Frank Werber died on May 19 at the age of 78. He died of heart falure at his home in Silver City , New Mexico with his four children - Chala , Mishka , Aari , Bodhi and a number of others who were close to him at his side. A memorial service is planned for October. Read tonights IJ ( Friday , June 15 ) for a great article written by Paul Liberatore titled " KING OF COOL'S WILD REIGN " on the front page.
Hi Kate , I checked out the website , it's great. I saw the menus and the t shirt logos , very similar to the matchbook cover. I also was corrected on a couple of things I read in an article a few years ago. It's great to here from people who were around when Marin was really something special , and yes it's amazing we lived through it , Ain't it great to be alive and in California.
Franks living in New Mexico, has a large ranch there that he has owned forever. I'm an old Trident waitress and just got turned to it's web-site...talk about all sorts of interesting tid-bits and harrowing experiences...how did we all live throught it....anyway if you want more info on Frank and all the freaks: www.tridentrestaurant.com Cheers Kate
hmmm, i remember tokyo stop sign, but don't know the adjacent buildings
today i visited with a good friend of mine who worked at the trident, and when i told him i wanted to photo his framed menu, he pointed me to this site
y'know, i'll have to go look - i remember it does have a great art nouveau drawing of a woman
besides digging out the stoneground record for you, paul, now i'll have to go take a snap of the menu and post it here!
they had sashimi on the menu - had to have been the first place in marin to serve it - well, maybe that raggedy sushi/chinese place on the miracle mile served it, but that place was not on my route
That matchbook has to be the hippest cover in the universe. I took 2 of the black triangles I recolored and put them on the back window of my work truck for about a year. I got some serious double takes from those who were in the know. Does the menu have the Trident logo on it ? Some people nowadays might think we are talking about missiles.
Can you post a pic of the matchbook cover ? I doubt even former Trident bus boy Robin Williams has one.
My only memory of the island was the rope swing that swung out over the water on the marsh side.
And also visiting people who paid really low rent in one of those houses that they tore down for the new development. (low rents are the norm when property is tied up in limbo forever)
Frank's house is still there at the end of the road, but remodeled. It's the only (I think) detached home out there.
I know a few of our members lived on " The Island " for at least 10 years and I'm sure once they see this post they will chime in as to the history of the place. So now I'll talk about Frank Werber , who was an important part of Marin history. Frank was the producer of the Kingston Trio in the early sixty's. Around 1966 he got busted at his house on DeSilva island for marijuana. It was the first big pot bust in Marin , and I've heard stories about people running out of the house nude to escape the feds. Something about Margot St. James and C.O.Y.O.T.E. Frank had some excellent lawers and got off on religeous grounds , not medical. Then he owned the Trident restaraunt in Sausalito , a southern Marin hot spot for the Marin Heavyweights , rock stars and artists. About 14 years ago I found an old matchbook cover from the Trident. It was probably done by one of the famous poster artists of the day , Kelly-Mouse studios or Victor Moscosso. It is beautiful. What I did was blow it up about 800% and re-color it. On the front is the black triangle with the falcon , and the text " Trident " on top. On the backside was a beautiful painting of " the Sleeping Lady ". I made some prints but have never sold even one. There was no signature or copywrite on it but being an artist myself I know how much work went into producing that art and I've heard that some of those famous poster artists got totally burned for all the endless hours spent on making all the beautiful posters we all just took for granted. That is why if anyone ever has a chance to buy an original painting done by those excellent artists , please do. The last I heard Frank Werber lives on Maui in the town of Haiku , way up country near the Kula area. I lived on Maui in 1977 and visited Haiku , it's a beautiful town that resembeled Mill Valley a lot. I think if I had enough money to retire I couldn't think of a better place to end up. One parting shot at DeSilva island , I can't believe that the developers sold all those apartments all clustered together ( a shared wall community ) overlooking an extremely noisy interstate freeway ( 101) for over two million dollars a unit. But probably the people who bought the loans came from L.A. or some other noisey city and don't know any better.
