Some interesting San Francisco buildings. At the left: The fictional building that would soon catch fire in the 1974 blockbuster ‘The Towering Inferno’. I still don’t know how this movie won an Oscar for cinematography! The Bank of America Building on California where some of the movie was filmed is, usually, a dark brown monolithic looking thing, but if you take a picture at the right spot, and the right time of day, it makes a good comparison. Second from the left: This image from some remarkable live footage at the Ferry Building was taken on Market Street the day after the 1906 Earthquake. For reasons that I’ve never really understood, the Ferry Building does not face Market Street squarely. That’s just one of those things I’ve always known, but never thought much about until now! Second from the right: I don’t know who lives in the mansion at 2898 Broadway in Pacific Heights. Probably, somebody with a stately name like Mrs. Basington-Basington or something, but it was used as the setting of Lana Turner’s home in the 1960 crime thriller ‘Portrait in Black’. At the right: The Columbus and Kearny intersection after the 1906 Earthquake; the City goes back about its business. That’s the steel skeleton of the Columbus Tower Building, now owned by Francis Ford Coppola. To the left of it was the Montgomery Block Building, built in 1853. This haunt of just about every prominent writer to visit San Francisco from Bret Harte to Mark Twain survived the 1906 Earthquake, and was demolished in 1959. The Transamerica Pyramid now occupies the spot.
The Sansome Street entrance to BART: 
“Here, Buddy Boy. This BART arrest is on me.” I’ve been riding BART since it opened, and I don’t remember ever being able to get a ticket by feeding coins into the gates! Besides, they’re police officers conducting a drug bust; I don’t think that they have to pay! 
BART updates; brought to you by the now defunct Crocker Bank. 
Closing the deal. 
Busted! 
One of the bad guys bolts for the exit with “Buddy Boy” hot on his tail! 
The bad guy gets Michael Douglas to drop his gun on the stairs by taking a hostage at knife point on the BART escalator. No Officer would do that today, and it’s unlikely any would have back then. 
But Mike’s not giving up. 
“You’re going down, dude!” 
“Buddy Boy” takes down the knife wielding bad guy after a violent struggle. After everything is over, a concerned citizen asks if he can be of help. The look on Michael Douglas’s face tells it all. 
Off to jail. That’s 575 Market Street today under construction in the background of the TV show image.
The marvelous Sutro Baths, and all that’s left today.
Point Lobos, before and after Sutro’s :
A wonderful image from John Martini’s book ‘Sutro’s Glass Palace’ of what the bathhouse looked like inside: That railing the lady is leaning against might have been the same spot where Eli Wallach gets a little pushy in some images you’ll see in a moment.
In the 1950’s, the swimming pools were converted to an ice skating rink.
Sutro’s burned down in June of 1966. That’s the Louis Restaurant on the right. It’s been there since 1937, and is one of my main pit stops for breakfast when I’m in the area.
The ruins of the Sutro Bath House; gone forever.
It’s still the best look at Sutro’s you’ll ever get. When Eli Wallach tries to convince the head of organized crime, “The Man” who’s confined to a wheelchair, why he’s coming up short on a heroin shipment deal in the 1958 film ‘The Lineup’, “The Man” slaps him, and tells him, You’re dead!”. Not a good idea! Eli kicks him through the rail to his death on the ice skating rink below, taking out a skater, as well.
Union Square at Christmas in the 1920’s and in 2014:
Not quite as festive as the 1930’s, but not a bad go at it!
The old Emporium Store, now Bloomingdale’s on Market Street.
Two views of the legendary City of Paris Department Store Christmas tree, from above and below: Neiman Marcus, which took over the location when the old department store was demolished, has an impressive Christmas tree in the same spot where the old rotunda was.
“MAIL EARLY” Yeah, especially if it’s my present! The old Conservatory of Flowers Building in Golden Gate Park in the late 1930’s. This seems like an odd place to advertise this holiday message.
The old Pacific Avenue fire station at Osgood Alley in North Beach, and 18th Street fire station in the Sunset District:
22nd and Mission in the heart of the “Miracle Mile” in the 1950’s: The Rexall is now Popeye’s Chicken, but there’s still a Market where the New Mission Market was.
The Union Square Garage at Christmastime, what Herb Caen used to refer to as a “Sorry / full situation”.
What the “Hyde Street Grip” at Christmastime should look like according to Thomas Kinkade, and what the “Hyde Street Grip” at Christmastime looks like.
Here my mom on the left is on the porch with Frances at the house where she stayed on Anza Street. It’s nice to see that the same door is still there. I think “Foo” was mom’s nickname for herself, but I’m not sure what mom’s calling Frances. I don’t know what became of Frances; I remember in the 1990’s, mom trying to get in touch with her but she was never able to locate her again.
Here they are at Joe DiMaggio’s Restaurant in Fisherman’s Wharf. Love that holding hands bit! DiMaggio’s is now called “Joe’s”.
Mom, on the left with Frances, swimming at Aquatic, and a picture of Alcatraz they took from there:
DiMaggio’s again from the Fisherman’s Wharf Lagoon. I think my mom had a thing for DiMaggio; if he’d have married her instead of Marilyn, I might have been a great ball player!
I’d know where this is even without my mom, photo left of Frances, identifying it!
At the old Sloat Blvd entrance to what used to be called Fleishhacker’s Zoo, (You spelled it wrong, Mom!) now just called the San Francisco Zoo. This entrance is now closed off.
Swimming with Frances in, what was then the largest swimming pool in the world, Fleishhacker’s Pool. The pool has been buried over, and is under the parking lot where the zoo’s main entrance is today.
San Francisco Film Locations Then & Now 