Month: September 2018

Click on the links below the film then and nows for a YouTube film link about each movie.

‘Sudden Fear’ (1952) Joan Crawford discreetly sneaks into the Tamalpais Apartments at Hyde Greenwich Streets on Russian Hill to try to learn how Jack Palance plans to kill her.

‘Patty Hearst’ (1988) Patty Hearst during the 1974 Hibernia Bank robbery she participated in located in the Sunset District, and Natasha Richardson who portrayed Hearst in the film during the robbery scene.

‘Born to Kill’ (1947) Elisha Cook Jr. arrives at the Ferry Building ready to commit murder. However, his plans don’t work out, as you’ll see in the YouTube clip.

‘On the Beach’ (1959) In a depressing scene Gregory Peck’s submarine crew arrive in San Francisco from Australia searching for life after a fallout from a nuclear war has killed off most of the world’s population. They find only an empty San Francisco, such as this scene of the Golden Gate Bridge.

‘The Falcon on San Francisco’ (1945) Tom Conway (the Falcon) is accused of kidnapping the little girl on the right in front of the Ferry Building early in the film.

‘I remember Mama’ (1948) Liberty Street, where the Hanson family lived in the movie. Because it was supposed to be on Russian Hill used special effect for the Bay and Alcatraz, but Liberty Street is actually in the Castro District.

‘My Favorite Brunette’ (1947) Bob Hope getting mixed up with spies, murder and lovely Lamour at his baby photographer office on California Street in Chinatown:

‘Point Blank’ (1967) After being shot in a conspiracy between his wife and friend and left for dead in a cell on “Broadway”, what the inmates used to call the center cell block isle at Alcatraz, Lee Marvin recovers and seeks revenge.

‘Portrait in Black’ (1960) Plotting with Anthony Quinn to kill her husband, Lana Turner begins the first phase of their plan at the old I Magnin Department Store on Geary Blvd. across from Union Square.

‘The Towering Inferno’ (1974) Fred Astaire looks up at the special effects building that will eventually catch fire in the film. The dark Bank of America Building on California Street, where some of the movie was filmed, makes a nice comparison when the sun catches it just right.

‘What’s Up, Doc?’ (1972) Clumsy Barbra Streisand creates all kinds of trouble for Ryan O’Neal, who she has fallen in love with, like this motorcycle accident she causes by crossing the intersection at Jones and Bush Streets against the light.

 

Several posts back, I made a mention of the “weather in Peter Stratmoen’s 1975 pictures”. Peter Stratmoen took a series of photographs around San Francisco during 1975. I don’t know if his pictures were taken during the fall, winter, spring or a Mark Twain summer, but they’re all overcast and dark. I’ve covered some of them already on my blog. With fall here we’ll be moving closer to gloomy weather similar to  “Stratmoen weather”, but not just yet! On this first complete day of fall it’s still sunny and warm in San Francisco. We’ll start downtown at Union Square and follow a route similar to the ‘Barbary Coast Trail’ to Aquatic Park as we track down Peter Statmoen’s 1975 locations. (Peter Stratmoen pictures from Vintage Everyday)

Union Square looking northeast: The building on the far left has been demolished since 1975 and is now where Saks Fifth Avenue is, but other than that the view hasn’t changed a lot except for Union Square.

We’ll head into Chinatown looking north toward Pine Street from Bush Street.

Now we’re looking east down Sacramento Street.

Grant Avenue at Clay Street: Except for the next picture, you won’t see any major differences in the Chinatown of today and 1975.

The quaint gas station at Jackson Street and Columbus Avenue has been replaced by a bank now. It’s too bad that couldn’t have been saved. The gas station was on the south side of the old Sentinel Building on Columbus Avenue.

