I read somewhere that Fisherman’s Wharf is the second largest tourist attraction in California next to Disneyland. I don’t doubt that claim at all.
The Fisherman’s Wharf Lagoon in 1960: Alioto’s has gotten much larger. Saturdays in San Francisco are made for couples, and a special thanks to the nice couple who obliged me with a comparison pose. The girl is named Joyce, but I couldn’t remember the fellow’s name. If you two wind up checking out my blog, mention the guy’s name in the comments so I can thank him too.
The Wharf Lagoon from Jefferson Street in the 1950’s:
The cable car turntable at Aquatic Park in the 1960’s: There’s a cable car down there somewhere in the modern picture and a much bigger line.
Ghirardelli Square in the 1960’s, complete with mini skirt:
The boat lagoon looking toward the Golden Gate Bridge in the 1930’s: Time hasn’t taken the atmosphere off this spot at all; it still looks just like a little fishing village in Italy. The building to the right of the ferryboat was demolished in the 1960’s and the little brown building that’s there now is a chapel.
Lefty O’Doul’s on Geary Blvd. from Union Square in the 1970’s:
It’s a rare day when there are more people waiting to board a cable car in the 1940’s at the Powell Street cable turntable than there were today!
The corner of Powell and Geary Streets in 1948:
Market Street at Powell with the Flood Building on the left just after the 1906 Earthquake and Fire: Buildings were being blown up to prevent the spread of the fire. The crowned Cal Building on the right, a survivor of the disaster as well as the Flood Building, is behind the dome roofed Humboldt Building built after the earthquake.
Chinatown will get its share of holiday shoppers as well in a few weeks.
Geary Street, west of Mason in the 1950’s: Carol Channing was appearing at the Curran Theater. I learn something new about San Francisco everyday; when I was researching this location I found out that the old Paisley Hotel, now the Union Square Plaza, is where a woman named Florence Cushing jumped to her death in 1911. See the link below from the Bold Italics web site. I should have done this one last week on Halloween or All Souls Day! Don’t worry, this post gets more cheerful.
Powell Street up from Bush in the 1950’s: I gave it a good try with my mobile phone camera, and I had to be on the other side of Powell because trees block the view on that side now. One day, I’ll redo it with my expensive camera I bought years ago and never use. It doesn’t fit in my shirt pocket! The San Francisco State College is now the Academy of Art University.
Thomas Kinkade’s picture of Powell Street at twilight is set one block up from where I was at in the previous picture near Pine Street and Powell. It’s true that I don’t know a lot about art; I once stared at the Mona Lisa for ten minutes when I was in Paris waiting for something to happen, and I’m not sure it did. I also know that many art critics dismiss his paintings as tripe, but Kinkade’s San Francisco pictures make me feel good, and that’s just the way it is. Let’s see, he has the Manx Hotel on the wrong side of Powell Street, the Bay Bridge south of Market Street, and, probably, a dozen other things I haven’t noticed yet. Eh, I still like it. (Capitola Gallery)
Grant Avenue at Clay Street in the 1950’s: The Empress of China Building on the right wasn’t built yet. The Elite Company is now the Jing Ying Gift Shop.
This 1975 Peter Stratmoen picture at the corner of Taylor and Jefferson Streets in Fisherman’s Wharf is of particular interest to me. On the corner where the Z Backward K Gallery, or whatever that is now, was once where the Sea Captain’s Chest Gift Shop used to be. You can see their sign in the twilight shadows of the old photo. My first memory of going to San Francisco was when my folks took me to Fisherman’s Wharf when I was a child. I remember that it was a cold and overcast day. Well, it was! I had never seen anyplace in the world like the Sea Captain’s Chest shop. I remember my dad buying me a souvenir called The Sea Captain’s Magic Kit or something like that, and I loved it! At this intersection Lee Remick takes a taxi to Candlestick Park to deliver ransom money in order free her sister Stefanie Powers in the 1962 film, ‘Experiment in Terror’. See the next photo.
