Up close and personal

“Alright, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.”

This collection is a close up look at some of the sites of San Francisco.

No seals on Seal Rocks anymore: Actually, they weren’t seals anyway, they were sea lions. They moved to Pier 39 during the 1990’s, (the sea lions not the rocks) but I’m not sure they are still hanging around there anymore, either.

Up close to Alcatraz in 1940 when it was still a federal prison: My picture is from the other side but it’s still “The Rock”.

Up close to the G. G. B.: It wasn’t as sunny of a day when I took my picture and I’m not sure that the 1950’s phonychrome color in the older picture was all that accurate.

Up close on Powell Street to the Sir Francis Drake Hotel: It always amazes me that they allowed that building to go up across the street from the hotel  which blocks the northern view from the Starlight Lounge at the top of the Sir Francis Drake.

Up close to Chinatown: Actually, most pictures of Chinatown are up close. Nestled among the steel and glass jungle of Downtown San Francisco, about the only way for the public to get a distant view of Chinatown is from Coit Tower or the Top of the Mark.

Up close to the Flood Building in 1908: Somebody is writing to “Mamma” saying that he or she missed seeing this building during their San Francisco trip. It’s too bad because it’s one of San Francisco most historic buildings.

What Mile Rocks Lighthouse used to look like: They’ve chopped the lighthouse up now, and put a helicopter landing port on top. They made a terrible but thoroughly enjoyable movie in 1942 called ‘Seven Miles from Alcatraz’ about two convicts who escape from the prison and wind up on a light house that was supposed to be Mile Rocks Lighthouse. The cons turn patriotic and end up fighting Nazi spies who have captured the lighthouse and are using it for espionage purposes. Sounds good, huh? The lighthouse in the film was about twice as big as Mile Rocks Lighthouse ever was, and they never actually called it “Mile Rocks Lighthouse” but that’s obviously what it was supposed to be. At the lower left is the Mile Rocks Lighthouse, on the left center of the picture, seen from Lands End. On the lower right is the best close-up I could get with my little digital day-tripper. (Vintage picture from SF Gate)

The top photo is a scene at Pier 45 in Fisherman’s Wharf from the 1950 film noir movie ‘Woman on the Run’ with Ann Sheridan. The bottom photo is more like something from Hammer Horror Films.