Lester's scheme progresses well - he and Myra have become newlyweds. They spend their honeymoon at Myra's summer house, a delightful waterfront home on a steep hillside with spectacular views. The owners of the house, well aware of its association with the movie, generously allowed Citysleuth to visit and take the matching photographs below.
Then ... From the house a steep path switchbacks all the way down past a small cottage to a private pier.
... and Now, the house, still there and looking much as it did 60 years ago, is at 250 Beach Road in Belvedere, just a few miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County (map). It faces Tiburon across Belvedere Cove.
Lester wakes up his new bride and suggests they go for a swim. This was filmed inside the house in the end room on the right at the exterior balcony level (above). For the film shoot the room was converted to a bedroom; the fireplace and exit door on the left are props. The balcony post outside the window though is real, it can be seen above.
Then ... They exit the room to make the descent to the pier, seen far below. Although the movie convincingly makes it look like this is the door leading out of the bedroom (far left, above) this room is in fact one floor below it.
... and Now, the boat dock at the end of the pier is smaller and an arbor has been added outside the house.
Then ... Lester descends one level then runs ahead ...
... and Now, the posts on the retaining wall support the arbor mentioned above.
... he jerks back after almost falling over the exposed edge ...
"Woahh! It's a precipice! ... There isn't even a guard rail!"
Then ... This is what he saw that gave him pause.
... and Now, it still would!
Then ... They continue on but play it safe by holding hands. The chimney on the right projects from a cottage lower down.
Then ... They have passed the cottage - almost there!
... and Now , the pathway has an added brick edging and the cottage a replaced window, otherwise there's little change. From the owner, CitySleuth discovered that these retaining walls were built to last using cobblestones from old San Francisco streets.
Then ... As they run to the end of the pier we see the hills of Tiburon stretched out on the other side of Belvedere Cove. The pier was built with sections of a catwalk used in the construction of the Golden Gate bridge.
... and Now, Tiburon has seen its share of development since 1952 but still retains its charm. The white building at the water’s edge across the cove is the Corinthian Yacht Club, established in 1886.
... on location ... The actors and reportedly up to one hundred support crew spent two days filming these scenes. The owners of the house at that time were Mr. and Mrs. Jack Heidelberg. CitySleuth thanks the current owners for sharing this on-location photo showing Mrs. Heidelberg and friends on her balcony watching Joan Crawford and Jack Palance rehearsing the scene captured in the second Then photo in this post.
... and Now, the room above the exit door (the bedroom in the movie) has since been extended out, one of the few exterior changes to the house.
Joan Crawford was known for corresponding diligently with friends and fans. Here's a letter of thanks, sent after the movie was completed from her rented suite at Hampshire House on Central Park South, to Mrs. Heidelberg (note the typo in the salutation!).
The Barbary Coast bandleader tells Joey and Linda that they have landed a gig "at a society party on Nob Hill" at the mansion owned by Vera Prentice-Simpson (Rita Hayworth), a wealthy socialite widow. (But as we are about to find out, it wasn't on Nob Hill ...)
Then ... The guests roll up to the mansion by way of a large circular driveway with a grassy knoll in the middle. In the distance off to the right are a cluster of buildings on top of a hill.
... and Now, but this mansion doesn't exist and never has. For the bottom half of the scene above the parking activity was filmed at the Coit Tower parking lot on Telegraph Hill then a sneaky matte painting of the mansion was added in the upper half. The matching recent photo below of Coit Tower shows a statue of Christopher Columbus on the knoll (why? ... he never set foot in North America), erected in 1957 not long after the movie was filmed.
... an aerial view ... this vintage aerial of Pioneer Park shows Coit Tower and the parking lot before the statue was installed. As we will see later in the movie there's a scene on Mrs Simpson's patio that was filmed on the lawn to the right of the tower. So the Coit Tower site itself (map) was the virtual location of Vera Simpson's mansion.
What about those buildings off to the right in the first 'Then' image above? Although they too were part of the painting, they were images of real buildings atop Russian Hill. They can indeed be seen from Telegraph Hill - here they are below in a 1952 photo taken from the top of Coit Tower. The building on the left of the group is the prestigious 945 Green Street Apartments.
... and Now, the same buildings viewed through a gap in the trees from the parking lot today. Newer buildings intrude but the original three (arrowed) are still there.
The society party is a fundraiser and after Joey sings a wonderfully relaxed 'There's A Small Hotel' he persuades Vera to reprise, for a generous donation, an act she used to do in her former life as a striptease performer. In the number, titled 'Zip', Rita Hayworth spoke the lead-in lines but her singing voice was dubbed by Jo Ann Greer.
Sheila's young son Peter tells Cathy that he had been awakened by a gunshot on the night Mason was murdered. Unaware of the affair between her step-mother and Dr. Rivera she goes to Rivera's office and tells him that Sheila must have killed Mason. Rivera tries with increasing desperation to talk her out of it and, confused, she rushes out.
