Author: SF Film Locations

In an introduction to a World War Two almanac I read years ago, the author, (and I can’t remember who it was) refers to the war as the greatest “collective human endeavor in history”. That’s been true for seventy five years, but the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020 might rank alongside, if not surpass, that title. It has effected almost everybody in the world in an effort to combat the virus, the United States government has spent more money as a result of the illness than it did during the entire Second World War, and like that war, people are dying all over the world because of the plague, although the death toll hasn’t approached anywhere near the scope of World War Two yet. The expression ‘globally united” in the fight against the virus is becoming a popular expression. I haven’t been out of the Bay Area since the shelter-in-place order was implemented, so I don’t know about the rest of the world, but the people of San Francisco seem to be working together to overcome the crises, as they have in the past concerning other issues. I’m sure the rest of the world is, as well. These are a collection of pictures that I’ve posted in the past showing San Franciscans working together for a cause that involved other situations, concerns, or disasters from the city’s past, including World War Two.

A peace, love, and end the Vietnam War rally passes Alamo Square along Fulton Street in 1967. Demonstrations like this helped to make that war unpopular and may have contributed to its ending, although there were some disasters along the way, such as Kent State, Ohio.

World War Two wasn’t unpopular in the United States, although, it wasn’t all that welcome, either. Servicemen and women packed San Francisco on their way to, and coming from the battlefronts, as seen in this 1943 photo from LIFE Magazine taken at Mason, Turk, and Market Streets. 71 years later, San Franciscans were united again in celebrating a parade at this spot in honor of the San Francisco Giants third World Series victory. Even rain on the parade didn’t “rain on the parade”.

In 1937, six years before the previous picture was taken, citizens from the Chinese community in San Francisco demonstrated in front of Pier 45 at Fisherman’s Wharf. They were calling on the United States Government to stop importing products to Japan, after Japan’s invasion of China. (Vintage picture from museumca.org)

Two years later in 1939, San Francisco invited countries from around the world to participate in the Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island. A few years after the groundbreaking for the fair, the United States would be fighting against some of the countries represented in the vintage photo, such as Nazi Germany and Japan.

Now, we’ll go back 105 years to when San Francisco celebrated the Panama Pacific Exposition of 1915. In August of 2017, I did a comparison picture of the opensfhistory.org photo taken on Market Street in front of the Ferry Building, when people from around the Bay Area gathered there to view the solar eclipse occurring that day. It never got as dark as my picture implies, I just touched it up a little bit for effect.

Fast forward back to World War Two, (Does that make sense?) and a community war bond drive at Ocean Avenue and Junipero Serra Blvd. in the Sunset District. “We’re all in this together!” That was true then and now.

World War Two ended in victory for the Allies and San Francisco celebrated the occasion big-time; although, these nitwits on top of a streetcar on Market Street in front of the Golden Gate Theater, dangerously close to the electrical connection, may have been carry things too far!

In June of 1984, San Francisco united again to celebrate the return of the cable cars after nearly two years of a shut down for repairs. The current shut down of the cable car system is the longest stretch of non operation since then. The top picture is a slide photo I took on Powell Street in front of the St. Francis Hotel.

But San Francisco’s greatest collective human endeavor has to be the rebuilding of the city after the 1906 Earthquake and Fire. The vintage picture from the San Francisco History Center was taken looking down Kearny Street toward Broadway.

Well, it was four years ago this month that I posted Prowling around the Port, part one, so I guess I’m overdue for a sequel. Friday, I took another walk along the Embarcadero, my favorite street in San Francisco. On paper, it looks like a long walk but it goes by real fast, which is good because the Muni F Line of historic streetcars that run along the Embarcadero and are easy to hop on if your feet run out of gas, isn’t in service at this time due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The start of construction on the Embarcadero Freeway that would eventually cut the Ferry Building off from the rest of San Francisco, seen in a November of 1957 picture from opensfhistory.org:

The old YMCA Building on the Embarcadero near Howard Street in 1928: The building was erected in 1926. This area of San Francisco had become pretty seedy by the 1950s. Eli Wallach, “Dancer”, commits his first murder in this building in the wonderful crime movie ‘The Lineup’ from 1958. (San Francisco Picture Blog)

The southern portion of the Embarcadero Freeway ended at Howard Street, seen here in the late 1980s. (livablecity.org)

