SAN FRANCISCO (CN) – Comedy comes in threes, that’s the rule. When telling a story – or a joke – they are better when they contain three elements or characters or actually anything. Three elements, like three bears or three little pigs, are more interesting for the audience. In the case of Warren Debenham, his American comedy collection, some 40,000 records and CDs, tchotchkes, board games and other novelties, is entering its third transition.

The Warren Debenham Comedy Recording Collection will soon be moved from the San Francisco Public Library to Emerson College in Boston, where it will join the rest of the Debenham collection. Covering a period of approximately 60 years, the collection spans the 1930s to 2006 and includes recordings of the comedic performances of some of the genre’s biggest names from Abbot and Costello to Lenny Bruce, recorded on LPs, 45s, 78s and CDs.

The collection includes a still-in-the-box arrow through the head, a schtick Boomers and Gen Xers might recognize from Steve Martin’s performances in the late 1970s. It includes helpful instructions: “1. Unpacking; 2. Can only be used between 10:04 p.m. and 3:47 a.m.; 3. Not to be taken internally; 4. To be used only for degradation and humiliation; 5. Can be used as handcuffs for cats if necessary (big cats only); 6. Do not use on unauthorized parts of the body.”

And there are compilations of numerous old radio shows such as “Our Miss Brooks”, “The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show”, “Duffy’s Tavern” and “The Phil Harris and Alice Faye Show” which originally aired from the 1930s to 1950s.

From 1955 to 2006, Debenham, then a minister at the Episcopal Church ministering throughout the Bay Area, built his collection, which over time has been spread across three locations (See? Comedy comes in three). In 1994, the minister donated 8,908 records and 10,664 45s to the San Francisco Library, totaling $96,745 at the time. In 2007 he donated more material to Emerson College while the third part of his collection remained at his home in Berkeley.

Pieces from the Debenham Collection, including recordings by Israeli and Japanese comedians and Danny Kaye. (Eric Burkett/Court News)

Debenham, 90, is donating the rest of his collection at home to Emerson, while the San Francisco Public Library prepares to donate its portion to Eastern College as well. Debenham did not respond to interview requests.

It’s a good fit, according to Jenn Williams, 38, associate director of archives and collections at Emerson.

Emerson, unlike the San Francisco Public Library, offers an emphasis in comedy. It also already houses an extensive collection of 19th-century humor and comedy in the form of vaudeville recordings and a collection of material from Variety magazine, which also covered in its early days before becoming known for its coverage of the film industry Theater and Variety.

The Emerson Collection includes more than 70 oral histories by figures such as comedian and civil rights activist Dick Gregory and the recently deceased – and much loved – Betty White. Emerson also houses the personal collections of other figures such as Dom DeLuise and Bill Dana, a stalwart of The Steve Allen Show in the 1950s and a key contributor to Emerson’s American Comedy Archives, audiovisual interviews with figures such as Phyllis Diller, Norman Lear and Dick Van Dyke and Bob Newhart.

“You really get a comprehensive look at comedy over several decades. It’s a collection used by the comedy community,” Williams said.

Her personal favorite is the Debenham novelty collection. “We have doll houses, action figures and board games. It’s so much fun to work with,” Williams said. Your particular favourite?

“There is a Casper the Friendly Ghost board game. I loved watching the show as a kid, so there’s a bit of nostalgia there,” she said.

Cast members drop by to see what their peers have been up to, she said, but the collection draws everyone from curious high school students to graduate students, including a student who traveled from New Zealand to peruse the video collections.

Left to right: “Lotus Land,” a musical comedy about life in Southern California by Ian Whitcomb (1995); “Zoo Be Zoo Be Zoo”, sung by Sophia Loren (date unknown); and the Loose Nuts, a punk/ska/country band (1995).

Emerson is particularly well suited for housing the collection. “There’s a lot of different things that go into conservation and care,” Williams said, from special binders to an appropriate HVAC system. Many of the films stored at Emerson are also preserved by freezing, which helps prevent film degradation. When the time comes to show a film, it is slowly thawed by placing it in a cool box or refrigerator, a process that takes eight to 10 hours.

“You have to be careful because condensation can cause damage,” Williams said.

It’s not that San Francisco was a bad place to keep Debenham’s collection, but, as Susan Goldstein noted, it was also “a bit of an outlier.”

An archivist, Goldstein, 64, directs the library’s San Francisco History and Book Arts Special Collections, which, as the name suggests, focuses on San Francisco.

“We’re doing what a number of institutions are doing and looking at what we have,” she said. And like these other institutions, they find more suitable homes for collections that don’t particularly fit into their bailiwick.

“It’s a good thing for organizations to stop and take stock of what they have and what best serves the public,” said Goldstein, who will be stepping down and retiring in a few months.

