Then … Clarence and the police motorbike escort head up California Street during their dash across town to get Blotz. Kearny Street crosses at the end of the block.
… and Now, most of the buildings lining California street have since been replaced. Still there though way at the bottom of the hill is the Southern Pacific Building, built in 1917 as the headquarters of Southern Pacific Railway. Beyond it is the Bay Bridge, not built until 11 years after the scene above was filmed.
Then … They overtake a cable car as they speed up California. The landmark Sing Chong Building is on the corner of Grant Avenue.
… and Now, a century later it’s still there.
The Pagoda-styled Sing Chong Building was built in 1907. Local residents and Benevolent Societies had wasted no time rebuilding Chinatown following the 1906 earthquake and fire as a statement to city government that they were not about to be resettled anywhere else.
Then … The cop leans his bike to his right around a tight bend…
… then leans over to his left, apparently negotiating an S - curved street. More of the building behind him is now revealed, helping to confirm this location.
… and Now, here’s that building, still there. It’s 60 Leavenworth, an apartment building with street level retail stores on the corner of McAllister. Credit to reader Notcom who found it.
In this late 1920’s aerial photo you can see the curved street 3 blocks east of City Hall.
It’s more clearly seen in this 1931 aerial photo; tap or click the image to see how it looks today. The curve was straightened out in the mid-1930s to make way for the Federal Office Building at 50 U.N. Plaza.
Then … Continuing on, in the next shot the Geary-Mason Drugs sign on the right is a giveaway to this location. That drugstore was at 400 Mason so this view looks south along Mason Street with Geary crossing in the foreground. The Hotel Minster sign on the left a block down was at 312 Mason.
… and Now, 312 Mason is still a hotel; more specifically an international hostel.
Then … Almost there! This shot revisits a junction appearing twice before during the frantic dash. Here they head west on Market Street having just driven out of Golden Gate Avenue over on the right. The turrets of the Granada Theater can be seen near the end of the block beyond the car.
… and Now, the Granada Theater has long since been demolished and replaced.
Viewed from the opposite direction this vintage photo captured the Granada in 1921, the year it opened. The opulent theater was one of many that sprung up along the length of Market Street during the silver screen heyday of the 1920s and 1930s. It was renamed the Paramount in 1931 and eventually demolished in 1965.
They arrive in time - it’s game over for Blotz, Red Moran and, at City Hall, D.A. Fuller.
As the bad guys are hauled into their cells, Tom and Ray are released from theirs to a joyful welcome by Mary and Polly McDonald. Even Chronicle Proprietor Hamilton gets in on the act, proclaiming to Tom … “They’ve found their man McDonald, and I have found mine!” All’s well that ends well.
In the movie’s final frames Polly turns to Clarence, the derring-do hero of the day. Boy, does she owe him!!
Clarence and on-duty cops are at the police station when he hears the news of the Chronicle fire …
… they pile into a car, Clarence hanging on the side, to rush across town to Chron headquarters. (This doorway location is yet to be found - a Los Angeles precinct, a studio back lot, somewhere else?).
Then … They drive out of Golden Gate Avenue in downtown San Francisco, captured here turning east on Market Street. The projecting marquee of the Granada Theater at 1066 Market Street can be seen in the block behind them near the corner of Jones.
… and Now, the same block today. The Granada Theater is no longer there; after being renamed the Paramount in 1931 it was demolished in 1965.
Then … They are on Market again. This view was filmed looking east from 1st Street towards the Ferry Building in the background. Note at top center the ‘MOISE’ sign on the corner of Fremont Street…
… in 1930 … Here’s a photo taken a few years later from the same spot. A city directory entry revealed that the ‘MOISE’ sign belonged to the Moise-Klinkner store that sold a mix of rubber stamps, badges and signs.
… and Now, the traffic nightmare omnipresent on Market Street over the past century has recently been exorcised by the simple expedient of restricting access to commuter vehicles and taxis. Dead center in the distance the Ferry Building still stands like a sentinel on the Embarcadero, visible along most of the 3-mile length of arrow-straight Market Street.
