San Francisco Film Locations Then & Now

My walk along Sutter Street was from Mason Street to Market Street so I could get some Ghirardelli Chocolate at the Palace Hotel before heading home. The “deep dive” refers to a compliment AI gives to my website that you can read in the About section of my blog. All but one of the vintage pictures are from the San Francisco Pictures Blog; I keep losing and finding that website for my bookmarks, and it has a wonderful collection of vintage San Francisco street photography. Here’s the link. https://sanfrancisco-pictures.blogspot.com/ The Marines’ Memorial Club photo is from the San Francisco Library Digital Archives. (Thumbnail images)

  

I looked up the Marines’ Memorial Club because a friend of mine sent me a link featuring a Jack Benny radio broadcast from the Western Women’s Club in San Francisco in 1938. I wasn’t familiar with where the Western Women’s Club was until I learned that the name was changed to the Marines’ Memorial Club in 1947, the year the vintage picture was taken.

   

I moseyed down to Powell Street, if anybody moseys anymore, for an update of this 1974 picture, looking down toward the Gothic looking Hunter-Dulin Building where Samuel Spade from ‘The Maltese Falcon’ had his office.

  

Between Powell and Stockton Streets is the 450 Sutter Medical Building. The vintage picture is dated 1950, however, the movie being advertised on the streetcar was made in 1941. Trivia note; Humphrey Bogart was starting to get noticed in 1941, and received top billing in ‘The Wagons Roll at Night’, although this movie predated ‘The Maltese Falcon and ‘Casablanca’. After ‘The Wagons Roll at Night’ Bogart received top billing in every one of his movies until he died.

  

Sutter Street at Stockton, looking north in 1920: The Stockton Tunnel is in the background.

  

Approaching Kearny Street in 1957: Almost all of the buildings in the vintage picture are still around.

  

Looking back along Sutter Street from Kearny in 1958: The Sherman Clay Building doesn’t have its fancy entrance overhead, and the entrance has been relocated. You can see the 450 Sutter Medical Building on the right background of both pictures.

  

Where Sutter Street branches off from Market Street in 1963: The turquoise windowed Crown Zellerbach Building can be seen on the far left in both photos. The Ferry Building is hidden by a tree on the left in the modern picture. The Southern Pacific, Matson, and PG&E Buildings in the center are visible, but nothing past those remain in the current picture.

 

Referred to as the Rustic Bridge or the Stone Bridge, I’ll play it safe and refer to it as I call it in my title. Built in 1893, the Rustic Stone Bridge is easily one of the most peaceful places in San Francisco. As Inspector Michael Stone said to Inspector Steve Keller, “It’s so peaceful, we should come here more often.” (Thumbnail images)

  

Take the N Metro to 19^th Avenue, walk two blocks north into Golden Gate Park, walk up the footpath next to Mother’s Meadow, and you’re at Blue Heron Lake, formerly Stow Lake. The path leading to the Rustic Stone Bridge is a lot more overgrown, for the better, than it was in 1900 when this picture from opensfhistory.org was taken.

 

A 1903 photo of the bridge: It’s not stretching the truth to say that this is child endangerment, especially for the kid on the right. If he slips off, he’s going to be lucky if he hits the water first! Somebody would go to jail for this nowadays. (opensfhistory.org)

   

It’s hard to get good lineups with some of the vintage pictures today, like this opensfhistory.org picture from 1913. Come on, tell it like it is, the fellow with the lady sitting on his lap looks like a pervert!

Rowboats, canoes, and pedal boats passing under the bridge in 1966: (San Francisco Library Digital Archives)

Movies and television have take advantage of this beautiful location, as well. In ‘Mabel and Fatty Viewing the World’s Fair from 1915, at the upper left, a lecherous thief starts hitting on Mabel Normand near the Rustic Stone Bridge when Fatty Arbuckle comes to her rescue below. Also, the thief has an encounter with another fellow at the same bench in the upper right photo. Interestingly, the bench is facing away from the lake in the film, so it may have been a prop. There is a bench facing the lake at this spot today.

  

In the 1952 film ‘Scaramouche’ Andre Moreau, played by Stewart Granger, hides underneath the Rustic Stone Bridge while being chased by French guards of the Marquis de Maynes. Leonard Maltin, in his Movie & Video Guide, states that the sword fight at the end of the film is the “longest in swashbuckling history”.

