…… the more they stay the same. Some of these vintage pictures parallel the events of today.
A march at Grove and Larkin Streets near City Hall during a pending war between Mao Zedong’s Peoples Republic of China and Chaing Kai-shek’s Republic of China: The demonstrators are urging the Eisenhower Administration to use caution to avoid the conflict. (San Francisco Chronicle)
Drumm Street at Market in the 1950’s: I don’t know what was going on back then, but I hope they were clowning around; that’s a little too much like today! (San Francisco Chronicle)
Ladies heading along Geary St. to an air raid shelter under Union Square for a practice drill in 1952: I don’t know what all that was going on in Union Square today, but it wasn’t an air raid drill! (San Francisco Chronicle)
A 1952 air raid drill at the Union Square Garage during the Cold War:
“Are you wearing your sunglasses so the flash from the nuclear blast won’t hurt your eyes?”
(San Francisco Chronicle)
Speaking of the Union Square Garage in the 1950’s, look at those parking prices! (San Francisco Chronicle)
Market Street at Turk during the 1940’s: I’m getting a mental image of the streetcar driver in old #1002 thinking quietly back then, “Well, I suppose streetcars like mine will be gone forever one of these days!” (Outsidelands.org)
California Street at Powell during the 1950’s when KSFO operated out of the Fairmont Hotel: I guess that an air raid shelter was under the Fairmont Hotel back then! (HemmingsDailey)
You might not have noticed it when you went to the Cliff House in the 1950’s, but that was a fake rock on the side of Sutro Heights. I remember climbing up Sutro Heights as a teenager in the 1960’s, (Gawd, why we didn’t break our necks I’ll never know!) and much of the hill that faced the Cliff House was covered over with stucco! (Vintage picture from the Cushman Collection)
You might not notice it if you watched this opening scene from a 1968 episode of ‘Ironside’ with Raymond Burr looking down California Street next to the Fairmont Hotel. As the camera pans in closer to Powell Street, and I can do that too, it still may not catch your eye. You’d probably notice that the Bank of America Building hadn’t been built yet, you might even notice the Fairmont Tonga Room, but you might not notice the little cone shaped cable car signal box on the corner of California and Powell Street that’s still there today.
You might not notice it at first if you walk past the southwest corner of Union Street and Grant Avenue in North Beach and think to yourself, “Hey, what happened to North Beach Pizza?” like I did last weekend. You may think to yourself, “Man, that was great Pizza!” and then say out loud, “I didn’t know it closed! That sucks!” And then, like me, you’ll turn around and notice that it’s across the street now. It has been awhile since I visited here.
You might not have noticed it, but cable car numbers do not go as high as they did in the old days, like these two cable cars climbing Jackson Street near Mason. There are only about 60 cable cars in the entire cable car fleet today. If the numbers on the old cable cars were indicative of the number of cars available at the time, there were a lot more cable cars climbing “halfway to the stars” in the 1950’s.
You might not have noticed it, but George Harrison and Patti Boyd did make it back to the Haight-Ashbury after the “Summer of Love”.
In August of 1991 I took some slide pictures of the freeway demolition in progress. This view from Mission Street and the Embarcadero showed that the work on the dismantling of the freeway that began in February of 1991 had reached the Ferry Building by August.
A closer look near the Ferry Building: We lost the Embarcadero Freeway, but we gained a vintage streetcar line, palm trees, and a beautiful waterfront. Like the lyrics in that song by the Who, “I’d call that a bargain, the best (we) ever had.”
Looking south from the Ferry Building in a slide from 1991, shortly after this part of the Embarcadero Freeway was demolished: The freeway wrapped itself around the old YMCA Building (Harbor Court Hotel) and this view was obstructed since the 1950’s. The picture taken today shows people heading down to AT&T Park for an afternoon game between the San Francisco Giants and the Chicago Cubs. (The Giants won)
The best look on film that you’ll get of the Embarcadero Freeway is from the 1958 movie ‘The Lineup’. In the top image a car with hit men from the Mob is chased up on the unfinished Embarcadero Freeway by the police. The driver in the film makes a daring stunt by stopping the car just at the edge of the freeway. Construction of the freeway continued down the Embarcadero to Broadway from here. In the center image one of the hit men played by Eli Wallach tries to run on foot, taking a child, one of the hostages the bad guys have kidnapped, along with him. In the bottom image, when Wallach drops the child he is shot by police and falls to his death from the freeway. The lady running toward the police is the mother of the child. San Francisco film noir flicks don’t get any better than this one.
