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...
This clipping from a 1925 industry newspaper describes where actress Frances Teague was taught how to operate the switchboard for her movie scenes - Southern California Telephone Company’s new Whitney telephone exchange, so the exchange interiors may have been filmed there.
Then … When she skips down a set of steps as she leaves the building this exterior was definitely 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.
By now Jo is really confused. Maybe the other woman is trying to frame Chan? Maybe Chan killed the flag protester, not the old man who was charged? Maybe if he knows this, someone might not want him to know? A montage set to ominous music alternates between shots of him driving the cab and walking on the streets as paranoia sets in; by editorial choice CitySleuth groups them separately in this and in the next post.
Then … Driving north on Grant Avenue on a soggy day he approaches the Dragon Gate at the southern entrance to Chinatown at Bush Street.
… and Now, The dragon-clad arch, inspired by ceremonial entrances to Chinese villages, was the winning design in a competition sponsored by the mayor of San Francisco. Beneath the portal is a quote from Chinese revolutionary leader Sun Yat Sen (who once lived in Chinatown) which translates as “All Under Heaven Is For The Good Of The People”. Two carved lions stand guard on either side, one male and one female, warding off evil spirits. The arch was completed in 1969 and dedicated in 1970. (Photo by Alan P. Goldstein).
Then … California Street crosses Grant ahead - on the right is St. Mary’s Catholic Church and on the left is the Sing Chong Building which housed a wax museum back then.
… and Now, the Chinatown Wax Museum is not there in today’s matching view - it closed in 1983.
Here’s a vintage photo postcard c. 1970s of the Sing Chong Building, one of the first buildings to be rebuilt after the 1906 earthquake leveled and burned Chinatown. Today it’s as popular with visiting photographers as is the Dragon Gate shown above.
Then … Convinced he is being followed, Jo keeps checking his rearview mirror.
… and Now, He was traveling north on Grant Avenue with Washington crossing ahead. The long-lived Bow Hon restaurant still occupies 850 Grant.
Then … The next shot is a little further back on the same block. On the right is the roof garden restaurant Empress of China at 838 Grant, the premier restaurant in Chinatown after it opened in 1966.
… and Now, The Empress of China closed in 2014 after almost 50 years. Today a new high-end restaurant, Empress by Boon, has taken over the site.
Then … during another surreptitious peep in the mirror a block further north we glimpse the venerated Li Po bar at 916 Grant, which shows up several times in the backgound during the course of the movie.
… and Now, Li Po has been a popular presence here for 86 years but is swankier now - it’s called Li Po Cocktail Lounge. It’s come a long way from its early opium den days.
Then … A few blocks away, Jo is heading south down Waverly Place - Sacramento crosses two blocks ahead.
… and Now, the iCafe Bakery (below) now occupies the site of the Wonder Food Company (above), at 133 Waverly. Bakeries are ubiquitous in Chinatown. They were very popular with residents then and continue to be so now.
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. This opening movie shot of the building was filmed from the Call Building kitty-corner 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 side 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 Last Edition’ is a critically well-received silent movie that tells two stories in one: First, it presents a turbulent period in the life of an employee of the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper - we watch him in quick succession experiencing disappointment, pride, shock, rage and redemption - and second, actual employees reveal how from start to finish a newspaper article is written, typeset, composed, printed and distributed.
Then … The movie opens with a San Francisco establishing shot of a view looking east towards the Ferry Building and the Bay, it was taken from the top of the newly built (in 1925) Park Lane Condominiums at 1100 Sacramento Street atop Nob Hill (map). At far right is the shadowy outline of the Fairmont Hotel and there’s a tall scaffold in the foreground - the beginning of construction of the Brocklebank Apartments which were completed one year later in 1926.
… in 1963 … That matching view today from the Park Lane would be blocked by the Brocklebank but here’s a vintage photo taken from the Brocklebank 38 years later in 1963 of the same view revealing not a lot of change except for the Bay Bridge (completed by 1936) and, at the far right edge in the foreground, the Fairmont Tower (completed behind the extant Fairmont Hotel in 1962).
… and Now, taken from higher up in the Brocklebank, this recent photo captures how the Financial District has dramatically changed since then. The Fairmont Tower is just out of this view on the right.
… and Now, a Google aerial view gives another perspective (the Ferry Building is glimpsed between two of the Embarcadero Center high-rises).
