Telegraph Hill
Coit Tower
WPA Murals
Department Store by Frede VidarThis mural depicts the interior of a typical 1930’s department store with soda fountain and wine shop. Some items of interest are the fact that the waitress wears a cap with a Star of Dave, (which is surprising as Frede Vidar frequently expressed pro-Nazi sympathies and even scratched a swastika on a windowpane when he worked on the project) and the fact that one of the clerks is holding a box with the SS logo on it. Notice the Bing Crosby music in the background as well as Roman Scandals by Irving Berlin. And yes, all of the bottles of wine are of local California vintages.
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Frede Vidar (1911-1967) was born in Denmark and moved with his parents to San Francisco while in High School. He graduated from the High School of Commerce and later attended the School of Fine Arts. He studied with Matisse in Paris in the 1930s. From 1950 until his death in 1967 he was Professor of Art at the University of Michigan.