We’ve moved into North Beach, looking southeast on Columbus Avenue from Chestnut Street. Notice the old Kentucky Fried Chicken on the left when it was still officially called ‘Colonel Sanders’. “Lately, I have been spotted with a Big Mac on my breath; stumbling in to a Colonel Sanders with a face as white as death.” (cf. ‘Junk Food Junkie’) Notice that the cable car tracks ran down the center of Columbus Avenue back then and along the side of the avenue today. This must have been done during the major renovation of the cable car system during 1982/1983 to ease traffic congestion on Columbus.

We’ve ended up in Aquatic Park. Why do I always feel like putting on a sweater when I look at Peter Stratmoen’s photos? Not much of a change here, except there was nobody in Aquatic Park; like a scene from ‘On the Beach’. Maybe it was too cold.

For all of my Bay Area life I’ve been a San Francisco Giants baseball fan, but their season ended in August this year. The Oakland Athletics are still in the playoff running, and last night I had a chance to check out a game at the Oakland Coliseum. Unfortunately, the A’s lost, but it was still a fun night. The Coliseum is the fifth oldest baseball stadium in the Major Leagues and has a lot of history, some of which I was able to be there for.

The top photo is heading into the ballpark across the bridge that carries passengers from BART to the Coliseum. When you’re at this point you’re heading straight toward the back of the infamous “Mount Davis”. Mount Davis was the monstrosity that Al Davis, the owner of the Oakland Raiders at the time, had built to accommodate the return of his football team back to Oakland in 1995 and forever changed the baseball field. It also replaced the bleachers that were there up until then and seen in the bottom photo from the 1980’s.

In evening games long ago, the pretty view of the east side Oakland hills changed colors as the sun went down. Today, you get a golden view of Mt. Davis at sunset. Al Davis bailed out on his Oakland fans in 1981, and then bailed out on his Los Angeles fan base in 1995. Now his son, Mark Davis, will be bailing out on the loyal Oakland Raider fans who forgave his dad 23 years ago. After the Raiders leave for Las Vegas, I think they should blow Mt. Davis up and restore the baseball park to the way it was.

Our seats last night lined up pretty close to this early 1990’s game view. I love AT&T Park, but the Oakland Coliseum is a great place to watch a baseball game for half the price of the Giants ball yard.

Charles O. Finley, who owned the Oakland Athletics from 1960 to 1980, came up with some of the craziest ideas to promote games, like painting the baseballs used in the game yellow. The top photo was from a 1971 “Hot Pants Day” where girls in “hot pants” got in free. The bottom photo was taken during a “Bald-head Day in the 1970’s when bald or balding men were let in free. That’s Charlie O’s mascot mule. (SF Chronicle)

This is a great shot of Ken Stabler throwing a touchdown pass for the Raiders on his way down in a 1974 game against the Miami Dolphins.   (SF Chronicle)

In July of 1978, the Rolling Stones played to a crowd of over 64,000 people for “A Day on the Green” on Mick Jagger’s 34^th birthday. (SF Chronicle)

Balloons being released during the Rolling Stones 1978 concert over the bleachers where Mt. Davis is now: (SF Chronicle.)

I think MVP Baseball is the best video baseball game. I used to play that for hours. If you get enough points you can play baseball games in classic baseball parks, such as Ebbets Field or the Polo Grounds. Now, I guess, they also have the old Oakland Coliseum before Mt. Davis. Imagine that!

In 1997, interleague baseball play during the regular season was introduced. I was at the first interleague season game between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics held at the Oakland Coliseum. They had played In July that year at Candlestick, but this was the first one in Oakland. On September 1^st 1997, I was in Section 218, Row 2, Seat 19, when Barry Bonds hit a foul ball back behind home plate. I was looking around the stadium through mini binoculars and not paying attention to the game when the ball hit me in the stomach. It didn’t hurt much, but it left a bruise larger than the baseball. I remember a ton of people climbing all over me to get the ball that fell down by my feet, but my brother sitting next to me snagged it and gave it to me figuring that earned it. I’ve still got the ball and the fading ticket, as well.

