Enjoy a glamorous evening of music and dancing, the presentation of the Art Deco Preservation Awards, and a silent auction of locally curated wares and services.
Tickets available now at www.artdecopreservationball.com.
A lively 1920s picnic held annually at the Dunsmuir Hellman Historic Estate featuring vintage fashions, dancing, music, and classic automobiles.
Tickets and more information to come at www.gatsbysummerafternoon.com
Join us for an afternoon of camaraderie! See your Art Deco Society friends, and meet new ones; chat with board members; learn more about ADSC’s recent preservation activities and upcoming events.
Discover Uptown Oakland's wonderful concentration of Art Deco buildings on a walking tour with Therese Poletti & Alice Jurow of the ADSC.
Join us at the fabulously Art Deco Orbit Room for a fun and festive author presentation. Nan Turner's book, Clothing Goes to War, celebrates creativity inspired by scarcity: turning mosquito nets into wedding veils, face makeup into leg makeup, bed sheets into wedding dresses and military blankets into girl's coats.
Join us at our annual pre-Gatsby event for great tips on vintage styling and creating your own vintage-inspired picnic; learn how to navigate the grounds, where to park, and what to expect when you arrive. We look forward to sharing a delightful afternoon of entertainment, education, cocktails, and shopping with local vendors as we get ready for the Gatsby Summer Afternoon!
This webinar explores the fun of collecting vintage cookbooks and recipes as an American literary and historical lens—as well as inspiration for your next meal!
This presentation will be hosted on Zoom and there will not be an in-person option. We will send out the Zoom credentials to ticket holders in advance of the event date.
This class has been unfortunately cancelled due to lack of meeting the minimum threshold of participants.
Spend an evening with vintage cocktail aficionado Luis Rodriguez learning the ways people drank in “our” period, and also what they were drinking.
This presentation will be hosted on Zoom and there will not be an in-person option. We will send out the Zoom credentials to ticket holders in advance of the event date.
This lecture, presented by Brynn W. Shiovitz, PhD, will speak to prevalent Black dance trends during the Harlem Renaissance, while also exploring how many Black artists used the fallacy of authenticity to appeal to White audiences.
This presentation will be hosted on Zoom and there will not be an in-person option. We will send out the Zoom credentials to ticket holders in advance of the event date.
Historian Walter Nelson will give a lecture on how 1920s and 1930s dance really was compared to modern distortions seen on TV and in film.
This presentation will be hosted on Zoom and there will not be an in-person option. We will send out the Zoom credentials to ticket holders in advance of the event date.
You are invited to a very special guided private tour of the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, which is celebrating 50 years since it was perfectly restored and is still absolutely impeccable today. If you are planning to come to the Art Deco Preservation Ball in May, this will give you an even deeper appreciation of all that Timothy Pflueger designed… and you will see many parts of the theatre not usually open to the public.
British singer/songwriter & pianist Kate Garner shares her infectious passion for the exceptional songwriters and performers of the Art Deco era - the 1920’s & 30’s. As well as playing many classics of the period from Cole Porter and Irving Berlin, to Fats Waller, Billie Holiday, and Noel Coward, Kate will share some of her own original songs inspired by the great songwriters of the time.
The Art Deco Society of California and the Elks Lodge of San Rafael present a new event: Daisy’s Dinner Dance.
Enjoy supper with no host cocktails and live music by Sweden’s Queen of Swing: Gunhild Carling!
Please join us for a convivial afternoon party at this history-filled venue!
This is also an excellent opportunity to introduce your non-member friends to the ADSC, so bring them along! Individual members can purchase two extra tickets at member price; Dual and Supporting members can purchase up to four tickets.
Musical stylings by Nick Rossi with a special appearance by pianist and vocalist Sara Klotz de Aguilar. Room to dance if inspired!
Delicious appetizers and no-host cocktails
Mini Silent Auction and a small vintage sale of Ball-ready attire!
Each current member will receive a beautiful ADSC enamel logo pin!
Plenty of free parking!
Tours of the museum will be offered.
Vintage attire admired but not required.
Please bring a face mask and proof of vaccination. Cash for raffle tickets and the bar will be convenient.
