Author: SF Film Locations

bI took a lot of slide pictures around San Francisco during the 1980s and I’ve posted a number of them here on my site. Most of my slides I remember where they were taken or the locations are easy to identify, but these top four slides from 1985 I couldn’t place where they were taken at. I put the pictures on a Facebook page called San Francisco Remembered and asked if anybody recognized the spots. Many of the members of San Francisco Remembered know the city better than anyone I know, and there’s always someone in the group who can identify a San Francisco street or area. Well, the San Francisco Remembered group members didn’t help me locate where my pictures were taken; they identified the spots right down to a T. I also learned from where members said that the pictures were taken that I probably took them all on the same day.

This was taken from Market Street, looking north where Hermann and Laguna Streets meet. I think my old picture would have been from aboard the MUNI Boat Tram that I probably was riding along Market Street on as we passed by. The wall and buildings on the left have been remodeled and new ones built since 1985.

I thought we must have been going into a tunnel on this one. MUNI started running old streetcars along Market Street around 1984 or 1985; this was before the F and E Lines of old streetcars running along Market Street and the Embarcadero today were placed in service. It looks like I was riding at the back of the number 228 Boat Tram from Blackpool England when I took my picture. Turns out I was on Duboce at the bottom of the U. S. Mint, which was on my left. This was close as MUNI officials would let me get yesterday to get my update.

This looks like it must have been the end of the line for the Boat Tram ride. The street car can’t turn around so I wonder how I got back! Actually, there was a turn around and you can see where the tracks were in the update I did of the previous picture. This is looking west toward  Buena Vista Park in the opposite direction from the previous picture. The mountain that the U.S. Mint sits on is on the right. The little “Dinky” on the left they were working on in 1985 still runs along Market Street and the Embarcadero occasionally.

Now, this one I should have known! I know that San Francisco had two double-deck freeways in 1985, both gone now, the Embarcadero Freeway and the Central Freeway. I also knew that my older picture couldn’t have been taken anywhere along the Embarcadero Freeway. It had to be looking toward the Central Freeway, but I couldn’t place the street. The church at right central in the old photo would have been one of the best clues and I should have studied it closer. This is Gough Street from Market Street looking north. I was using my Minolta X700 zoom lens for the old picture as we rolled by. The church was Saint Paulus’ Lutheran church, seen in a number of movies, such as ‘Greed’, ‘The Man Who Cheated Himself’ and ‘Vertigo’. The church burned down in 1995. The Central Freeway, like the Embarcadero Freeway, was demolished after the Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989.

Well, I guess San Francisco will get by without cable cars for that long; the city got by without them for nearly two years thirty seven years ago. But in case you miss them during the ten day maintenance shut down, these are some cable car pictures that I’ve posted on my blog in the past.

Pacific Gas and Electric salutes MUNI on its 50^th anniversary in front of the St. Francis Hotel in 1962: This might have been where Beach Blanket Babylon got their idea. Beach Blanket Babylon will be closing its 45 year run at the end of 2019. (Mike Phipps & Don Holmgren)

A lonely little cable car heads up Castro Street in the 1930s: The Castro Line ran from Market Street to 26^th Street. (Mike Phipps & Don Holmgren)

A cable car heads up Sacramento Street past Joice Alley between Powell and Stockton Streets in the early 1900s:

Powell and California Streets looking toward the old Crest Garage in the 1940s: The Crest Garage was demolished in early 2018.

Cable cars used to run up Fillmore Street from the Bay once too:

The loneliest of the five cable car boarding and ending points, California Street at Van Ness, looking east up Nob Hill. The vintage picture is from the 1950s.

Looking west up Nob Hill from California and Drumm Streets where the eastern beginning / ending of the California Street cable car line is in the late 1950s or early 196’s:

A cable car approaches Taylor Street along Jackson Street in the 1950s: The cable car in the vintage is number 515; there are only 40 of them today. (Fred Lyon)

Riding along on the “Hyde Street Grip”:

Jack Lemmon races his Thunderbird past the Bay and Taylor cable car turnaround in the 1964 film ‘Good Neighbor Sam’.  Although you can’t see it in my photo, that 76 gas station on the right is still there.

The cable car turnaround at Aquatic Park in the 1960s: This is a great picture, right down to the grip man with cigarette in his mouth! (Glenn Christiansen)

California Governor Ronald Reagan and Mrs. Nancy Reagan on a cable car heading up Powell Street just past Post Street in 1966: (buzzfeed.com)

A zoom in looking down California Street toward Powell in the 1970s: (Minerva)

A cable car approaches the signal box on the southeast corner of California and Powell Streets in the 1970s: (Minerva)

Well, now look at that, the cable cars were down for awhile in the 1970s too! This is at the Powell and Market Streets turnaround.