 

Yesterday, I got a chance to explore Golden Gate Park from end to end. My main idea was to visit some of the lesser know areas of the park, although I stopped at some of the high traffic locations, as well. There’s always some new history to discover there through the courtesy of http://opensfhistory.org/, where these vintage pictures are from, as well as revisiting interesting or beautiful locations in the park that have stories that I’m familiar with.

We’ll start out on the eastern side of the park at the McLaren Lodge. That’s a 91 year old John McLaren at the entrance to the lodge in 1937 where he lived until his death in 1943. McLaren was the Walt Disney of Golden Gate Park where he was superintendent for 53 years, and we have him to thank for what’s there today. He looks a little grumpy! Possibly some foolish subordinate was telling him he was too old for the job.

The old Police Station on the southeast side of the park in 1957: I wanted to be carefully quiet when I took this picture; I couldn’t remember if I paid that parking ticket that I got 10 years ago in San Francisco.

The tunnel that crosses under John F. Kennedy Drive to the Conservatory in the 1890’s when the road was called the North Drive.

The old Sharon Building and the Sharon Meadow circa 1900: Sharon Meadow was renamed Robin Williams Meadow in September of 2017. Today, while I’m posting this, they are having the 38^th annual Comedy Festival in the meadow where Robin Williams performed many times.

This past Friday, the new sign was unveiled officially completing the name change of Sharon Meadow.

The 1961 Miss San Francisco beauty contest at the old Music Concourse: That ain’t gonna happen anymore!

Transverse Drive at North Drive (John F. Kennedy Drive) looking west in 1950:

There really were elk in Elk Glen Lake once, at least in 1939.

Woody Allen with Mayor Joseph Alioto on his left at Spreckels Lake in 1969: It’s hard to think of anything weirder than that! Woody Allen was in town filming scenes for his movie ‘Take the Money and Run’ at the time.

“Can you hear me now?”

A bicycle race at the Polo Fields in July of 1945: It looks like there was some type of seating across the field on the south side once, as well.

Hey, he really was fat! In 1911 President William Howard Taft broke ground for the upcoming 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition on the north side of the Polo field in Golden Gate Park. The reason for this was because the official site for the approved fair hadn’t been selected yet.

And there’s a grim history to the park, as well. In May of 1934, 23 year old Louise Jeppensen (some accounts state age 24) was raped and murdered here at the entrance to the north side tunnel to the Polo Field. An engineer named Millard Hickman was arrested but later acquitted. Her body was found by a caretaker in the park; that may be the caretaker and an investigator looking down at her body. Sadly, in October of 2015 another 23 year old, Audrey Carey, was murdered in Golden Gate Park not far from this spot. Three suspects have been arrested in that case.

“They (stable) horses, don’t they?” Not anymore at the old horse stables seen here in 1947, although, there still is a small stable for police horses here.

A 1943 photo looking out from the tunnel that ran under North Drive near the Dutch Windmill as a streetcar passes. That’s the roller-coaster at Playland-at-the-Beach in the background. The tunnel is still there, but Playland and the streetcar line that ran across the west end of Golden Gate Park are gone.

We’ll end up on the southwestern side of Golden Gate Park with a westerly view of the old streetcar bridge that crossed over South Drive (now Martin Luther King Jr. Drive) near the Murphy Windmill, seen in 1900. The hill behind the tree on the right was where the north side of the bridge was anchored.

 

 

 

 

I must have overslept and missed summer this year! Not only did it go by quickly, but I don’t remember a lot of sunny and warm days in San Francisco this season. It was more like the weather in Peter Stratmoen’s 1975 pictures. (cf. ‘Things that you might not notice’ from 7/17/2016) With a little over a week left of the summer of 2018, I thought I’d post some updates of vintage pictures from past summers in San Francisco.

