Santa Pilots Ferry Boat Eureka
by Laurie Thompson
From the Sausalito News, 20 December 1935:
SANTA CLAUS WILL DISTRIBUTE GIFTS TO COMMUTERS ON FERRYBOAT EUREKA
Santa Claus will pilot the big ferry boat Eureka Tuesday morning -the day before Christmas- when she leaves Sausalito on her 8 o’clock trip for San Francisco.
The occasion for pressing the good Kris Kringle into service as a navigator will be the first annual Marin county commuters Christmas party.
Elaborate preparations are underway for the event and it is anticipated that the ferry steamer will be packed to the guards when she pulls out of her slip here.
Walter (The Great) Mails, baseball star, will be master of ceremonies. Clayton Schwerin will impersonate Santa and will be driven aboard the ferry steamer on a sled by Scotty Allen and his famous dog team.
David Arregar, Thomas Geary, Norman Boyd and James Corbett will be elves. Accordian music will be furnished by Joseph Barsotti and James Imperial and the Mill Valley Glee Club will furnish songsters….
President Edward H. Maggard, of the Northwestern Pacific, is furnishing an elaborately decorated Christmas tree and there will be presents for all the passengers….
Gifts for commuters’ Christmas have been furnished by an oil company, a cigarette maker, two chewing gum manufacturers and a coffee concern. In addition there are a few special gifts that Santa Claus will distribute in response to letters he has received. One of these is said to be a bottle of a rare old beverage that Stu B. Dunbar of Belvedere will receive as the result of his letter to Santa Claus having been turned over to Captain Ben F. Walters and Harry F. Morrison.
Originally published at https://annetkent.kontribune.com.