Stored in acid-free boxes in a temperature-controlled environment, the collection isn’t as accessible to San Francisco viewers as it is at Emerson’s. And in these increasingly costly times, maintaining a collection that doesn’t truly fit the library’s goals means it takes up resources that are increasingly scarce. The transfer of the Debenham collection will provide additional space for materials with a stronger local focus, Goldstein said.

“It’s expensive to properly take care of a collection,” she said. Personnel, labour, supplies – it all adds up.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has adopted a proposed resolution approving the donation of the collection to Emerson. Once final approval is obtained, the collection is expected to be shipped to Boston in May.

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Vacaville police on March 21, 2022, shared this photo of one of its officers walking with a woman who was found wandering on a busy street. The post triggered a community discussion on the difficulties faced when caring for a loved one with dementia.

VACAVILLE, Caif. – The Vacaville Police Department has received praise and triggered a compassionate, community discussion on the heartbreaking realities of caring for a loved one with dementia.

On Monday, the department posted a touching photo of one of its officers walking with an elderly woman who had been found wandering onto a busy street and into parking lots.

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Police said an alert community member had noticed the woman and went over to help her to safety.

“The community member stopped to help and recognized the elderly woman was a neighborhood member who was displaying signs similar [to] those she’d seen in her own grandmother who suffered from dementia,” police shared, adding that it prompted the community member to call police.

Officers arrived and were able to quickly identify the woman, thanks to a necklace she wore which included her contact information. They went on to notify a relative who worked nearby, police explained.

While waiting for the woman’s relative to arrive, an officer took the opportunity to go the extra mile.

“… the officer volunteered to continue to walk through the park with the woman to help keep her at ease while they waited,” police said. “As they walked, the officer chatted with the senior and she spoke about her favorite foods, how much she loves dogs, and how she just wanted to go home.”

For many local law enforcement agencies, their officers were no strangers to these situations, as they’re often called on by desperate family members trying to locate a loved one suffering from memory loss due to dementia.

These sensitive and stressful events were not lost on the Vacaville Police Department as it offered some insight, providing a compassionate look into the subjects of these all too common cases.

“Imagine: You’ve lived a long, joyous life. You’ve seen the world change through so many decades,” the department shared in its post. “But now, the destructive powers of dementia are slowly robbing you of those precious life memories, and you occasionally find yourself wandering around, unsure exactly of where you are or where you’re headed.”

The Facebook post received more than 1.6K likes and a huge response from community members, many who could relate.

“With tears in my eyes and losing my mother to a horrendous case of dementia thank you so much for taking care of this lady with loving kindness it’s the only thing that works when things start going this way,” Cathy Gentry-hendricks wrote in the post’s comments.

Facebook user Luke Witthar shared, “I’m going through with that with my mother right now. She’ll call me at work and ask me what day it is and what time it is. Is so hard on a family.”

Kay Johnson Nelson expressed appreciation for the care taken to help the distressed woman. “Most grandmas have spent their lives caring for family and others. It’s so good to see family and community caring for our elderly members,” she wrote.

Police also used the post to offer this safety tip for families who have a loved one dealing with memory loss: “If you have an elderly family member that is at risk of becoming lost or disoriented, a necklace or bracelet with helpful information is a major resource for any Good Samaritans or first responders working to help,” police shared.

And to those who praised the department for its efforts, the police returned the expression of gratitude to the community, noting the effort was a collective one.

“There are a ton of wonderful people in our community, and it’s always nice to share a story that reminds us about positive humanity,” the department responded, also saying, “Our community members prove time and time again that they are willing to look out for and help one another.”

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Stolen San Francisco Service Dog reunited with owner

A stolen San Francisco service dog named Summer was reunited with her owner.

SAN FRANCISCO – A German Shepherd named Summer, who was stolen from her owner earlier this week, is back home.

Summer was dating her owner Locke MacKenzie on Waller Street Monday night when a suspect grabbed the dog by the harness and ran away.

Somebody later found the dog and called the Oakland police, who turned Summer over to animal service.

Since Summer has a microchip, the officers were able to find her rightful owner and reunite the two on Thursday evening.

“I wish she could talk to tell me about her adventure,” said MacKenzie. “But I am very relieved and very happy to have her back in my life and so on, because she is my companion, she is my dog. And we are a team.”

The investigation into who kidnapped Simmer is ongoing. There were no arrests at this point.

MORE: Heartbroken tourists after a kitten was stolen from Smash-and-Grab in San Francisco

Another stolen dog was reunited with its owner this week.

Police said someone from Sacramento saw on social media that “Rosie” was forcibly stolen on Jan. 1, which he did not know when he bought the French Bulldog.

He called the police on Monday and the police confirmed it was the same stolen dog.

And Rosie was reunited with her owner.

Neither the owner nor the Sacramento man wanted to be identified.