  

And, as I mentioned in the opening, Inspector Michael Stone, (Karl Malden) reflects on how peaceful this spot is to his partner, Inspector Steve Keller, (Michael Douglas) before going after more bad guys in the television show ‘The Streets of San Francisco’.

 

 

{Biology Professor:

“What do you think of that slide?”

Professor Wagstaff (Groucho Marx):

“Well. I think he was safe at second, but it was very close.”}

These are some slide pictures I took along Market Street from 1983 to 1985, and updated Saturday. (Thumbnail images)

  

Market Street at the Embarcadero: If someone would have told me back then that 43 years later I’d be taking a redo of this picture through the legs of a 45 foot naked woman…..

  

The Metropolis Trust and Savings Bank Building: There’s still a Bank of America there.

  

Market Street at Kearny, “Newspaper Row” once:

  

The Citizen Kane Building at Third and Market: Well actually it was the William Randolph Hearst Building, but it’s well known that Orson Welles patterned Charles Foster Kane after Hearst. Orson Welles died the year I took the vintage picture.

  

Market and Powell Streets, around the time they started running vintage streetcars along Market Street: Actually, I took this update at Market and Powell Streets at the tail end of the Pistahan Parade last August.

  

Market Street at Eighth: That’s the Orpheum Theater on the left.

 

It’s the 4th of July weekend, and a perfect day to head to the Beach!

“Hey, this ain’t a beach, Tim!

“You misunderstood me, I’m referring to Beach Street.”

No, there isn’t anymore beach along Beach Street, although Louis Loewenstein, in his book about the origins of San Francisco street names, writes that the beach actually did come up to Beach Street before landfill put the street a block away in the Fisherman’s Wharf area, and two blocks away in the Marina. Traveling east to west, Beach Street starts at the Embarcadero, disappears completely at Fort Mason, then reappears in the Marina District, running all the way to the Palace of Fine Arts. My walk was west to east from Fort Mason to the Embarcadero. (Thumbnail images)

  

We’ll start at the Polk and Beach Street, looking toward Ghirardelli Square from the Maritime Museum in a vintage 1962 picture from opensfhistory.org. The sidewalk in front of the museum still has the same waves on it.

  

Let’s step inside the museum to look at some of the artwork on the walls, beautifully unchanged since the building opened up as a bathhouse and casino in 1939. (San Francisco Library Digital Archives)

  

The closest you’ll get to the beach on Beach Street is from behind the Maritime Museum. The last time I visited the museum in 2023 and took the top wide angle picture, all of the historic ships at the Hyde Street Pier on the right were still there. They’ve all been moved out of San Francisco now while the pier is being restored.

  

Looking down Larkin Street toward Beach at an overturned truck in a 1937 photo from the UC Berkeley Library Archives. You can see a portion of the Ghirardelli Tower Building on the left in both pictures.

  

The old Rolphe’s Restaurant in a 1964 photo in June of 1964 from Alan Canterbury: Canterbury took a lot of pictures around San Francisco in 1964 that are available to view on the San Francisco Library Digital Archives. The building now houses several hobby businesses.

  

Probably the most popular portion of Beach Street is where it intersects with Hyde Street. Cable cars turn around in Victorian Square, and the Buena Vista Cafe serves Irish Coffees. The Buena Vista sign is barely visible through the tree on the left. The vintage picture from the UC Berkeley Library Archives is from 1950.

  

In May of 1956, they ran the Hyde Street cable car line into the Victorian Square portion of Aquatic Park. In 1983 the turn in the tracks to the turntable were moved closer to the intersection of Beach and Hyde Streets. (San Francisco Library Digital Archives)

  

The Beach Street at Leavenworth side of the old Del Monte Cannery, in another Alan Canterbury picture from 1964: The Cannery opened in 1907, and is said to have been built on bricks from buildings destroyed in the 1906 Earthquake and Fire. (San Francisco Library Digital Archives)

  

Beach Street at Taylor, looking northwest toward Fisherman’s Wharf in 1953, the way it used to look. Now it looks more like a gigantic model. You can see Fishermen’s #9 Grotto in the right background. (opensfhistory.org)

  

The Longshoreman’s Hall in a 1964 picture from…. you guessed it, Alan Canterbury. I discovered his pictures last fall, and have enjoyed updating many of his photos since then. You can’t see Coit Tower from here through the trees now. (San Francisco Library Digital Archives)

  

