I’ve had a few sweethearts in my time, but for some reason Valentine’s Day reminds me most of Al Capone, the engineer of gangland’s most notorious rub out on February 14th 1929; forever known as the “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre”. I think it’s the romantic in me. This was the crime that eventually put Capone in prison. These are a few Alcatraz pictures I have posted previously concerning Al Capone’s stay on “The Rock”
By far, the most notorious inmate on Alcatraz was Al Capone. Yeah, Al wasn’t a nice guy, and he had a weird perception of what a Valentine’s Day gift should be, but he was a part of San Francisco history.
The landing dock on Alcatraz Island, used when it was a penitentiary is the same landing dock used by visitor’s today. All of the buildings up by the lighthouse were gutted by fire. They still line you up and give you instructions when you get off the boats today, but they’re a little nicer, and they don’t strip search you. Notice the train at the lower right. Some prisoners were considered so dangerous, the train they arrived in was driven right on to a barge and docked on the island before the prisoners left the heavily guarded train
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Al’s report card: Well, he was trying! I like the part about his “suggestions as to when and how things ought to be done.” He, certainly, got results with his “suggestions” when he was running things in Chicago! 433 is one of the two cells Capone was held in on Alcatraz.
Capone worked in the library as an inmate, and these are some of the books he checked out. Below is the library today.
A report on a stabbing incident involving Al, and the hospital room he was treated in today. Capone spent most of his remaining years on the island in the hospital when his STD began to destroy his mind.
“The kids are doing fine, Al, all good grades in school. We’re taking care of the business for you until you get out. Your lawyer says he thinks he can get a couple of years cut off your sentence, and, oh yeah, your wife is fooling around with somebody else now.”
Actually, the vintage picture of the Visitor’s Room was taken in 1960, long after Capone had died.
Lights out on Capone’s aisle. This was the row where Capone’s second cell was. The inmates waited for the guard to throw the switch that allowed all the cell doors to open at once before going in. Capone’s 181 cell was on the left side, fourth from the back on the top row.
“Shave and a haircut, two bits!”
“Look Al, you sing that one more time and we’ll put you in solitary confinement!”
The Barber Shop at the north end of Cellblock A, near the spiral staircase: Because of the possibility of missing razors, scissors, or other sharp instruments used in cutting hair, haircuts were given right out in the open in front of inmates and guards.
Inmates loading supplies into the prison under armed guard.
“Okay kids, have a good time, and remember, stay away from Al Capone’s cell.”
Children of the guards stationed on the island lived, played, and went to school on the Alcatraz. Here, four of them ride their bikes around the Residential Family Quarters. The ruins of this area are below.
The first Gay Freedom Day Parade, seen here on Polk Street in front of the City Hall Building in 1972, is now known as the San Francisco Pride Parade. Held each year in June, it draws visitors from all over the world, and is the second largest annual parade in San Francisco. But not the largest! (Vintage photo from the San Francisco Chronicle)
“Far from the Madding Crowd”……. NOT! Every time I tell myself I’m not going to get stuck in another one of these big San Francisco crowds…….. By far, the largest parade held in San Francisco and one of the largest in the country is the Chinese New Year Parade each February. The top photo of the parade is from the 1940’s on Grant Avenue at Sacramento Street. Old Saint Mary’s Church can be seen in the background. The bottom picture is from today’s parade showing the crowd, (along with me) waiting for the dragon. “Tell Ma I won’t be home for supper!” (Vintage photo from the San Francisco Chronicle)
The streetcar loop at the foot of the Ferry Building:
The stretch up Greenwich Street between Powell and Kearny isn’t as steep as the cartoon suggests, but it’s an interesting piece of San Francisco trivia.
The old Number 5 still runs out to Ocean Beach, but you can’t climb on top of it anymore.
The historic Call Bulletin Building at Third and Market Streets has gone through many name changes and much remodeling, but it’s still there.
Ocean Beach, Sutro Heights, and the gingerbread Cliff House:
The old Cliff House survived the 1906 Earthquake and Fire only to burn down the following year.
The Palace of Fine Arts:
The old granddaddy (or grandmommy, depending on your point of view) of the Hop On, Hop Off tour buses:
Buffalo Bill did indeed visit San Francisco with his famous Wild West Show in the early Twentieth Century, and my dog Danny may have picked up his long ago scent on one of our Ocean Beach trips!
“The greatest street gathering of all time in San Francisco.”: This may have been true in 1910, but I was on Market Street in 2010 when over one million people gathered to watch the first San Francisco Giants World Series victory parade.
Pacific “Terrific” Street: This WAS the Barbary Coast. The building Spider Kelly’s was located in still exists behind the trees on the left, and “Baby Face” Nelson of the John Dillinger gang visited there on a trip from Chicago during his crime spree.
San Francisco Police Department’s first K9 Unit at Market Street and Grant Avenue in 1962:
Always the Cliff House: I think I’ll write a poem about it one day if I can think of a word that rhymes with Cliff House besides “titmouse”. Actually, I haven’t seen many pictures of the 1863 Cliff House from what is now called Sutro Heights, and few this clear.