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SHERMAN OAKS, CA – Jimmy Nicholos almost lost his mind when his beloved dog Boots was stolen on New Years Eve. The two had been best friends for six years, and the brown Labrador Retriever was a steady source of joy on cold nights sleeping on the streets of Sherman Oaks.

When a woman stole the dog after promising to care for and return it, Nicholos was understandably upset.

“Boots are my life,” said Nicholos. “He depends on me and I love him to death. He lets me know that I’m fine.”

With the help of the community and the animal-oriented second-hand shop START Rescue Resale, where Nicholos works, lost dog posters were pasted over the valley and a reward was offered for the return of boots.

Suspecting the snow groomer’s story of losing boots at a dog park, Nicholos filed a lawsuit against Mrs. Nicole Lawrence accusing her of taking the dog. Soon after, Boots was brought back on a cold Monday evening in mid-January. Patch asked Lawrence for a comment.

Nicholos “really became a family member,” said Renee Ruston, owner of START Rescue, who helped organize the search effort. “That’s why we came together so hard to get the dog back from this woman who really betrayed us all. I didn’t want to stop until this dog was brought back. I have such admiration for him and his courage and perseverance on the.” Street.”

The civil suit is still pending, but Nicholos is overjoyed to regain his trusted companion. After Nicholos and Boots reunited, community member Jolie Salter started a GoFundMe to help him build his own craft business and buy a RV to sleep in and store his tools. As of Thursday, the fundraising hub had raised $ 3,870 for the fundraiser’s $ 20,000 goal.

“There are a lot of people in the neighborhood who know him,” said Salter, who is currently starting a nonprofit called HelpOurHood. “They want craft work; he’s a handyman. If he had a van he could sleep in it, lock a door behind him, have heating and air conditioning, and he could use them to run a business and to support himself.”

Nicholos, a lifelong fixer, said his proudest improvement project was a recent cherry wood furniture restoration that allowed him to use his skilled hands and indulge his love of antiques.

“I know a lot about antiques,” he said. “I love collectibles. I would be really good at selling coins. Give me a US coin, I’ll tell you what year it is, what year they stopped minting them, and I can give you that rare key dates from a say mint. “

Nicholos’ helpful spirit earned him a job at START Rescue four years ago. First he visited the store in the hope of buying a new boot cart. The shopkeeper offered to give it to him for free after learning of his situation.

“I’m not used to feeling gratitude,” said Nicholos. “I haven’t had much reason to be grateful in my life.”

A few days later, he found something the store wanted and returned to START Rescue to sell it to them. While he was there, they asked him to fix something in the store and did the same a few days later. It wasn’t long before Nicholos started working part-time, and Boots became a local celebrity for the business.

“After a year people came into the store just to see boots,” he said.

A few years after meeting Nicholos, Ruston and START Rescue started a new program called Homeless Owners and Pet Efforts (HOPE). The program connects unoccupied residents and their pets with medical care and meals, and provides a mailing address for those who wish to receive parcels.

With HOPE, Ruston would like to help Nicholos to find permanent housing and to support him in becoming a functioning member of society.

“I want to give him the same thing that I have: a shower, a kitchen, a living room,” said Ruston. “I want to bring him into a home and help him become a functioning member of society.”

Nicholos credits the people at START Rescue for helping him get his life back on track. After he started working there, the owners helped him get ID for the first time in his life. They recently connected him to Sean Ebrahimian, a dentist who has offered to restore his teeth with a permanent tooth transplant completely free of charge.

“I haven’t had any teeth since my early 40s,” he said. “I didn’t ask anything of you. I told you if you want to give me something, you have to say it’s for boots so I can take it.”

Nicholos said he was 15 when his parents bitterly divorced and the teen was taken to a juvenile detention center while family services were looking for a foster family. After six months had passed with no hope in sight, he saw a chance to escape when his social worker took him to an appointment and he took the opportunity.

“I opened the door and ran,” said Nicholos. “When I did that, the social worker started yelling at me to come back. I just ran until I saw a house to dive under and hide under. After a while, I heard the social worker yelling that I should come back I could see the street from where I was hiding. She wasn’t alone; she had a cop with her. After a while I fell asleep and when I woke up it was dark and I was cold. “

With no home, Nicholos spent the next few years hitchhiking around the country.

Now he has made a home for himself in Sherman Oaks where he feels welcome. When he’s not working at START Rescue or playing with Boots, he can ride his bike through the community. If you’re ready, he’ll even take you on a bike race.

“I can override anyone, I don’t care how old you are,” he said with a laugh.

Salter said the fundraising project will be the first of many at HelpOurHood. Hoping to launch the website soon, she said that future major projects will be crowdsourcing projects so the community can come together for future improvements.

“I want to take it into my own hands where we don’t deal with the state, the governor or the city council because we would wait forever,” said Salter. “We can do it alone.”

GoFundMe is a patch advertising partner.

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