Actor Slim Pickens died in 1983

Here's a look at the past. Items have been culled from The Chronicle's archives of 25, 50, 75 and 100 years ago.

1983

Dec. 10: Slim Pickens, the cowboy actor, died in a Modesto hospital on Dec. 8. He was 64. In August 1982, neurosurgeons at UCSF had removed a tumor from his brain. Pickens, who owned a ranch near Columbia in Tuolumne County, was proud of the fact that he was one of the few Western actors who could actually drive a six-horse stagecoach team. Pickens not only portrayed cowboys in a host of movies, but he also was one. A rodeo performer for 20 years, he was elected in April to the Cowboy Hall of Fame.

He was born Louis Bert Lindley Jr. in Kingsburg, near Fresno, on June 29, 1919. He got his first horse when he was 4 and was riding rodeos at 14. "My father was against rodeos and told me he didn't want to see my name on the entry lists," Pickens said. His solution was to use another name.

"While I was fretting about what to call myself, some old boy said, 'Why don't you call yourself Slim Pickins, because that's what your prize money will be.' "

During his rodeo career, Pickens broke almost every bone in his body. "I had one side of my body X-rayed after I got throwed one time and it showed I had 17 broken bones on that side alone," he said. "But all that rodeo punishment just conditioned me for what I had to put up with later from movie producers. As far as I'm concerned, acting is like a license to steal. I know of no occupation where, with less money invested, you can make so much."

Pickens estimated he had been in more than 80 films and 250 television shows. But it was his role as the drawling bomber pilot, Maj. T.J. "King" Kong, in Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove" that earned Pickens the most fame and fortune. "After 'Dr. Strangelove,' my salary jumped five times," he said. "And assistant directors started saying, 'Hey, Slim' instead of, 'Hey, you.' "

1958

Dec. 14: The $1 million medieval Spanish monastery in Golden Gate Park was ruined Dec. 13 by a fire that blazed for more than three hours. The edifice, disassembled and lying in crates, can never be put together again.

Hundreds of its limestone blocks and pillars crashed and broke into pieces. The flames shot 100 feet high above the site where the monastery was stored just north of the Japanese Tea Garden. Huge clouds of gray smoke made a pall over the nearby M.H. de Young Memorial Museum and were visible for miles.

The blaze got off to a fast start because the crates for the monastery's 10,000 pieces of stone had become exceptionally dry from drought. In addition, oily eucalyptus leaves had formed a blanket over the crates that was "like feeding the flames with kerosene," District 7 Battalion Chief Frank Carew said. The Santa Maria de Ovila monastery was brought to San Francisco in 1930 by William Randolph Hearst and donated to the city in 1941.

The monastery lay in a warehouse for 10 years after it arrived aboard 12 ships, crated and with each piece numbered for restoration. Then it was moved to the park and stored in the open. Officials planned to restore the building, but no funds were available. The edifice, begun in 1185, originally sprawled on a cliff above the Tagus River 80 miles from Madrid. It was completed in the 16th century.

1933

Dec. 7: A kaleidoscope picture of the world's news. Mob violence flaring across the nation. Infuriated citizens in San Jose taking the law into their own hands. Hundreds injured when two commuting trains collide.

These are some of the pictures that will be brought to the San Francisco public when "The Chronicle Universal Newsreel" is shown beginning today at the Orpheum Theater.

This week's newsreel also shows a new type of convertible armored machine perfected by Walter Christie, the famous designer of tanks; Kansas City merchants distributing 500 overcoats to needy men; President Roosevelt signing the liquor code; a striking display of milady's cellophane dresses; and, last but not least, a cat drinking from a bottle.

1908

Dec. 14: It has come to the knowledge of Consul-General Chu Ping Chung that a war has broken out among the rival tongs of the Chinese colony. It is much to be regretted that these outbreaks should occur, as they are a constant and growing disgrace to the Chinese people living abroad, as well as a sad reflection upon the dignity of the Chinese nation.

Within the week there were disgraceful shootings in both San Francisco and Oakland. These affairs are particularly regretted at the present time, on account of the approaching New Year's festivities, in which the Americans have cordially invited the Chinese to participate. Aside from these considerations, a continuance of hostilities is a dangerous menace to the business prosperity of the whole city.

Warning is, therefore, hereby given to the fighting tongs that these affrays will have to stop. Upon the first indication of further outbreaks, the consul-general will at once ask the municipal police to arrest every person directly or indirectly connected with these tongs, and their names will be reported to the minister in Washington, who in turn will ask the viceroy of Canton to have the relatives of these offenders, living in China, punished in accordance with the laws of the empire. In a proclamation posted on the walls of Chinatown, Chung has brought about a temporary truce between the fighting men, who have been exchanging insults and bullets for a week, over a gambling house fight.