At a local police station the Chronicle’s courthouse reporter slips a cigar to the desk sergeant then seeks the quid pro quo: “Do you have anything for me today?”
Then … In a later scene we are shown where this took place - Police Station 6 (although the interior scene may have been filmed in a studio).
… a vintage photo … John Bengston’s excellent website silentlocations.com revealed the location of this police station - read his detailed post about it here. It was set in San Francisco but was filmed at 1629 N. Cahuenga Blvd in Hollywood (map). The station - it shared a building with the Fire Department’s Engine 27 - was there from 1913 to 1930 during which time it appeared in many silent movies including comedies by Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.
On a trivia note this fun photo taken in 1928 in front of Station 6 provided ample evidence that a cop’s day is not all work and no play.
… and Now, the music publishing company Real Songs, readdressed as # 1635, now sits squarely on the old fire/police station site. But the 2-story hotel on the left has survived (it’s partially visible in the vintage photo of the station, above).
The reporter is in luck; he calls the Chronicle’s city editor with a scoop: the police have set their sights on Sam Blotz, a suspected bootlegger.
Then … At far right the city editor asks a young staffer to bring him everything they have on Blotz.
… and Now, this was filmed on the 3rd floor of the San Francisco Chronicle’s 901 Mission Street building where reporters continue to work 100 years later in the same, albeit modernized, space.
Then … The newspaper’s librarians dig out information on Blotz.
… a vintage photo … here’s that same library in 1924 at the San Francisco Chronicle’s 901 Mission Street building. The wall-mounted files seen above are arrayed along the side wall. Note in both images the radiator alongside the column.
The editor shows the files and photographs to Clarence Walker (Polly McDonald’s suitor), assigning him the task of writing an exposé of Sam Blotz.
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.
The movie has many scenes filmed both inside and outside the San Francisco Chronicle Building.
Then … For the exterior shots the movie crew filmed outside the Chronicle headquarters at 690 Market on the corner of Kearny (map). Built in 1889, the building is shown here viewed from the Call Building opposite. The Chronicle moved in 1924 to a new location at Fifth and Mission Streets across from the old U.S. Mint, so this building must have been vacant when the movie was filmed here the following year.
… and Now, 690 Market is still there; it became a for-lease office building after it was vacated in 1924, known as either the Old Chronicle Building or the de Young Building. In 2004 a developer secured a permit to double its height in return for seismic-strengthening and restoration of the original building. By 2007 the odd-looking 24-story hybrid structure opened as the Ritz-Carlton Club and Residences, offering condominium apartments in the $1 million to $4+ million range.
Then … Tom MacDonald (Ralph Lewis) has been the Chronicle’s assistant Chief of Printing for over 20 years. Here he is operating one of the newspaper’s printing presses. But this and all of the other Chronicle interior scenes were filmed in the new building just 3 long blocks away.
… in 1924 … here’s the new Chronicle Building at 901 Mission Street (map) the year it opened. Architecturally styled as Gothic Revival, it included an apartment below the clock for proprietor and publisher M. H. de Young who alternated between weekdays here and weekends at his Hillsborough residence. The building extended along Mission to the right and along 5th Street to the left as far as Minna Street. (Photo by Moulin Studios).
… and Now, the Chronicle is still housed here, but no longer occupying all of the building as some parts have been leased out during periods of downsizing. In 1968 the exterior was ‘modernized’ with stucco and some of its ornamentation was removed; it’s now arguably inferior compared to its prior grandeur. Note at far left there’s an added extension across Minna Street. Note too that one of the original arched entrance doors on Mission (behind the bus shelter, below) is no longer there.
Here’s Chronicle owner M. H. de Young relaxing in his palatial apartment in the new Chronicle Building in 1924. His permission would have been required for the moviemakers to film there a year later. (Photo by Moulin Studios).
Then … This shot of Tom in the Press Room shows the massive printing presses behind him. They were in a double-height space that extended vertically from basement level. On the left beneath the wall lamp are two man-lifts that transported employees down to and up from the sub-basement where the paper reels were stored. (there is a moment later in the movie when you see them being used).
… in 1924 … this vintage photo shows those same presses, 14 in a row, viewed from the other direction, with what appears to be man-lifts on the right. (Photo by Moulin Studios).
… in 1924 … photographer Gabriel Moulin took this photo of another pair of man-lifts elsewhere in the building. The one with the pole whisked the man down; the other, up. No way would OSHA allow their use nowadays. (Photo by Moulin Studios).
Then … Next, a brief shot shows newspapers sliding down a chute. The man on the right leans down from the back of a Chronicle delivery truck, scooping up the bundles.
This grainy 1920s photo shows the truck or one just like it backed up to the chute outside the building. The chute connected to a mailroom upstairs.
… in 1924 … this is the mailroom where the papers were bundled up prior to sending them down to the delivery trucks. The employees are all obediently posing for photographer Gabriel Moulin. (Photo by Moulin Studios).
Then … We see a vendor selling the papers on the corner of 5th Street, opposite the Chronicle building. The fenced garden fronts the U.S. Mint just off the frame on the left and on the right is the 5th Street Stage Terminal at the corner of Jessie, owned by the Pickwick Stage Lines. Market Street crosses in the distance.
… and Now, the 5-globe streetlight and an updated fire hydrant can still be seen at this corner today. The Pickwick Hotel across 5th on the right, built in 1928, incorporated the stage terminal which later became a Greyhound terminal (featured in the 1947 movie Dark Passage). It has long since closed down.
The movie opens with a tribute to those police officers who have made the ultimate sacrifice while serving the people of San Francisco.
Then … A set of marble panels on a wall lists all of the fallen from 1878 to the present time.
… and Now, the panels are still there, clearly with the same striations in the marble but apparently with updated gold lettering (unless the movie images were doctored in some way to make them more readable). The panels are mounted in the lobby of the Hall Of Justice at 850 Bryant Street, SoMa (map).
… and Now, here’s the full tribute, spread out across five panels.
Then … A superimposed police badge shines in the background as the camera slowly pans down the list of names, the first in 1878 and the last in 1970, the most recent entry when the film was made. The beginning and end of the list are shown in the dual image below.
… and Now, since then 20 more names have been added to the tribute list, the most recent in 2006. (the absence of movie lighting makes the names a little more difficult to read).
… and Now, here’s a recent photo of the Hall of Justice viewed across Bryant Street. The three tall openings along to the left frame the entrance doors to the lobby.