A cable car at O’Farrell and Powell Streets late on a summer afternoon in 1958: (Shorpy Archives)

Obviously, the most famous San Francisco summer was the 1967 “Summer of Love”. The vintage photo from that year was at the intersection that more than any place in the world epitomized the Summer of Love, Haight and Ashbury.(National Geographic)

Hippies and, possibly grandbabies of hippies at the northeast corner of the Haight-Ashbury intersection in 1967 and 2018: (Vintage Everyday)

“Cop’s face is filled with hate. Heavens above he’s on a street called “Love”.

Actually, this was taken in February of 1967, four months before the “Summer of Love” officially started. I see Jimi! (opensfhistory.org)

Hippies on top of “Hippie Hill” in Golden Gate Park during the “Summer of Love” in 1967, and neo-hippies on top of Hippie Hill today: (National Geographic)

51 years is a long time ago to try and find an exact spot, but the only tree on top of Hippie Hill that remotely matches the one behind where those hippies were sitting in the previous picture is the one in the center of this photo.

Although still resembling the Summer of Love by the summer of 1969 when the vintage photo was taken, the dream had faded out due to multiple drug overdose problems and a rising crime rate in the area. (opensfhistory.org)

The northeast corner of Haight and Cole Streets in 1969: Wow, dig that groovy peace symbol wreath in the modern picture! Far out! What a trip, huh? #pseudohippie (opensfhistory.org)

Moving forward to the summer of 1971, a cable car leaves Aquatic Park to climb Hyde Street. That’s the Ghirardelli Square tower behind the cable car in the vintage picture. (Vintage Everyday)

Children Playing at the Mermaid Fountain in Ghirardelli Square in the summer of 1971: That was 47 summers ago; they’ll all be approaching senior citizenship by now. Oh, well, if I can handle it so can they. (Vintage Everyday)

 

In a post of mine from August 23^rd 2016 about a visit to the Tenderloin District, I may have painted a pretty grim picture of the area. There is no doubt that it is a very uncomfortable place to walk around; it’s depressing and I can’t change that. But there is an old fashion atmosphere there, since much of the architecture in the district hasn’t changed. If you let your imagination go while you look around, you could be walking here in the 1920’s, 1930’s, 1940’s or 1950’s. Also, I go there often to take pictures, and that speaks for itself. We’ll start at Larkin near Hyde Streets and end at Turk and Mason Streets.

The vintage photo from the Huffington Post is dated May of 1939. The “Lubrication Service” Garage has been overhauled now, and the Larkin Theater is now the Century Theater.

A St. Patrick’s Day parade on O’Farrell Street in March of 1968: Well, Jasper O’Farrell was born in  Ireland so it’s fitting, but they don’t hold the parade here anymore. (opensfhistory.org)

A circa 1958 picture in front of the Alexander Hamilton on O’Farrell Street: It’s interesting that the checkered sidewalk is still there. (opensfhistory.org)

A cable car from the defunct O’Farrell & Jones cable car line on, appropriately, Jones Street at O’Farrell: The line was closed in 1954. This weekend they are running an old O’Farrell – Jones cable car along Hyde Street. If I can get a picture of it, I’ll update this post. (Market Street Railway)

O’Farrell Street near Taylor looking east with the old KNBC Building in the background: (Market Street Railway)

We’re one block east from the opposite picture on O’Farrell and looking west. That construction work on the right would eventually be the O’Farrell and Mason Street Garage. (opensfhistory.org)

We’ll stop here at Turk and Mason Streets looking west. Tiny’s Waffle Shop, ‘ALWAYS OPEN’ isn’t anymore. You can see from the pictures in this post that the look of the Tenderloin District hasn’t changed much. (SF Gate and opensfhistory.org)

This is another interesting story from Found SF about the “B-girl menace” in Tenderloin history. B-girls used their “charms” to get male customers to buy overpriced drinks in Tenderloin bars. This girl shown her, Connie Collins, was arrested in May of 1938 for “vagrancy” in an attempt by police to discourage b-girl activity.  Today, there are not enough police officers in all of San Francisco to arrest the vagrants in the Tenderloin District. I’ll include the link to the Found SF story about the b-girls below.

http://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=%22B-Girls%22_in_the_Tenderloin

 

 

Even if it wasn’t a foggy end of August in San Francisco when I took most of my pictures for this set, I couldn’t have captured the colors of these vintage pictures. Some of them look like Peter Max creations!