Volunteering is a delightful way to become part of the ADSC community - if interested in supporting this event, please email: zelda@artdecosocietyofcalifornia.org
Note: Google's directions can be confusing, so here is some additional information --
From the tube into Alameda through Webster Street - make your first right on Ralph Appezzato Ave/Atlantic Avenue and follow this street all the way to the end at the San Francisco Bay. You will be then forced to turn right and the Naval Air Museum with its checkerboard red and white tower will be immediately on your left. The parking lot's entrance is a sharp turn just past the pedestrian sidewalk and through the gate. Entrance is up the blue steps, with ADA accessibility to the venue (our volunteers will direct).
For those of you who have never been to the Alameda Naval Air Museum: It is a three Story Building constructed in Alameda Point's historic district formerly known as the Naval Air Station (operational 1940- 1998) Opened in 1942, our main event venue is on the second floor in the "Crows Nest Restaurant". Also located on the 2nd floor is an outdoor terrace featuring majestic views of the seaplane lagoon and SF Bay. With elevator access to all levels, guests are welcome to self guide through the museum on the first floor and/or also access the third floor, and view their Research Library and Miniature Village/Model Train.
You are invited to join a select group of “passengers” to board Pan Am's China Clipper on its first flight across the Pacific in 1935. Enjoy a brief history presentation of the first flight of the Martin M-139 flying boat, followed by a screening of the 1936 movie, China Clipper.
2:00 p.m.
Preboarding: enjoy small bites and a hosted beer and wine bar hour while listening to a brief history presentation about the first flight of the Martin M-139 flying boat. Mingle with fellow passengers before boarding.
2 drinks are included with your admission (wine, beer, sparkling wine, or sparkling water). Tipping the bartender is encouraged!
3:00 p.m.
Grab some popcorn, fasten your seatbelts and prepare for departure while you watch the Hollywood production of China Clipper (1936), starring Pat O’Brien, Beverly Roberts, Humphrey Bogart, Ross Alexander and supporting cast.
At the conclusion of the "flight," until 6 p.m., enjoy a little movie history about the actors, or tour the museum.
This is event is brought to you by the Alameda Naval Air Museum and the Art Deco Society of California.
Plenty of free parking available onsite.
Seating is limited. If available, all tickets sold at the door will be $30.
Dressing vintage style is admired but not required!
At present, Alameda County requires that masks be worn for indoor events, regardless of vaccination status. Please plan to bring your proof of vaccination.
The Art Deco Society of California (ADSC) is proud to host Arthur Dong in a virtual event celebrating his new book Hollywood Chinese: The Chinese in American Feature Films. This book provides a spectacular view of the Chinese American impact on the movies, from some of the earliest films set in America’s renowned Chinatowns to contemporary hits and artists that are remaking the face of Hollywood.
The program will feature a book discussion and series of film clips led by Mr. Dong, followed by a moderated Q&A session after the talk. This program will be hosted on Zoom: The event link and information on how to obtain a personalized, autographed copy of the book will be sent to all ticket holders in advance of the event date, as well as approximately 2 hours prior to showtime.
A look back at some of the Art Deco Society of California's past preservation work and awards, and an overview of present projects.
To celebrate World Art Deco month, the Art Deco Society of California will be showcasing some spectacular examples of Art Deco of the Golden State, and of our preservation work. We will host a one-hour online program, split into three parts:
The first section will be a review of the Best of the Art Deco Preservation Awards, the Top 10 Art Deco works in California, as voted on by our members from a list of popular past ADSC preservation award winners.
A brief musical interlude with music from Don Neely’s Royal Society Jazz Orchestra will follow.
This will be followed by a presentation on creating glamorous, Art Deco styled special events to support the efforts of preservation projects. This will cover the genesis of our Art Deco Preservation Ball and our annual awards for preservation, plus a review of some of our past preservation work in the San Francisco Bay Area.
After this there will be a brief demonstration of how to make an Art Deco era cocktail (with a non-alcoholic variation).
The program will finish with a brief overview of our current preservation projects and issues in the Bay Area.
The program will last approximately one hour; the Zoom room will remain open for Q & A and socializing afterward.
Therese Poletti, ADSC Preservation Director, and Laurie Gordon, founder of the Art Deco Preservation Ball, will be the speakers.
