Court of Historical Review
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Court of Historical Review (sometimes called the Court of Historical Review and Appeal) is a mock court in San Francisco, California. It has been convened on irregular intervals over several decades in order to decide questions of historical curiosity. The court's judgment is purely symbolic and has no legal or academic authority. The court has been presided over by a number of actual or retired judges, including U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Hanlon and San Francisco Municipal Court Judge George T. Choppelas.
Though it is a mock court, a number of notable attorneys and civic figures have argued cases and appeared as "witnesses", sometimes in character as historical figures. The court's proceedings are described as colorful and are reported widely.
[edit] Cases
The most widely noted case before the Court of Historical Review was in 1983, when it determined that the fortune cookie was invented in San Francisco, not Los Angeles. Participants in the case "wore yellow makeup and Celestial costumes and spoke in pidgin English as they presented the oral history underlying each side’s case" [1].
Other verdicts of the court include:
- Another ruling in 1983 that the Martini was invented in San Francisco, and not nearby Martinez, California. (The decision was later "reversed" by a less prominent mock court in Martinez.) [2]
- A ruling in 1987 that chicken soup deserves its reputation as "Jewish penicillin" [3]
- A ruling in 1990 that the legend of Cinderella originated in Italy, rather than France, China, or the United States [4]
- A ruling in 1993 that Shoeless Joe Jackson was not guilty in the 1919 Black Sox scandal [5]
- Another ruling in 1993 that Elvis Presley was, in fact, dead [6]
[edit] References
- ^ "Who Invented the Fortune Cookie?", American Heritage, February/March 2005
- ^ "Martinez: Martinis, Muir and Joltin' Joe", The San Francisco Chronicle, May 25, 2000]
- ^ "'Court' Buys Case for Chicken Soup", The New York Times, December 10, 1987
- ^ "Whence Comes 'Cinderella'?", Icono Clast, February 15, 1990
- ^ "Notes from the Shadows of Cooperstown: Observations From Outside the Lines", The Baseball Archive, February 8, 2003
- ^ "Drummer Honors Officially Dead Elvis", All About Jazz, February 25, 2005
