Jo and Steve head over to a bar in Japantown where Chan’s daughter Jenny works. They want to find out if she has any news to share about her father’s whereabouts. This scene was filmed inside the Kyomasa Cocktail Lounge at 1705 Buchanan Street.
… a vintage photo … Citysleuth found two contemporary photos of its location which he composited into the one below. The center portion is from a 1980s photo, the sides from a 1970s photo; together they show how it looked when Chan was filmed. Marked by the arrow, the Kyomasa Lounge was on the second level, next to the better-known Kokusai Theatre.
… and Now, the theatre (referenced earlier in the movie) closed in 1987 and the space where the Kyomasa Lounge used to be was up for lease when CitySleuth recently stopped by. But the Soko Hardware store at far right is still there. Both Then and Now the Japanese-styled tower displays the sign Nihon Machi - “Japan Town”.
Then … The lounge entrance is at the top of the stairs behind the tower, above. Below, they enter from the left and climb a set of 5 steps up to the lounge.
… and Now, the most recent tenant here was the Korean karaoke bar and restaurant ‘Playground’. But the space is now under construction in preparation for a future tenant. Citysleuth noticed there’s now only 3 steps leading up, not 5. Why? … read on…
Then … They ask for Jenny. The two extra steps led to an elevated floor level that created a sunken bar effect. The lounge entrance is on the left.
… and Now, the bar is in the same spot but at a regular height because the elevated floor is gone.
Then … Jenny appears; she suggests they take a seat at a nearby table..
… in 2017 … this is the same view in Playground before it closed. The drop ceiling, above, has been removed, below.
… and Now, here it is today.
Then … Jenny doesn’t know where her father is but said he apologizes for not being able to complete the cab deal. She then gives them an envelope containing the $4,000 they had given him … “It’s all there”. Steve’s reaction? … “Goddam!”. The shoji screens covering the windows are the same ones seen from the outside in the vintage photo at the top of this post.
… and Now, these windows look down on the Japantown block of Buchanan Street named Osaka Way.
Then … Mason returns to the room where Moxley was murdered, looking for more clues. This location, at 1850 Sutter Street in Japantown, was described in detail in an earlier post.
… and Now, new buildings were built on the 1800 block of Sutter Street during the Western Addition redevelopment project; the sidewalk tree below is in front of where 1850 Sutter used to be.
He finds a possible clue, a discarded matchbox with a hotel name on the cover.
… in 1938 … These are all of the hotels listed in the 1938 South San Francisco city directory. In the real world there was no Fremont Hotel here.
Then … Mason dispatches Spudsy to follow up on the lead. He finds out that Doris Pender, one of the hotel’s residents, had made a phone call to Moxley the night of his murder. He heads to the Irving Theatre where she is onstage singing.
San Francisco did indeed have an Irving Theatre, listed in the 1935 City Directory at 1342 Irving Street in the Inner Sunset (map). But from the 1941 photo below it’s clear that the marquee doesn’t match the one in the movie; clearly that was a studio creation. The Irving opened in 1926 and closed in 1962, destined for demolition.
… and Now, the building at far left above (back then it housed a Safeway grocery store) is still there today (below), but the theater and the rest of the block to the right were replaced in 1963 by two apartment buildings. The grey building, now re-addressed as 1330 Irving, is where the theatre used to be.
It turns out that the singer had married Moxley a year earlier (so the scoundrel was also a bigamist). After her performance she tells them only that he had been threatening her.
Spudsy tracks down her roughneck brother, Oscar Pender, suspecting that on her behalf he may have tried to get even with Moxley. Pender wasn’t exactly cooperative; his only response was a punch to Spudsy’s jaw.
Dr. Ferris's daughter Barbara is an artist, seen here working on a sculpture in her studio. The nude model raised few eyebrows in 1920, more than a decade before the industry's Production Code censors would react otherwise, especially (gasp!) when she steps off the dais and walks offscreen.
Then ... The interior above was a movie set but the exterior was real, seen below as Ferris drops off his assistant Wilmot Allen, who has taken a fancy to Barbara, in front of her studio.
... and Now, it was referred to as 32 Institute Place in the movie; the actual address then was 32 Middle Street, now named Orben Place (map), a narrow street running between California and Pine in the Western Addition's Japantown.
