Bubblegum Alley

[1][2] According to the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Business Improvement Association (BIA), the origin of the gum is "a little sketchy".

[3] Some historians believe that the tradition of the alley started after WWII as a San Luis Obispo High School graduating class event.

[4] Others believe it started in the late 1950s, as the rivalry between San Luis Obispo High School and California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) students.

Throughout the years, San Luis Obispo's Bubblegum Alley has been featured on a number of television shows, news programs, and in newspapers around the world.

Other newspaper articles have appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Grand Rapids Press in Michigan, the Times Union from Albany, New York, and The Guardian in the United Kingdom.

[4] TV crews filmed the alley for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, That's Incredible!, Real People, and on "California's Gold" PBS.

Those Darn Accordions recorded the song "Wall of Gum" on their 1999 album Clownhead about an unfortunate accident occurring in Bubblegum Alley.

Agreement whether these gum-covered walls should remain a part of quaint downtown San Luis Obispo has not been reached since its founding.