bjgreen
(Image: Wikimedia)
By Betsy J. Green
Now here’s something that I don’t often see when I peruse the Santa Barbara newspapers of a century ago:
“Jack, the monkey owned by W.D.V. Smith’s Bootery, has made his escape. The monkey was used in the children’s department to amuse the kiddies. A liberal reward will be given to the person who either finds or returns Jack to his owners.”
There was no word about the monkey’s capture, but if you have one of my earlier books, “Way Back When: Santa Barbara in 1917,” you can turn to the May chapter to read about another renegade monkey on the streets of our fair city.
Betsy’s Way Back When book — 1918 — is now available in local bookstores and at Amazon.com. This is the fifth book in her series of the history of Santa Barbara, one year at a time. Learn more at
I remember the organ grinder with his monkey here during Fiesta (1940s). Grandma would give me a penny to hand the monkey. Clutched in his little fingers he would deposit it in a container his owner had.