Then … There’s a lot going on in the next montage image; kitchen workers prepare dim sum through the window of a restaurant while reflected pedestrians pass by outside.
… and Now, this was the Hong Kong Teahouse at 835 Pacific Avenue; it’s now the New Wing Long Food market. The arrow points to that part of the window, only recently covered by bars, that the camera spied into.
As confirmation that this is the right place, let’s take a closer look at the movie’s window reflection. Since it’s a reverse mirror window image, we first reverse it, like so…
… then we turn around and see if the same image is across the street. Voila! The building is part of the Ping Yuen North public housing complex at 838 Pacific Avenue, photographed here in 2019. The red box outlines the area in the movie image above.
… and Now, following a 2019 street level remodel, only the section at far right in this view (mostly obscured by trees) remains unchanged today.
Then … Next, viewed from Jackson Street across from the Tao Tao restaurant at 675 Jackson, the Transamerica Pyramid office tower rises in the background .
… and Now, newer structures partially block the view of the pyramid from here. 675 Jackson, currently vacant and recently listed for sale, has retained its oriental styling.
Then … Here’s another restaurant; after struggling for some time to find it, CitySleuth was bailed out by ReelSF reader Notcom who came up with its location. It was Meemie’s Coffee Shop restaurant at 727 Washington on the corner of Walter U. Lum Place. The view on the left looks through both corner windows across Walter U. Lum Place and Portsmouth Square towards the Bank Of America Center at 555 California Street rising in the distance. Another clue was the reflection of three window arches from a building across the street (arrows).
… and Now, the current tenant, Sweet Mart, has been shuttered since the pandemic but in this pre-pandemic photo the vertical post inside the corner window that supported the shelves, above, was still there.
… and Now, here’s the building opposite showing the window arches reflected in the Then image above.
Then … What?? An Italian market in the heart of Chinatown? At least it’s advertising Chop Suey. This is 699 Jackson on the corner of Grant Avenue.
… and Now, the store now sells souvenirs, not food, but that old Chop Suey sign is still there.
Here, the camera slowly pans along a large group of elderly ladies as they congregate on a sidewalk. But where? Director Wayne Wang told CitySleuth that the scene was filmed “somewhere on Kearny Street” but even knowing that, this location remains as yet unfound. Anyone who recognizes it is asked to contact citysleuth@reelsf.com.
Also yet to be found is this store displaying a Confucius figurine in a festive tinsel-framed window.
Then … In this, the movie’s final image, the sign and the 1980 city directory tells us where this window was filmed. It’s one of the rooms of the Wing On hotel at 917 Kearny Street. The Far East Travel Service store is below it at 911 Kearny Street.
… and Now, the sign today advertises the current tenant - Wayne’s Liquors. The name has changed but it’s the same original sign, even down to the support wires, a convenient clothes line then as now for the occupant of the room. The Wing On hotel now operates as a single-room-occupancy building called the 917 Kearny Street Apartments.
… and Now, a wide angle view of the window and Wayne’s Liquors. The hotel entrance is the orange doorway at far right.
As Clarence follows Red Moran’s cab through the city streets the movie director continues to cut back and forth between footage filmed in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Moran’s cab has just driven past a long building with a vertical sign on its corner that reads ‘Evening Herald’.
Then … The camera cuts to Clarence in pursuit; it’s a view from the opposite direction and shows the same building - with an Evening Herald sign on its other corner. The building was the headquarters of the Los Angeles Herald newspaper and these scenes were filmed on Georgia Street in lower downtown Los Angeles - the Georgia Hotel at far right was at 1260 Georgia Street.
The Herald building was in the news In 1947, photographed here when a gas-main rupture and fire occurred right next to it. By then its corner sign had been changed from Evening Herald to Herald Express.
Then and Now aerial … The Evening Herald building was located at 1233-1235 Trenton Street. The rear of the building on Georgia Street is what is seen in the Then images above. That whole area was subsequently razed to make way for the Los Angeles Convention Center and the Staples Center arena. Click or tap this image to see how it looks today compared to a 1928 aerial view (as it was when the movie was filmed). X marks the spot where the camera was set up in the Then image above.
… and Now, this view looking north across Pico Blvd shows where Georgia Street used to cross over, parallel to the bridge on the right. Location X above would have been near the top of that staircase, but at street level.
Then … Now the cab is heading east on Pico Boulevard (just steps from the Herald building) about to make a right into Georgia Street by the corner grocery at 826 Pico. CitySleuth thanks ReelSF reader Notcom for finding this location. The large sign down the street advertised F.M. Parker Plumbing located at 714 Pico.
