The Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island ran from February of 1939 to September of 1940 with a seven month break from October 1939 to May 1945. The fair closed over seventy five years ago, and the personal memories are fading out. Still, a lot has survived to remember it by. I have a few items myself; at top, is a coaster from the Fair, and below is one of the official guide books.
The guide book has a great fold out map listing the fair’s attractions.
In the opening scenes of Charlie Chan on Treasure Island, (1939) Chan, played by Sidney Toler, flies in to San Francisco from Hawaii, landing in Clipper Cove next to the island. There are great scenes of views from the air of the exposition. In the middle, is the Sun Tower, and at the bottom is the curved Administration Building, still there today.
Another survivor of the fair is the Palace of Fine and Decorative Arts Building, one of three original structures still on the island.
Ferry Boats ran to the island regularly during the fair from the Ferry Building.
In August of 1939, my seventeen year old mother took a train from Grand Forks, North Dakota to spend the summer in San Francisco. Here she is on the right next to her cousin Frances at the Court of Honor fountains on Treasure Island. Notice the first statue to the left of them looking at the picture; original statues from the Treasure Island Fair, including that one, are on display in front of the Administration Building. I’m clowning around here, but with respect; this guy, I think it’s a guy, met my mom long before I did!
One of the Premier attractions of the fair, (My mom better have missed this one!) was the Sally Rand Nude Ranch on the Gayway st the north end of the fair. The Gayway was the section of the fair with carnival rides and attractions.
I recently ordered a book of detective stories from the pulp magazines of the 1930’s and 1940’s at Amazon.com. I was delighted to find the story, ‘Murder on the Gayway’ by Dwight Babcock, written in 1939, in the collection. The story begins and ends, at the Treasure Island Fair, in particular, the Sally Rand Nude Ranch. It has vivid descriptions of the attraction, as well as the rest of the fair.
“The Nude Ranch was a long, low building with a rustic Spanish-type front. In the heart of the Gayway and its most popular attraction, the barkers out front were made up like copies of the Lone Ranger and didn’t have to work very hard to lure customers inside at two bits a crack. The exhibit was coining money.”
(vintagevacationphotos.com) 
I don’t know, maybe if they put those giant letters back on it would help. 
This vintage photo really captures how fun it once was out there. (The Old Motor Magazine) 
“Hey, Bungalow Bill! What did you kill?”
A passenger liner pulls up to Pier 10 at the Aloha Tower in Honolulu on a long ago day, and the Constitution at Pier 11 at the Aloha Tower in 1982: 
Army WACs at a camouflaged Aloha Tower during World War Two, and the Aloha Tower in 1996: 
Waikiki Beach just before the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941, and in 1996 with my two favorite beachcombers: (Bill McWilliams) 
Honolulu from the Punchbowl in the 1920’s, and in 1982: I look like Pinocchio! (huffingtonpost.com) 
Battleship Row at Pearl Harbor from a Japanese attack plane on December 7th 1941, and Battleship Row from the USS Arizona in 1982: The white monuments are where the ships were anchored on that day. That’s Ford Island on the right in my picture. This December will be the 75 anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack. (AP Photo/Japanese Navy) 
The USS Arizona sinking during the Pearl Harbor attack, and approaching the Arizona from the launch that takes you out to her: Most of her crew are still down there, and oil from the ship still leaks into the harbor today.
In January of 1951, a World War Two era submarine slipped into San Francisco Bay underwater, and took these pictures of San Francisco through their periscope. It was some kind of authorized mission to see if they could sneak up on a city without being detected by the citizens. I’m glad they were on our side! On the left, they begin their “secret mission’ by following a ship under the Golden Gate Bridge into the Bay. On the right, is the inevitable greeting by pretty girls when they dock after the mission. I wonder who got the puppy! (Vintages pictures from sfchronicle.com)
There’s the Palace of Fine Arts on the right.
That’s the St Francis Yacht Club Building. 
There’s the Maritime Museum and Ghirardelli Square.
The Catfish circled around Alcatraz to take some close up photos. There was still some pretty bad boys out there when they took this picture, such as, “Machine Gun” Kelly, who wasn’t sent back to Leavenworth until later on in 1951, Alvin Karpis, who rode with “Ma” Barker’s gang, and served more time on Alcatraz than any other prisoner, (twenty six years) and Robert Stroud, “The Birdman of Alcatraz”. 
Telegraph Hill and Coit Tower:
San Franciscans relaxing at the Mechanics Monument on Market Street in 1960: The two buildings in the background are the Southern Pacific Building, with the largest advertising sign in San Francisco at the time, and the PG&E Building. The statue has been shifted from it’s location in the vintage picture, so you have to stand across Battery Street to get those two buildings and the monument in the same picture today. Dedicated in 1901, the city was destroyed around Mechanics Monument in 1906, Theodore Roosevelt gave a speech here in 1911, Ten people were killed when a bomb exploded several blocks away in 1916 in an unsolved crime that is the worst terrorist attack in San Francisco to date, and an abundance of parades have passed by it on Market Street. (Phil Palmer)
People relaxing on Union Square lawn in the 1950’s: There is little lawn left on Union Square today. Most of the buildings on Post street in the background are gone today, but you can still see two, the one on the far right, and the Williams-Sonoma Building in the center (sfchronicle.com)
(sfchronicle.com)
How they relaxed in the 1970’s
No artists painting the boats in the Fisherman’s Wharf Lagoon today when I was there: (Barnaby Conrad and Bay Area Photographers Society)
Don’t let the locals tell you that the Red and White Fleet boat rides on the Bay are for tourists; it’s a great way to relax, and the scenery is stunning! Here, the SS Jeremiah O’Brien Liberty Ship makes a nice comparison to the old Philippine Transport cargo ship at dock in the 1950’s when passing by. The Jeremiah O’Brien is a true landmark. She was at Normandy Beach on June 6th 1944 for D Day, and sailed back to Normandy in 1994 from San Francisco for the 50th anniversary of the invasion. She was the only ship of hundreds and hundreds off Normandy that day to make it back on June 6th 1994. Even the Queen of England came aboard to show her respects. (Phil Palmer)
I’ve been lucky enough to relax at many San Francisco Giants games, going back to seeing the “Say Hey Kid” at Candlestick Park as a boy to today’s AT&T Park. (Barnaby Conrad and Bay Area Photographers Society)
If you don’t go during rush hour, BART is a very relaxing way to travel to and from San Francisco, and you never know who you’ll run into. Wow, President and First Lady Richard and Patricia Nixon! Actually this was a visit from the First Couple to inaugurate the opening of BART in 1972. They traveled from the San Leandro station to the Lake Merritt station in Oakland.
