San Francisco Film Locations Then & Now

This was the closing picture I posted on my last blog entry. I’m always interested when find vintage photos of the old traditional telephone booth that was stationed on the western side of old St. Mary’s Church on Grant Ave. I don’t know when it was removed, probably during the 1990s, but it goes at least as far back as the 1960s. (Thumbnail images)

  

In November of 2019, I posted this photo update and wrote “In my last post I showed a picture of two ladies from the late 1950s making a telephone call from a phone booth next to Old St. Mary’s Church that was designed to look like a telephone booth in Chinatown should look. This picture taken in the early 1960s is the only other picture I’ve seen yet of that old telephone booth with the red roof on the far right. The telephone booth was just behind where the cement potted tree is in my picture.” I found out later that I was wrong.

  

It wasn’t until I had looked back at old slide pictures I had taken in the early 1980s that I had seen another picture of the “old telephone booth with the red roof”. I think my top slide was from 1985.

  

Photographer Fred Lyon took the top picture of the “two ladies from the late 1950s” that I mentioned in 2019, but his picture may have been taken in the 1960s.

 

 

I stopped by for the second day of the Grant Avenue Street Market Fair last Sunday as Chinatown begins its celebration of the Lunar New Year. (Thumbnail images)

 

The top picture is Chinatown at Grant Avenue and Commercial Street from a photo I took in March of 2020, on the day after the shelter-in-place order due to the Covid-19 outbreak. I was stunned at how empty and quiet San Francisco was; like a science fiction movie. This was as close of an update I could get to the picture I took in 2020.

 

California Street, looking up to Grant Avenue in 1907, one year after the 1906 Earthquake. Chinatown was quick to rebuild because they knew that the rich tycoons on Nob Hill wanted to relocate the Chinese community to the southeastern side of San Francisco. (UC Berkley Library Archives)

  

Portsmouth Square, looks like the 1970s: (San Francisco Public Library Archives)

  

This remarkable picture, taken in 1942, shows a Japanese midget submarine that ran aground and was captured during the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was on display on Grant Avenue between Washington and Jackson Streets. (San Francisco Public Library Archives)

  

Wentworth Alley in 1957: The hitching posts are gone. (San Francisco Public Library Archives)

  

The southwest corner of Grant Avenue and Pine Street, and the long gone Grand View Hotel: (San Francisco Public Library Archives)

 

The northeast corner of Grant Avenue and Pine Street, taken probably around the same time as the previous vintage picture: (UC Berkley Library Archives)

  

A parade at Stockton and Sacramento Streets in honor of the 32^nd anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Republic: This would make the vintage picture taken in 1944. (San Francisco Public Library Archives)

  

The now gone traditional Chinese telephone booth that stood next to Old St. Mary’s Church for years: The booth was directly behind where the musician was sitting in my picture. (San Francisco Public Library Archives)

In November of 2022, I found a collection of terrific photographs from the UC Berkeley Library Archive taken from the top of Coit Tower in July of 1933, three months before it was completed. When I went to the tower that month, the elevator was out of order, but I was told that if I wanted to pay the admission fee, I could walk up the 13 floors of stairs that wrap around the tower from the bottom to the top, which I did, but will never do again. It’s not an easy climb, and when you’re ready to leave, there’s 13 floors of steps to walk back down. I wasn’t happy with the way my pictures turned out, and I’ve been trying to go back to the top of the tower to redo my shots numerous times, but the elevator has always been out of service. Last Sunday, the ancient lift was up and running again and I finally got a chance to ride back up to the top, and although the lines to board were back as well, I didn’t mind. Each section of views surrounding the tower has three windows to a set, and I wanted to try to get my updates from the same window as the pictures taken over ninety one years ago. Enjoy the view, and I’ll try to point out some of the buildings, structures and locations still visible today. (Thumbnail images)

  

Looking south between Montgomery and Kearny Streets: If you look close, you can see the Columbus Tower/Sentinel Building along Kearny Street on the right in both pictures.

  

Looking toward Nob Hill, with the Mark Hopkins and Fairmont Hotels on the right: The Fairmont Tower blocks out the Mark Hopkins now.

  

Looking southwest across North Beach to the valley between Nob Hill on the left, and Russian Hill on the right:

  

Looking over Washington Square and Saints Peter and Paul Church at the lower left and center:

  

Looking northwest over Russian Hill and Aquatic Park: No Golden Gate Bridge yet, but the Van Ness Pier is in both photos. Pier 45 is on the far right in both pictures.

They were still putting some finishing touches on Coit Tower in this view across Fisherman’s Wharf and Alcatraz.