The 1982 Super Bowl Victory Parade looking north up Montgomery Street from Market Street in 1982: Eddie DeBartolo, Dianne Feinstein, and Bill Walsh are in the middle of the crowd. Compare these photos with the bottom one looking in the same direction from a little higher up in the Palace Hotel for the San Francisco Giants welcome parade in 1958. The two north corner Buildings have been demolished.
Speaking of the Giants, here’s a closer look at their welcoming parade at Montgomery and Bush.
Tykes on bikes! A rally for bicycle safety lanes in front of City Hall in 1972:
A welcome parade for Wilt Chamberlain and the Warriors past City Hall in 1962: Judging from the crowd turnout, basketball wasn’t all that popular in San Francisco yet.
Not quite the way they envisioned it on the drawing board in the early 1960’s, but BART turned out okay. They look like Stepford Wives!
The old Cliff House in 1989: Pat is in the black sweater and jeans on the right with his nieces Beverly, Christie, Carrie Ann, Stacy, and our sister Julie. Two of his nieces walking with him, Stacy and Beverly, are in the picture I took last Sunday along with my brother Kevin.
I seem to spend more time in Disneyland than San Francisco, lately. This was in 1989 and last Friday, January 20th. Doesn’t anybody else notice that witch from Sleeping Beauty peeking out the window behind the castle in Fantasyland?
At New Orleans Square in 1987:
Friday’s picture was at Carnation Plaza on Main Street; The 1987 one with Stacy and Carrie Ann was in what is now called Riverside Terrace. You still can’t get Stacy to pose normal!
Pat, with Carrie Ann and me in 1994, and Beverly and Stacy last Sunday:
The previous photo of Beverly and Stacy was taken inside the old Round House Restaurant, recently reopened as a snack bar. They serve good hot chocolate for cold January days like when we visited there.
Looking east on Market Street toward the Hobart Building in the 1940’s from a photo from the Cushman Collection at the Indiana State University:
Another one of my favorite San Francisco pictures: It was taken before the 1906 Earthquake and has so much going on in it; from the family hand in hand stepping up to the sidewalk, to the cop bawling out the pretty girl, or giving her directions, or just flirting with her. I hope he was doing all three! In 1999 Lotta’s Fountain was restored, lowered back to its original height, and moved back to the fountain’s original location where it was dedicated in 1875.
I got off the cable car ride for awhile to relax in the Fairmont Hotel lobby.
I don’t know who she is, but I didn’t get that much attention when I was in the Fairmont today!
The flashback opens up with the camera moving down California Street toward Chinatown from Stockton Street. Below, is this stretch of California today.
The camera turns and moves in toward the Trafalgar Building. An early postcard below shows the Trafalgar Building just behind the cable car on the right.
This Redwood Empire Association photo offers a clearer view of the Trafalgar Building at the right center.
A 1950’s photo shows where the Trafalgar Building stood; apparently, recently demolished: The building was behind where the HD Supply truck is in the modern picture.
The camera moves up to the top floor to the Ronnie (Bob Hope) Baby Photography shop. In the bottom picture, Ronnie is going down the hall to ask private eye Sam McCloud if he can become his detective partner. “It only took brains, courage, and a gun, and I have the gun!” he says.
Ronnie approaches Sam McCloud who is sweet talking on the telephone to a dame. McCloud turns around and it’s tough guy Alan Ladd! Sam pours himself a shot, and tells Ronnie, “Stick to “Watch the birdie.”, and you’ll die of old age.”
After McCloud leaves, Ronnie sits at his desk and fantasies about being a detective. In walks mysterious Carlotta Montay, (Dorothy Lamour) who mistakes Ronnie for Sam McCloud. She goes around behind the desk and begs him for his help. This happens to me all of the time in the tax office.
Ronnie learns to his disappointment that Carlotta is married. She tells him her husband has been kidnapped. “I’m in deep, deep trouble!” she says to him, and shows him a picture of her husband. When he asks about the wheel chair, she replies, “My husband is an invalid, he hasn’t been out of that chair in seven years.” “You’re in trouble!” Ronnie agrees. That line alone is worth the price of the movie.
Always wanting to be a detective, Ronnie keeps up the charade and agrees to help Carlotta. All the while a creep named Kismet (Peter Lorre) is listening outside the door. She tells Ronnie where he can meet her later on.
When she leaves, Ronnie goes to the window of his photography shop and looks down to California Street.
A frightened Carlotta looks around, enters a taxi cab, and drives down California Street followed by Kismet.
Ronnie watches from the Trafalgar Building as they turn left onto Grant Avenue past Old Saint Mary’s. The convertible still parked on California Street is Ronnie’s.
Our hero, and I use that expression lightly, leaves the Trafalgar Building and jumps in his car to follow.
Ronnie pulls away onto California Street. I never let the next day’s garbage pick up or a tour bus stand in the way of a comparison picture. Notice the white framed entrance to the Sing Fat Building on the right in both images.
Ronnie Jackson, Private Eye, turns left onto Grant Avenue and for the rest of the movie gets himself into a world of trouble! Notice the Cathay House Restaurant sign on the left; I think they’re still in business.
San Francisco Film Locations Then & Now 
