The Liberty Bell had a peal wherever it went

One day in 1996, readers of The Times, the Wall Street Journal and several other newspapers were stunned to see an announcement by Taco Bell that it had purchased the Liberty Bell “in an effort to help the national debt.”

In full-page ads, the fast-food chain said that the nation’s symbol of freedom would now be called the “Taco Liberty Bell” and would split its time between Philadelphia and Taco Bell’s headquarters in Irvine. Taco Bell voiced the hope that other corporations would “do their part to reduce the country’s debt.”

Rather than applaud Taco Bell’s patriotism, numerous outraged citizens flooded the Independence National Historical Park with phone calls, UCLA professor Gary Nash recalls in his new book, “The Liberty Bell,” a colorful history of the famously cracked relic.

What the angry readers had overlooked was that the ads appeared on April Fools’ Day.

The 1-ton, 257-year-old Liberty Bell wasn’t leaving Philadelphia, where its famous tolling accompanied the public reading of the Declaration of Independence on July 8, 1776 (not July 4, as legend has it).

The Taco Bell hoax wasn’t the only one to befall the bell. Between 1885 and 1915, it made seven trips to special events around the country.

On its 1885 trip to an expo in New Orleans, locals tried to drum up publicity by planting “a story in a local newspaper that a masked gang had overpowered and drugged the bell’s Philadelphia police guards, kidnapped the bell, hauled it to a levee and pitched it into the Mississippi River.”

The “bronze veteran,” as The Times called it, visited Los Angeles once, for seven hours, on its last journey. But that was an afterthought to its main business, a five-month engagement at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco.

The City of Angels wasn’t being snubbed. It’s just that Los Angeles was closer to being a dusty pueblo than a major metropolis back then. No U.S. president even bothered to visit Los Angeles until Rutherford B. Hayes granted it six hours in 1880.

Still, one could detect a bit of sour grapes on the part of this city. The Times’ “Pen Points” column wisecracked about the 1915 San Francisco expo: “Soon the voice of the barker will be heard in the land with ‘Three shots at the Liberty Bell for a nickel; hit the crack and you get a box of cigars.’”

In fact, the bell was closely guarded in the Bay Area. “Every night the bell was hustled into a special fireproof vault -- a sure sign that it had become one of America’s most treasured objects,” Nash wrote. “Such precautions were taken after a report circulated that a stick of dynamite had been hurled at the bell.”

(The icon had already acquired its famous crack years before, probably in the 1830s or ‘40s; nobody is quite sure when.)

Many children kissed the bell. Security guards closely scrutinized adults. The bell’s curator once lamented that “at least 25 pounds of it from time to time has been maliciously cold-chiseled off the lip of the bell” by souvenir-takers.

Though the original plan was for the bell to head east after the San Francisco expo, Philadelphia -- its owner at the time -- consented to have it visit San Diego, which was holding the Panama- California Exposition (Panama was big as a theme that year, owing to the recent completion of the Panama Canal).

After three days in San Diego, the Liberty Bell set out for Los Angeles, where it would parade for seven hours. It wouldn’t even be unloaded from its flatcar.

The Santa Fe train chugged into town at 6:45 a.m. on Nov. 15, 1915, and The Times blew the siren it housed back then for special occasions (or emergencies). That was the signal for factory whistles and church bells to sound off. The railroad tracks were lined with thousands of people -- including smiling schoolchildren, who were given half a day off, and smiling city employees, who were given half a day off with pay (who cared about budget deficits back then?).

The bell’s train, decorated with an American flag made of carnations, was followed by a stream of dignitaries, including Mayor Charles Sebastian.

“Owing to the fact that the specially constructed car upon which the bell stands travels on standard-gauge tracks, the route of parade was confined to the eastern part of the city over the Pacific Electric tracks,” The Times said.

The train made one stop, at Exposition Park, where “a mighty concourse of people sent up a cheer.”

Incredibly, no speeches were made there, apparently because the bell was on a tight schedule. No politician wanted to risk incurring the wrath of spectators by talking so long that they missed seeing the sacred object up close.

The police kept the line of greeters “on the move in order that the bell might leave for the East on time,” The Times said.

And the train did depart about 1:45 p.m.

So ended Los Angeles’ encounter with the nation’s great symbol of freedom. Though exciting, this early century drive-through had been brief.

But, then, one of life’s lessons is that no one gets the whole enchilada.

steveharvey9@gmail.com