Joshua Abraham Norton (February 4, 1818 – January 8, 1880), known as Norton I or Emperor Norton, was a celebrated citizen of San Francisco who in 1859 proclaimed himself "Emperor of the United States" and, later, "Protector of Mexico." Though he was generally considered insane, or at least highly eccentric, the citizens of San Francisco in the mid to late nineteenth century celebrated Norton's regal presence and his deeds.

History

Biography and nonfiction

Podcast

Literature

Novels, stories and plays

Comic book series

Role-playing games

Other

From 2003 to 2011 the Emperor Norton Awards, a San Francisco Bay area fiction award for "extraordinary invention and creativity unhindered by the constraints of paltry reason", were awarded by Tachyon Publications and Borderlands Books.

Music

Operas, musicals and songs

1944 Lu Watters composed a piece entitled "Emperor Norton's Hunch", originally performed and recorded by his Yerba Buena Jazz Band. 1950s Robert B. Aird, founding chairman of the neurology department of the University of California at San Francisco, composed a still-unperformed opera based on Norton's life. 1981 A one-act opera, Emperor Norton, with music by Henry Mollicone and a libretto by John S. Bowman, received its premiere in 1981. It was performed in the fall of 1990 by the West Bay Opera company in Palo Alto, California. 1999 An opera called Emperor Norton of the U.S.A., with music by Jerome Rosen and a libretto by James Schevill, premiered in Davis, California, in 1999. 2003 An opera, I, Norton, by Gino Robair, combines free and conducted improvisation with graphical and conventional scores, and has been performed by many ensembles in North America and Europe. 2005 Emperor Norton: A New Musical, by Kim Ohanneson with songs by Marty Axelrod, premiered at San Francisco's Dark Room Theater in December 2005 and ran there for three months, consistently selling out. A condensed and re-arranged version was presented in July 2006 at the San Francisco Theater Festival, and a revised production with many of the original cast and several new songs began a three-month run at the Shelton Theater in January 2007. 2006 "The Madness of Emperor Norton I", a song by the group The Kehoe Nation, appears on the group's 2006 album Devil's Acre Overture. 2007 "The Emperor", a song with lyrics by Z. Mulls and music by Ron Tintner. 2008 "Emperor Norton", a song by singer-songwriter Matthew Dinario (who records as The Short Wave Mystery) appeared on his 2008 album Okey Dokey. 2010 The musical Norton: America's Forgotten Emperor, with words and music by Rebecca McGlynn, was performed at Denison University. 2012 2013 "Emperor Norton", song by singer-songwriter Steven Crowley. 2021 "Emperor Norton", a parody of The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby" by Stevonnie Ross (who records as Sunday Comes Afterwards) in their 2021 album, "I Want a Refund."

Ensembles and bands

Other

The independent record label, Emperor Norton Records, launched in 1996 and closed in 2004.

Television

Film

During the San Francisco sequence of the 1956 film Around the World in Eighty Days, an actor dressed in a costume resembling Emperor Norton's regalia and accompanied by two dogs, thought to be Bummer and Lazarus, is briefly seen leading a torchlight parade.

Radio

The San Francisco radio station KFOG referred to the Bay Bridge as "the Emperor Norton" during their morning traffic reports in the late 1980s [need confirmation of exact dates].

Comedy and comic strips

Internet

Video games

Food

LGBT

José Sarria, a drag queen and early gay activist, proclaimed himself "Her Royal Majesty, Empress of San Francisco, José I, The Widow Norton" in 1964. As the Widow Norton, Sarria established the Imperial Court System, an international network of charitable organizations. Sarria died in August 2013, at the age of 89 or 90, and is buried at the foot of Emperor Norton's grave at Woodlawn Cemetery in Colma, California.

Emperor Norton performers

Organization devoted solely to advancing the legacy of Emperor Norton

The Emperor Norton Trust is a nonprofit that, since 2013, has been working on a variety of fronts — original research; education; advocacy — to advance the legacy of Emperor Norton. (The Trust previously was known as The Emperor's Bridge Campaign.)

Groups that hold Emperor Norton as a patron saint

Fraternal

The Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus, a fraternal society focused on the legacy of the Old West, holds Emperor Norton in particular regard and makes an annual pilgrimage to the Emperor's gravesite at Woodlawn cemetery, in Colma, Calif, on the Saturday closest to the Emperor's death date of January 8.

Religion

In the religion of Discordianism, Emperor Norton is considered a Saint Second Class, the highest spiritual honor attainable by an actual (non-fictional) human being. The Principia Discordia — the sacred text of Discordianism — relates that, when the Goddess Eris / Discordia was asked whether She, like Jehovah, had a Begotten Son, She replied with Norton's name. The Principia notes that the Joshua Norton Cabal, a group of Discordians based in San Francisco, has as its slogan:Everybody understands Mickey Mouse. Few understand Hermann Hesse. Only a handful understood Albert Einstein. And nobody understood Emperor Norton. In official practice, this phrase is never translated out of Latin, except on certain holidays.

Culture jamming

The Cacophony Society is a culture jamming organization established in 1986 by surviving members of the defunct Secret Society of San Francisco.

Micronation

Norton appears on the 10 Valora coin and 10 Valora paper note of the Republic of Molossia — which also has declared part of its backyard to be Norton Park.

Annual celebrations