Then ... Rivera is even more confused; he wanders around town with the Hippocratic oath reverberating inside his head - an oath he has twice violated. We see him here in an open park area with a Western Airlines ticket office behind him.
... and Now, this was filmed in Union Square. The view looks from the square to the 200 block of GearyStreet. The square's layout has changed significantly and the Western Airlines office at 287 Geary (map) is now a barber salon, The Art Of Shaving - it's name is inscribed within the yellow oval.
... from the early 1960s ... this vintage postcard image shows the Western Airlines office, at far right, as it was when the movie was filmed. I. Magnin is at the left end of the block with Macy's/Blums and Dohrmanns in the center.
... and Now, here's the same view today. I. Magnin is now part of Macy's and the main Macy's entrance has swallowed up Dohrmanns.
Then ... He wanders up a narrow lane with the banner behind him revealing that this is the two block Maiden Lane that runs between Union Square and Kearny Street. He is walking west towards Union Square - that's Grant Avenue crossing behind him (map).
... and Now, a recent photo from near the same spot. A street tenor was singing to no-one in particular at the end of the lane while CitySleuth was there.
Then ... As he approaches Stockton Street Rivera darts into a doorway when he sees a cop passing by. The entrance to the garage under Union Square is visible across Stockton. Interestingly, this same location was seen ten years earlier in the 1950 movie Woman On The Run.
... and Now, Union Square has undergone extensive changes since the movie was filmed. The underground garage is still there but there's no longer an entrance on this side of the square. The St. Francis hotel faces us from the other side of the square. Note the gate, added to convert the busy shopping lane to a vehicle-free precinct..
Where does an out-of-work, down-on-his-luck singer find a job? Why, the infamous International Settlement, a single block chock full of clubs, bars and restaurants in the Jackson Square neighborhood of San Francisco.
Then ... This is the place, Pacific Avenue between Kearny and Montgomery (map). The camera looks east from Kearny Street and captures several of the red light hotspots. On the left - Arabian Nights cocktail lounge, Gay 'N Frisky club, Hippodrome club, the Bella Pacific and Moulin Rouge. On the right past McKale's 76 service station and the Toast of the Coast club we see the Barbary Coast sign just below the 'TT' on the entrance arch. The director spiffed up the block to look like it was in its heyday, including clubs (Arabian Nights, Hippodrome) that used to be there but were closed by 1957 when the movie was filmed.
... and Now, this block of mostly old brick buildings is today barely recognizable and not only because of the overgrown trees. Many of the buildings have been replaced for seismic safety reasons and the illicit whiff of licentious providers and revelers has dissipated as architects, lawyers and interior designers have taken their place. Look how the sunny side south-facing trees have outstripped their cross-street neighbors.
... from the early 1950s ... This photo from the same spot was taken a few years before Pal Joey was filmed and shows many of the clubs in the movie. An exception is the Bella Pacific whose site is occupied here by Lucca restaurant. We see a better view of McKale's corner gas station and of the leggy Barbary Coast sign up there down the right side. Note too the matching entrance arch at the far (Montgomery Street) end of the block.
Then ... Joey first tries the Bella Pacific club at 560 Pacific, but the owner turns him away, saying ... "I'm running a girl show ... legs, not tonsils".
... and Now, the club site today, offices at 560 and 564 Pacific, has been significantly remodeled in the original building but past it the next door building, with the set-back entrance and fire escape balconies, has retained the original exterior.
Then ... He next tries a club with a middle eastern theme but it has run afoul of the law and has been closed down. This is the Arabian Nights, partially seen at far left in the first 'Then' image at the top of this post.
... from the 1950s ... this mid '50s photo shows the same club, at 592 Pacific on the corner of Kearny. The Gay 'N Frisky club is next to it at 590 Pacific.
... and Now, the same corner building today, now re-addressed as 596 Pacific.
Then ... Finally, he lucks out at the Barbary Coast club at 533 Pacific, hard to miss thanks to its neon sexy-legs sign. The bar next door at 539 Pacific, here called the Toast Of The Coast, was actually vacant when the movie was filmed. It was previously the House Of Blue Lights.
... from the early 1950s ... a photo of this part of the block shows the Barbary Coast and the clubs on either side of it, including the House of Blue Lights. The archway at far left beckoned folks down Jerome Alley to the La Conga cocktail bar.
... and Now, the muraled gable of the Barbary Coast building has been replaced by an extra floor and there's now an iron gate where the archway at Jerome Alley used to be.
In the Barbary Coast Joey takes the stage and seems taken with one of the chorus girls, Linda English (Kim Novak). He then entertains us with the first song of the movie ... "I Didn't Know What Time It Was". Sinatra was at his singing prime back then and delivers superb performances accompanied by terrific Nelson Riddle arrangements.