California Street:
Grant Avenue and California Street: Only that’s the wrong kind of cable car for the California line. Still, a neat poster.
The Painted Ladies of Alamo Square:
The Hyde Street Pier at Aquatic Park:
Look at the Golden Gate Bridge! Who, the hell, painted that poster, Salvador Dali?
Wow, number 20 and number 21! Hmm, they spelled Wharf wrong! I wonder how long it took before some astute travel agent noticed that?
What it’s supposed to look like when you sail under the Golden Gate Bridge, and what it looked like the last time I sailed under it:
The Bay Bridge from Nob Hill:
I know, this one’s a postcard, but I don’t want to leave it out.
Yeah, well if they can make a fake sunset, so can I.
At the Gotham Club today, AT&T’s answer to Disneyland’s Club 33, for an exciting 10th inning Giants win: The Giants were originally called the New York Gothams when they started in 1873. 
Willie had his own comic book! 
McCovey Cove and the Lefty O’Doul Bridge: 
“Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack;
Green Street and Bannam Alley: 
Grant Avenue and Jackson Street in Chinatown: 
Mason Street next to the Mark Hopkins Hotel: 
Jones and O’Farrell Streets and that long gone cable car line: 
The St. Francis Hotel across from Union Square:
Try as hard as I could, I couldn’t line this one of Muhammad Ali in Tomorrowland up. Tomorrowland has been so reconfigured now this was as close as I could get. You can see the old Sky Tram to Fantasyland in the Ali shot. I think the girl on the phone was saying, “Mom, everyone is laughing at my hat!”
How Stony Curtis, I mean, Tony Curtis rides the Tomorrowland Autopia in ’40 Pounds of Trouble’ (1962): I didn’t try this myself because I think they throw you out for doing this today! That’s the Monorail track crossing above.
Make way for Tony at the Sleeping Beauty Castle Drawbridge!
This is more of a then and during. Actually, Splash Mountain isn’t as scary as made out to be. (He said, stoically, long after the ride) Those mouse ears were on the girl behind me; men wearing mouse ears are not allowed on Splash Mountain.
Sleeping Beauty Castle when they turn the lights out for the parade: I don’t believe in Fairy Tales, (well, maybe leprechauns) but when you look at that at night……….
In 1987, my friend Steve and I traveled through some of Europe. It was one of the highlights of my life, and I met some wonderful people in England, France, and Switzerland. Here we are at the Mall that leads to Buckingham Palace.
Buckingham Palace on VE Day:
Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson wannabes at Scotland Yard on the trail of Professor Moriarty: I wish Ida was with us! (theartsdesk.com)
“The British Lion”; Trafalgar Square in 1950, and in 1987: The front paws from one of the lions in the vintage picture had been removed for repair from bomb damage in 1941 during the London Blitz. (AFAR Magazine)
Bomb damage from the Battle of Britain in front of the Royal Exchange Building:
Regent Street, looks like the 1930’s:
Piccadilly Circus in 1949 and 1987: We saw a play here starring David McCallum (Illya Kuryakin) called ‘Run for Your Wife’. (Vintage photo from Chalmers Butterfield)
The crosswalk at Abbey Road: I don’t like to brag, but when I walked across the most famous crosswalk in the world in 1987, it wasn’t as populated as it is today!
Ah, there he is; Winston Churchill at Number 10 Downing Street. This is as close to 10 Downing Street as I got.
Bomb damage in front of Buckingham Palace during the Battle of Britain; “This was their finest hour.” Few things were better put. My grandmother was born in Liverpool, and I don’t think anything makes me more proud of my English blood than Churchill’s words.
The Arc de Triomphe after the liberation of Paris during World War Two, and some dummy standing in the middle of the Champs-Elysees being honked at:
Quasimodo’s hangout, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris:
This was” l’imbecile” who stole the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in Paris in 1911. It was recovered in 1913. You couldn’t use flash photography so this was the best image I could get with my 1980’s camera of Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, probably, the most famous painting in history. Hmmm, she looks like she was checking me out! I guess, everybody thinks that.
Rue de Castiglione during the battle for the liberation of Paris in World War Two: The Time-Life Books caption from the two page picture says the sheets hanging from the hotel on the left were from German soldiers surrendering. (Time-Life Books World War ll Series)
Champs-Elysees and the liberation of Paris in 1944: Vive la France!
Beautiful Zurich from the Lindenhof Hill in my picture:
Mount Pilatus, in the Swiss Alps, from the bottom and the top: “Made it, Ma, top of the world!” Even Heidi didn’t make it this far up! (J. Cosmas)
