The Lineup - Steinhart Aquarium and De Young Museum
Dorothy Bradshaw and daughter Cindy visit the Steinhart Aquarium after arriving at the Mark Hopkins Hotel. The aquarium has been a visitors' favorite since 1923.
Then ... The aquarium faced onto the central courtyard of the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. The Academy also included a natural History Museum and a Planetarium.
... in 1968 ... Below is an aerial photo from 1968 with an arrow marking the aquarium, part of the Academy building. That's the DeYoung Museum facing the Academy across the concourse and the Bandstand at the edge of the concourse on the left.
... and Now, The aquarium and indeed the entire Academy was razed in 2003 to make way for this $500 million replacement, below, opened in 2008 (map). This photo was taken from the De Young Museum.
Then ... Dancer and Julian catch up with Dorothy and Cindy in the aquarium.
... and Now, the aquarium in the new Academy, below, is an ambitiously dramatic replacement. (By the way, Orson Welles preceded Don Siegel by a decade with the use of a scene at the Steinhart Aquarium, in The Lady From Shanghai. See it here).
Dancer flirts with Dorothy and offers to give her a ride back to her hotel. She makes the big mistake of accepting. As they leave the park, passing in front of the de Young museum, a policeman recognizes their car and calls in their description from a nearby telephone box (map). We get a really interesting panorama down Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive - interesting because the 'Then' and 'Now' contrasts the old with the new museum.
Then ... Director Siegel's panning camera gives us a great view of the old de Young museum on the right and the bandstand, built in 1900, on the left.
... and Now, the new de Young, dubbed 'The Rusty Aircraft Carrier' by some wags, was opened in 2005. The two sphinxes flanking the path to the museum (click image to enlarge) are still there, as is the bandstand, obscured by that palm tree.
Back at the Mark Hopkins hotel Dancer frenziedly rips Cindy's doll apart after she tells him she found white powder inside the doll and used it to powder its face! Uh oh, there's none left.