San Francisco Film Locations Then & Now

Next year will be the 100th anniversary of the films made by Charlie Chaplin in Niles California.. This scene is from the 1915 comedy short ‘A Jitney Elopement’ filmed mostly in Golden Gate Park and along the Great Highway. Here, Charlie and his leading lady, Edna Purviance, are being chased south along the Great Highway while eloping, by Edna’s father and suitor, Count Chloride de Lime. Automobiles were, relatively new then, and Charlie, probably, wasn’t a very good driver anyway, so, naturally, he backs into their car!

An empty Golden Gate Bridge is shown as Gregory Peck’s submarine enters San Francisco Bay under it to determine if there’s any life left in the city. (There isn’t) This scene would be easier to make this year as the Golden Gate Bridge will be shut down entirely within the next few weeks of this post, for the first time since it opened to install a barrier to prevent accidents between north and south bound traffic. (Thumbnail image)

Now this one really involves death in the City, every single person! In fact, every single person in the world eventually dies in the 1959 movie’ On the Beach’ from nuclear radiation fallout. In this scene, Gregory Peck views a deserted Hyde Street on Russian Hill from the periscope of his submarine safely under the Bay. (Thumbnail image)

Ross Martin plays a real creepy villain in ‘Experiment in Terror’ and ends up being shot to death by Glenn Ford on the pitcher’s mound at Candlestick Park after a Giants Dodgers game. Sometime, shortly after this post Candlestick Park will be demolished. I know it has to go, but I’ll always miss it. (Thumbnail image)

  Bad guy Vic Morrow being chased toward the Chinatown gate by Michael Douglas, loses his balance after hitting a Chronicle paper box, and falls into oncoming traffic. (Thumbnail image)

  Sadly, Vic Morrow would lose his life from a real accident eight years after this ‘The Streets of San Francisco’ episode was made. (Thumbnail image)

Steve McQueen tailing the bad guys on Filbert Street approaches Mason in ‘Bullitt’. Just after this scene…… watch out! Here are the links to part one, and part two of the best car chase scene ever filmed. (Thumbnail image)

One of my favorite San Francisco pictures. Whoever coined the phrase “A picture is worth a thousand words.” was spot on here! That’s Russian Hill seen from Telegraph Hill after the 1906 Earthquake. The two steep streets climbing Russian Hill are Lombard Street on the left and Chestnut Street on the right followed by Francisco Street and Bay Street. Columbus Ave. cuts away diagonally from Mason Street at the bottom of Russian Hill.

Agnes Moorehead eavesdrops outside Lauren Bacalls’s third floor apartment at 1360 Montgomery Street on Telegraph Hill in ‘Dark Passage’. “Oh, Derwood!” (Thumbnail image)

Actually, this little adventure was years in the making. The top movie photo was the street the Hanson Family lived on in the 1948 movie, ‘I Remember Mama’. Since it was supposed to be on Russian Hill, they Photoshopped, or whatever they called it in 1948, Alcatraz and the Bay in the background, but the street is not on Russian Hill. Many of the scenes were filmed on this street like the center top photo of Katrin and Christine Hanson approaching the crest of the hill. I always thought it was a wonderful turn-of-the-Century street (20th not 21st) and I’ve been trying to find it, off and on, for years. Many film location experts and even Wikipedia had the wrong locations, usually saying that it was on Rhode Island Street on Potrero Hill, but it isn’t. I had just about given up finding this street, when last Thursday, I found the lower third top photo from the 1950’s in a book by the Junior League of San Francisco at the San Francisco Main Library. “Wow!” I thought, that looks like it! When I got back to the office and compared it to the film picture, this was the same street; it was once a real street in San Francisco! However, the book didn’t identify where the street was or is, so I was still lost. When I went back to the History Room at SF Library, they didn’t know where it was either, but a nice lady named Christine showed me how to access an old 1938 aerial photo of the City, and said I may have luck finding the location with this. After scouring the photo for two days, I had it nailed down to about five possible locations, but I still had a lot of work to do to find it. I sent the 1950’s picture to a Facebook site called ‘Vintage San Francisco’. These guys run circles around me in San Francisco knowledge. I got a polite answer back saying, “Not sure, but it looks like Liberty at Castro.” Cha-ching! I asked the right people. The bottom pictures are the modern views. Thus, endeth the quest for the elusive street! Whew! Most of the front stairs of the houses through fashion or regulation have a L shaped design today, and a modern building now occupies the empty lot on the corner where the girls walked by.