San Francisco Film Locations Then & Now

A photo from the Charles Cushman collection of a festive cable car rattling down Powell Street from Nob Hill in April of 1955, and the same spot today. (Thumbnail image)

Sometimes, you almost nail it perfect! (Thumbnail image)

The Embarcadero conjures up images of ships sailing off to far away destinations, dangerous waterfront dives, unfortunate individuals being ‘Shanghaied’, and mysterious characters. It was like that once, in a long ago day, but now it’s just a pretty place to go bike riding. Still, sometimes if you go there at night, listen to the fog horns, and let your imagination run, it can be spooky and exciting. (Thumbnail image)

Three aerial views of the Embarcadero at the Ferry Building: At the left, is part of George Lawrence’s incredible kite photograph of San Francisco after the 1906 Earthquake. If you would like to see the whole picture, (and you should) click on the photo after the synopsis below. In the center is a 1940’s picture from Michael Corbett’s fine history of the San Francisco waterfront called ‘Port City’ At the right, is from a postcard I bought as a teenager. This is how San Francisco looked when I was in high school. Boy, I feel old!  (Thumbnail image)

Pier 29, seen here in the early 1930’s. (Thumbnail image)

Another great picture from ‘Port City’, Pier 11 looking north toward Fisherman’s Wharf in 1926: The Embarcadero had three kinds of streets here back then; a smooth pavement for automobiles at the right, a stone pavement for horse traffic in the center where I’m standing, of which there was still a lot of in 1926, and railroad tracks at the left. This is a confusing spot on the Embarcadero today! “Hey, why do the piers jump from Pier 9 to Pier 15 here?” Well, I’ll tell you; Pier 11 in the old photo was demolished in 1935, and replaced in its location by Pier 9, the one behind the Broadway sign. There never was a Pier 13, even though they made a film noir movie  in 1949 set in San Francisco about Communist infiltration in  America called ‘The Woman on Pier 13’ starring Robert Ryun and Laraine Day. Pier 15, which houses today’s Exploratorium, and was not built yet in the old photo, comes next. (Thumbnail image)

“Get your motor running. Head out on the highway.” He’s at the Embarcadero and Broadway underneath the, now gone, Embarcadero Freeway. (Thumbnail image)

A couple more bad-ass bikers ripping up the Embarcadero at Pier 35. (Thumbnail image)

  Police Officer Bruce Dern in the car follows a bus down Bay Street to Pier 33 in the 1973 movie ‘The Laughing Policeman’. His partner, Walter Matthau is on the bus trying to prevent a maniac from killing all of the passengers with a machine gun, as he did earlier in the openings scenes of the movie. (Thumbnail image)

Police Officer Virgil Tibbs, (Sidney Poitier) has a truck get in his line of fire at a bad guy at Pier 38, near today’s AT&T Park in the 1971 film ‘The Organization’ If you’re wondering why Pier 38 is near AT&T Park and Pier 39 near Fisherman’s Wharf at the other end of the Embarcadero, it’s because all piers south of the Ferry Building were even numbered, and those north of the building were odd numbered. (Thumbnail image)