An untrue blue Cliff House in 1947 from the website Everyday Life in the Western United States:

Quick, where was this taken? You have ten seconds………. If you can zoom in you’ll make out the street sign where the cable car is turning off from as Hyde Street, and if you know the cable car system, you may think of Hyde and Washington Streets. Actually the undated picture is at Pine and Hyde Streets, and has to have been taken before 1954. This was along the Jones – O’Farrell- Hyde Line that was discontinued during that year. You could board one of the cars at Jones or O’Farrell Street where the cable cars would move along Jones Street turning west at Pine Street and then north onto Hyde Street. What a lovely view of the Tenderloin that would offer today! The cars had front and back benches for passengers like the California Street Line. Here’s some interesting history from the Market Street Railway, where the vintage picture is from. The cable car warning sign is because when the cars turned east off of Hyde Street here, they traveled against one-way traffic for two blocks before turning south onto Jones Street.

The Palace Hotel on Market Street is not red like in this old travel poster, and never was, but I couldn’t resist dimming it red to see what it would look like. I like it!

A few more people and a lot more sunshine on Ocean Beach, south of the Cliff House, in the 1960’s than on Labor Day Weekend, 2018. There seldom are crowds on Ocean Beach, like in the vintage picture, since Playland-at-the-Beach was demolished in 1972. (Charles Cushman)

Another bluer than blue photo from Everyday Life in the Western United States of the City Hall in 1947: These were taken looking east from Franklin Street; I couldn’t get a perfect lineup because of construction work on Franklin.

The intersection of Geary Blvd. and Powell Street from Union Square during the 1940’s:

Another wonderful vintage picture looking north along Grant Avenue from Sacramento Street in Chinatown during 1957: (Everyday Life in the Western United States)

There was probably never a more colorful period in San Francisco history than the 1967 “Summer of Love”, and certainly no more suitable of a candidate for the queen of the Summer of Love than Janis Joplin, seen here at the Palace of Fine Arts.

 

I know, that was pretty corny, but the sun finally came out in San Francisco today after a week of fog, and I got what felt like a VIP tour of the SS Jeremiah O’Brien Liberty Ship, courtesy of one of the crew members.

IF YOU ONLY HAVE TIME TO VISIT ONE ATTRACTION IN SAN FRANCISCO………. then you should have stayed home! Actually the historic World War Two Liberty Ship, the SS Liberty O’Brien should be on top of your list.

A vintage photo of a radioman on the ship during World War Two getting a message warning of U Boats in the area: Not really, that was my tour guide.

“Where’s this, Kevin?”

“That’s the Crew’s Mess.”

“Well, if it’s the crews mess let them clean it up!”

I feel like throwing out all the old jokes today!

A Saturday Afternoon Mutiny.

“Who sleeps here, Kevin?”

“That bunk is for the seamen.”

“I’m not going anywhere near that line, Kevin.”

Now, a circular look from atop the ship, starting with a view toward the Golden Gate: They don’t always let visitors up this high.

Looking northwest toward the aft of the ship:

“The Rock”

Looking toward the forward side of the ship for a view of Telegraph Hill and Downtown San Francisco:

Looking directly toward Nob Hill over one of the most historic surviving piers on the San Francisco waterfront, Pier 45:

The view toward Russian Hill:

Coming back around again; Ghirardelli Square, the Maritime Museum, and the Hyde Street Pier: