Born in San Francisco, Dave Crimmen grew up in Broadmoor Village, a subdivision built by the Stoneson Developement Corporation just after World War II in an unincorporated part of Colma.

Crimmen lived in Broadmoor for 30 years. Now a very well - known singer, guitarist and composer in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond, Dave's book "Broadmoor Village" $21.95, Arcadia Publishing (Images of America Series), celebrating the history of his hometown, has just hit bookshlves. This Saturday Aug. 28, 2 to 4 p.m., Florey's Books welcomes the public to Dave's book release and signing party.

Crimmen's book defines Broadmoor's location for the many San Mateo County and San Francisco natives who have no idea where it starts and stops.

"Imagine a square. On the north or top end of a square is Westlake Shopping Center." the good natured Crimmen begins. "On the south side of that square, directly opposite, is Westmoor High School. On the east side of that square is Daly City's City Hall and on the west side is an elementary school known as the Majorie H. Tobias Elementary School (formerly Vista Mar). Right in the middle of all that is Broadmoor."

Back in the 1950s when Bay Area developers and cities looked to annex unincorporated areas, Broadmoor came under the annex "microscope" but chose to stand alone and unincorporated.

"Eventually Daly City grew up around it." the author said, "and many people mistakenly think of it as a neighborhood of Daly City. But in actuality, the approixmately 4,100 people living in its 2 1/2 to 3 square mile vicinity live in their own community."

Crimmen notes that when studying areas of Northern San Mateo County, there is a lot of confusion about certain areas of Daly City, verses unincorporated or incorporated areas of Colma, verses Broadmoor.

"The Broadmoor Shopping Center on 87th and Junipero Serra, where the IHOP is, was never in Broadmoor." Crimmen clarified "That was built by the Stoneson Brothers on land that was annexed by Daly City in 1931. The Broadmoor Towing Service is listed in Daly City but is actually in Colma. The Westlake Car-wash is not in Westlake or Daly City. It's in Broadmoor and the Broadmoor Police Department is in Daly City."

If one really wants to know if they are in Broadmoor or not, Crimmen said about a block or two west of Daly City's City Hall, where the street signs turn from blue to green with white letters, and the curbs go from square to round - you're in Broadmoor.

The youngest of five, Dave is the son of Chief Petty Officer Otis A. Crapse and his wife Susan. His mom, whom he refers to as the "fighting Irish" was a singer in a Speakeasy back in the '30s. She loved to do torch songs. He credits her with being a big influence on his career as a songwriter. (Dave has composed music for movies and television and he is a frequent tune on college radio.) She used to say to her son "When Bing Crosby sings 'White Christmas' Irving Berlin gets paid".

His Navy dad played guitar and sang for fun. However it was because of Dave's dad, that Dave wrote his first song at age 9.

"I'm Cherokee on my father's side and as soon as I learned about the 'Trail of tears' - I wrote a song."

Dave remembers his first guitar. It was a 4-string Mickey Mouse guitar he got when he was 3 and he gave it a whole lot of use. He was in second grade when he started taking formal lessons. His dad, a big time fan of country music, then called "hillbilly music" used to tune into local television channel KTVU to watch "Black Jack Wayne" Saturday morning before the Giants came on. There were all these famous country singers on that show and Dave's dad told his son, "Never mind those guys, watch the guy who can really pick out the notes."

Dave's first rock 'n' roll inspiration was Elvis Presley period."Apparently when I was in my crib, my sisters would play records and whe an Elvis record came on I would stand up and shake the crib."

"My genre is rock 'n' roll." Crimmen said (www.davecrimmen.com) "And the concept behind my music is unplug your brain, jump up and dance. I like the sound of guitars, the voices and there is something about the purity and freedom of the music from the 1950's - though they came pretty close when the Beatles arrived - of absolute joy."

