Mayor "Sunny Jim" Rolph

Gregarious, outgoing, always smiling, "Sunny Jim" Rolph's administration, during which gambling and prostitution is thriving in San Francisco, has been characterized by the not-so-unlikely combination of populism and debauchery.

The greater part of his term of office has been spent cajoling the public with handshakes and smiles. He is seen as a dapper man-about-town with a friendly word for everyone. On his way to work at City Hall he is famous for picking up pedestrians along the street and driving them to wherever their destination is. His limousine has served as ambulance for more than one street accident.

Rolph was born in San Francisco in 1869, the son of Margaret (Nicol) and James Rolph. He had four brothers and two sisters. After attending school in the Mission District, he went to work as an office boy in a commission house. He married Annie Marshall Reid in 1872 and has had at least one son: James Rolph, III (born in 1904).

Rolph entered the shipping business in 1900, by forming a partnership with George Hind. Over the next decade, he served as president of two banks, one of which he helped establish. Although he was asked to run for mayor in 1909, he chose to wait until 1911 to run for mayor, entering politics at the age of 42, already a wealthy member of a shipping and insurance company. He lived "way out in the Mission," in a home considered a San Francisco showcase. In 1911 "Sunny Jim" was urged to run for Mayor against the incumbent labor candidate P.H. McCarthy, whom the city's ruling class considered incompetent. McCarthy had been accused of allowing the corruption of the city (notably the Barbary Coast) to run rampant. The 6-week campaign included fist fights, egg-throwing, police riots ~ all typical of pre-TV-era electioneering. His campaign theme song was "There Are Smiles That Make You Happy".

Rolph won easily over McCarthy, and immediately set to work preparing for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. With regard to cleaning up the Barbary Coast, Rolph instituted a few token efforts, mainly to appease the outspoken church groups, but never launched anything resembling an all-out crusade. The city was generally characterized as a "wide open town."

The 1915 Exposition was not held in Golden Gate Park as had been expected, but at Harbor View, reclaimed marshland along the north edge of the city. Golden Gate Park Superintendent John McLaren refused to allow the park land to be usurped by greedy politicians and commercial entrepreneurs for their own gain.

Rolph in his stove pipe hat led 150,000 marchers down Van Ness Avenue, then Lombard Street to the Fairgrounds. The profits from the Exposition were used to build Civic Auditorium. Rolph was easily reelected. The only serious rival was Eugene Schmitz, the former mayor driven out of office by financial scandal in 1907.

In 1915 he appeared as himself in an early documentary film titled *Mabel and Fatty Viewing the World's Fair at San Francisco*, which starred Fatty Arbuckle and Mabel Normand and was directed by Arbuckle.

Rolph knows of the power in San Francisco of the Roman Catholic Church. Italians, Irish, French, and Germans make up the majority of the population of the City. He has established a deep friendship with Archbishop Edward Joseph Hanna. In the years before the US involvement in the Great War, Rolph became even wealthier by supplying coal and ships to the Allied Countries. His net worth was estimated at $5 million. He bought a ranch west of Stanford University. Reportedly the Department of Public Works made all the improvements on the ranch at the taxpayers' expense.

But "Sunny Jim" knew how to throw a party. After the US entry into the Great War, Rolph bought a shipyard north of San Francisco in Humboldt County. To celebrate the "largest 4-masted wooden ship ever built on the West Coast," he threw a party the likes of which had never been seen in San Francisco. The festivities cost $25,000. Rolph's salary as Mayor at this time was $6,000. The celebration lasted 2 days and 2 nights on a chartered 12-car Northwest Pacific train.

With everything going his way, Jim Rolph attempted to run for Governor of California. He filed in both the Republican and Democratic primaries. Winning the Democratic nomination, and nearly the Republican as well, Rolph seemed a shoe-in for the office. But there began his trouble. A state law maintained that any candidate losing his own party's primary (Rolph was in fact a Republican) was ineligible to run on the other ticket. Rolph was out of the race. Furthermore, he incurred the wrath of the Democratic Party, then led by Woodrow Wilson, for his spurious intrusion into the primary ~ embarrassing and essentially sabotaging the party. Furthermore, Rolph's contract to build three new ships for the Federal Government was cancelled by the Federal Shipping Board, and he was subsequently enjoined from selling any ships to foreign governments. Rolph was facing financial ruin.

Despite his staggering losses, Rolph organized a celebration for the returning soldiers at the conclusion of the war. The event was as much a riot as a parade, with Rolph drawing much attention to himself.

He has been easily re-elected Mayor several more times. To say that "Sunny Jim" enforced the Prohibition laws as little as possible, would be putting it mildly. The Democratic National Convention came to San Francisco in 1920, only five months after the introduction of the bill. H.L. Mencken recalled Rolph's handling of the convention as "the most charming in American annals."

In addition to his mayoral duties and overseeing his shipping interests, he directs the Ship Owners and Merchants Tugboat Company and the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. He also was vice-president of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition and is president of the Merchants' Exchange.

Rolph knows how to "play the press." Reporters eagerly gather in Rolph's office on days when serious news is short, and Rolph always obliges them with a juicy story ~ whether or not it has any basis in reality.

Everyone in San Francisco seems to know "Sunny Jim" Rolph. He belongs to nearly every organization in the city, and happily attends any function to which he is invited. The greater part of his day is spent in self-promotion. His election campaign is not limited to election time, but runs continuously.

While Rolph is the charismatic figurehead of city government, there are two men in his administration who actually run the city on a day-to-day basis. With an iron hand, Sheriff Tom Finn and the bailbonds-brothers Pete and Tom McDonough direct what the public sees and hears. Rolph has left the police department entirely in the hands of the McDonoughs. The only other significant political influence comes from *Examiner* editor Bill Wren who uses his considerable influence whenever he deems it necessary. City Engineer M.M. O'Shaughnessy, famous as an autocratic and impossible man, is protected by Rolph and carries out most of the major public works projects that shape the city. John McLaren's tenure at the head of the Park and Rec Department is also covered by Rolph.