Anthea Hartig is the executive director of the California Historical Society. Before participating in an a panel on how people re-invent spaces, she talked partying in 1920s Berlin, optimistic Mondays, and reading in the bathtub in the Zócalo green room.
What is your favorite day of the week?
Monday, because everything still feels filled with hope and promise.
What year, past or future, would you time travel to if you could?
I would time travel to 1928. I would be in Berlin, because I think that the recovery—the rawness of World War I—was still very much present, but the freedom and artistic output before the crash just must’ve been a sight to behold. And I’d hear Josephine Baker live in Paris!
What’s your guilty pleasure?
Reading in the bathtub.
Who’s your favorite figure in California history?
Aimee Semple McPherson. She created the Foursquare Church and created this incredible cult around herself. She declared herself a pastor, choreographed sermons. She’d ride in dressed as a traffic cop on a motorcycle. She was just radical and in charge and large.
What do you collect?
I collect early-20th-century lusterware ceramics.
What’s the last bet you won?
I can’t remember. I have an outstanding one for $90 that my mom’s going to turn 90. But I can’t remember the last bet I won.
What food won’t you eat?
Lamb.
What’s the strangest job you’ve ever had?
Working as a secretary for an office—running an anti-proposition campaign.
If you couldn’t live in California, where would you go?
New Zealand.
Where would we find you at 10:00 on a typical Sunday morning?
At the breakfast table reading The New York Sunday Times.