Then … Now heading north they are on Stockton Street entering the south portal of the Stockton Tunnel near Union Square. Market Street crosses at the south end of Stockton.
… and Now, the first block on the left was rebuilt in 1960 as the Sutter-Stockton garage.
Here’s a reverse look at the south entrance of the tunnel in 1953 seven years before the current Sutter-Stockton garage was built.
… and just for fun check out this cool 1913 photo of the tunnel being excavated. It opened in 1914 after taking only 17 months to build. People worked hard in those days. The building at top right at 590 Bush Street is also visible in the image above.
Then … We then see them emerging from the tunnel’s north portal into Chinatown.
… and Now, the north portal today looks the same.
Clarence arrives outside the Chronicle press room to find an angry crowd surrounding Tom, wrongly accusing him of starting the fire. He is hauled off to jail where he briefly sees Ray before being dragged off to his own cell.
Meanwhile the fire rages on while a growing crowd of onlookers gather where Market Street and Geary come together. Customers of Bercovich Cigars on the ground floor at 700 Market Street could conveniently head up to dentist Chas. Strub on the 3rd floor to take care of the yellow stains. The stylishly-hatted lady in white on the 2nd floor windowsill has the best view of all.
Then … Across Market another crowd stands in front of the Monadnock Building at 685 Market adjacent to the Palace Hotel.
… and Now, The Beaux Arts building, built the year after the ‘06 earthquake, now features in its atrium lobby colorful murals depicting in Renaissance Baroque style many well-known San Francisco personalities including Mayor Adolph Sutro, fountain donor Lotta Crabtree and Supervisor Harvey Milk.
For history buffs here’s a 1910 postcard photo of the Monadnock showing the original iteration of Lotta’s Fountain in the foreground.
(The next location shot lasts for less than two seconds but there’s enough in it to justify a dedicated post… read on… )
Tom, mortified by the Chronicle’s front page exposé of the bribery arrest of his son, tries to stop the presses but he’s knocked to the ground in a tussle with his boss.
Then … He imagines a busy downtown street, seen here through the doorway of a corner store as a cable car passes by. Lots of people are walking past a newsstand and in his mind’s eye he sees them all snapping up the Chronicle’s scandalous last edition.
… and Now, here’s what a time traveler standing in that doorway would see today. The view looks east across Powell Street along O’Farrell to Stockton (at the Macy’s sign). A cable car passes by just as it did, above, one hundred years ago. CitySleuth is delighted that the old low-tech cable cars are still running. May they always.
This location was confirmed by identifying the two buildings on either side of Stockton circled in red and in blue, and by the sign circled in green…
… Here are contemporaneous vintage photos of those two buildings. On the left, circled in blue above, is D. Samuels Lace House Company (today replaced by Macy’s store). On the right, circled in red above, is the City Of Paris store with its huge rooftop sign, (today replaced by a retail/residential building). In 1925 when the movie was filmed the KFRC radio station (you did spot its vertical blade sign above, right?) was broadcasting from this store. (Note that the City Of Paris occupied the whole Stockton block from Geary to O’Farrell back then - the photo shows at far left an identical rooftop sign at Geary Street.
In the movie shot the sign partially legible in the green circle reads “… INTON …IA”; it’s part of the Clinton’s Cafeteria sign mid-block at 136 O’Farrell, listed below in the 1925 city directory.
Just in case more confirmatory proof is needed … note that this location was a street junction where cable car lines crossed as evidenced by the glimpse of another cable car down the road, circled in red…
A cable car map of the system as it was after the 1906 earthquake confirms that the California Street Cable Railroad ran along O’Farrell across Powell (circled in yellow). This map is fascinating; it shows how extensive the system used to be, extending west to Golden Gate Park in the Richmond and south to Noe Valley before being cut back to today’s 3 surviving lines.
But wait, there’s more … kudos to ReelSF reader Notcom for pointing out that the headlines of the newspapers on the stand precisely date when this scene was filmed…
Two different newspapers report the death of politician William Jennings Bryan … the date was Monday, July 27, 1925.