Cable cars were definitely down from 1982 until 1984 for a complete repair of the system. This is a redo of a slide picture I took in 1983 on Powell Street north of Sutter. The entire San Francisco cable car system was shut down.

This is another slide photo I took in 1983 on California Street up from Grant Ave. You can see the construction work on the cable car line down California Street.

This slide I took was in June of 1984 in front of the St. Francis Hotel. San Francisco was celebrating the reopening of the cable car system.

As the story goes, and I believe it, when the 1960s skyscraper boom in San Francisco erupted and the pile drivers were heading north and destroying everything in their path, like ‘Kronos’ the Planet Robber did, the people living on Telegraph Hill got together and forced City Hall to approve an ordinance that stopped new buildings from being built north of Market Street that would block Telegraph Hill from its view of the Ferry Building. So, Kronos turned south and the result is today’s SOMA, South of Market Street, once known as “South of the slot” in reference to the cable car line that used to run down Market Street. I took a walk and bus ride around SOMA last Saturday to take some pictures, and I was also granted an audience with Emperor Joshua A. Norton. His Highness was at the new Salesforce Transit Center to rededicate a marker that was originally installed in his honor at the old Transbay Terminal Building in 1939.

Hidden away south of Market Street is the southern end of lonely Dore Street, looking south from Bryant, just after the 1906 Earthquake. (On Shaky Ground)

Looking north along 1^st Street from Mission Street in 1962: These pictures were taken from where the Salesforce Tower is today. (opensfhistory.org)

Looking down 1^st Street from Harrison Street in 1973: This was a close of a comparison picture as I could get nowadays, trees block the view from further up 1^st Street now. That Union 76 gas station in the old picture survived until just recently. The building on the far right in both pictures is the Sailors’ Union of the Pacific Hall. (opensfhistory.org)

The Sailors’ Union of the Pacific Hall in the 1950s: The building was built in 1950. (FoundSF)

The lobby of the Sailors’ Union of the Pacific Hall: This building is a gem compared to some of the buildings they’re slapping up around here today.

Howard Street near 6^th St. in 1980, before the SOMA boom started. (Janet Delaney)

Emperor Joshua Norton at the ceremony in the new Salesforce Transit Terminal rededicating a marker that was placed in his honor in 1939 at the old Transbay Terminal, demolished in 2010: Emperor Norton was a whimsical lunatic, (maybe, or maybe he was just pretending) who came to San Francisco in 1859 proclaiming himself to be the Emperor of the United States, and San Francisco honored him as such until he died in 1880. He was one of the most colorful characters from San Francisco’s history. One of his proclamations decreed that two bridges were to be built someday, one from San Francisco to Oakland, and one from San Francisco to Marin County. San Franciscans must have really got a kick out of that, but guess what……

The Emperor Norton marker placed in the Transit Center on Saturday. Those streaks are from an expensive bottle of champagne used for the Christening.

When the brilliant photographer Arnold Genthe braved the odds and ventured into the streets and alleys of San Francisco’s Chinatown at the end of the Nineteenth Century to take pictures it was not a safe area. Tong wars were rampant, Shanghaiing was practically an industry, indiscreet opium dens were everywhere, and sex slave trafficking flourished. When his pictures were published San Franciscans were intrigued by what they saw, and began visiting the area regularly. It’s safe to say that the quaint tourist destination that Chinatown is today owes a lot to Arnold Genthe. I went over there last Sunday to take some pictures, not near in the league of Genthe’s photographs, but fun to do. There was also a street festival in Waverly Place being set up that I couldn’t get a lot of information about. It wasn’t the Chinatown Autumn Moon Festival, that’s happening this coming weekend, but it was colorful and drew a nice crowd. Let’s take a trip back to Chinatown’s past after the 1906 Earthquake and Fire destroyed the old area and a reborn, flavorful, traditional, and safer Chinatown emerged.

There are many streets to enter Chinatown by, but most visitors prefer the entrance gate at Grant Avenue and Bush Street, seen here around 1969 when it was built.

I usually like to take the Number 1 Muni up Sacramento Street to Stockton Street, cross over to California Street and walked down to Grant Avenue; less uphill walking. In the vintage picture from the 1950s you can see the old Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company Building, built to look like Philadelphia’s Independence Hall. Now, why did they get rid of that? (ebay.com)

Looking down Clay Street toward Waverly Place in 1954: (opensfhistory.org)

This was the street festival in Waverly Place being set up that I mentioned earlier. The top photo is looking north from Clay Street to Washington, the bottom one is looking south from Clay to Sacramento Street. I think that eventually was going to be a dragon in the bottom photo.

Waverly Place looking toward Washington Street in 1962, and last Sunday as the festival was getting started: (opensfhistory.org)

If you do head up Grant Avenue from Bush Street, you’ll come to Pine Street, seen here in an old postcard from the 1960s. The signs for the Lamps of China Restaurant, and Shanghai Low’s, both long gone Chinatown institutions, can still be seen. (Deviant Art)

Another look at Grant Avenue and Pine Street from the 1940s: (Curbed SF)

Children playing on the sidewalk on Grant Avenue near Sacramento Street in the 1930s, around the time that the quaint lampposts were installed: (Curbed SF)

Grant Avenue looking north from Washington Street on a rainy 1930s day: The Rice Bowl Football Game was a benefit in the late 1930’s to raise funds for relief to the people in China suffering from a famine at the time, and also from the country’s invasion by Japan. (FoundSF)

This set is a collection of various labor and other organizational efforts around San Francisco posted for the holiday weekend.

We’ll start with an old 1906 postcard showing a Labor Day parade on Market Street. Although it’s dated 1906, if Labor Day was observed in September back then, the parade must have been in 1905, as most of this area was destroyed by the 1906 Earthquake and Fire in April of that year. The Emporium Building on the right in the old photo was gutted by the fire and rebuilt. The Call Building in the background of the postcard survived the earthquake and was remodeled in the 1940’s. It’s behind the domed Humboldt Building that’s above the girl in the white hat. The Humboldt Building was built in 1908. (picryl.com)

A stevedore strike in 1933 in front of Piers 30 and 32 on the Embarcadero south of the Bay Bridge: Piers 30 and 32 have been demolished now, but you can still see Pier 28 in the far background on the left in the vintage photo and in my picture. (FoundSF / San Francisco History Center)

California Street at Van Ness, looking west in 1957: Wow, construction work on Van Ness! How novel is that today? Just kidding; I’m sure that their doing the best they can. This was another one where I could have got a better comparison with a long-focus lens, but that wouldn’t fit in my pocket as well as my digital day-tripper does. (SFMTA)

A detour at Market and 5^th Streets in 1968: The detour was caused by the construction of BART under Market Street. (SFMTA)

Dock workers relaxing near Pier 24 in the 1940s in a comparison picture I did a few years ago: Pier 24, demolished now, used to run right out to the Bay Bridge tower.

16^th and Illinois Streets looking east in 1925: The vintage picture was taken from the top of the 3^rd Street viaduct that carried streetcars past here back then. “Via duck? Vi not a chicken?” You’d have to be a Marx Brothers fan to remember that one. That’s the Chase Center on the left, the new home of the Golden State Warriors, that the workers are finishing up on. Chase Center, where the LOOP sign was in the vintage picture, is scheduled to open September 6^th this month. (opensfhistory.org)

3^rd at 16^th Streets on the streetcar viaduct, just west of where Chase Center is now, looking north in 1942: What a change! (opensfhistory.org)

A war bonds drive in front of Commodore Sloat Elementary School at Junipero Serra Blvd. and Ocean Ave. during World War Two: “We’re all in this together.” Sometimes, that applies to nowadays, as well; I hope! You can see some of the houses in the vintage picture across Junipero Serra Blvd. behind the eucalyptus trees in my picture. (commodoresloat.com)

A closer look at some of the houses across Junipero Serra Blvd. seen in the previous vintage picture: These are what a lot of people go to work for. It would be nice to buy one for what they would have cost in the old photo.

I don’t always stay in San Francisco from morning until night, but I did get a full day in with this set, morning, afternoon, and evening. I just didn’t do it all on the same day.

Saturday morning, 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM: Already hot by nine o’clock.

The cable car signal box on the southeast corner of California and Powell Streets in 1967: At first I thought, “They’ll take a picture of anything in San Francisco.” but then I thought, “Well, I’m taking a picture of it too!” (SFMTA)

Still plenty of sunshine at 11ish AM to get a nice comparison with this 1950s photo before the shadows creep into the intersection of California and Powell Streets. (Vintage Everyday)

Long gone streetcar tracks being laid down on Sutter Street near Taylor in 1931: (SFMTA)

After breakfast at Tad’s Steak House on Powell, I caught the end of the morning around noon for this 1949 update at Market Street near 5^th. (SFMTA)

Sunday afternoon, 12:00 PM to 4:00 PM: Still warm to hot, but cooled down a little.

This afternoon I started out by heading down Fremont Street toward the new Transbay Transit Terminal: The top photo shows the old Transbay Terminal from here in 1963 in the background. (opensfhistory.org)

Construction work nearing completion on the old Transbay Terminal in 1938: As I mentioned last August, I think the new one is a beautiful transportation terminal, and it’s great to hear the noise buses make indoors when they pass by. It reminds me so much of the old terminal building. (opensfhistory.org) Grant Avenue and California Street in 1961: I got a decent lineup, but I needed a long-focus lens to make this one worthwhile.(SFMTA)

Looking down California Street from Stockton Street in the 1950s: (Vintage Everyday)

Looking back up California Street toward where the previous pictures were taken in the 1950s: There’s something about this vintage photo that makes it my favorite in the set. (Vintage Everyday)

Monday evening, 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM: It cooled off into a pleasant summer evening.

Looking down Stockton Street near Maiden Lane toward Geary St. and the old I Magnin & Company Department store in the 1950s: The building on the left with the diamonds on it in my picture is the Neiman Marcus Department Store that replaced the beloved City of Paris, seen in the old photo. (blogspot.com)

Approaching Chinatown at Grant Avenue and Bush Street in the 1950s: The lights are starting to come on in the City in both pictures. (Vintage Everyday)

Grant Avenue between California and Sacramento Streets as evening approaches in the 1950s:

The end of a perfect day(s). Market Street at Powell in the 1950s; San Francisco’s “Great White Way”: Look at all the movie palaces that were gone by the 1980’s; the Telenews, the Esquire, the Paramount, the Fox Warfield. Over on the left near where the Powell street sign is in my picture was where the elegant Grayson’s was. The Nordstrom Department Store is here now. On the right was where the flagship Woolworth’s San Francisco store was located in the old Flood Building from the 1950’s to the 1980’s.

“Mama, don’t take my Kodachrome away.”

Paul Simon was playing at the Outside Lands Festival in Golden Gate Park this weekend while I was taking these pictures. These are a few stills around San Francisco from the 1940s to the 1960s. The colors on the old pictures may not all be as brilliant as the ones in Paul’s song, but maybe they faded over the years.

A streetcar turns onto First Street from Market in the 1960’s heading toward the Transbay Terminal. Buses are returning into the new Transit Terminal this weekend, but no more streetcars. That’s the Crown Zellerbach Building with its novel turquoise blue shades in the background. (Market Street Railway)

California Street at Grant Avenue in the 1950s: You can have the patience of Job but I don’t think you’ll ever get a shot of two cable cars lining up here going up and coming down from Nob Hill. I don’t think they do that anymore; at least not while I waited. (Vintage Everyday)

Huntington Park on Nob Hill looking toward the Mark Hopkins Hotel in the 1958: (Vintage Everyday)

Grant Avenue in Chinatown between Pine and California Streets in 1965: That’s Old St. Mary’s Church in the background. The sign from the old Shanghai Low nightclub and restaurant is still there. Orson Welles stumbled past Shanghai Low’s while hiding from the police in the 1947 film ‘The Lady from Shanghai’. (etsystatic.com)

Also in Chinatown, Grant Avenue between Sacramento and Clay Streets in the late 1940s.

Looking down Clay Street from Powell in the 1950s: (Vintage Everyday)

Children at the cable car turnaround at Bay and Taylor Streets in the late 1950s: (Vintage Everyday)

Lombard Street in 1959: (Vintage Everyday)

Looking down Hyde Street between Francisco and Bay Streets in the late 1950s or early 1960s: Look at that spooky looking fog devouring Alcatraz in my picture. (theoldmotor.com)

Last week, I had a chance to take some more family visitors from Texas on another “not your usual” San Francisco city tour.

“So what do you guys want to see, the Golden Gate Bridge, Chinatown, Fisherman’s Wharf, Golden Gate Park, the largest sundial in the world?”

“Where’s the largest sundial in the world?”

The mysterious Urbano sundial in the early Twentieth Century in the vintage photo: Legend has it that when you come here on a sunny day in the spring, summer and early fall the sundial is off time by one hour. (artandarchitecture-sf.com)

“And you brought us to this boring spot, because?”

“Because I wanted to get a then and now, and it’s my tour.”

