I went back over to Chinatown Wednesday night. With the APEC Summit opening this weekend in San Francisco, Chinatown may be pretty crowded during this coming week, so I wanted to enjoy the calm before the crowds. The Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit is being compared by some as the biggest international event in San Francisco since the June of 1945 UNCIO San Francisco Conference toward the end of World War ll which led to the creation of the United Nations, so the City will be doing its best to accommodate visitors and show the world that San Francisco is still “the city that knows how’. Yes, there was once a time when you’d have to be a soldier of fortune to walk around Chinatown at night, but it’s not as notorious as it used to be, and the alleys are peaceful and picturesque. I took some night time pictures and later found some vintage pictures taken during the daytime that closely match the pictures I took. (Thumbnail images)
‘Sneakin’ Sister Sally Through the Alley’: Spofford Alley at twilight. (Jimmie-Shein)
Ross Alley, once famous for Tong wars, opium dens and Shanghaiing: People now visit the alley to buy fortune cookies. (Arnold Genthe)
There’s a great chase scene throughout Chinatown from the 1949 film ‘Impact’. Here, Ella Raines chases the cab car Anna May Wong is riding in south on Grant Avenue from Washington Street, back when traffic went the opposite direction.
The once notorious Beckett Alley in Chinatown: In 1913 this street had 29 brothels on both sides of the street according to the National Trust Guide to San Francisco. The old photo was taken in 1878, when it was called Bartlett Alley. (opensfhistory.org)
Grant Avenue, looking south from Jackson Street in a 1960s: (opensfhistory.org)
Waverly Place, the widest and most popular alley in Chinatown, in a 1950s picture: (opensfhistory.org)
Another peaceful evening spot is St. Mary’s Square, across from Old St. Mary’s Church. I hope the two people in the 1958 photo are still together in the next life. (opensfhistory.org)
I headed home through a lonely and empty Maiden Lane. Once the most popular alley in the city, this used to be where San Francisco traditionally opened spring every year. Now, like Lotta’s Fountain, people walk past it without a second thought. (San Francisco Public Library Archives)
But the main reason I went over there was to visit the site of the old Trafalgar Building on California Street, up from Grant Avenue, seen in the opening of Bob Hope’s 1947 film ‘My Favorite Brunette’. The movie costars Dorothy Lamour, Peter Lorre, Lon Chaney Jr. with cameos from Alan Ladd and Bing Crosby, and it’s one of Bob Hope’s best movies. The scenes from a flashback near the film’s opening show people walking up California Street past the Trafalgar Building. The building was demolished and is now where the parking garage of the Ritz Carlton is. Below is a link do a post I did about the film in 2017. (YouTube)
San Francisco Film Locations Then & Now 
The old pictures are fascinating when compared to modern pictures, even though I am unfamiliar with these particular places; but I sometimes consider what the people in those pictures would have thought if they could have seen the modern pictures, . . . or what pictures of these places would look like in the future.
Well, except for the cars, and we don’t know what they’ll look like in the future, Chinatown probably won’t change much. But your comment brings up a interesting thought; maybe in the next century someone will find one of my pictures and think, “Wow, they used to take pictures with a telephone! How 21 Century was that!”
Not too long ago, we took pictures with cameras, . . . with film!