Griffin, Larry: Moscone

Abstract

Larry Griffin: I believe it was February of 1965. My father’s parents, Pete and Marie Griffin had their 50th wedding anniversary, and dad being the big-time political guy had every elected official and prominent party person over to the house at 1918 McAllister Street. And I remember the exact date because I got a copy of the newspaper from my mother who still has a copy of that paper. That was when I first met George Moscone. He was a Supervisor then, and I was a small little kid and remembered him. That was the first time I remembered actually meeting him. He had been at the house earlier when we lived on Haight Street, and Dad was the swing vote on the Democratic County Committee for the chairmanship. There were two people running for chairman. There was a gentleman by name of Don King who later went on to become a judge, and George Moscone who later went on to become Supervisor, Senator, and then Mayor. George had come over to talk to Dad about his support. Dad told him at that point that he couldn’t support him. He said “I love you, George, but you are controlled by Phil Burton, and quite frankly I can’t do it.” Dad was the swing vote, Don King became elected. I was listening from my bedroom and saw George cry, and I had never seen a man cry before. That was prior to my father crying when Martin Luther King and Jack Kennedy were killed. So, I remember that. Then we had this meeting in 1965, and then nine years later I was working on his campaign for Mayor. So that’s how it happened; it was through my father Herman Griffin that I got kind of run in that direction.

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Type

Interview

Relation

The Moscone oral history interviews are part of the George Moscone Collection, MSS 328.

Contributing Institution

Holt-Atherton Special Collections and Archives, University of the Pacific Library

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