The old entrance to Brooks Hall on Hyde Street in the early 1950s:  The San Francisco Main Library now occupies the upper left of the pictures. (SF Chronicle)

“Hey, you said you were taking us to a famous movie location in San Francisco!”

“Well, there was the last time I was here.”

That Doggie Diner on the left at Townsend and 3^rd would later become Burger Island where Dirty Harry would say to one of the bad guys in the 1983 film ‘Sudden Impact’ “Go ahead, make my day”. That was the old Southern Pacific Train Station across 3^rd Street.

The ‘Sudden Impact’ restaurant was still around as a McDonald’s last time I visited the spot, but it’s been knocked down now and a new building has replaced it. That didn’t “make my day”.

Here’s a picture I posted in February of 2016 showing the McDonald’s.

“Uncle Tim, this isn’t Lombard Street!”

“Muah, ha,ha!”

18 year Erin had the same problem navigating this scary hill as drivers in the 1940s did! This stretch of Filbert Street between Hyde and Leavenworth Streets drops off so quickly it looks like you’re going over a cliff at first. If Steve McQueen would have raced over this part of Filbert in the movie ‘Bullitt’ he might have come down about a block away! (Fred Lyon)

Some of these locations were personal. The little tyke in the red jacket I took a picture of at the top of the waterfall at Golden Gate Park’s Strawberry Hill in the 1980’s is the grown up tyke with me at the bottom of the waterfall.

We took in some of the main attractions too. Sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge in the summer is a lot easier than walking on the Golden Gate Bridge, and a lot more scenic. Here we were on our Red and White Fleet tour at near the same spot in the Golden Gate as the 1925 pre Golden Gate Bridge picture. (opensfhistory.org)

A celebration for soldiers returning home after World War One at Market Street and 5^th in early 1919: (San Francisco History Center)

“Kiss me once, then kiss me twice, then kiss me once again. It’s been a long, long, time.”

In front of the old bank on the corner of Market Street and Grant Avenue in 1943: Whoever they were, I hope World War Two turned out okay for them. (Life Magazine picture from Vintage Everyday)

As I mentioned in my previous post, cable car accidents are extremely rare nowadays, and the ones in the vintage pictures from SF Gate usually resulted in few serious injuries. Unless you count the injuries to the cable cars!

Greenwich at Mason Streets in 1958: The passengers don’t seem too rattled.

“Lovely view, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, but I think we hit something!”

Looking down Hyde Street at Chestnut in 1965; cable cars on the left side are heading up the hill, so the car may have slipped back after something broke off of it. You’ll have to take my word for it that Alcatraz is still out there.

Hyde Street at Chestnut looking in the opposite direction of the previous pictures in 1964: Don’t ask me what the chain reaction of this accident was, or how it came about. The truck in front may be about to tow the cable car away, or it may have caused the accident.

Powell Street at California in 1963: Cable car collisions are extremely rare here, if at all, since they put the signal control box on the far right in.

North Point Street at Hyde in 1958: I would guess that the truck driver was at fault; cable cars always have the right-of-way.

Powell Street north of Bush in 1960: Cable car brakes used to slip occasionally long ago, something that fortunately hasn’t happened in a long time, so I’m guessing that the cable car was at fault here. Interestingly, we have a bus, a taxi, a personally owned automobile, and a cable car involved in this one. The only thing missing, very fortunately, was a motorcycle.

You’d think from these accidents that cable car riding is as dangerous as tiger hunting, but cable car accidents almost never happen anymore. And in even the ones involved in the vintage pictures, few people were seriously hurt. Although, a girl involved in a 1964 cable car accident claimed that it turned her into a nymphomaniac! It probably depends on your point of view on just how tragic that was. These terrific SF Chronicle vintage pictures are from sfgate.com.

Hyde and Washington Streets in August of 1974: A cable car derails after colliding with a pickup truck.

Powell and Jackson Streets in September of 1955:

“No, thanks.  I’ll wait for the next one.”

Washington Street just up from Taylor Street in January of 1958: A cable car heading down hill hit the cement truck here, derailed, and slid twenty feet down the hill.

Washington Street west of Powell in 1953: A rare cable car rear ender.

Powell and Pine Streets, March of 1950:

“I think we cut it too close! I’ll leave a note on their car.”

Powell Street at Pine looking north in the 1950s

“Hey, guys! Did that cable car just hit our truck and take off? Where does he think he’s going?”

Powell Street at Sutter, September of 1957: It must have been Ralph Kramden driving that bus!

Powell Street north of Sutter in February of 1974: When cable cars try to sneak in the back door of the bus: