Famed American author Jack London as a boy found a second home and a source of inspiration in an Oakland, California, saloon run by a friendly German immigrant named Johnny Heinhold. Memorialized by London in his novels and autobiography, Heinhold’s still stands as a tribute to London, shown here, who never forgot the proprietor or the drinking establishment where his writer’s imagination first was ignited.
London was born in San Francisco in January 1876, the son of Flora Wellman and William Chaney, a historical figure for having traveled America as an early advocate for astrology. His parents, shown below, separated soon after his birth. Flora soon after married a Civil war veteran named John London who adopted the boy. The three moved to nearby Oakland where young Jack grew up.
That same year Heinhold, shown right, arrived in San Francisco, working on the docks before he too relocated to Oakland and opened a saloon on San Pablo Avenue. According to family lore, Heinhold missed seeing the bustling waterfront and purchased a bunkhouse for oyster workers at the docks, converting it into a saloon. This structure had originated from the timbers of the Umatilla, an abandoned stern-wheel paddle steamer that was built in 1858 in the Oregon Territory. The ship was in service during the Fraser River Gold Rush later that year and on the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento River in the 1860s. Opened in June 1883 or 1884, Heinhold would be its sole proprietor of the saloon for the next 50 years.
London is said to have found this “second home” when he was as young as ten.Heinhold, known for his kind heart, must have seen something special in the boyand made a place for him. Shown below is an extraordinary photo of the young London sitting in Heinhold’s, engrossed in a dictionary . At the same time the boy was listening to the stories of “the hard mixed crowd” that frequented the saloon, including crews of whaling vessels, sealing ships, and windjammers. At age15 London bought a boat and then with Heinhold’s help got a berth on a schooner, sailed to Japan and spent a few months traveling around the Orient as a tramp.
Returning to Oakland, London attended high school, writing for the school newspaper. The experience having whetted his interest in becoming an author, London decided he needed a college education. Approaching Heinhold in 1896 he asked for a forty dollar loan to pay the entry fee. After cramming for the entrance exam, he was admitted to the University of California. After a year, his finances forced him to leave school permanently. Heinhold forgave the loan.
In his autobiographical book, “John Barleycorn,” London dwelled on his relationship with the saloonkeeper: “More than once in the brief days of my struggles for an education, I went to Johnny Heinhold to borrow money. When I entered the university I borrowed forty dollars from him, without interest, without security, without buying a drink. And yet…in the days of my prosperity, after the lapse of years, I have gone out of my way by many a long block to spend across Johnny Heinhold’s bar deferred interest on the various loans. Not that Johnny Heinhold asked me to do it, or expected me to do it.”
By this time London was one of the most famous authors of his day having achieved a large and enthusiastic readership in the United State and abroad for such novels as “Call of the Wild, “White Fang,” and “The Sea-Wolf.” Some critics were hailing his work as belonging on a shelf with Walden and Huckleberry Finn: “the very best kind of work done in America.” “Call of the Wild” was termed a masterpiece.
Meanwhile, Heinhold continued to operate his saloon on Oakland’s waterfront, eventually changing the name to “Heinhold’s First and Last Chance.” The reference apparently was to the first and last chance for many sailors to drink alcohol in quantity after or before a long ocean voyage. London’s wife, Charmian, shown here, had another interpretation, however, writing that Johnny had adopted the “two-faced pseudonym by reason of its accommodating relation to comers as well as goers,” including travelers across the bridge to Alameda and passengers from ferries docking at the Oakland Municipal Wharf.
Heinhold continued to enhance his reputation as a kind-hearted publican. In 1890, a passenger train plunged off an open drawbridge into the San Antonio Estuary, and the Saloon became a make-shift hospital and morgue. As victims of the disaster filled the saloon, Johnny was reported to cry out: “Sell no more whisky! Take everything in the house if it will save a life, or make even one poor woman die easier.”
As London grew in fame, Heinhold began to promote his saloon actively as “Jack London’s Rendevous.” The author made it a point to visit Johnny every time he was in the area. Although other literary figures such as Robert Louis Stevenson and Joaquin Miller also patronized his saloon, those associations never approached the importance of London in Heinhold’s eyes. During Prohibition he kept the saloon open, selling soft drinks and cigars. When asked why he didn’t sell alcohol “under the counter” as did other West Coast saloonkeepers, Heinhold replied that it wouldn’t look right for Jack London’s good friend to be called a bootlegger.
Heinhold lived to see National Prohibition in the process of being dismantled but died in 1933 before its actual repeal. The saloon came under the management of his son, George, a World War One veteran, who ran it for the next 37 years, When George died in 1970, his widow, Margaret Heinhold, became the owner-manager for 14 years, until selling it in 1984 with the promise that new ownership would maintain the saloon in its original form.
Now on the National Register of Historic Places, Johnny Heinhold’s original saloon has been altered on the outside. As shown here, the front has been updated to accommodate a large neon sign announcing the saloon as “Jack London’s Rendevous.” Neon has also been added to the “First and Last Chance” motto and to “Open” signs. The north side of the building is hidden behind a billboard-like appendage decorated with a late 1990’s mural honoring Jack London, commissioned by the Port of Oakland and painted by artist Charles Nitti. The mural depicts the author at the tiller of a ship and in a tree reading a book. At the center is a large likeness of a howling wolf, a reminder of London’s “Call of the Wild.”
Inside, however, the interior would be readily recognized by both London and Heinhold as the saloon they knew and loved. During the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the front portion of the barroom floor buckled. Unfazed, Heinhold repaired the structure, leaving a notable slope in the floor that can be seen in the present day. In the corner of Heinhold's is a clock that has been stopped since the moment of the 1906 quake, at 5:18. Heinhold's is the last commercial establishment in California with its original gas lighting. The tables, which reportedly came from a whaling ship, and other furnishings date back to the days when Johnny ran the pub. The building still holds the original potbellied stove used to warm the room. It has been the saloon’s only source of heat since 1889. The original mahogany bar is still use today.
The interior walls and ceiling are covered with memorabilia: business cards, hats of past patrons and money, often signed by sailors about to deploy so they would have money for a drink waiting for them upon their return. Bob Fitzsimmon's and Jim Jeffries boxing gloves and Johnny Heinhold's hat remain where they were hung.
If you are ever in Oakland make it an objective to visit Heinhold’s Saloon and drink two toasts: The first to Johnny Heinhold, the genial German immigrant saloonkeeper, and a second to Jack London, a giant of American literature whose career was made possible by Johnny’s generosity and care.
Notes: The Internet holds a great deal of information about the relationship between Jack London and Saloonkeeper Johnny Heinhold. Among them are documents from the National Park Service report on declaring the saloon a National Heritage Site. London himself mentioned the saloon and its proprietor frequently, most notably multiple times in his autobiographical “John Barleycorn,” right.
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