San Francisco Film Locations Then & Now

Summer of 1971; no lines for the cable cars yet, and the old Woolworth’s at Powell and Market Streets is still there.  (Thumbnail image)

Directly across the street from the previous entry, and a decade earlier. Trees block out most of the buildings in the old picture, and cars aren’t allowed to drive on this block anymore. The Powell Theater was where the Burger King is today.  (Thumbnail image)

A child and ladies with their parasols looking down toward Ocean Beach from the Cliff House in the early 1900’s. (Thumbnail image)

A Shorpy photo of a hot dogger showing off to some kids on Vallejo Street in 1920. “Watch me kids! Some day they’ll call this a sideshow! (Thumbnail image)

Children looking at Alcatraz from Fisherman’s Wharf in the 1970’s. For years, the closest that you could get to Alcatraz was through the powerful telescopes at the Wharf. When the island opened to public tours in the late 1970’s, this little tourist attraction disappeared. (Thumbnail image)

The old carousel at the Children’s Playground in Golden Gate Park in the 1800’s. City: (Thumbnail image)

Fred Lyon is a photographer who took some wonderful black and white pictures of San Francisco in the 1940’s and 1950’s. here, two children are sliding down upper Kearny Street at Fresno Alley toward Broadway in the 1940’s. (Thumbnail image)

No, it’s not a scene from Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’, just a picture at Union Square in the 1950’s. They’ve cleared the pigeons out of here now! (Thumbnail image)

Valentina Cortese with William Lundigan at Union and Montgomery Streets in the 1951 movie ‘The House on Telegraph Hill’. That’s the old Speedy’s Market the ladies are entering in the movie scene, that closed in 2008 after 90 years on this corner. (Thumbnail image)

Another Fred Lyon picture at Mason Street on a windy day in the 1950’s. (Thumbnail image)