Looking west along Beach Street from Stockton Street in 1975: About the only thing noticeable still in my picture is the remodeled Riu Hotel building on the left. (opensfhistory.org)

Are you down for a long walk? Well, I sure am NOT! I did these photo sets on two different days, and some of them I lifted from posts I did in the past. Jones Street is an interesting choice; if you’re heading south, it starts out at Fisherman’s Wharf, climbs Russian Hill, levels out a bit at Vallejo Street before climbing Nob Hill, and drops down into the Tenderloin. Heading north, Jones Street escapes the Tenderloin, goes back up Nob Hill, (Jones Street from Pine to California is not a good option on foot, heading north) levels out again at Sacramento Street, then takes an up and down roller coaster ride before sliding back down Russian Hill to Fisherman’s Wharf. Either way, you’re going to do a lot of hill climbing if you’re hiking, but you’re also going to see some spectacular views. As in previous posts, you can follow the Jones Street journey from Market Street to Jefferson Street by the red numbers I placed at the picture locations on my trusty old map that I bought around the same time as I started this blog. (Thumbnail images)

  

#1: The old Jones Street cable car terminal, the ‘Hyde Street Grip’ at Jones and Market Streets: Hmm, must have been the ‘The Red House’ playing at the United Artist Theater on Market Street. (UC Berkeley Library Archives)

  

#2: Jones and Eddy Streets in 1962, looking toward the Tenderloin Police Station. (Vintage San Francisco Library photo from the Huffingtonpost.com)

   

#3: Jones Street at O’Farrell in 1955, looking northwest: Those are the cable car tracks of the line that ran between Market Street and Hyde Street at Beach. (San Francisco Digital Library Archives)

 

#4: Another look at the Jones and Hyde Street Cable Car Line at Jones and Post Streets around 1950: (opensfhistory.org)

 

#5: Jones Street, between California and Pine Streets in 1923: This is one of the steepest and scariest streets to drive down in San Francisco, and if you fall while walking south here, you’ll probably roll down to the Tenderloin. (Shorpy Archives)

  

#6: Traffic goes the other way today than it did on a cobblestone Jones Street in 1923, and you don’t want to stand out here in the street too long taking a picture, because when cars begin the drop behind you, they can’t see you at first. (UC Berkeley Library Archives)

  

#7: A car fire on Jones Street at California in 1936: That’s an unfinished Grace Cathedral in the background. (UC Berkeley Library Archives)

  

#8: Clay Street, looking east from Jones Street in 1875: (opensfhistory.org)

   

#9: Jones Street looking toward Pacific Avenue and the valley between Nob and Russian Hills in 1952. (The Charles Cushman Collection)

  

#10: Looking north down Jones Street past Union Street in a slide picture that I took in 1983 and updated in 2021:

  

#11: Mysterious Judy Barton (Kim Novak) thanks “Scottie Ferguson” (James Stewart) for pulling her out of San Francisco Bay in a poster scene from the 1958 movie ‘Vertigo’. The scene was in front of Scottie’s house on the northwest corner of Lombard and Jones Streets. (ebay.com)

  

#12: Jones Street at Jefferson, around 1950: Last October, it was announced that Castagnola’s Restaurant, one of the oldest in Fisherman’s Wharf, was going to be reopening. Now there’s news from AI saying that the restaurant will be demolished for the new promenade being planned for the Fisherman’s Wharf Lagoon. All I know is that it was still boarded up today when I went to take my picture. If you look to the far right in my photo, you can see the empty gap where Alioto’s Restaurant was, and that still depresses me! This is where I catch an F Line Streetcar back to Market Street. Yeah, right, like I’m going to walk back! (opensfhistory.org)

Finishing up a triple play of old movie theaters in the Richmond District that started with the Clay Theater, then the Four Star Theater, and finishing with the Vogue Theater. This movie house originally opened in 1910 as the Elite Theater, on information from Cinema Treasures. (Thumbnail images)

  

The Vogue Theater in 1941, and I hope that Elena says yes! (San Francisco Library Digital Archives)

  

Another cool picture from opensfhistory.org of a streetcar passing the Vogue Theater in 1942:

  

Another view from west of Presidio in May of 1946: Wow, KYA Radio! (opensfhistory.org)

 

A streetcar passing the theater in 1948: I had a difficult time getting a perfect line up on this one while standing in the intersection but, it turned out okay. I enjoy it when all of the old buildings in a post are still around. (San Francisco Library Digital Archives)

  

Looking back toward the Vogue on Sacramento Street from west of Presidio Avenue, during the 1990s: I was off on my match up here, as well, but it wasn’t all my fault; moving farther over, the bus waiting there would have blocked more of my view of the Vogue. (opensfhistory.org)

“I went down to the demonstration, to get my fair share of abuse.”

