The Exiles - Puttin' On The Ritz
( A Bunker Hill movie in a San Francisco blog? CitySleuth explains why).
Homer and the boys have dropped off his wife Yvonne at a nearby movie theater leaving the way clear for them to begin a typical night's carousing. First stop - the Ritz Cafe, a bar popular with the local native Indian community.
The bar, no longer there, was an unpretentious place with a prominent sign at the entrance encouraging its patrons to save money by drinking more ...
"Single Shot 30 cents, Double Shot 50 cents"
In the bar, Homer (Homer Nish) sits with a group of friends and listens somewhat impatiently ... to their troubles, how much money they just lost gambling, girlfriend problems and on and on. He confides in voiceover that he's the type who would much rather walk around town, find excitement, provoke fights.
Then ... later in a view looking north up Main Street the camera captures the Ritz, showing us where it used to be (note the same sign on the front door seen in the interior shot above). The bar was at 312 1/2 S. Main Street near 3rd (map). Next to it, from R to L, the Olympic Men's Shop at 312, Downtown Luggage at 310, Milan Hotel (the bright doorway globe) at 308, Murray's Tailors at 306, Prudent Cut-Rate at 302, Karl's Shoes at 300 and, across 3rd Street, Enderle Hardware at 264 S. Main.
... and Now, the whole block has been leveled and rebuilt, replacing this section with a parking lot. The neighborhood may have been bordering on the seedy but was that reason enough to snuff out its store-filled thrive? (Readers may want to check out a sampling of the George Mann Bunker Hill archive color photographs here and decide for themselves).
The neon glow in this peek down the block at night when Homer leaves the Ritz (below) is quite a contrast to the same view in the sobering early morning light (the 'Then' image above). That solitary globe right of center modestly announces the entrance to the Milan Hotel.