We’ll start where John “Scottie” Ferguson (James Stewart) begins to stalk Madeleine Elster (Kim Novak) to try to find what makes her tick. Scottie watches her on Mason Street as she leaves her hotel. Behind him is the Pacific Union Club and in the far background the north tower of Grace Cathedral. Work that began in 1928 on the church had stopped when this movie scene was shot and the south tower was not finished. In 1960 work resumed on the church and the south tower is visible in my picture.
Madeleine leaves the Brocklebank Apartments in her green Jaguar.
Scottie watches her as she drives past him toward the Mark Hopkins Hotel. The Fairmont Hotel is on the left.
Madeleine turns left onto California Street. There apparently was road or cable car line work being done at this intersection at the time.
Scottie follows her down Bush Street toward Grant Ave. this is just a little down from where the roof of the Stockton Tunnel is and just east of Burritt Alley where Miles Archer was bumped off by Brigid O’Shaughnessy in the Maltese Falcon.
They turned right onto Grant Ave. and pass Sutter Street toward Post. The White House Department Store sign can be seen on the left in the movie image.
Hitchcock gets a little tricky here as Madeleine turns left into what will turn into an alley in the next scene but is only a small driveway in reality.
This was where Kim, I mean, Madeleine turned in, but the next scene puts us in Claude Lane several blocks north from here.
Madeline enters the back of an old brick building in Claude Lane followed by Scottie. I used the two arched entrances of the white building seen in the film on the right with the Margaret O’Leary sign today to determine where they entered across the alley from it.
Now, here’s where it got to be more fun; to try to find evidence of the exact spot Madeline left the alley into a flower shop followed by Scottie. You can see three arched openings on the brick building in the movie. The one on the left is the doorway where Madeleine and Scottie entered into the flower shop which was filmed in a different location. The three openings have been bricked over but the doorway they went through is visible on the far left next to the blue divider. The second brick doorway was behind the where the orange chairs are, the smaller window on the far right in the film image was behind where the first painted blue flower is. Although, it was fun to visit this spot, I imagine hundreds of other people got here long before I did!
Scottie leaves Claude Lane bewitched, bothered, and bewildered. Oh, wait, that was from another Kim Novak movie set in San Francisco!
First stop, Red’s Place on Jackson Street, the oldest bar in Chinatown. I was lucky to find a vintage picture on the internet looking down Jackson Street from where Red’s is to get a match up, although, I had to stand closer to the middle of the street, (not a good idea in Chinatown) to get the Bay Bridge in today.
Next we stopped at the Vesuvio Cafe on Columbus in North Beach. This used to be one of my favorite hang outs in the 1980’s and 1990’s. The vintage picture is of Henri Lenoir, the owner of Vesuvio’s taken during the mid 1960’s (Collector’s Weekly)
Kevin sure was a hit with all of the pretty girls at Vesuvio’s. When he said, “Why don’t you girls take a picture with my brother now?” they all got up and walked out!
In 1965 Robbie Robertson, Mike McClure, Bob Dylan, and Alan Ginsberg posed near the City Lights Books side entrance in what is now called Jack Kerouac Alley between Vesuvio’s and City Lights. A girl named Adrianne, who was the perfect girl to meet at Vesuvio’s, a place for poets and dreamers, was kind enough to pose in the same spot for us.
The Explore North Beach website reads that 440 Broadway was a lesbian and male impersonator nightclub popular during World War Two called Mona’s. From their website, “Mona’s flourished during World War Two and the Korean War. It was a favorite with lesbians but even with servicemen as it was not off-limits.” The Cosmo Bar and Lounge now occupies the spot.