The Art Deco Society of California is pleased to host Jasmin Darznik, professor of English and creative writing at California College of the Arts. She will be discussing her new book, The Bohemians, which follows Dorothea Lange through 1920s San Francisco.
There will be a hosted Q&A session after the presentation.
This event will be hosted on Zoom. A link will be posted closer to the event and sent to those who have purchased tickets.
In 1918, celebrated photographer Dorothea Lange steps off the train in San Francisco, where a disaster kick-starts a new life. Her friendship with Caroline Lee, a vivacious, straight-talking Chinese American with a complicated past, gives her entrée into Monkey Block, an artists’ colony and the bohemian heart of the city. Dazzled by Caroline and her friends, Dorothea is catapulted into a heady new world of freedom, art, and politics. The Bohemians captures a glittering and gritty 1920s San Francisco, with a cast of unforgettable characters, including cameos from such legendary figures as Mabel Dodge Luhan, Frida Kahlo, Ansel Adams, and D. H. Lawrence.
Jasmin Darznik was born in Tehran, Iran, and came to America when she was five years old. She holds an MFA in fiction from Bennington College, a JD from the University of California, and a PhD in English from Princeton University. Now a professor of English and creative writing at California College of the Arts, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family.
Our friends at the Treasure Island Museum have a special FREE online lecture: a virtual fashion show coordinated and narrated by Laurie Gordon, with co-hosts Kristin Wojkowski and Isabella Miller, featuring the Decobelles and friends and models from the Art Deco Society of California in authentic men's and women's clothing that would have been worn at the GGIE and the New York World's Fairs of 1939-40.
See how people dressed to attend the fair in day wear to explore exhibits and evening clothes for the dances taking place on Treasure Island. The smart suits and snappy hats and shoes are a far cry from the jeans and sneakers that would be worn for such a fair today. Photos from a "live" fashion show as well as historic pieces and memorabilia from the fair will be presented.
Rare photos and souvenir items from Richard Fishman's ArtDecoCollection.com and from the models’ own vintage clothing collections such as pins, brochures, aprons, scarves, hats, and jackets from the fair will be shown as well as swimsuits like those featured in the Aquacade.
Photos include a series by Ed Jay taken at the live fashion show done for the Treasure Island Museum.
Speaker: Laurie Gordon has been producing gala events for many years, including several for the Treasure Island Museum, notably the spectacular three-day 50th Anniversary Celebration, which introduced the Decobelles.
You must register to receive a link to this free lecture held via Zoom.
You voted for your favorites from our list of 25 of our historic Art Deco Preservation Awards. Which ones made the top 10?
ADSC Preservation Director Therese Poletti will count down and reveal the winners of our poll -- with photos and fun facts about our favorite Art Deco buildings.
We'll also have time to socialize, and some musical surprises.
Advance sign-up (by 5 pm November 21) is required! Admission is free (though of course your donations to the ADSC are welcome).
Dress up, mix yourself a drink and tune in! You will receive a Zoom link 2 hours before the event.
Even though we cannot be together in person this year, we want to relive the magic of Gatsby Summer Afternoon with a weekend of virtual camaraderie. There will be dance lessons, photo contests, and more.
All activities and posts will be on our Facebook page. This will not be a "live-streamed" nor "Zoom" event. Instead, it will be an opportunity for you to share your photos, selfies, videos, and contest entries throughout the entire weekend. It will be easy, all you need to do is follow the prompts.
Please let your friends know they do not need to have a Facebook account to follow the activities, but to participate, they will need a Facebook account.
Join your Art Deco friends for a Saturday night at the movies! ADSC member and film aficionado Isabella Miller will introduce the fabulous 1931 pre-code film, Possessed.
The stars of this romantic drama are Joan Crawford and Clark Gable. Directed by Clarence Brown, this was one of the first films that helped established Crawford's sophisticated, post-flapper image. The film is 76 minutes long.
Synopsis: Marion is a factory worker who hopes to trade the assembly line for a beautiful penthouse apartment. Mark Whitney, a wealthy and influential lawyer, can make her dreams come true, but there is only one problem: He will give her everything but a marriage proposal. Will this affair ever lead to marriage?
Advance sign-up (by 5pm on September 5) is required! Admission is free (though of course your donations to the ADSC are welcome).
Dress up, mix yourself a drink and tune in! You will receive a Zoom link 2 hours before the event. The screening will be followed by a live Q&A.
Join your Art Deco friends for a Saturday night at the movies! ADSC member and film aficionado Isabella Miller will introduce the fabulous 1933 pre-code Bette Davis film, Ex-Lady.
The stars of this romantic drama are Bette Davis, Gene Raymond and Frank McHugh. With snappy dialogue, progressive subject matter and Orry-Kelly gowns, this was Davis’ first starring role. The film is 67 minutes long.
Summary: Helen Bauer, a glamorous professional artist with modern ideas about sexual relationships, is in love with Don Peterson, an advertising executive. Though the couple scorns marriage, they acquiesce to her father’s wishes and marry. Soon, each discover that marriage puts unwelcome constraints on their lifestyle and they begin experimenting with living arrangements and embark on a journey back to each other.
Advance sign-up is required! Admission is free (though of course your donations to the ADSC are welcome).
Dress up, mix yourself a drink and tune in! You will receive a Zoom link 24 hours before the event. The screening will be followed by a live Q&A.
In the early 1930s, at the onset of the Great Depression, San Francisco architect Timothy Pflueger orchestrated a symphony of modernistic art inside a capitalist institution, a luncheon club for the traders at the San Francisco Stock Exchange, in the new, small-scale office tower he had designed in 1929. Pflueger hired nine artists, sculptors, painters, and world-renowned muralist Diego Rivera, a cadre that would anticipate the government-funded socialist art of the New Deal just a few years later. Like the artists of FDR’s Federal Arts projects, some would prove to be controversial, especially the formerly avowed Communist Rivera as the star of the project.
This lecture by ADSC Preservation Director Therese Poletti will discuss the evolution of the Club, and showcase the artworks there, as well as Pflueger’s collaboration with the artists and his friendship with the charismatic Rivera and his artist wife Frida Kahlo.
Following the lecture, enjoy a brief fashion show curated by Jonathan Belmares, inspired by Diego Rivera’s models and muses, who included actresses Dolores Del Rio, Paulette Goddard, and more.
Social hour starts at 3pm; lecture at 4pm.
Admission $10 for ADSC and Bellevue Club members; $15 for non-members.
Free admission with purchase of tickets to the Art Deco Preservation Ball!
Every year, our January Member Appreciation Party is a gift to our members, a special occasion for our membership and board to meet and mingle, sip a cocktail and dance. This year we’re offering something a little different:
In honor of 2020, join us for a Party at The Overlook (aka the Bellevue), where ghosts of the 1920s linger...! There will be hot jazz dance music by the Hot Baked Goods and light refreshments and coffee; no-host bar. (See ticket link for drink tokens.)
TICKETS:
FREE tickets are available for current ADSC members, for the first 100 members to register on Eventbrite (see link below) or by phone at 510-271-6760.
One ticket per individual member; 2 tickets per dual membership. Order today!
After the first 100, tickets are $20 for ADSC members
Non-member tickets are $40
Please pre-order. Admission at the door is cash only, space permitting.
Formal or cocktail attire of the 1920s (or your favorite Deco decade) admired!
A lecture by Randy Juster
In 1933, Harold Lawson, an entrepreneur from Pittsburgh, moved to Los Angeles and founded Lawson Clocks Limited. Once believed to have gone out of business during the Depression, in fact Lawson Time remained in operation until 1980, making an astonishing variety of high quality digital clocks, almost all in the Art Deco and Streamline Moderne styles. Prominent Lawson clock owners included Walt Disney and Shirley Temple and the clocks have made appearances in films from 1934’s The Black Cat (with Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi) to Star Trek Into Darkness (2013).
Photographer Randy Juster became intrigued with Lawson Time in the 1970s and, unable to find any information on the company, spent years piecing the story together. The result is his new book, Moderne Time, which features clocks from six different collections along with vintage advertising and catalogs.
Books will be available for sale and signing (along with a selection of ADSC gift items!)
Social hour starts at 2pm; lecture at 3pm.
Admission $10 for ADSC and Bellevue Club members; $15 for non-members.
Brunch is served in the Bellevue Club Dining Room from 11:30am - 1:30pm. Phone (510) 451-1000 for reservations.
