San Francisco Film Locations Then & Now

Ann Sheridan and Dennis O’Keefe walk past Pier 45 in the 1950 film ‘Woman on the Run’. I always did want to be in a Film Noir movie! (Thumbnail image)

“You know, Chester, someday when this is finished, people will come from all over the world to visit this spot.”
“What, here! Uh, yeah, sure, boss.”

Different cars, different buildings, same crazy freeway! Some of the buildings seen from left to right in the 50’s picture are the Mark Hopkins Hotel, the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, Coit Tower, and on the right, the Call and Russ Buildings, none of which can be seen from here today.

Another view of what the Fort Point area looked like before the building og the Golden Gate Bridge. Look close at the bottom right in the current picture, and you can see the remains of the steps that fellow’s walking past that led from the house at the bottom of the old photo.

The Shorpy’s collection has some wonderful black and white, high density photos from long ago. The following are a few from San Francisco that I did some then and nows on. Here, is the corner of Franklin and California Streets. They had a weird sense of humor in the 1920’s!

Van Ness at California Street: “Now, you and the lovely lady in the back seat be sure to tell your friends about “Honest Harry” and his used car deals. Okay?”

I wonder who that is being greeted at City Hall? Must be “Wrong Way” Corrigan! It might be, kind of, fun to drive your car up the steps of City Hall today.

621 Commercial Street in 1940:
“Here come the bulldozers, Pa.”
“Just sit tight, Son; they ain’t-a gonna be tearing our building down! No, Sir!”
Well, they didn’t tear the old building down; they just built a new one on top of it!

The old Lombard Street entrance to the Presidio, looks like the late 1940’s. Today, kids with backpacks pass through what was once a secured area. It was while I was appreciating the military history here last Thursday, that I heard about the  July 16th attacks at the military locations in Tennessee.  (Thumbnail image)

Soldiers gearing up for battle during the 1898 Spanish-American War. “Bully!” (Thumbnail image)