Rivera, now sure Howard Mason is the blackmailer, plots a way to dispatch him. He gets Sheila to invite him to her home at night on a pretense of signing a document. She will signal his departure to Rivera, waiting outside with a gun, in time for him to do the dirty deed. Although she detests the man, she turns on the charm when he arrives ...
Then ... From her upstairs window, Sheila watches Mason drive off. She opens the curtains and Rivera, at the top of the hill, sees the signal.
... and Now, here's the same Baker Street block viewed from her home at 2898 Broadway (described in an earlier post).
Now ... The only vantage point where Rivera could see the house would be the top of the block, at Baker and Pacific (map, blue marker, with the house at the red marker). This recent view from that junction looks to Sheila's home, marked by the arrow. This is the block the movie should have shown, but it didn't (... duh).
... and Then, instead, looking back with Rivera through his car's rear window we see Mason's car approaching up a totally different block. CitySleuth hasn't found it yet; fellow San Francisco sleuthers are invited to seek it out.
Rivera fires at Mason as he drives by but narrowly misses. The intended victim, badly shaken, returns to Sheila's place only to realize that she and Rivera were behind the attack. Enraged, he is about to strike her with a poker when Rivera arrives and fires again, this time right on target.
Re the title of this post - yes, CitySleuth is a diehard Beatles fan.
Back to the movie - the newlyweds visit a number of popular Bay Area destinations as Myra proudly shows off her home town.
Then ... They stroll down a trail through a grove of tall redwoods past the snapped-off tip of a tree impaled in the ground.
... and Now, this is Cathedral Grove at Muir Woods, a national monument since 1908, one of the few remaining stands of old growth coastal redwoods remaining in the Bay Area, just 12 miles north of San Francisco in Marin County (map). Today, the trail is lined by fences but the tree tip is gone - the arrow marks the exact spot where it used to be.
... a vintage photo ... How did CitySleuth find this exact spot? Well, during a visit to Muir Woods he came across this undated photo in the Visitor Center bookstore. Wouldn't you know it, this is the same tree tip, photographed from the opposite direction. It was in the Cathedral Grove next to a plaque honoring the memory of Franklin D Roosevelt.
... and Now, the plaque is still there but the tree tip has been removed, perhaps because it was in the middle of the trail (never mind that the tree tip was there first). The arrow marks the spot.
For those inclined to visit, Cathedral Grove is indicated on the park map below.
Then ... They drive up to the best of the City's vista points - Twin Peaks - to take in the evening glitter looking down Market Street to the Bay (map). A year earlier this same vista was used in the movie The House On Telegraph Hill.
... and Now, a recent view from the same lookout is even more impressive. The glowing dome of City Hall to the left and the illuminated suspension cables of the Bay Bridge were unseen at night sixty years ago. The rapid growth of the Oakland waterfront during the last sixty years adds to the overall chiaroscuro.
Then ... They next visit the Golden Gate Bridge, shot here from halfway up the north tower looking towards San Francisco.
... in 1935 ... it's interesting to see the same view while the bridge was under construction. This photo was taken from a higher vantage point, at the top of the tower. The huge parade ground of the Presidio military base is clearly visible in the upper left.
... and Now, a recent photo on a foggy day. The bridge, enshrouded by fog about half of the time, requires perpetual repainting.
Then ... Lester and Myra lean over the bridge's railing perhaps thinking of the two sad souls per month, year in year out, who climb over it on their final journey. The real railing however, though still controversially low, isn't quite as bad as this.
... and Now, this is the real railing. Look at the movie railing above - it's lower, has no rivets at the rail tops and has a different width to spacing ratio. The movie footage was filmed in a studio using a background projection of the waters of the Bay (OK, the railing was lowered for effect but not bothering to match it accurately was just plain sloppy). Below, Angel Island and part of Belvedere and Tiburon are in the distance and Horseshoe Bay's Presidio Yacht Club marina is closer in on the left.
The movie opens accompanied by the wail of a siren from a police car passing beneath an overpass.
Then ... Behind the police car a neon restaurant sign can just be made out - 'Spenger's Grotto'.
... and Now, the overpass is where University Avenue crosses over the Amtrack rail tracks and the Highway 80/580 freeway in Berkeley, across the bay from San Francisco. The restaurant and its sign are still there but the overpass has been beefed up, a wise move in shaky California.
The red marker on this map shows Spenger's location.
Here's a recent look at Spenger's. Built in 1933 on the site of its first incarnation, an 1890 clam stand, it has become a city institution; a must-eat-at for locals, tourists and UC Berkeley students. (Read about its history here).
Then ... The black-and-white pulls up in front of a train station and two cops haul Joey Evans (Frank Sinatra) out. Joey protests his innocence as they remind him he just bedded the underage daughter of the Mayor and proceed to throw him on the waiting Southern Pacific train with a one-way ticket out of town.
... and Now, the location in the movie is 'Gold City' (wherever that is), but we know by now that this was filmed in Berkeley. The station building is still there (see the blue marker on the map above). Comparing
Then and
Now, note that the train track (above), an old spur track, has since been removed and concreted over (below).
