 5
Inverness, CA
94937
RADIO
PERSONALITIES
OF WEST MARIN
A look at 100 years of the wireless
industry and its people in West Marin
Exhibit at the Jack Mason Museum
Inverness, California
August 1-November 30, 2014