San Francisco Film Locations Then & Now

Washington Street looking down from Taylor in the 1950’s: The tall chimney on the left is part of the Cable Car Barn and Museum. For the two nice fellows I met in the Cable Car Museum Gift Shop today.

The Whittier Mansion at Laguna and Jackson in Pacific Heights rumored to be haunted, naturally: This place has at least two interesting historic pasts. It was sold to Hitler’s Third Reich in 1941, and was the German Consulate when Pearl Harbor was attacked. When government agents broke in after the attack, they found evidence of burnt documents, a short wave radio, and a telescope for watching shipping movements in the Bay. In 1958, “Dancer” (Eli Wallach) commits his second murder in the film ‘The Lineup’ in this house by shooting a butler in an attempt to recover smuggled heroin. One of my all-time favorite San Francisco movies!

Where’s Elliot Ness? This isn’t Chicago, but it was the scene of the gangland “whacking” of Luigi Malvese at 720 Columbus Ave. on May 18th 1932 during Prohibition. The bootlegger was gunned down in front of the barber shop, which is the building with the curved entrance on the right.

Broadway, near Columbus: Mike endorses the Johnson and Humphrey ticket!

I wonder what became of this little guy at Vallejo and Kearny, whoever he was. By now, he’d be well into senior citizenship, if he’s still around at all!

A street car in front of the old Emporium Building in 1968 and today: The N Judah line doesn’t run on the top of Market anymore, but is part of the Muni Metro System under Market Street now, and doesn’t come up to breath until it’s well out of the downtown area.

The cable car turntable at Powell and Market in 1964: “The cable car picture you are about to see is true. The clothes have been changed to protect the innocent.”

Faces of the doomed: Three of the prisoners, involved in the 1946 “Battle of Alcatraz”, (See the March 8th, 2015 entry) left to right, Clarence Carnes, Sam Shockley, Miran Thompson, are escorted to court. Shockley and Thompson were executed at San Quentin Prison on December 3rd, 1948. The old guard tower on Alcatraz still watches over the prison.

 On the edge of Dolores Park at 20th and Church is “the little fire hydrant that could.” The water mains to most of the hydrants were broken by the 1906 Earthquake, and there was no way to stop the fires from destroying the entire city. This little guy was working, however, and is credited with stopping the flames from destroying all of the Mission District and beyond. Every April 18th, on the anniversary of the earthquake and fire, the hydrant is painted gold.

Some of the scenes for the movie ‘Sister Act’ with Whoopi Goldberg were filmed at St. Paul’s Catholic Church at Valley and Church Streets in Noe Valley; as beautiful of a church you’ll find in San Francisco.

When I heard that they had restored the Doggie Diner Dachshund head on Sloat Blvd. near the zoo, naturally, I went to investigate. He was a pretty elusive little puppy, I couldn’t find him!

A mural on a building at 15th and Church Streets shows Market Street traffic changing though the years, and into the future as you look from left to right  Washington at Jones in 1952 from the Cushman Collection: The lady with the package in the 1952 picture doesn’t look like she wants to climb on at this side. I don’t blame her; those passengers on the seat facing her look like a thumbs-down jury!  Danny looks like he’s gazing back into time, and thinking, “What odd looking kids!”   This last Monday was the first time I’ve gone back to Ocean Beach since I lost my little Sand Crab Pointer!   Santa trades in his sleigh for a cable car in at Powell and Market Street in the 1940’s: This kind of Christmas pageantry isn’t likely to occur in San Francisco any more.   Inside the old Emporium Building at Christmas: This was what a department store was supposed to look like during the Holidays. Extensively remodeled, and new walls, it’s still pretty impressive.   A Shorpy’s Collection photo of the Transparent Pontiac of the General Motors Exhibit, June 11th, 1940, on display at the Treasure Island International Exposition: It’s a good thing this didn’t catch on or a lot of children wouldn’t have been born. She looks like Ginger Rogers!

There’s nothing like Ocean Beach at sunset! I don’t know who this family from the 1940’s was, but I know the spot, the waterfall at Lloyd Lake. They would have been posing on the rock at the bottom of my picture.  This place needs no introduction!   “The Cliff House or bust!” Where the old skating rink at Playland-at-the-Beach was: A Leon Borensztein photograph from Ocean Beach in 1982: A “Boom Box”! I remember those!

2150 California Street: There’s still a fire station at this address today, but it just doesn’t have the same character.

Powell and Market Streets: Somebody in the 1920’s was an even worse photographer than me!

Emperor Joshua Norton, “Emperor of the United States”, and the, “Protector of Mexico”: I knew if I hung around San Francisco long enough, I was going to run into him!

Next Friday, December 4th, will be the 100th anniversary of the closing of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. The best thing still left from that fair is the Palace of Fine Arts. To me, the next best thing is this 1912 Exposition City map that I first saw years ago in the Wells Fargo History Room on Montgomery Street of what the upcoming fair was going to look like. There are so many things NOT to see in this map; no Golden Gate or Bay Bridges, no Coit Tower or City Hall, and nothing but sand west of Twin Peaks where the Sunset District is today. If you click on this link below, it opens up to David Rumsey’s terrific version of this map that you can zoom in on for a great look at 1912 San Francisco. Alright, so they spelled Fisherman’s Wharf wrong, who’s gonna notice!      

                                                                                    http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~275990~90059277:The-Exposition-City-San-Francisco–?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No&qvq=q:1915%2Bmap;sort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=0&trs=421

“We’re going to need a bigger tree!”

California at Montgomery in the 1950’s: I wonder if they still make Belfast Sparkling Water!

Union Square in 1948 from a Roger Sturtevant photo

Market and Stockton Streets at Christmas time: Twin Peaks can be seen in the distance of both pictures.

Lana Turner, seen here across from Union Square going into I Magnin’s in the 1960 film ‘Portrait in Black’, is plotting with Anthony Quinn to kill her husband at this point in the movie. She’d, probably, receive a longer jail term today for wearing that coat than she would for a murder conviction! Below, five Lana wannabes at the same spot today

. A Victory Window during World War Two, and a Victory for the Macy’s PR Team window.

“Peanuts” for Christmas: Poor Charlie Brown, he’s going to have another sad holiday! Looks like he’s going to need all of the SSRI’s Lucy can prescribe.

1937 limos in this John Gutmann photo at the Mark Hopkins Hotel:

The original bimbos on Russian Hill in 1906:
“Hey girls, what do you think of San Francisco burning down?”
“Oh, isn’t it exciting!”