For the past seven years Dave and his wife Sharon Caren, a massage and reposturing therapist (sharoncaren.com) have lived in Pacifica and Dave has made it his business to bring Pacificans as much music as he can. Recently he played at the Pacifica Historical Society's 100th birthday party soiree for the Little Brown Church. He also shook out the bop at a recent Spindrift benefit with the cast of "Bye Bye Birdie."

He played the Pacifica Chamber of Commerce "Hearts on Fire" event held at Pacifca's Park Mall in June. You can hear him amoung 11 artists (soloist and bands) on the recently released "The Best of Pacifca Volume 1" (local artists offer works to benefit PCT 26 and Pacifca Performances). He's played at Nick's, the Coastside Farmer's Market, Old Princeton Landing and the list goes on. His first vocal coach (Skyline College 1974) was the late Mildred Owen.

Dave's latest record "Full Circle" is due in September.

In writing his book on Broadmoor, Dave said there are so many people to thank but he would be remiss if he did not publicly thank, Edie Epps of the Visitation Valley Historical Project, Chief Greg Love Broadmoor Police Department and Ray Mogel at the San Mateo County Department of Public Works.

"It's really another story how I came to write this story," Crimmen laughed "But I have to say that I really wrote it for the people who live in Broadmoor and don't even know they live in Broadmoor."

Saturday, Aug.28, 2 to 4 p.m., Dave Crimmen will be at Florey's Book Co., 2120 Palmetto Ave. (www.floreysbooks.blogspot.com) to sign copies of "Images of America: Broadmoor Village." Also available through www.arcadiapublishing.com.

-Jean Bartlett

Half Moon Bay Review/August 11, 2010

Musician captures local hamlet in a book

Dave Crimmen, Known For Rockabilly, Pens History Of Broadmoor

Flip through the pages and a small unincorporated hamlet comes into focus.

Norman Rockwell-ish in style - with baseball teams, toddlers, old cars, buildings and cheerleaders - this is Broadmoor, as represented in "Images of America: Broadmoor Village" (Arcadia Publishing, 127 pages, $21.99). With a population of 4,200, it is a subdivision of unincorporated Colma and historically, is a place where you knew your neighbors.

That's the recollection of author and Pacifica resident Dave Crimmen, known around the coastside for heading the Dave Crimmen Band, which has played its brand of rockabilly and 1950s and 60s rock at local happenings including Rock the Block and the Pumpkin Festival, and at clubs like the Miramar Beaxch nn, Old Princeton Landing and San Benito House.

"Everyone knew everyone," back when he was growing up there, said Crimmen, "If you got stopped by the police, the worst thing that could happen was not that you'd go to jail, but someone would call your parents."

Guitarist Crimmen was inspired to try his hand at writing and immortalizing his hometown by fan Edie Epps with the Visitation Valley History project.

When she came to the band's gigs, she brought along the "Images of America" book on El Grenada; then the one on Daly City; then the one on Colma. Each time, she told Crimmen he ought to do one on Broadmoor.

So he took her at her word. "I thought it was important because Broadmoor is unincorporated and sort of in the shadow of Daly City," he said. "So I thought I should roll my sleeves up and write a book."

Drawing from the San Francisco main library, the history societies of Pacifica, Colma and San Mateo County, the Daly City history guild and his own former Cub Scouts den mother, he pieced together the historical photographs with informative captions that characterize the Arcadia "Images of America" books.

Crimmen will present his book at a signing from 2 to 4 p.m. on Saturday Aug.28, at Florey's Books at 2120 Palmeto in Pacifica.

The book is available at Barnes & Nobel, Boarders, Costgo, on Amazon and at Crimmen's band's gigs.

For the musician, with the book, "life has really come full circle." He began his musical career as an adult, he said, writting songs for Carl Perkins, driven by his love of rockabilly.

His next album, "Full Circle", a compilation of three earlier albums is due out in September. After that, he will begin work on an album of new material, due for release next year.

-Stacy Trevenon