San Francisco movie locations from classic films
San Francisco movie locations from classic films
CitySleuth delivered a San Francisco Public Library online presentation on Feb 2, 2024 on how film noir directors used locations to enhance their storytelling and why they often chose Telegraph Hill when they filmed in San Francisco. SFPL hes posted it on their youTube channel - you can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9r7fB3P6hA
Jo’s paranoia continues while he walks the streets of Chinatown. He keeps glancing back to see if he’s being followed. Below, he’s at a movie house next to a poster display of stereotypical (at that time) images of Asian actors. Director Wang was making a point.
Then … As he moves on, passing another poster display, we see details of the theatre - it’s the Bella Union Theatre at 825 Kearny Street.
… in 1979 … here’s a vintage photo of it pictured as it was when the Chan Is Missing scene was filmed there. The poster displays are clearly visible, as too is the ticket booth.
… and Now, the theatre closed in 1985; the remodeled building is now a self-help academy for the elderly.
A little history: the theatre opened in the 1890s as the Shanghai Theatre offering Chinese drama, seen below in a contemporaneous postcard. Around 1912 it was renamed the Kearny Theater, switching to burlesque entertainment. It became the Bella Union in 1948, until it closed 37 years later.
Then … Jo heads north on Kearny, nervously looking back. Across the street is the Chinatown Chevron gas station on the corner of Jackson and straight ahead Kearny climbs towards Telegraph Hill. The store alongside him is next to the Bella Union; it’s on the right in the 1979 image above.
… and Now, in today’s matching photo the gas station has been built over and the distant view up the hill is hidden by trees. An apartment building that looks architecturally out of place on this block has replaced the store on the left.
Then … Next he’s seen walking south on Grant Avenue approaching the triple arched entrance to Central Bank at 933 Grant and just past that, Chung Fat grocery at 921 Grant. Li Po’s bar is visible across the street.
… and Now, the venerable Li Po is still there and 933 (with a remodeled entrance) is still a bank - Cathay Pacific’s Chinatown branch. But the grocery is now a gift shop.
Then … Just around the corner from Grant on Washington Street Waverly Place tees in from the left at the Wonton Noodles sign. Ping’s Place restaurant straight ahead is at 835 Washington (check out the little girl passing by - she has just spotted the camera).
… and Now, in a recent view from the same spot what’s notable is the Chat Hai Jeweler’s store across the street at 864 Washington. The same long-lived business and sign can be seen in the Then image above.
Then … Watch out for this moment in the movie; as it was being filmed the newspaper vendor, not prepped in any way, slowly turns back, glimpsing the camera without even the slightest hint of a reaction.
… and Now, this is the southwest corner of Grant and Washington - the view looks along Washington. The distinctive tiles above, now behind the corner store’s security bars, have been plastered over…
… but more than 30 years earlier those tiles were seen behind Rita Hayworth as she crosses Washington in the 1947 movie The Lady From Shanghai (compare them to the Then image above - they are identical). Waverly Place tees in along the block.
… and Now, the matching view today.
Tom has arranged to pick up his daughter Polly at work - she’s employed by the telephone company as a switchboard operator supervisor. Outside the building on the sunny side of the street he blows the horn.
Then … Two buildings were used to represent where this was filmed. First we are shown the Pacific Telephone building downtown in SoMa at 140 New Montgomery Street (map). This is the northwest-facing side taken from the old Call Building (now known as the Central Tower Building) a few blocks away on Market Street. The flag touts Bell Telephone’s bell logo and the east bay is out there somewhere in the distance. (However, don’t be fooled, the scene above wasn’t filmed in SoMa - neither as we will see was it filmed in San Francisco).
… and Now, when completed in 1925 during the economic boom of the Roaring 20s the beautiful white Art Moderne building (“A shimmering, gleaming monument to Talk” per the SF Examiner), was the tallest in San Francisco. In this recent Google 3D image it continues to stand proud, unchanged as it nears its centennial.
A street-level look at the northeast side on New Montgomery Street makes nostalgists amongst us pine for the days when highrises had class and majesty. Now a for-lease mixed-use building, it has been completely modernized inside (while retaining its spectacular period lobby). Note the Bell logo above the main entrance at bottom (photo by Alexis Madrigal).
Polly (Frances Teague), pert and pretty in the fashionable style of the flapper era, hears the car horn…
… she grabs her coat, gets her hat, leaves her worries on the doorstep then heads out, on the way pausing to chat to the switchboard girls. But - where was this filmed? Not, as it turns out, at 140 New Montgomery in San Francisco...