  

Looking east toward Yerba Buena Island: Pier 25, where the cruise ship is, was demolished by the end of the 1930s. Pier 23 is still there. The Pier 19 Shed was demolished and a rebuilt Pier 19 is in the approximate location now. Pier 17, the last pier on the far right, is still there and you can see part of it in my picture.

  

Looking southeast across the Embarcadero: The three piers visible on the right in my picture are Piers 17, 15, and 9. Pier 11 in the vintage photo was demolished and is now where Pier 9 is.

  

Coming back around full circle now to the Ferry Building and the foot of Market Street:

 

I feel sorry for people who avoid going to San Francisco because of the ‘Chicken Little’ talk about San Francisco being unfriendly, unsightly and dangerous. At twilight, it’s still one of the most beautiful cities in the world. (Thumbnail images)

  

Fisherman’s Wharf at twilight during the 1950s: That top photo just might be my favorite San Francisco picture.

  

#9 Fishermen’s Grotto at dusk: I used to think the Fisherman’s Wharf and the top of Telegraph Hill were the two most romantic spots in San Francisco to be at during sunset. Unfortunately, Fisherman’s Wharf has lost a lot of its charm now, and I worry it will never again be like it was.

  

Pier 43: The old Sailing ship, the Balclutha, is now over at the Hyde Street Pier.

  

Looking toward Pier 43 from upstairs Alioto’s Restaurant during the 1970s:

  

Looking up Powell Street from Market Street; looks like the early 1960s:

  

One block up from the previous picture at Powell and Ellis Streets:

  

Geary Street, west of Mason in the 1950’s: Carol Channing was appearing at the Curran Theater. I learn something new about San Francisco all the time; 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. It’s rumored to be haunted.

  

An Old San Francisco travel poster of the Golden Gate Bridge at sunset: Well, if they can make a fake sunset, I can too.

  

Ghirardelli Square from the old, and now closed, Van Ness Pier:

  

The top photo is a slide picture I took from Telegraph Hill during Fleet Week 1985. The bottom picture is a redo I did in 2020.

  

Kim Novak and Frank Sinatra wander off into the sunset behind the St Francis Club building at the end of the 1957 film ‘Pal Joey’. This time the sunset in my picture wasn’t fake.

#12, Folsom/Pacific MUNI Route, approaching from the south, starts deep in the Mission District near Cesar Chavez Street and from south to north travels north, northeast, northwest, north, west, north again, and then west again to Van Ness, and travels back along a similar route in the opposite direction with a few variants. Along the way, it travels through the Mission District, SOMA, Downtown San Francisco, North Beach, and Chinatown, and is one of the most relaxing and peaceful MUNI rides you can take. I only covered a small portion of it, from Drumm Street to Powell Street, and back to Drumm. (Thumbnail images)

  

I usually catch #12 at Drumm and California Streets heading north, about left center in the vintage picture. My match-up is further west on California Street because California Street cable cars are backed up almost the whole block here. As often in the past, I found vintage photos along the portion I traveled from the terrific opensfhistory.org web site.

 

From Drumm Street, #12 travels west along Sacramento Street, looking north along Davis Street from Sacramento in 1921.

  

Sacramento at Front Street, looking west toward Nob Hill in 1914: You can see the Fairmont Hotel at the top of Nob Hill in the vintage picture, and the Fairmont Hotel Tower in my photo.

  

#12 turns north onto Sansome, seen here in 1938. #12 runs every ten minutes on weekdays, so I got off the bus for pictures I was taking in different areas before re-boarding another #12 that came along. The old Federal Reserve Bank Building is on the right in both photos.

 

The north bound bus turns west on Pacific Avenue, and we traveled through lower North Beach into Chinatown. The 1949 photo is looking south along Grant Avenue from Pacific.

  

The route continues west along Pacific before looping around at Polk Street to Jackson Street to Van Ness, back to Pacific Avenue, and heads back to Powell Street, where it turns north to Broadway. Along Broadway it heads east back to Sansome Street. The vintage picture is looking north from the intersection of Broadway and Stockton Street during the 1940s.

  

At Sansome Street, #12 turns south. The De Soto and West Paint  buildings on the northeast corner of Broadway and Sansome Street, and the National Biscuit building (Nabisco), now the KPIX building,  are still around. That’s always a comforting sight for me.

  

From Sansome Street, #12 turns east on Clay Street and heads back to Drumm Street. The view east along Clay from Drumm Street is not as quaint as the 1915 picture, but it still has the cobblestone and the north wing of the Ferry Building.