One of the places we passed but didn’t go in was the Saloon on Grant Avenue, reputed to be San Francisco’s oldest bar. It’s usually too crowded to get a seat. In 1986 a scene from Star Trek lV: The Voyage Home with “Sulu”, “Scotty”, and “Bones” was filmed here.
We didn’t go in the old Paper Doll Club either. In the 1952 film ‘The Sniper’ Arthur Franz shoots an entertainer who works at the club with a scope rifle causing her to crash back into her own marquee before dying. I guess it wasn’t “Happy Hour” for her! During the 1980’s and 1990’s I spent a lot of time here when it had been remodeled and was called ‘Silhouettes’ but it’s been closed up and for lease for some time now.
Finally, I ended up in the “Weepers Corner” at sunset at the Top of the Mark, crying about all of the money I spent. I’ve mentioned in earlier posts the interesting origin of “Weepers Corner”. During World War Two, wives, lovers, siblings, and friends would sit in this corner of “The Mark” and watch loved ones sail away under the Golden Gate Bridge to the Pacific Theaters of the war. Many, many of them never returned.
Long queues for the Powell and Market Street cable cars weren’t a reality yet in the 70s.
“sfinfilm.com, the blog that dares to use the Vaillancourt Fountain for a setting.” This fountain hasn’t gotten any more attractive since the 1970s, especially now that the water has been turned off due to the long California drought.
California and Powell Streets is the only spot where the California and Powell-Hyde-Bay cable car lines cross paths. The cone shaped structure on the corner signals stop and go for the cars when they reach the intersection at the same time. .
There used to be a Wax museum in Chinatown. This would later be a McDonald’s in the 1990s.
Post and Stockton Streets at Union Square: We need more crosswalk cops today!
A close up look down California Street from Nob Hill in the 70s and today: This is one of the most photographed views in San Francisco.
The Embarcadero at Mission Street in 1987: That’s the infamous Embarcadero Freeway at left center.
Market Street at Kearny and Third Streets in 1984: I wonder if “Big Brother” was watching me. The Palace Hotel was still the Sheraton Palace Hotel, and Barclay’s Bank is now a T Mobile Store.
Post Street at Montgomery: “Excuse me, is there a Bank of America near here?” There’s still a Bank of America in the building across Market Street, but they’re not the biggest bank in the world anymore, like they were in 1984, and they don’t advertise as boldly as they did back then.
Powell at Pine Streets in June of 1987: Those three little girls combined have increased the population of the world by five now, and the mommy is past having any more kids, I hope.
Market Street at Eighth in 1985: They began running old time streetcars on the F Line on Market around then. That’s the Orpheum Theater on the left.
Upper Market Street near the U. S. Mint in 1985: That’s the old Highway 101 Central Freeway that crossed Market Street in the background of the 80’s picture. Deemed unsafe after the Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989, it was demolished in the 1990’s. The Mint Lounge is on the left in both photos.
During a four day visit from two of my nieces from Texas last Thursday I had a chance to visit some places in California that I haven’t seen for many years; some not at all. Of course, I would have been content to spend all four days in San Francisco, but they wouldn’t go for it. So, these are photos from a four day Odyssey from San Francisco to Half Moon Bay, and Monterey, Carmel, Santa Cruz, and the Napa Valley. Leave it to some crazy nieces to bring out the teenager in me.
The entrance gate to Chinatown on Grant Avenue: (Vintage picture from timeline.com)
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. Numbers 8 and 10 here were just two of them. However, passing gentlemen no longer experience encounters with “ladies of the evening” in the alley today.
Happy memories are made by visiting relatives who embarrass the heck out of you with their clowning.
This one is for the two nice ladies in the Mission Dolores Gift Shop. At the top is a picture of Alfred Hitchcock in front of the mission during the filming of his 1958 film ‘Vertigo’. Several scenes from the movie were filmed here, and being the oldest building in San Francisco, it’s a very historic place to visit.
