
The Secret History of FRISCO
Join us on a cinematic journey through the last wild years when San Francisco was still wide-open. The cops ran the town in the Thirties and Bones Remmer ran the town in the Forties.
Battles raged between the factions of dark and light in the hidden realms of San Francisco’s power elite, behind the headlines, from the celestial dominions of Nob Hill eateries and private clubs down to the nether depths of the dive bars in the heart of the Tenderloin, up to the Barbary Coast and jazz joints of North Beach and over to the banks and brokerages in the Financial District …
FRISCO will bring alive that wild and bygone era of the Cool Grey City of Love that seduced the world.
Podcasting since 2025 • 12 episodes
The Secret History of FRISCO
Latest Episodes
Ep. 6—Jimmie Tarantino Pt. 2: D.A. Thomas Lynch Spells Out Jimmie's Scams in Post-WWII Frisco
California State Attorney General Thomas C. Lynch was the Assistant D.A. in San Francisco in the late 1940s, the years Jimmie Tarantino, blackmailer and extortionist magazine publisher, was plying his trade in San Francisco at the behest of Fri...
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Season 1
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Episode 6
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28:16

Ep. 5—Jimmie Tarantino Part 1: When Frank Sinatra and Mickey Cohen Invested in His Hollywood Nite Life Magazine
This episode of "The Secret History of Frisco" podcast introduces listeners to Jimmie Tarantino, a man described as a "louse, a blowhard, a barely literate, anti-Communist shake-down artist." The episode delves into Tarantino's early life in Ea...
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Season 1
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Episode 5
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32:16

Bonus Ep. 5—Call It FRISCO Part Two—Sally Stanford Weighs In On The Eternal Conflict
In "Call It FRISCO, Part 2," host Knox Bronson defends his podcast's name, "The Secret History of Frisco," against objections from hither and thither, including the Reddit San Francisco group. Historical figures like Emperor Norton and ma...
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Season 1
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26:04

Bonus Ep. 4—FRISCO NOIR With Rachel Walther—The Maltese Falcon No.1 (1931) & No.2 (1941) and Dark Passage (1947)
In this episode, the first of a series, Knox Bronson, host of "The Secret History of Frisco" podcast, welcomes Rachel Walther, a film noir expert and author, to discuss the genre's connection to San Francisco. Walther, who writes for the ...
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Season 1
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47:38

Ep. 4—The Story of Johnny Ochsner, The Rich Kid Romeo, and the Lovesick Stowaways
The episode chronicles the romantic life of Johnny Ochsner, a young Oakland oil heir whose escapades in the 1940s became international news.Marguerite Faye Human and Teresa Briston, separately stowawayed across the Pacific in purs...
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Season 1
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Episode 4
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45:47