There was a report early in 2024 of a possible reopening of the Cliff House by December of 2024. Obviously that didn’t happen. I went out there last Saturday to walk around the empty and lonely Cliff House wondering when, if ever, the famous restaurant will reopen. Also, if the new owners think that people will refer to it by any other name other than the ‘Cliff House’ well….. (Thumbnail images)

  

No trouble finding a parking spot Saturday.

  

My niece, Beverly, my sister, Julie, my niece, Christie, my brother, Pat and my niece, Stacy, walking into the Cliff House in 1989.

  

A scene from the best Film Noir movie set in San Francisco, the 1958 movie ‘The Lineup’.

   

This photo from the San Francisco Library Archives only notes that this was the “Site where a woman leaped off from the rocks.” I couldn’t find out much info on the story, but I did find out that it happened on October 3, 1941, and the unfortunate woman never did it again. This was as close of an angle to where she jumped as I could get.

  

A photo from probably the 60s of the Cliff House I liked the best. (ebay.com)

  

Looking down toward Playland-at-the-Beach in the late 1960s: (San Francisco Public Library Archives)

  

The pathway that leads to behind the Cliff House in 1909: This is basically the same structure that’s there today. (UC Berkeley Library Archives)

  

Visitors looking at Seal Rocks from behind the Cliff House in the 1950s: Nobody behind the Cliff House Saturday. (San Francisco Chronicle)

 

 

On Christmas day I took a walk through Union Square, past Maiden Lane to Chinatown. From Chinatown, I rode a cable car up to the Fairmont hotel to check out their lobby. A friend of mine named Nora wanted to go along but couldn’t make it, so I took some videos for her, and text them to her as I went along. In keeping with the vintage vibes, I thought it would be fun to try to find some old pictures afterward that were taken close to where my videos were shot. Some of them line up pretty good to my mini movies. The vintage pictures are thumbnail images.

  

I started out here in Union Square; I didn’t take a video for Nora while I was here, but I got a nice wide angle shot of the Square. Leaving Union Square, I crossed through Maiden Lane to Grant Avenue, and headed up to Chinatown. From there, I took a cable car up Nob Hill to the Fairmont Hotel to check out their festive lobby. I jumped back on a cable car at California Street and Mason and headed back down to Market; all in all, a Christmas Day well spent.

  

Walking up Grant Street from Maiden Lane, I passed by the old White House Department Store. The store is gone now, but the parking garage is still there. The garage was playing Bing Crosby and company singing ‘White Christmas’ from the old movie ‘Holiday Inn’. Class is where you find it. The vintage picture is a slide photo I took in the early 1980s. You can see the Parking Garage sign in the lower center of my picture.

Reaching Commercial Street and Grant Avenue, a group of musicians were entertaining passing visitors (me included) with a version of Jingle Bells. They were performing about where the lady is stepping on to the sidewalk in the 1960 photo from opensfhistory.org.

 

I headed back to California Street and jumped on the outside of a cable car heading up Nob Hill, the same stretch as the two cable cars in the vintage 1950 pictures. (opensfhistory.org)

  

I couldn’t get a date on the picture of the Fairmont Hotel Lobby from the San Francisco Public Library Archives, but it was taken at almost the same spot as my video. The Christmas tree is blocking out the view of the Grand Staircase in my movie.

I got a spot up front on a cable car taking the plunge back down California Street from Mason, seen in the 1950 photo.

Passengers exchanging cheers from the passing cable cars as we crossed Kearny Street heading toward Market Street and the Southern Pacific Building: The older photo is from 1973. (opensfhistory.org) People who knock San Francisco should go there on Christmas Day; it’s just as wonderful as any place in the country to spend the holiday, or anyplace in the world, for that matter.

It dried up Saturday afternoon, and was perfect Christmas weather to check out the Stockton Street closure from O’Farrell to Post Streets. I was able to get some r.f.m.u. shots (reasonable facsimile match ups) of vintage photos of the two block stretch from UC Berkley and San Francisco Main Libraries Archives. (Thumbnail images)

 

Looking north from Geary to Post Streets: This was as close of a lineup I could from the Neiman Marcus Restaurant. All of the buildings along Post Street at the top have been demolished, except for the Bullock and Jones Building with the arched windows in the top row that may have been featured in the 1948 film noir, ‘Race Street’. (See December 13, 2019)

The walk stretches from here at O’Farrell and Stockton Streets…..

  

…..to here at Post and Stockton. “Don’t worry, fellow, it’s only a camera.” Of course, he did have to insult my photographic capabilities by saying, “Well, just as long as there isn’t any film in it.”

