San Francisco, March 14, 1943
Let's set the Wayback Machine to March 14th, 1943! San Francisco, California, to be exact.
Here's a terrific color photo looking up Market Street (near the corner of Mason, for those of you programming your Wayback Machines). I just love this vintage scene of city hustle and bustle. Streetcars and Cable Cars share the street with plenty of beautiful old automobiles. The yellow cab is just the perfect accent! The Esquire Theater is showing a Joe E. Brown flick along with a Three Stooges comedy. Down at the end of the street you can see the famous tower of the Ferry Building at the Embarcadero.
Here's a Google Maps street view grab of what the area looks like today. Different for sure, but there are still some familiar buildings from the first photo.
Our photographer pivoted to his (or her) left and caught the "Pepsi Cola Center for Servicemen", with plenty of sailors milling around out front. I've seen pictures of this in black and white, so it is fun to see it in color, with those striking red columns. It has a "World's Fair" style to it! Colorful flags of many nations festoon the building's upper floors.
This photo is from Google's street view(it has a credit to Michele Aiello), this was about as close as I could get to matching the photo above. Again, not so terribly different, much to my surprise.
11 comments:
Wow-! Suddenly I feel so patriotic. I think I'll buy some War Bonds "in the lobby of this theatre" on my way out. Sabatoge Squad has put me right in the mood.
Thanks, Major for some swell images.
One minor detail that immediately jumped out at me in both photos - overhead caternary wire. I love that San Franciso has maintained the electric infrastructure for their bus system.
That cinema blade sign is exquisite.
(At first, with that pole in the way,I thought the marquee said,"Sausage Squad.")
I grew up on San Francisco and your description of the city hustle and bustle is perfect. It's a place I never tire of taking out of state relatives and friends too visit.
I think I can see the the sextopus that came from beneath the sea slithering behind the Ferry building.
Nanook, all those servicemen really help to date this picture. Did they really sell war bonds in theaters?
Chuck, do cats sit on caternary wires?
Melissa, "Sausage Squad" is currently playing in another part of San Francisco.
K. Martinez, I love your Harryhausen reference! You are obviously a reader of "Famous Monsters of Filmland".
Major-
Oh yes. There were plenty of contemporary films of the day which had a 'friendly reminder' special logo, often part of the end title artwork.
Cats or 'naries.
...and it would appear that those wires and tracks on Market Street have been used in regularly-scheduled service by San Francisco's heritage streetcar fleet since 1995, a rare case of trolley buses being replaced by light rail istead of the other way around. So, while overhead infrastructure has indeed been retained to operate trolley buses elsewhere in SF, it apparently isn't the case on Market Street anymore.
Sorry, folks - I haven't been in San Francisco in 37 years...
Should have also mentioned the Telenews Theatre, just behind the Esquire. The Telenews opened on September 1, 1939, just in time to feature footage of the Nazi invasion of Poland. It, along with 12 other locations around the U.S. would present travelogues and newsreels from Hollywood's major studios. Apparently the manager at each house could edit the newsreels, adding-in locally-produced footage.
It closed on August 15, 1967. And as with the endings of so many travelogues... "...so, as the sun sinks slowly in the west, so too has it for the Esquire Theatre..."
Sorry - make that "Telenews Theatre".
By coincidence, I was just in S.F. and on Market Street today for the first time in several years. There's major redevelopment going on, and many of the older buildings that have lasted up to now are being torn down and replaced. Which is all to the good, because for a long time, Market between Sixth and Eighth Streets was an area you'd hesitate to walk through in the daytime, much less at night! Unless you like seeing people lighting up crack pipes, and also getting panhandled every ten feet or so.
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