… and Now, the Pico Blvd boom-gated entrance to the Los Angeles Convention Center is where the above junction used to be (map).
Then … Next we jump to the Tenderloin in San Francisco; Clarence is traveling west along Market Street at the intersection of Mason and Turk having just passed the plinth of the Native Son’s Monument which incorporated a fountain to slake the thirsts of downtown shoppers. That’s the Ambassador Hotel sign partially visible along Mason Street.
… and Now, the Ambassador Hotel is still there at 55 Mason but the monument was relocated from here decades ago.
On a historical note here’s the monument, apparently built of stronger stuff than its surroundings, at that intersection after the 1906 earthquake. Also known as the Phelan Fountain or the Admission Day Monument (it commemorated California’s admission to the Union), it was erected in 1897, with critically acclaimed statues by sculptor Douglas Tilden.
It remained there until it was moved (below) in 1948 to Golden Gate Park before being returned to Market Street in 1997 to its current location at Market and Montgomery Street.
Then … Clarence catches up with the cab, but embarrassingly it’s the wrong one. The corner store was listed in a 1928 phone book as R. Kawasaki Grocer at 401 San Pedro Street in the Little Tokyo neighborhood of downtown Los Angeles.
… and Now, the building today, on the corner of San Pedro and 4th Street, has been significantly remodeled but has retained its basic shape (map).
Then … The clue to Clarence’s next location was the sign - Seneca - at far left. He’s back in San Francisco, traveling east on Market at 6th Street.
… and Now, It’s the Seneca Hotel at 34 6th Street viewed Then and Now from Market Street. The hotel has been there for over 100 years.
Moran reports back to his boss, liquor bootlegger Sam Blotz, telling him about the ‘kid reporter’ who witnessed the bribe delivery. Blotz immediately calls his crony Gerald Fuller at the D.A.’s office, the intended recipient of the bribe, to let him know the money was dropped off on Ray McDonald’s desk. Fuller recognizes the opportunity to distance himself from suspicion…
… He accuses McDonald of taking the bribe and hauls him in front of D.A. Jim Lannigan who, ignoring McDonald’s frantic protestations, instructs Fuller to call the police.
Wayne Wang ends the movie with an extended montage of real-life Chinatown juxtaposed against stereotypical lyrics of Pat Suzuki’s stirring rendition of the Rodgers and Hammerstein song ‘Grant Avenue’ from the 1958 Broadway stage musical ‘Flower Drum Song' - a choice that he later said was “tongue in cheek”.
Then … Appropriately the montage begins with a view stretching south down Grant Avenue from Jackson Street. The banner strung across the street adds to the truncated array of exotic (to the American eye) blade signs, many of them restaurant names.
… and Now, there are not as many signs today as there used to be, but that’s mitigated somewhat by the colorful overhead array of lanterns.
Then … A young man passing by hardly notices the rain as elderly ladies huddle under umbrellas in front of a window displaying a draped selection of patterned materials. The magazine rack against the tiles on the left alerted CitySleuth to this location - he had seen it earlier in the movie. This is the Washington Street side of the Imperial Fashion corner store at 867 Grant Avenue.
… and Now, the Heart Of Shanghai souvenir shop is the current tenant. The tiles seen above are behind the bubblegum machine below; they are hidden here by the retracted security bars but they have since been stuccoed over anyway.
Then … Next up, a detail on a pagoda-styled roof.
… and Now, this is the roof of 743 Washington Street, a branch of Bank of Canton when the movie was filmed but now a branch of EastWest bank. It’s a building with a very interesting history …
This used to be the Chinese Telephone Exchange which opened in 1901 at which time, pre dialing, the operators had to know all of the Chinatown customers by name and address because it was considered rude to refer to a person by number. Each operator also had to speak the many dialects of Chinese spoken by the residents. It was no surprise perhaps that the original male operators were soon replaced by women, on account of their "good temper". Here’s the building in 1947 (as seen in the movie The Lady From Shanghai two years before the exchange closed). Since then it has over the years housed a succession of banks.
The Lady From Shanghai also preserved a record of the inside of the exchange with this shot of two of the "good tempered" operators.
Then … Moving on, a fascination with texture might have drawn the filmmakers to this brick wall. Old bricks, stains, repairs, rusted iron anchor plates, wilting wooden window frames - you name it, you’ll find them all here. Not to mention a voyeuristic glimpse of an undergarment hung out to dry.