  

Can’t leave out the beloved City of Paris Department Store, in a photo taken probably shortly before it was demolished in 1979:

  

Airline strikers at Maiden Lane:

  

Looking north toward the old Sutter Medical Building and the Hotel Plaza where the Apple Building is now:

  

The intersection of Geary and Stockton in 1909:

  

Streetcars rumbling through Geary and Stockton Streets:

Union Square is all dialed in for Christmas again, and Friday will start another Winter Walk, where parts of Stockton Street and Maiden Lane are closed off and carpeted for foot traffic only. I went over there last Saturday to do some updates around the Square of some old pictures I found on the San Francisco and UC Berkeley Library Archives. (Thumbnail images)

 

The northwest corner of the Square: Looks like an art display going on. The kid probably didn’t enjoy it much; kids have more fun in Union Square nowadays.

  

The northeast corner: Yeah, he’s digging the art displays. The Apple Building is now where the Plaza Hotel was. Lots of police presence, which doesn’t bother me at all.

  

Looking west toward the St. Francis Hotel; looks the 1950s: The United Crusade, are they still around?

  

Looking down Geary toward Powell: I remember BLUMS.

  

Looking toward the southwest corner of the Square from the corner of Powell and Geary during the 1940s:

Same corner as the previous picture during the 60s: I can recognize a Valiant on the far left, and a ford Fairlane, I think.

  

A rare picture of Union Square looking toward the southeast corner of the Square in 1898, before the Dewey Monument was installed in 1903: The domed building in the center is the Call Building. You can just barely make it out in the haze without its dome to the left of the Dewey Monument. The City of Paris Department Store is the large building on the right in the vintage picture, and is where Neiman Marcus is today.

  

This old photo looking southeast down Geary from the UC Berkley Library Archives lines up pretty good with a picture I took from the Westin St Francis Tower a few years ago before they closed the tower elevators to the public.. It shows the rebuilding of Downtown San Francisco after the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, so it was probably taken in 1907. Some of the surviving buildings from the earthquake can be seen in my picture. The steel frame of the Whittell Building, I think it’s now called the Grace Building, is on the left. The Gothic roof of the old Mutual Savings Bank Building at Market and Kearny Streets, to the right of the Whittle Building, is in the center of the modern picture. The Call Building on the right was modernized and had its dome removed in 1939. It’s the brown and white building directly below it in my photo, and is now the Central Tower. The City of Paris Department Store, lower right center, survived, but was demolished in 1979. It’s where the Neiman Marcus Department Store is now.

Another SF Secret: There was an article in a recent San Francisco Chronicle by Peter Hartlaub about the old ferryboat, the Klamath, retired from service in 1956. She’s now tied up at Pier 9 on the Embarcadero, open to the public and free. It’s a great spot to have your lunch, like I did last week. (Thumbnail images)

 

The Klamath is second from the bottom in the 1957 picture from the Chronicle.

   

An F Line Streetcar drops you off right by Pier 9. 

  

The Klamath is docked on the south side of Pier 9 where the SS Momacdawn was docked in the opensfhistory.org picture from 1949.

  

The south side of Pier 9 in 1966: (opensfhistory.org)

  

Another view of Pier 9 from the north side in the 1960s: (San Francisco Library Archives)

  

Pier 9 used to be Pier 11, built at the end of the Nineteenth Century. It was demolished in 1935 and rebuilt as Pier 9. The old photo is Pier 11 in 1907. (Vintage picture from Port City by Michael R. Corbett)

  

Let’s go aboard the Klamath.

The second deck is open for people to sit and relax as long as they want. There weren’t many people on the boat last Wednesday; I don’t think a lot of people are aware that the Klamath is open to the public.

  

There are some interesting pictures and stories on the walls of the boat, like this newspaper story of when the Klamath collided with a submarine in the Bay in 1944.

  

The views from the third deck are the best part of the visit.

  

The Ferry Building, Salesforce Tower, and the Embarcadero Center, among others, seen from the Third deck:

  

And a great view of the Bay Bridge.

  

Pier 9 under construction, looking toward Telegraph Hill in 1935: (San Francisco Library Archives)

  

I’ll close with a television drama scene near Pier 9 in a 1957 episode of in a little known series that ran from 1957 to 1958, ‘Harbor Command’. Although the show only ran for one season, it has some great San Francisco locations from the 1950s. Here, in an episode entitled ‘Gold Smugglers’ two dental assistants have been forging the dentist’s name to order gold that they’ve been stockpiling. They murder the doctor when he finds out what they’ve been doing, and they attempt to smuggle the gold out of San Francisco. Here, they’re trying to make their escape in a taxi on the Embarcadero; Pier 9 is in the background. Of course, they didn’t get away. You can see construction work on the soon to be finished Embarcadero Freeway in the right background of the show scenes.