And finally, this ad in a newspaper dated April 11, 1925 tells us that the corner store from which the scene was filmed was the Lundstrom Hat Company store; they had opened up there, their 9th location, just 6 weeks prior. Thanks to the vicissitudes of fashion, there aren’t many of those stores around any more.
Here, photographed the year the movie was filmed, is the actual newsstand that was at the Stockton/O’Farrell street junction. The photo indicates it was at the northeast corner which is kitty-korner from the southwest corner location in the movie shot but who knows, perhaps it was moved there during filming.
Enraged, Tom grabs a spanner intending as it were to throw it in the works.
Then … Jo is listening to the radio in his cab while approaching the south portal of the Stockton Street Tunnel where Bush Street crosses over (map) . The tunnel, 2 1/2 blocks long, was built to provide a level streetcar connection from the Union Square neighborhood to Chinatown. It opened in 1914.
and Now… this portal has long been a favorite with film directors, having appeared in several movies. Note the same two blade signs Then and Now, at upper left. The Sutter-Stockton Parking Garage on the right has been there since 1960.
Before the tunnel was built this block of Stockton Street climbed an 18% grade to Bush Street. The 1913 image below shows the dig in preparation for boring the tunnel. The Bush Street apartment building facing us at upper right, built 5 years earlier in 1908, is still there today - it’s now a Wyndham Destinations time-share.
Then … As he drives through the tunnel he hears the radio announcer talking about the arrest of the 82 year old Mainland Chinese supporter who shot and killed a man at the Chinese New Year parade because he was waving a Taiwanese flag; the same incident as that described in the newspaper cutting that Jo had found in Chan’s jacket pocket.
and Now… the northern portal welcomes traffic to Chinatown just south of Sacramento Street. The construction site on the left, above, has been fully built out, below. Note the walkway railings on both sides of the tunnel, added in 1984 after a pedestrian was killed by a passing car (a classic case of closing the barn door).
On a trivia note, the radio announcer was Jim Clancy, a reporter at that time at the local KGO-TV station; he would go on to a 34 year career at CNN. Here he is c. 1979 interviewing tourists on a cable car. (Photo by Nancy Wong).
Then … Jo and Steve wait for customers in front of the Holiday Inn Hotel at 750 Kearny Street under the bridge that crosses over from Portsmouth Square plaza. Jo is puzzled: why did Chan have that newspaper cutting about the flag-waving murder in his pocket? Steve shrugs … “ Shit, the Chinese they love to fight, man … over mahjong, food, anything”.
and Now… this is the ‘Bridge To Nowhere’ which is hardly ever used. That will soon be even more so; city planning approval is well underway to remove it as part of yet another major plaza redesign (will they ever get it right?) scheduled for completion by 2026.
Then … Jo drops in on Steve and his sister Amy (Laureen Chew) to speculate on how Chan might be involved with the flag-waving murder.
The kitchen scene above was filmed in the Richmond home of actress Laureen Chew. It appeared again in Wayne Wang’s follow-on 1985 movie Dim Sum: A Little Bit Of Heart, below. Everything matches, including the patterned kitchen tiles.
and Now… the home, in the center, is 416 20th Avenue in the Richmond district. The house also doubles later in the movie as Chan’s wife’s home.
Then … Jo next meets Henry the cook on that same bridge (we saw him earlier hilariously cooking in the Golden Dragon restaurant). This time he’s smartly dressed in a 3-piece suit, surprising at first until we learn he owns eight restaurants and is quite rich. Director Wang has Henry alternate between English and Mandarin as he speaks so that the English-speaking audience understands while at the same time experiencing the lilt of the Chinese language. Henry thinks that Chan, an FOB immigrant (‘Fresh Off the Boat’), went back to China because he was never accepted here by Americans nor by ABC’s (‘American Born Chinese’). Jo is not so sure.
and Now… behind them, above, is a decorative ornament and a sign for the Garden Restaurant at 716 Kearny, both of which are still there. The 14-sided polyhedron however has been reoriented.
and Now… the ornament is one of many arrayed in the reoriented position along both sides of the span of the bridge. The scene with Henry was filmed at the far end near the Holiday Inn (the hotel was renamed the Hilton Financial District in 2006). The 716 Kearny building is on the right.