But the landmark 1913 Southern Pacific station, pictured recently below, has been a restaurant since 1975 - originally China Station, then Xanadu, and currently Brennan's, who took over in 2008. Berkeley's station today is now under the overpass at left, one of 73 California stations served by Amtrack.
Cathy drives to the waterfront to pick up her boyfriend Blake for a dinner date. The scene was filmed on a pier at Fisherman's Wharf that no longer exists.
This 1950s aerial photo looks west across Fisherman's Wharf in the lower half and Hyde Street Pier above it. In it, we see the pier, an extension from what is now called Al Scoma Way, before it was removed.
... in 1951 ... here's another aerial photo, this one looking north, showing a closer look at that pier.
... and Now, a Google Maps satellite view of the same spot. Dotted lines have been added to show where the demolished pier used to be (a shorter pier next to it was also removed). The arrow marks the end of the pier where the filming took place
(map).
Then ... Cathy drives to Blake's tug, berthed at the end of the pier - behind her, across the water, we see the side of Pier 45. Note the gap between the two sheds, more clearly seen in the above aerial.
... and Now, to match this view Citysleuth walked over to the adjacent Hyde Street Pier marina. From this vantage point he could look towards and beyond where the pier used to be.
Then ... In this shot Blake's tug is in the right foreground as we look down the length of the pier behind Cathy's car towards the glowing neon signs of Fisherman's Wharf restaurants. The building on the right at the far end of the pier was a small coffee shop serving the local fishermen.
... and Now, the pier (approximated by the dotted lines) is gone and only a remaining stub-out faces us, now used as the car park for Scoma's restaurant which replaced the coffee shop in 1965. At far left in both
Then and
Now images is the front corner of Pier 45's Shed B. The white building to the left of the far end of the pier, above, has been replaced by a gabled chapel, below, under the green Alioto's restaurant sign. (Click the image to enlarge it).
... in 1939 ... This vintage photo reveals a closer look at that white building. CitySleuth has heard, he hastens to say second hand, that it was a rooming house for sailors but was eventually closed down to put a stop to illicit nocturnal visitors. This building also showed up in the 1950 movie Woman On The Run. Pier 45 Shed B with the twin Shed A alongside it is off to the left.
... and Now, the building was replaced in 1981 by the Fishermen's and Seamen's Memorial Chapel. Inside hang plaques bearing the names of those whose lives were taken by the sea and a bell in the campanile tolls periodically in their honor.
But Blake sends Cathy away - still smarting from Mason cancelling his tugboat contract, he intends to shake him down, unwittingly setting himself up as a prime suspect.
Myra suggests they meet at the Fairmont Hotel - we see them dancing there at the Sky Room.
Then ... But in real life back then the Fairmont had the Venetian room and the Cirque Room but not a Sky Room. What's more, CitySleuth recognizes the room's view behind her friends, personal lawyer Steve Kearney (
Bruce Bennet, who lived to be 100 years old) and assistant Ann Taylor (
Virginia Huston), as being the view from the Top O' The Mark at the Mark Hopkins Hotel, across California Street from the Fairmont
(map).
... in the 1950s ... here's the same view, looking east to the Bay Bridge, captured by this vintage daytime photo taken from the Top O' The Mark. The window view above is the portion outlined in yellow.
... from another movie ... the same view appeared five years earlier in the 1947 movie
Born To Kill.
... from yet another movie ... and it was featured six years later in the 1958 movie Vertigo.
San Francisco did however offer several so-named Sky Rooms. The first one opened in 1938 on the 24th floor of the Hotel Empire (formerly the William Taylor Hotel), but closed down only 5 years later. In the postcard image of the hotel, below, you can see the oversize Sky Room windows glowing red. Since 1978 this grand 1930 structure at 100 McAllister Street (map) has belonged to the University of California's Hastings College of the Law.
Here's another postcard extolling, with more than a little hyberbole, the virtues of the Hotel Empire Sky Room - a very swanky place indeed.
Then there was the Sky Room at the Marines Memorial Club at 609 Sutter Street. In the 1947 photo below we see a more functional restaurant and bar but it too had panoramic views.
And let's not forget Andy Wong's Chinese Sky Room on the southwest corner of Grant and Pine, offering visitors even more entertainment by way of a Chinese floor show.
Getting back to the movie ... Myra and Lester next head over to the Chapeau Blanc. CitySleuth is not aware of this club - was there such a place in San Francisco? Let him know.
Then ... Finally, in the wee hours of the morning after the long journey west and dancing through the night, Myra drives Lester to her palatial home in Cow Hollow. The view below looks north towards the Marina district as her car climbs Scott towards us at Green Street.
... and Now, other than the trees, an unchanged view.
Then ... A sweeping U-turn brings her home - note the angle of the car on this very steep Green Street block. Opening the driver's door against gravity would have been a challenge for Myra but Lester plays the perfect gentleman - he leaps out and does the honors for her.
... and Now, today's view. The home is 2800 Scott Street on the corner of Green.
Inside, Myra proudly shows Lester her state-of-the-art dictating machine which she custom ordered for recording her scripts. The machine turns on when it hears a voice and off again when the speaking stops. We don't know it yet but it will play a major role as the story unfolds ...