Then ... Judging by the sign, the house was available for rent when the filming took place (the British term 'To Let' was still in use back then). Dr. Ferris's fine limousine is a symbol of his elevated social status.
... and Now, Despite changes the entrance of 32 Orben Place has managed to retain a somewhat similar appearance.
Tangential trivia 1 ... In the 'To Let' sign in the Then image above, the renting company was Madison and Burke at 80 Post Street. This was a real company, listed in San Francisco's 1920 city directory.
Tangential trivia 2 ... this restored example of the same limousine model as Dr. Ferris's, a 1917 Packard Twin Six 2-35 All-Weather Landaulet, sold at the 2011 Pebble Beach auction for $192,500. Compare it to the Then image above - it's identical. It was powered by a V-12 424 cubic inch engine producing nearly 90 horsepower. Remember, this was 1917; it hadn't taken the auto industry's engineers long to get into their stride.
Then ... When the limousine pulls away from the studio we see the other half of Middle Street (seeing the cable car heading down California Street helped CitySleuth track down this location). Another prominent Madison and Burke sign on the right makes CitySleuth wonder if this was an early example of subliminal advertising in a movie?
... and Now, the same view down Orben Place today. It's hard to see from here, but the partially obscured house facing us beyond the stop sign is an example of one that has changed very little over the past century. On the other hand, cable cars no longer traverse California Street west of Van Ness Avenue.
In the studio, Wilmot (Kenneth Harlan) urges Barbara (Claire Adams), portrayed here at her winsome best, to give up her bohemian ways. She tells him she will but only after she takes on one last challenge: "...I'm going to do 'Satan - After the fall'... if I fail, I'll marry you". But if she succeeds? ... it's left unsaid but in the male-centric 1920s this is one lady who won't be pushed around.
She posts an ad; Blizzard sees it and realizes this is his chance to use her in his revenge plot against Ferris. He applies, making sure his henchmen scare away the other applicants.
Then ... When he arrives at the studio Orben Place reminds us that this was the overlap period between horse and horseless transportation. Despite Barbara's trepidation over his appearance, or perhaps because of it, or even that he was the only applicant, he gets the job.
... and Now, many but not all of the houses in this neighborhood have modernized exteriors today.
Who better to pose as Satan than Lon Chaney? But as fierce as he is while posing he turns on the smiles in the breaks between, gradually charming his way into her good graces.
The police get a call from somebody claiming to be the bus murderer. What's more he has hostages holed up in an old house ...
Then ... The cops converge on the house, in the heart of Japantown in the Western Addition. This is the view west from Laguna down Bush Street towards St. Dominic's Catholic Church at Steiner, top left.
... and Now, more trees certainly, but the main difference here is the tower of St. Dominic's, redesigned and rebuilt following serious damage from the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.
Then ... A heavily armed response team takes up position at the southwest corner of Laguna and Bush outside the K & F Drayage Trucking Co. building at 1899 Bush.
... and Now, another structure has since taken its place.
Then ... The suspect's house is at 1727 Laguna Street (map). As Jake and Larsen observe it one of the hostages seeks escape by unwisely clambering out of a 3rd floor window ... "Don't do that, lady ..."
... and Now, the house has long since been demolished, one of the many victims of the Western Addition's ethnic cleansing program. The building on the right, next to it and under construction during the filming, is still there today, the Konko-Kyo Church of San Francisco.
Then ... The unfortunate hostage slips and falls. Across the street is another view of the Drayage Trucking building on the corner of Bush and next to it one of the twin towers of the Bush Street Temple, built in 1895. In 2003 the temple became the Kokoro Assisted Living Center.
... and Now, the new building on the corner was built as an extension of the Kokoro Center.
Then ... Apparently hostage negotiation was not part of the Police Department's job description in the 1970s - a fierce firefight ensues with multiple fatalities on both sides ending only when the suspect is shot. Across the street an ambulance pulls up to 1727 Laguna where we see that it had a store, Coast Camera & Radio, on its first floor.
... and Now, there's a church parking lot with a gated entrance where the house used to sit.
It turns out the suspect was a deranged vet with a prosthetic leg; he couldn't have been the bus murderer who was witnessed climbing off the bus and walking briskly away. Another lead bites the dust.