The northern portion of the freeway stopped at Broadway, seen here in a 1990 picture shortly before it was demolished. Construction on the freeway was originally planned to go all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge, which would have destroyed the entire Bay waterfront of San Francisco. Cooler heads prevailed and stopped that ridiculous idea, eventually. (Flickr)

The best picture I’ve seen of the automobile underpass that allowed cars driving along the Embarcadero to cross under the streetcar turnaround at Market Street in front of the Ferry Building. This 1935 picture from opensfhistory.org was near where Clay Street entered the Embarcadero. This is a great little picture; the southern wing of the Ferry Building and one of the towers from the Bay Bridge are on the left, and I wonder what that little kiosk was for; possibly, a signal to regulate when the streetcars could proceed.

The northern wing of the Ferry Building with the passenger footbridge on the right in 1939: The embankment at the top of the Embarcadero underpass is behind the cable car that ran along the Sacramento Street line from the Ferry Building. (opensfhistory.org)

Not far from the Embarcadero is an area once called the Produce District that thrived around the Colombo Market on Front Street and Pacific Avenue. The Produce District and the Colombo Market are gone now, but the archway of the Colombo Market entrance remains. The best look you’ll get on film of the old Produce District is in the 1949 movie ‘Thieves Highway’, starring Richard Conte and Lee J. Cobb. (Skmorton.com and Found SF)

We’ll end our prowl at Pier 29 because I had to walk back and that was good enough for one day. Here, an old Belt Line Railroad engine passes Pier 29 along the Embarcadero in 1977. The railroad line officially went out of operation in 1993. (Railpictures.net)

Last month was the anniversary of the day that Golden Gate Park opened on April 4^th 1870. There was scheduled a major commemoration of the anniversary, but, of course, this was cut back due to the shelter-in-place still in effect. Restrictions have been lifted slightly, so last Sunday, Mother’s Day, I visited the park to take some pictures for this post. I’ve also included a few pictures of Golden Gate Park from previous posts that I’ve done. Rae Alexandra, a member of the PBS television station KQED, wrote an interesting article concerning movies that have been filmed in Golden Gate Park and was kind enough to include a few of my pictures in her story. I’ll include the link to her article at the end of this post.

McLaren Lodge in 1907: (eBay)

Looking south across Kezar Stadium toward the old Polytechnic Gym Building on Frederick Street during a 49ers football game in 1957: Kezar Stadium was demolished in 1989, but the playing field is still there. (An SF Gate photo posted on Pinterest)

The old Rustic Bridge at Stow Lake, erected in 1893:

A vintage picture from the Shorpy Collection at Stow Lake with the old Rustic Bridge to Strawberry Hill in the background: Wow, that’s a really classy looking Nissan Versa!

The lesser photographed bridge that crosses Stow Lake over to Strawberry Hill from the north, seen here in 1955, (the Rustic Bridge crosses over to Strawberry Hill from the south). Boats aren’t available to rent at Stow Lake right now so this was the closest comparison I could get to the vintage picture. (Etsy.com)

A postcard of the old Boathouse at Stow Lake in 1908 (eBay)

The Japanese Tea Garden was changed to the Oriental Tea Garden after Pearl Harbor. The name was changed back to the Japanese Tea Garden in 1952. Both pictures are looking toward where the old entrance to the Tea Garden used to be.

The Children’s Playground after the 1906 Earthquake: The roof of the Sharon Building had collapsed.  (SFMTA Photography)

The fellow with the glasses may not look that imposing, but from the late 1920s through the end of the 1950s he owned The Cliff House, the Sutro Bathhouse and Playland-at-the-Beach. George Whitney poses with his family out the Portals of the Past on Lloyd Lake in Golden Gate Park. (worhtpoint.com)

The old Murphy Windmill at the southwest corner of Golden Gate Park in disrepair in the 1970s: The restored windmill was reopened in 2012.

