Chan Is Missing - Ross Alley
Then … Jo and Steve talk about Chan as they cut through Ross Alley, the oldest (dating from 1849) of Chinatown’s 41 alleyways. The alley (formerly named Stout Alley) runs north-south between Jackson and Washington (map). They are approaching 32 Ross Alley, which at that time was the Gin Alan barber shop.
… and Now, 32 Ross Alley has been Amy’s Hair Shop since 2018. But for many decades before that it was Jun Yu’s Barber Shop; he was well-known for taking breaks between customers to play his erhu (a two-stringed bowed musical instrument popular in China) for passers-by.
Here he is doing exactly that. Many celebrities have over the years stopped by at Jun Yu’s for a haircut, including Frank Sinatra and Michael Douglas. He has been featured on local TV and in The Pursuit Of Happyness, qualifying him to proudly tell his listeners “I am movie star!”. (Photo by Henk Binnendijk).
Ross Alley has come a long way from its early days when Chinatown’s population was predominantly male (resulting from the discriminatory 1875 Page Act that prevented Chinese immigrant workers from bringing their wives and family into the U.S.). They would find solace in its opium dens, drinking joints, gambling parlors and brothels. This photo of the alley, titled Street Of The Gamblers, is part of Arnold Genthe’s Chinatown series. It was taken eight years before the 1906 earthquake and fire reduced Chinatown in its entirety to ashes before it was reborn in its present form.
Then … In this shot carefully framed to add a converging lines effect Jo and Steve walk past a residential apartment doorway at 20 1/2 Ross Alley.
… and Now, here’s the same doorway today. To take this matching shot CitySleuth couldn’t stand in the narrow passage (above) because its access has been blocked off.
Here’s that blocked passage. There are many of them in Chinatown linking streets and alleys which CitySleuth thinks were included in the post earthquake and fire rebuild of the area as exit routes in case of another disaster. But over the years they have all been blocked off, as too is the one above. When Jo and Steve walked by the passage, number 37 (below) was an Asian dive bar, the Rickshaw Cocktail lounge, where John Lennon and Ringo Starr spent an evening boozing it up before and after closing hour following the Beatles’ Cow Palace performance in 1964.
Then … As they continue on they pass another since-vanished bar, Danny’s Dynasty Lounge at 20 Ross Alley, directly opposite the Rickshaw Cocktail Lounge.
… and Now, post-pandemic visitors were back in force when CitySleuth took this matching photo. The crowd down the alley is lined up at the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory at 56 Ross Alley.
The Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory has, since 1962, attracted more visitors to Ross Alley than any other business. In its compact space three part-time employees hand-fold, by their estimate, around 10,000 fortune cookies a day. (Fortune cookies by the way are a San Franciscan creation, unheard of in China).
Then … Along from the Dynasty Lounge they walk by the Canton Flower Shoppe at 12 Ross Alley. Steve tells Joe that Chan has no sense of humor because he didn’t get a joking comment he made. In voiceover Jo tells us that to the contrary, that was Chan’s way of pulling Steve’s leg.
… and Now, the Chinese Christian Mission, closed when this photo was taken, now occupies the number 12 address.
Ross Alley has been a magnet for more than gamblers, drinkers, addicts, johns and tourists; artists too have found it hard to resist. On the left is a 1921 etching by John William Winkler with a focus on family; on the right a contemporary ink-on-paper drawing by Paul Madonna, who resides in San Francisco. Paul leaves the alley’s goings-on to the imagination of the viewer.