Alamo Square is back open again for fans of ‘Full House’, which I never, particularly, was.
At the top of Fort Point in June of 1987: The little girl in the center of the 1987 picture is the girl on the right in last Friday’s photo.
Two moons at Half Moon Bay: Another place I seldom visit, although it’s such a scenic ocean town, Half Moon Bay also has its world famous Pumpkin Festival every Halloween.
Marilyn Monroe and Keith Andes at Cannery Row, Monterey in the 1952 movie ‘Clash by Night’, also starring Barbara Stanwyck, Paul Douglas and Robert Ryan.
Cannery Row, Monterey, named for the old sardine canneries located here is an historic and fun place to visit thanks to John Steinbeck and the Monterey Aquarium.
The 250 year old Lone Cypress Tree in Pebble Beach in painting and in person:
The old Pigeon Point Lighthouse, now closed, is another one of those places in “my own back yard” that I’ve never visited.
“I wish they all could be California girls!” (that come from Texas)
Some of the most beautiful scenery in California is in the Napa Valley wine country.
A cable car climbs Hyde Street at Francisco Street in 1973 celebrating the Centennial of the cable cars invented in 1873:
Don’t believe everything you read, unless you read it here! When I found this old picture it read that it was a cable car crossing Lombard Street at Hyde in 1936. I didn’t buy it when I read it, and I confirmed it when I got there. Still, I climbed up a stone wall on the corner of Hyde and Lombard to get a comparison picture anyway. I’m a dedicated blogger, especially when the stone wall is only four feet high. The vintage picture was actually taken one block south at Greenwich Street. However, Lombard Street is a lot more alluring, so this is a then and now picture taken at Lombard Street and Hyde of a cable car crossing Greenwich Street and Hyde.
A Cable car starting the Hyde Street climb at Bergen Alley in the 1970’s: What it is! What it is! Dig those far out 1970’s colors! Are they in your face or what? That sounds like ‘That 70’s Show’!
‘Born to Kill’ (1947) Elisha Cook Jr. (Wilmer in the ‘Maltese Falcon’) arrives at the Ferry Building on a mission to kill:
‘The Sniper’ (1952) Arthur Franz runs into his house on Filbert Street after shooting another woman to death: The police will capture him here.
‘Impact’ (1949) A car chase scene at Grant Avenue and Washington Street in Chinatown with Ella Raines chasing Anna May Wong in one of the coolest chase scenes in a San Francisco movie:
‘The Lineup’ (1958) Police close in on Eli Wallach at the Cliff House who has kidnapped a woman and child:
‘The Sniper’ (1952) Police close off Filbert Street on Telegraph Hill in pursuit of Arthur Franz:
‘Woman on the Run’ (1950) Ann Sheridan searches through San Francisco for her husband who is hiding from the mob: Here she is at the Fisherman’s Wharf boat lagoon with a “friend” who she doesn’t know is trying to kill her. A little fishermen’s chapel is now where the building on the right was. (Movie image, reelsf.com)
‘The Lineup’ (1958) A sharp eyed cop spots hit man Eli Wallach in Golden Gate Park near the De Young Museum. The De Young has been rebuilt now, but the two lions in front are still there.
‘Mr. Soft Touch’ (1949) Glenn Ford stashes money that he stole from the mob in a trash can in Varennes Alley in North Beach:
‘The House on Telegraph Hill’ (1951) Valentine Cortese heads up Montgomery Street on Telegraph Hill not realizing that her brakes have been tampered with and that she’ll lose her stopping power when she gets to the top:
‘Dark Passage’ (1947) A bandaged Humphrey Bogart after plastic surgery climbs the Filbert Steps on Telegraph Hill to get to his hideout at Lauren Bacall’s apartment. I couldn’t resist!
‘Experiment in Terror’ (1962) Lee Remick parks at Fisherman’s Wharf to await a telephone call on where to deliver ransom money to free her sister Stefanie Powers: Probably the last film noir movie set in San Francisco.
San Francisco Film Locations Then & Now 