Looking past the children’s playground in the Golden Gate Park Panhandle toward the corner of Oak and Ashbury Streets in a San Francisco Chronicle photo from 1966: The playground is still there, but closed right now due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Here’s the link to Rae Alexandra’s article about movies with Golden Gate Park locations. https://www.kqed.org/arts/13861622/happy-150th-a-brief-history-of-golden-gate-park-in-the-movies

I’m never sure where Nob Hill ends and Russian Hill begins, or where Russian Hill ends and Nob Hill begins, if you’re coming from that direction. The boundary that separates Nob from Russian Hills is generally considered to be Pacific Ave, but the zip code directory that includes Russian Hill extends to Jackson Street. Yesterday was a really pretty day in the Bay Area, so I took a few hours off to drive over to San Francisco with one of the girls who helps out in the office. I let her drive and found out that she’s a maniac behind a steering wheel. I used up my whole day’s supply of Hail Marys getting to and from San Francisco. Tricia also got to drive down Lombard Street for her first time, and I’ve included a silly video of that adventure at the end of this post. She also helped out as a wheel lady, double parking while I took these then and nows somewhere on or between Russian and Nob Hills. The vintage pictures are from a website called the San Francisco Picture Blog, hosted by blogspot.com.

Jackson and Powell Streets, looking west in 1952:

Jackson Street at Larkin, looking west in 1918:

The exact opposite view from the previous picture of Jackson Street at Larkin, looking east in 1920:

Looking west down Union Street from Larkin Street in 1948:

Pacific Avenue, looking south along Hyde Street in 1956: They’re doing lots of road work around San Francisco right now during the coronavirus pandemic, but not here at Hyde Street, like in the vintage picture. That’s obviously work along the cable car track.

Looking east down Broadway from Taylor Street in 1964:

Mason Street, looking east along Vallejo Street in 1968:

Grant Avenue, looking west down Union Street toward Russian Hill in 1966: We were geographically starting to climb Telegraph Hill here.

The following video is a rare drive down a practically empty Lombard Street, between Hyde and Leavenworth Streets.

As I have mentioned in the past, I love to explore San Francisco in May more than any other month of the year; the weather is usually accommodating, and the City is so pretty in the spring. Of course, this won’t be the case this May; the shelter-in-place order due to the coronavirus pandemic has been extended to the end of May, for now. This is causing a lot of people worry and concern, and I’m no exception, but it might also be saving our lives. The reports that some of the restrictions may be eased up a little brought a lot of people out of their shelters on “May Day”, May 1^st, possibly in honor of International Workers Day. I took a drive through Golden Gate Park to the coast on May 1^st and walked around Downtown San Francisco on the 2^nd. Outdoor picture taking has been officially sanctioned now, which isn’t a bad idea because you’ll get to see a San Francisco you’ve never seen before, and hopefully, never will again.

The Bay Bridge Toll Plaza on opening day, November 12^th 1936: There was only one camera taking my picture when I crossed the bridge yesterday, and I’ll be getting a pay ticket bill soon. Sadly, this reminds me of a missing man formation; the number 14 toll booth where a lady toll collector was killed in an accident in 2017 is still missing. (Vintage picture, worthpoint.com, posted on Pinterest)

A view of Playland-at-the-Beach, then known as Chutes-at-the-Beach, looking along La Playa from the south side of Sutro Heights in the 1930s: You can see the Dutch Windmill in Golden Gate Park in both pictures. (worhtpoint.com)

The Cabrillo Street turnaround at the Great Highway in the 1950s: The Playland Funhouse is in the background.

Work on the Ocean Beach Seawall near the Cliff House in the 1920s: The Sutro Heights cliffs looked so barren back then. (worhtpoint.com)

This May 8^th will be the 75^th anniversary of Victory in Europe, V-E Day. Here, San Franciscans and military visitors are celebrating the news in front of the old Telenews Theater on Market Street. The Telenews was approximately just west of where the corner of Market and Cyril Magnin Streets is now. The roof of the Number One Powell Street Building is in the upper right of the vintage photo. (The San Francisco Chronicle)

Market Street near 5^th in 1966: I’ll redo this one when the vintage F Line Streetcars are running along here again. My picture was taken on another busy day for the police on a Market Street left mostly to vandals and deranged street people during the shelter-in-place. (Pinterest)

A rally to reelect Governor Pat Brown on Grant Avenue at Clay Street in Chinatown: Well, this is an election year in the United States too. I’m not sure if this was when Brown was elected for a second term in 1962 or when he lost his bid for reelection in 1966 to Ronald Reagan: My picture was taken today in a depressingly empty Chinatown.  (Street Scenes of San Francisco)

Normally, I’d wait for a cable car to come along before updating this 1966 photo on California Street between Stockton Street and Grant Avenue, but not I nor anybody else knows when the cable cars will be running again. (ebay)

These are three picture sets of vintage picture updates I took around San Francisco in the past that I redid last week. The top pictures are the vintage pictures, the middle pictures are my first updates when San Francisco was a bustling town, and the bottom photos were taken at the same spots only a lot less crowded right now due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

Market Street at Kearny: The top picture from the San Francisco Library History Room is from 1910, the center photo is from 2016, the bottom photo was taken April 18^th 2020, the anniversary of the 1906 Earthquake and Fire. For almost one hundred years survivors of that disaster met at Lotta’s Fountain on the left at the exact time and day of the earthquake.

