San Francisco Film Locations Then & Now

After a long day of hill climbing I thought I’d stop by for a refreshing 7up or a healthy pack of cigarettes at the New Radio Market on Russian Hill, but they sure cleaned that dump up! (Thumbnail image)

  Ah, at last, a then and now I can really appreciate! (Thumbnail image)

Nobody dresses up anymore when they go to San Francisco. (He said, as he went over to San Francisco in a Winn-Dixie T-shirt, and cutoffs made from a 1990’s pair of jeans!) Here, a trip to Market Street at Lotta’s Fountain in the early 1900’s: You, simply, didn’t go out in those days without your best bustle!

“WILL DANCE IN MY SUNDAY-GO-TO-MEETING CLOTHES FOR FOOD”: I don’t know who she is, but she’s drawing them in. This was at the I Magnin Store, now a part of Macy’s, across from Union Square in the 1970’s.

Grant Ave at Geary: I Magnin & Company moved up one block to Stockton and Geary in the 1940’s.

Elegance near Grayson’s Store that used to be across Market Street from Powell: To tell you the truth, I think the styles of the girls on the right are just as cool You can see the ‘E’ from the old Emporium Department Store on the far left in the 1950’s picture. (Vintage photo Fred Lyon)

Maiden Lane in the 1950’s: She knows she’s hot! That building on the right with the round entrance, is the only building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in San Francisco. (Bay Area Photographers Society)

I lost my little dog ‘Danny’ after sixteen years and five months on September 9th of this year. Giving me one last gift of love, he died in my arms at home where I would have wanted him to be. He loved Ocean Beach as much as I do, and this was his last visit there. Of family, friends, and lovers, no San Francisco trip was more fun than those with Danny.

I saw your nose poke in the door,
each night my dream’s the same.
Although you’re not here anymore,
I called you and you came.

I picked you up and held you tight.
I asked you where you’ve been.
I knew if I turned on the light,
you’d disappear again.

Oh, Danny, I’m not good with this.
I don’t know when I’ll heal.
And you’re the one I’ll always miss;
the loss I’ll always feel.

Except at night when I’m asleep,
and once again you’re here.
Where in my dreams, you’ll always keep,
and never disappear.

These are some of the movies filmed about Alcatraz.

“Just another “Jenny” with a “Johnnie” on the “Rock.” That’s how they refer to these sweethearts taking a boat to visit their lovers incarcerated on Alcatraz in the 1940 film ‘House Across the Bay’ with George Raft. That’s my niece on the right approaching the island. “Just another Stacy with a baby in the dock.”

Aw, the next best thing to “Home for the Holidays”…….. Not!

A guard sat in an enclosed room during meals, and watched the prisoner’s, very carefully, while they ate.

“Everybody in the whole cell block, was dancing to the Jailhouse Rock.”

In ‘Escape from Alcatraz’ (1979) Clint Eastwood gets thrown into solitary confinement for fighting with another prisoner because he wouldn’t…….. …well, you don’t want to know. Cellblock D was where solitary confinement cells were, and is was as ugly as anything you’ve ever seen, read or heard about it.