Then … When she skips down a set of steps as she leaves the building it’s clear that this was filmed in Los Angeles - check out the addresses on the employee entrance doors behind her:
Business Office, 740 S. Olive Street
Public Station, 6099 Sunset Boulevard
… in 1926 … CitySleuth thanks reader Notcom for coming up with this filming location - the Southern California Company Exchange building in Hollywood at 1429 N. Gower Street (map) , indicated below in a 1920s photo by the round circle. It’s a half block from the public station at 6099 Sunset Blvd referenced on the doorway above and it’s across from a group of low budget film studios, aka ‘Poverty Row’, which included FBO Studios who distributed The Last Edition. What’s more, the fence alongside California Studios at 1432 N. Gower indicated by the elliptical circle is where Tom’s vehicle was filmed in the first image in this post.
Further confirmation that the telephone building was here came when silent movie czar John Bengtson spotted the same building in the 1925 spoof movie short Hollywouldn’t in a scene filmed on N. Gower Street. (Watch it here - https://www.eastman.org/hollywouldnt). There are two palm trees on the lawn whose leaves are reflected in the entrance door panels in The Last Edition ‘Then’ image above. The wall plaque mostly hidden by the tree, below left, reads ‘Southern California Telephone Building’, stacked vertically; its final letters can also be made out in The Last Edition image.
… and Now, here’s a recent image of 1429 N. Gower today, much changed and expanded but still a telephone company property.
Confirmation of where Tom parked follows: In this frame of him pulling in to the kerb note the gate hinge near the bottom of the fence, the row of patterned holes near the top and the shadow of the tree against the fence…
Another scene from the 1925 movie short Hollywouldn’t filmed on N. Gower Street across from the telephone building captured the same fence hinge, patterned holes and (!) the real clincher, the identical tree shadow…
… and here at lower right we get a closer look at the fence, abutting the California Studios building at 1432 N. Gower Street.
By now Jo is really confused. Maybe the other woman is trying to frame Chan? Maybe Chan killed the flag protester, not the old man who was charged? Maybe if he knows this, someone might not want him to know? A montage set to ominous music alternates between shots of him driving the cab and walking on the streets as paranoia sets in; by editorial choice CitySleuth groups them separately in this and in the next post.
Then … Driving north on Grant Avenue on a soggy day he approaches the Dragon Gate at the southern entrance to Chinatown at Bush Street.
… and Now, The dragon-clad arch, inspired by ceremonial entrances to Chinese villages, was the winning design in a competition sponsored by the mayor of San Francisco. Beneath the portal is a quote from Chinese revolutionary leader Sun Yat Sen (who once lived in Chinatown) which translates as “All Under Heaven Is For The Good Of The People”. Two carved lions stand guard on either side, one male and one female, warding off evil spirits. The arch was completed in 1969 and dedicated in 1970. (Photo by Alan P. Goldstein).
Then … California Street crosses Grant ahead - on the right is St. Mary’s Catholic Church and on the left is the Sing Chong Building which housed a wax museum back then.
… and Now, the Chinatown Wax Museum is not there in today’s matching view - it closed in 1983.
Here’s a vintage photo postcard c. 1970s of the Sing Chong Building, one of the first buildings to be rebuilt after the 1906 earthquake leveled and burned Chinatown. Today it’s as popular with visiting photographers as is the Dragon Gate shown above.
Then … Convinced he is being followed, Jo keeps checking his rearview mirror.
… and Now, He was traveling north on Grant Avenue with Washington crossing ahead. The long-lived Bow Hon restaurant still occupies 850 Grant.
Then … The next shot is a little further back on the same block. On the right is the roof garden restaurant Empress of China at 838 Grant, the premier restaurant in Chinatown after it opened in 1966.
… and Now, The Empress of China closed in 2014 after almost 50 years. Today a new high-end restaurant, Empress by Boon, has taken over the site.
Then … during another surreptitious peep in the mirror a block further north we glimpse the venerated Li Po bar at 916 Grant, which shows up several times in the backgound during the course of the movie.
… and Now, Li Po has been a popular presence here for 86 years but is swankier now - it’s called Li Po Cocktail Lounge. It’s come a long way from its early opium den days.
Then … A few blocks away, Jo is heading south down Waverly Place - Sacramento crosses two blocks ahead.
… and Now, the iCafe Bakery (below) now occupies the site of the Wonder Food Company (above), at 133 Waverly. Bakeries are ubiquitous in Chinatown. They were very popular with residents then and continue to be so now.