Another picture taken in 1910 at Kearny and Market Streets looking toward the Palace Hotel on the left: The middle picture was taken in 2017. (opensfhistory.org)

The corner of Powell Street and Geary, looking from Union Square: The top picture is from 1948, the middle picture was taken on Veterans Day, 2016.

Stockton Street at O’Farrell looking north: The top photo from the San Francisco Chronicle was taken in 1951, the middle photo I took on “Black Friday”, November 24^th 2017.

Another photo from the San Francisco Chronicle in front of the Old Emporium Store taken in 1949: My picture in the center was taken on “Black Friday” in November of 2017. Many of the closed businesses along Market Street, like Bloomingdale’s where the old Emporium was, are boarding up their windows during the shelter-in-place order still in effect.

This August 14^th will be the 75^th anniversary of VJ Day when Japan surrendered ending World War Two. The top picture is vintage film footage from C. R. Skinner on Market Street at 7^th looking east as San Francisco celebrates the end of the war. A tremendous crowd in the background where the streetcars have stopped is surging up toward the cameraman. Also in the background, the Flood Building on the left of Market Street, and the crowned Humboldt Bank Building across Market Street on the right can be seen in all three photos. A million on Market Street was the estimated crowd gathered to celebrate the parade for the San Francisco Giants first World Series victory on November 3^rd 2010 when I took my comparison picture in the middle. Although not as important as the end of World War Two, I waited most of my life to see this and I wasn’t going to miss it.

I had that song stuck in my head when I went over to SF yesterday. I heard that they may be discouraging people from going to Ocean Beach during the pandemic, but there isn’t any problem; people are practicing social distancing, and there were plenty of social distancing police on hand to make sure they behaved.

A stranger on the shore on Sutro Heights above the Cliff House: (Pinterest and ebay)

A view of Playland-at-the-Beach from Sutro Heights in the 1970s near the end of its run: You can see the Funhouse and Merry-go-round in the upper right. The new then Safeway in the upper left is still there. (mksgrist.wix.com)

Looking down Point Lobos Road past the Cliff House and Sutr0 Heights toward Ocean Beach in the 1940s: (Pinterest)

Two strangers on the shore, Although maybe not to each other, at the Cliff House in the 1940s: (opensfhistory and outsidelands.org))

A Victorian stranger on the shore: (Vintage photography)

A great colorized picture of Ocean Beach circa 1900: It may be gloomy thinking, but it’s possible that some of the people in the vintage photo died during the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918-1919. At any rate, they’re all gone now. (Reddit colorized by Jordan Lloyd)

Families on Ocean Beach with Seal Rocks in the background in the late 1800s:(Worthpoint.com)

So 1970s! They removed the steps on the seawall by the 1980s.  (Pinterest and ebay)

For those who remember Playland-at-the-Beach, and I do, the Funhouse was on the left behind where the grass embankment is now, the merry-go-round was in the center where the condo is. (Flickr)

As I’ve mentioned in the past, I’ve read that Fisherman’s Wharf is the second most popular tourist attraction in California after Disneyland. They’re both closed now because of the necessary shelter in place order, basically in place around the world, due to the COVID19 virus. Well, I can’t go to Disneyland yet, but I can go to Fisherman’s Wharf. It’s lonely, sad, and depressing at times when I look back at the crowds that could often be annoying, (always excluding myself from being part of the annoying crowd, naturally) but it will be thriving again by summer, as our hopes and prayers wish and ask for. These are updates of updates I did of vintage pictures when Fisherman’s Wharf was the noisy and lively way it will be again soon, and this time we won’t mind all of the people so much, for awhile.

Looking down the end of Taylor Street toward Pier 45 in 1975: (Peter Stratmoen)

Looking toward the #9 Fishermen’s Grotto Restaurant in 1960: (opensfhistory.org)

Tourists viewing Alcatraz Island through telescopes near Pier 43 ½ in the 1970s:

Looking east from the northwest corner of Jefferson and Taylor Streets in the 1930s: The gas station across Taylor Street that was still there until the 1970s was originally designed to look like a ship. (National Maritime Museum at San Francisco)

WACs and soldiers working up an appetite in front of #9 Fishermen’s Grotto, looks like during the 1950s:

Lee Remick crosses Jefferson Street at Taylor to a taxicab that will take her to Candlestick Park for the denouement of the 1962 film ‘Experiment in Terror’.

Looking toward Ghirardelli Square from Hyde and Jefferson Streets in 1975 in a Peter Stratmoen photo: Hey, they’ve removed all of the trees that were in the updated picture I did in 2016.

Looking south along Taylor Street across Jefferson in the 1950s; The Wharf was still packed when I did my first update in December of 2018.

San Francisco, like the rest of the world, has extended the shelter in place order until at least May. It’s absolutely necessary during the COVID19 Pandemic. San Francisco, although still just as beautiful, is a lonelier city to visit now, but it does offer once-in-a-lifetime photo opportunities for a San Francisco aficionado.

I observe very little “social distancing” at Ocean Beach in 1948. (opensfhistory.org)

The Cliff House closed up tight and there’s still little parking in front. That’s because the Ocean Beach Parking Lot has been closed off and people are still going to the beach.

The Beach Chalet on the western edge of Golden Gate Park in 1963; now closed and quiet. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Alamo looking northeast toward the “Painted Ladies” after the 1906 Earthquake: (Vintage photo from the California Academy of Sciences)

The famous Lombard Street, between Hyde and Leavenworth Streets, is still open to traffic, but there are few cars or people visiting the tourist site. (opensfhistory.org)

The Hyde Street Gripless! The best portion of the entire cable car system looks even quieter than the old 1920s photo.

A closed and empty Golden Gate Bridge Promenade last Friday and in June of 1987 with me and some of my family: This area has changed a lot since then.

I got the idea for that title after reading yesterday’s article in the San Francisco Chronicle by the journalist Carl Nolte about George R Stewarts’s 1949 novel ‘Earth Abides’; a story about a worldwide virus that kills off most of the earth’s population leaving few survivors. I last read the book when I was about 18 and I don’t remember much about it accept that it was very depressing. Yesterday, I took BART into San Francisco for the first time after the Bay Area shelter in place order was issued to get some pictures along Market Street and that was depressing, as well. The afternoon before, I drove through a quiet San Francisco that, although empty, was still very beautiful. The following day, Market Street was a different experience. With most of the workers, shoppers and tourist gone now, Market Street is basically left to the street people, most of them far beyond any help. Maybe they’re always there, but just not as prominent among the usual crowd of people. With Market Street so quiet, you can hear them yelling and swearing for blocks. Many of them were a lot more aggressive than usual on Sunday, and I was fed up with them after about four blocks. These are a collection of vintage photos of a bustling Market Street that I’ve posted in the past, and updated with pictures of the relatively vacant and uncomfortable Market Street I walked along on Sunday.

Looking down Geary Blvd past Lotta’s Fountain during the 1930s: Lotta’s Fountain was not only taller then, but it was in a slightly different spot at the intersections of Geary Blvd, Kearny and Market Streets. The fountain was moved back to its original location in 1999.

Looking west on Market Street at Montgomery Street after the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906: You can see the old and new Palace Hotels and the Call Building on the left in both pictures. (San Francisco History Center)

A parade on Market Street at 4^th St in the 1920s: The crowned Call Building, today’s Central Tower, is in the background of both pictures. The thin Humboldt Building is on the right in both pictures.

Market Street at Grant Avenue in the 1940s: An American Werewolf in San Francisco!

VJ Day, celebrating the end of World War Two, at Grant Avenue and Market Street in August of 1945: (Vintage picture from the San Francisco History Center)

Market Street, across from the old Emporium Department store, during the 1930s: I saw several incidents of police having to deal with the street people during yesterday’s walk.

Powell Street Looking across Market Street toward the Emporium in 1971: The Flood Building is on the left in both pictures.

The cable car turnaround looking north on Powell Street in the 1950s: (Vintage Everyday)

A protest March on Market Street at 5^th looking toward the old Flood Building in 1966: (The Shorpy Archive)