San Francisco’s George Washington High School, designed by local Art Deco master Timothy Pflueger in the mid 1930s, is an extraordinary example of major works of art commissioned with funds from Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal programs. The 13 frescoes in the lobby, an unflinching depiction of the mixed legacy of George Washington, painted by Russian emigre artist Victor Arnautoff, represent one of the largest extant installations of social realist art of the 1930s. Other well-known San Francisco artists of the 1930s are also represented in other murals and sculpted reliefs elsewhere at the school, including Ralph Stackpole, Lucien Labaudt, and Sargent Johnson. The art and the artists were not without controversy in their time, and are still generating controversy today.
Robert W. Cherny, professor emeritus of history at San Francisco State University, and biographer of Arnautoff, will give a brief talk on Arnautoff, the politics of the era, and the art work at the school, followed by a panel discussion on the current controversy over the murals in the lobby. Panelists will include Gray Brechin, author, geographer and founder of the Living New Deal Project; Harvey Smith, President of the National New Deal Preservation Association and project advisor at the Living New Deal; and Lope Yap, Jr., a filmmaker and special effects producer, who is also a vice president of the George Washington Alumni Association.
3pm cocktails, 4pm lecture followed by panel discussion
Admission: $10 members, $20 non-members
Vintage attire admired but not required.
For an optional dinner after the lecture, please call 510-451-1000 or email reception@bellevueclub.org for reservations.
Laurie Gordon and Richard Fishman of ArtDecoCollection.com present a lively slide lecture showing the grand buildings and antiques of Buenos Aires, the "Paris of South America."
The Argentine Tango
Rose Vierling (www.rosevierling.com) will give a short talk on the culture of Tango including a performance by expert tangueros.
Admission is $10 for ADSC or Bellevue Club members, $15 for non-members.
Cocktails at 6:30, lecture and demonstrations at 7:15, dancing to follow.
Parking in the Bellevue Club garage is free.
Film historian and photographer Mark A. Vieira brings more than forty years of research to his new book, Forbidden Hollywood. His presentation sparkles with rare, racy images and untold stories!
Books will be available for sale and signing. You won't want to miss this juicy and entertaining talk, the ultimate guide to pre-code Hollywood.
No host cocktail hour starts at 4pm, presentation at 5pm.
Admission is $15 for ADSC or Bellevue Club members; $20 for non-members.
For an optional dinner in the Bellevue Club Dining Room after the program, please phone 510-451-1000 or email reception@bellevueclub.org for reservations.
Parking in the Bellevue Club garage is free.
A Talk by Veronica Gonzalez-Rubio and B. Todi
From tango-mania to FDR’s “Good Neighbor” policy, how cultural and political factors of the early 20th century brought us the image of the “Latin Lover.”
No-host cocktail hour starts at 3:30 pm; lecture at 4:30 pm.
Admission is $10 for ADSC or Bellevue Club members; $15 for non-members. Pay at the door.
For an optional dinner in the Bellevue Club Dining Room after the program, please phone 510-451-1000 or email reception@bellevueclub.org for reservations.
The ADSC is proud to produce and present Samba at the Cirque: A Musical Cabaret at the Fairmont.
As everybody knows, life is a circus—so we’re headed to the beautiful and historic Cirque Room in the Fairmont Hotel!*
Join us for a delightful evening of circuitous South- and Central-American circumnavigation, chock full of fun, music, and performance. It will be a talent-filled romp over the high seas with a few high Cs thrown in for your musical pleasure. But get your tickets now—space is limited!
Performers will include Frederick Hodges, Ann Gibson, Sara Klotz de Aguilar, Raul Aguilar, Serafina Miller, Pamela Forman, Stephanie Rhoads-Bickham, Max Raymond, Sean Sharp, Liz Etler & the Decobelles!
Doors open for no-host cocktails at 6:30pm, and the show runs from 8 - 10pm. Consider a pre-show dinner at Osso Steakhouse, just down the street at 1177 California. Phone (415) 771-6776 for reservations.
During this exclusive period, tickets are only available to ADSC members. Tickets will go on sale to non-members after midnight, January 1, 2019 (if they are still available!) Not yet a member? It's a perfect time to join.
*The exquisite Cirque Room was designed by Timothy Pflueger in 1933, with delightful murals by the Bruton sisters, and is only open for private special events -- like this one!