It’s been awhile since I’ve been out on the Van Ness Municipal Pier at twilight. I forgot how pretty San Francisco looks from here when the sun starts going down.
Ghirardelli Square, a little bit earlier in the evening than the old postcard:
Hyde and Union Streets on Russian Hill in the mid 1970’s: You can just make out Swensen’s Ice Cream Parlor on the left in the vintage picture. I fall prey to their ice cream every time I’m in the area, even on cold days like this. (Peter Stratmoen)
Chinatown in the mid 1970’s: (Peter Stratmoen)
You know, I felt sorry for Mr. Stratmoen having his 1975 photograph at California Street and Grant Avenue spoiled by a passing car, so I thought I’d update it for him. Well, what do you suppose happened?
The Southwest corner of Alta Plaza in the 1950’s (Phil Palmer)
Grant Avenue, just down from Chinatown, in another Peter Stratmoen photo from 1975: The sun finally came out just as I was heading for home. Notice the building on the left with the columns and arched entrance; this was the Pacific Telephone Exchange Building during World War Two. It was considered so vital that sand bags were stacked covering the entire entrance after Pearl Harbor in case of a Japanese air attack, although, I don’t know what good this would have been on a direct hit. (See the next photograph)
Mission and Steuart Streets in 1983: The Embarcadero Freeway and the Bay Bridge are in the background. That’s the Audiffred Building on the left corner. Originally built in 1889, it’s on the National Registry of Historic Places.
The Embarcadero Freeway; how I miss it, NOT!!!
The crosswalk at Powell and Market Streets in 1983: They had just begun running the old time streetcars again on Market Street; this is now the F Line.
From 1982 to 1984, the entire cable car system was shut down for repairs. When I took this slide photo in the spring of 1983 on the corner Powell and Geary at Union Square, you could see the construction work being done on the line.
California Street between Grant Avenue and Stockton Street: Two slug bugs! No cable cars meant any cable cars! The California Street line was shut down, as well. You can see them digging up California Street at the bottom of Nob Hill. To this day, I still stop to watch a cable car pass by when I see one. How did we get along two years without them!
In June of 1984 the cable car lines reopened and San Francisco threw a celebration in honor of the occasion. This was taken a little farther up Powell Street from Geary between Union Square and the St. Francis Hotel.
Grauman’s Chinese Theater, where the Stars leave their mark in cement:
The El Capitan Theater on Hollywood Blvd.: Clark Gable played on the stage there before breaking into the movies. “You can see all the Stars in my sunglasses as you walk down Hollywood Boulevard.”
Somehow, I just don’t match up. Cary’s square in the picture doesn’t match up to the one that’s there today, either; I guess they redo those later sometimes.
Tucked away on Vendome Street not far from Downtown Los Angeles are the stairs Laurel and Hardy used in their Academy Award winning short comedy ‘The Music Box’, made in 1932. The plot is simple; Laurel and Hardy are two delivery men attempting to carry a player piano up a long flight of stairs to a customer. After a series of hilarious mishaps, (you know Hardy is going to fall down these stairs at least several times because of bumbling mistakes made by Laurel) and encounters with quarrelsome people, they get the piano to the top of the stairs. There is a plaque dedicated to the film on one of the steps near the bottom of the stairs. (brentononfilm.com)
Ah, sacred ground. Several miles from the stairs where Laurel and Hardy filmed scenes for ‘The Music Box’ are the stairs where the Three Stooges filmed the icemen scene in ‘An Ache in Every Stake’ from 1941. We’re parked where the Stooges parked their ice wagon in the opening of the scene.
In those days, not everyone could afford a refrigerator and some had an ice box, supplied regularly by deliveries from the iceman. When the Stooges arrive, they see that the lady ordering the ice is at the top of a ridiculously high flight of stairs. No matter how hard they try to get the ice up to her, the ice blocks melt by the time they’re at the top. It doesn’t get any better than this! My picture is looking down from where the lady was waiting at the top of the steps.