It never hurts to throw a Rolling Stones song in, now and then. These are some then and nows concerning the touting of various viewpoints around San Francisco. Some of them I’m all for, some of them I’m not clear on, some of them are historic now, and some of them are issues of color, like blondes, brunettes or redheads? Most of the vintage pictures are from the San Francisco Library Digital Archives. (Thumbnail images)

  

Citizens from the Chinese community in San Francisco demonstrated in front of Pier 45 at Fisherman’s Wharf, in a picture from museumca.org in 1937: They were calling on the United States Government to stop importing products to Japan, after Japan’s invasion of China.

  

1940 demonstration against “Bundles for Britain” at the San Francisco Chronicle Building on Mission Street at 5^th. Bundles for Britain was an organization that wanted to send supplies to the people of England during the ‘Battle of Britain’. The majority of the United States wanted to remain neutral in the war at that point.

  

The “Red Scare” on the Embarcadero at Pier 35 in 1951: There were some good movies shot in San Francisco on the subject during this period , like ‘The Woman on Pier 13’, (there never was a Pier 13 in San Francisco) and ‘Walk a Crooked Mile’.

  

A poignant photo in front of the City Hall, taken in 1963, the same year as the 16^th Street Baptist Church bombing in Alabama:

  

A pro marijuana demonstration in Union Square in 1964: His pants aren’t quite as high off the ground as her dress is. (opensfhistory.org)

  

A 1966 demonstration against divorce on Polk Street in front of City Hall: Elizabeth Taylor probably wasn’t with the group.

  

A 1978 demonstration against the “Bakke Decision” on Affirmative Action at Grove Street, on the south side of City Hall: The War Memorial Opera House is in the background.

 

A demonstration in front of the long gone United Artists Movie Theater at 1077 Market Street in 1955, protesting the film ‘Gentlemen Marry Brunettes’; probably all in fun.

The Western Neighborhoods Project, in partnership with Cinema SF, and Bay Area Movies were kind enough to compliment me on my website, and invite me to their screening of the 1964 film ‘Good Neighbor Sam’. They’ll be showing the movie at the Four Star Theater at 23^rd Avenue and Clement Street this coming Thursday, May 28^th. I’ve never been in the Four Star Theater, and I’m looking forward to the evening. I looked up some vintage photos of the movie theater, and went over there today to take some pictures. Wow, ‘Raising Arizona’ was playing! I thought that movie was hilarious when I first saw it. (Thumbnail images)

  

The Four Star Theater originally opened in 1913 as the La Bonita Theater, The vintage picture was taken in 1919. (San Francisco Library Digital Library Archives)

  

Looking west on Clement Street in 1949: Lincoln Park is in the far background of both pictures. In 1927, the theater name was changed to the Star Theater, and in the late 1940s, the Four Star Theater. (opensfhistory.org)

 

The Four Star Theater in August of 1964, in an Alan Canterbury photo from the San Francisco Digital Library Archives. Last Fall, I did several posts on photographs by Alan Canterbury. (San Francisco Library Digital Library Archives)

  

The Four Star Theater in 1969; Langendorf Bread, RC Cola, and a real odd couple, ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ and the ‘Odd Couple’ for a double feature: (Bay Area Historic Theaters)

  

The theater in 1990 in another great picture from the opensfhistory.org collection:

I went out to Niles yesterday afternoon for the second day of the three day ‘Chaplin Days’ Festival they have in the historic little town each year. I wanted to catch the 2:30 showing of his 1915 film, ‘The Champion’. It’s always a fun weekend to take pictures out there, or go on a walking tour. I took some recent shots, and re posted a few pictures from previous Niles visits. (Thumbnail images)

There was lots of Charlies running around, old vehicles, and other old things, (like me).

  

And even some Saguaros; it’s out west, you know. (Are they, Tony?)

  

Watched ‘The Champion’, along with a packed house, in the same building Chaplin premiered the film in in 1915, the Niles Museum Building.