… and Now, over a period of many months CitySleuth, having committed this movie frame to memory, looked out for it every time he walked the streets of Chinatown. Then one day … Eureka! … there it was. 44 years later the anchor plates and the brick repairs around the windows remain unchanged. One big difference - the ground level has been raised, covering the previously exposed basement. And the rough-hewn charm of the venerable brickwork has been marred by garish graffiti-covering paint.
… and Now, it’s the south wall of an old building set back at the rear of this parking lot on Washington Street between Kearny and Grant (map).
Then … A moment of levity follows as an elderly lady walks along a balcony then stops and sways back and forth to the background music.
… and Now, she is outside apartment 117 at the Ping Yuen Central public housing complex at 711 Pacific Avenue (map) - the red box below outlines the area framed above.
… and Now, here’s a wider view of the apartment complex - the arrow points to apartment 117. The movie footage in the Then image above was filmed from the street through the railings. Ping Yuen Central was one of 3 sections of the housing project that opened in 1951 (Ping Yuen East, Ping Yuen Central, Ping Yuen West). A fourth section (Ping Yuen North) was added in 1961. (The name Ping Yuen translates to Tranquil Gardens).
Then … Next, a peek into a bakery window that’s displaying a kung fu poster, possibly at director Wang’s request; he references Asian stereotypes several times in the movie. The menu is also on display - it tells us where it is: Ping Yuen Bakery.
Then … The Ping Yuen Bakery was at 1066 Grant Avenue, glimpsed from Jo’s cab earlier in the movie (on the right, on the southeast corner of Grant Avenue and Pacific).
… and Now, that site, just like the old Telephone Exchange that appeared earlier in the montage, is also a branch of EastWest Bank.
Once again when the action hits the streets the director cuts between locations filmed in San Francisco and Los Angeles …
Then … Clarence slowly tails Red Moran to find out where he will deliver the bribe. As he crosses an intersection, note the streetlight post, mailbox and power pole cheek by jowl on the corner at right; these helped confirm the location.
and Now, This was filmed in Hollywood. They were heading east on Hollywood Boulevard, crossing Wilcox Avenue (map).
CitySleuth’s fellow gumshoe Notcom found this location. This vintage photo from the 1920s clearly show that grouping of streetlight, mailbox and power pole at Hollywood and Wilcox outside the Hollywood Public Market at 6500 Hollywood Boulevard. (There’s now a 7-Eleven at this site).
And this 1924 photo looking north up Wilcox with Hollywood Boulevard crossing ahead shows the same grouping at left. In addition it shows the white square pattern below the corner store window at right that is seen in the Then image above. Proof positive!
Moran sneaks into the office of deputy assistant D.A. Ray McDonald (Tom’s son) and leaves the bribe - a whopping $50,000 - on his desk.
Clarence accosts him as he leaves, resulting in an extended knock-down drag-out fight between them through the building.
Moran eventually prevails and rushes towards the exit. CitySleuth is curious as to where this interior was filmed, with its tiled walls and distinctive pillars.
Then … He flees the building (that’s Clarence’s car parked outside).
and Now, In the storyline the exit was from San Francisco’s City Hall but it was filmed in L.A. at the Masonic Temple at 6840 Hollywood Boulevard which today is the home of the Jimmy Kimmel late night television show.
Then … He leaps into a passing cab in front of the building that’s next to the Masonic Temple (partially visible at left).
and Now, This is the Mary Moll Building, still there at 6912 Hollywood Boulevard. Interesting and sad how a chunk of the classis building to the right of the entrance was demolished to make way for the nondescript store in its place.
Then … The cab cuts across town. The two hotels make this location easy to find. We are back in San Francisco: the Odeon was at 40 7th Street, the Atlanta at 92 7th Street. So the cab is heading east on Market at 7th.
and Now, The Federal Building at 90 7th Street and its plaza now sit where the two hotels used to be. It opened as an innovative energy-saving structure in 2007 to critical acclaim by fellow architects but considerable criticism by those who work in it. The doorway in the center both Then and Now with a fanciful masonry pediment above it is the entrance to the Independent Order Of Odd Fellows Hall. The building has housed the IOOF organization since 1909 and more recently other tenants but has recently been listed for sale.
Then … Clarence follows; he’s also travelling east on Market, between 7th and 8th Streets just passing the Civic Center Market at 1143-1145 Market and an Army and Navy Goods store at 1133 Market.
and Now, These are those same addresses today. The building on the right that housed the Civic Center Market has since been replaced by the white-walled office building but a thrift store continues to do business at 1143 Market on the left.