I can’t go down to Los Angeles without going to Disneyland. I’ve been doing that since I was a kid, which, on last Thursday, was just yesterday. Here’s a little Disneyland trivia you may already know. Vice President Richard Nixon and Patricia were there along with Walt for the opening of the Monorail in 1959. (They were there for the opening of BART too; there’s seems to be a pattern here!) The nose of the trains stop beyond the exit gate, so I couldn’t get an exact then & now unless I walked out on the track, and they probably would have said something to me. I’m glad that was running this time because it’s one of my favorite Disneyland attractions and far less scarier than It’s a Small World!
One of us got older!
A lower tide and less people for me today than for Fred Lyon in his 1950’s picture of Ocean Beach from Sutro Heights:
Chinatown, with Old St. Mary’s on the right, in 1943. (Life Magazine)
Boy, those sailor fellows sure do alright! Wow, her coat matches her hair! They’re sitting at the exact spot in 1943 where the San Francisco Main Library is today. Behind them is the Pioneer Monument which was moved farther north in 1993 when the new library was built. Behind the monument in the old photo is the intersection of Hyde and Grove. The building behind the Pioneer Monument in the 1943 picture is, actually, the Orpheum Theater. (Life Magazine)
The crew at the bridge of the World War ll submarine USS Pampanito, and the bridge today. The Pampanito saw a lot of action in the Pacific Ocean during the war.
A Gold Star Ceremony at Chestnut and Baker Streets awarded to Kenneth Campbell of the U.S. Navy who was killed in 1943. They did this a lot during the war. The arrow shows where the Gold Star was placed. The pole is still there, but the Gold Star is long gone and replaced by a No Left Turn sign. (Images of America)
Kids point to a Gold Star Marker placed at 18th and Sanchez in January, 1943 for marine Donald Gray, killed in action at Guadalcanal. (Images of America)
“When Johnny comes marching home again, Hurrah! Hurrah!” Victorious army soldiers on Grove Street in a victory march at the end of World War ll. The Owl Drug Store on the right was on the corner of Hyde and Grove Streets in the Orpheum Theater Building in the vintage picture. My photo is closer to Larkin Street because the San Francisco Main Library blocks the view of City Hall from Hyde at Grove today, (Images of America)
Pier 15 being deactivated when the war ended: “Alright babes, glad that’s over. Let’s go get a beer!” (Images of America)
Civvies line the Golden Gate Bridge to watch the arrival of Navy troop ships and war vessels coming home again at the end of World War ll. “Welcome home. Well done!”
This wonderful cover for the Saturday Evening Post ran twenty seven days after the official end of World War Two, and paints an image of a happy optimism among the returning sailors. The cable car is getting set to dip down Washington Street at Jones into Chinatown. Cable cars still take the plunge here seventy years later. I first learned of the Post Magazine cover when reading Gary Kamiya’s fine book about San Francisco ‘Cool Gray City of Love’.
This photo is of a little known and interesting incident. There had been many rumors during World War ll that a Japanese submarine had fired a torpedo at the Golden Gate Bridge in the early days after Pearl Harbor. In June of 1946, that rumor turned out to be true when an unexploded Japanese torpedo was found at Marshall’s Beach just west of the bridge. What damage it could have done if it struck the bridge or which submarine fired the torpedo has never been determined. This is not an easy spot to get down to; you can only reach this area at low tide. Sandstone steps lead down the cliff to the beach, and it’s a long and tiring climb back up! Trust me on this one! Because of its secluded and often inaccessible location, it’s also used as a nude beach. Do yourself a favor and trust me on this one too. I tried for as long as time would allow to find the exact rock in the old photo, but 70 years have passed, and much of the time many of the rocks are underwater, so it may not even look the same anymore.’. (Images of America) For more on San Francisco during World War Two, click on the link below for a series of pictures I posted in March of 2015 called ‘World War Two and the San Francisco Giants’.
San Francisco Film Locations Then & Now 