  

I had a beer afterwards in one of the outdoor tables in Niles, although, not as big of a beer as Charlie’s celebration beer at the end of ‘The Champion’, and took a walk around.

 

Never miss a photo op. That’s the house, still there, that Edna Purviance stayed in when she was Chaplin’s leading lady in four of the five films he made while in Niles. Edna is on Charlie’s right.

In 1978, Margot Patterson Doss, a columnist who wrote articles for the San Francisco Chronicle under the title of ‘San Francisco at Your Feet’ and later in her career ‘The Bay Area at Your Feet’, wrote about the history of movies in Niles in her column entitled ‘The Movies’ One-Horse Town’. There wasn’t a lot of information available at that time about the history of Niles, and I took her Niles walk and kept her article. Here is a copy of the article, and its accompanying map. At the end of her story, Margot wrote that “only Chaplin knows” where the “tree-lined lane” at Charlie’s fade out in his film ‘The Tramp’ was. Actually, the historians from the Niles Museum have identified that spot now. Also, Charlie Chaplin died on Christmas Day of 1977; although Margot’s column on Niles appeared in 1978, it’s possible that she wrote it while Chaplin was still alive. Only Margot knows, but she’s gone now too.

 

  

‘The Champion’ was filmed at the old Essanay Movie Studio on Niles Blvd. and G Street. Here, Charlie is working out while getting ready for his big fight. Look at the mountain to the upper left of Chaplin in the film shot that I circled, and in the lower photo.

  

I learned about that Niles mountain view in ‘The Champion’ from John Bengtson’s book about Charlie Chaplin film locations called ‘Silent Traces’. Today, out in Niles, there was a tribute to John Bengtson who just died a few months ago.

 

 

Rincon Hill, below Market Street, was originally the “Nabob” Hill of San Francisco in the mid 1800s. (Nabob, a reference to rich snobs, would be where Nob Hill got its name) Three developments would change the area of rich mansions into an industrial area, often neglected until the SoMa boom. The first was the “Second Street Cut” of 1869 that sliced Rincon Hill in two, and extended Second Street to where today’s Oracle Park and McCovey Cove are. The second was the 1906 Earthquake and Fire that basically wiped out the area, and the third was the approach to the Bay Bridge and what is now Highway 80. Little was left of Rincon Hill when much of it was leveled to support the western end foundation of the Bay Bridge. The hill is now a “high-density residential” area, (Wikipedia) with buildings that block most of the hill’s views, and not a lot of tourists put Rincon Hill on their visiting itinerary. However, it’s still an interesting, albeit invigorating, area for a walking tour. I dug out my trusty 2011 ‘City in your Pocket’ map to chart my tour, and noted with red numbers where my comparison pictures were taken. (Thumbnail images)

 

#1 We’ll start at Second and Federal Streets in 1915. The Dynamo PR Building, and another building in the left background are still around. (UC Berkeley Archives)

  

#2 Second Street, north of Bryant, in the 1930s: The approach to the Bay Bridge was under construction then. On the right in both photos, is the Clock Tower Building where Intershop Communications is now. Far in the background of the vintage picture you can see the Hobart Building on the left, and the Russ Building on the right. (UC Berkeley Archives)

  

#3 Stillman Street, referred to as a Viaduct in the 1935 picture, looking east toward the Clock Tower Building. With the freeway on my left, this is as close to a comparison as I could get. The building on the right in the vintage picture is still there behind that enormous tree that my friend Tony could identify. (UC Berkeley Archives)

  

#4 Here’s a great 1918 picture from opensfhistory.org at Harrison and Second Streets. Now I’m guessing, and it’s not a bad guess, that the two buildings in the background are the same buildings. (opensfhistory.org)

  

#5 I’m not showing off my bravado, but this is not a safe place to take pictures; cars turn on to the Bay Bridge approach fast, and they don’t always pay attention to the edge of the road line. The 1973 view from First and Harrison Streets, looking north, is completely gone now, but I remember it, and I remember that “last stand” gas station that survived for years after this photo. (opensfhistory.org)

  

#6 Lansing Street, off of First: Now, there’s a street that you don’t think much about, although it was featured in the 1964 film ‘Good Neighbor Sam”. The vintage picture is from 1919. (opensfhistory.org)

  

#7 Harrison Street, looking east from Fremont Street in 1945: The fact that you can still see the Bay Bridge from here is nothing short of a miracle, but the view probably won’t last for long. (opensfhistory.org)