Harold And Maude - Uncle Victor
Mother has had enough and announces to Harold that he is to be inducted into the Army. She dispatches his Uncle Victor (Charles Tyner), a rabidly patriotic, one-armed career General, to take him under his wing.
Then ... To make a good impression on Harold Uncle Victor picks him up in his personal chauffeured limousine. At a veterans' convalescent center they stroll around the grounds while he extols the virtues of military life. This was filmed in San Francisco's Sutro Heights Park at Land's End on the edge of the Pacific Ocean (map), the former estate of silver baron Adolph Sutro.
... and Now, they were approaching the only surviving structure from the estate. No, it's not a gazebo ...
... a vintage photo ... this was in fact the estate's well house, captured here circa 1890 (note too the horse hitching posts, essential back then). The bases of the decorative finials on the roof can still be seen, above.
The estate did have a gazebo but it's long gone. Here it was in 1890.
Then ... They walk on past the well house, an opportunity for director Hal Ashby to include a sight gag behind them - a doddering vet slowly keels over and does a face plant in the scattered leaves. Irreverent, if not irrelevant. Oblivious, Uncle Victor patters fervently on with his sales pitch.
... and Now, with the help of facelifts the structure is in remarkable condition given its age of 130 years.
Local history buffs will know that Sutro's mansion was the crown atop the estate. Complemented as it was by extensive gardens, statuary, a carriage house, a conservatory, an observatory and a crenellated parapet with spectacular views of the ocean and along the Great Highway, it delivered the highest quality of life for Adolph and his family. Built in the 1880s, the home was demolished in 1939, by then in a state of deterioration, following the death of its last resident, Sutro's daughter Emma.
The mansion enjoyed a westward view down past the parapet to Seal Rocks and the Cliff House, a Victorian-style dining, dancing and entertainment chateau built by Adolph in 1894 (the photo above was taken from the Cliff House). The mammoth structure was destined to be very short-lived; it remarkably survived the 1906 earthquake but, like the original Cliff House before it, burned to the ground a year later. By this time Adolph had died but daughter Emma kept the Cliff House tradition going by replacing it with the third incarnation, a more modest structure sensibly built of concrete.
... and Now, Three's a charm as Emma's Cliff House underwent a number of remodels over the years but is still going strong 110 years on.
To the north was Sutro's Baths, built by Adolph in 1896, viewed here from the estate across Point Lobos Avenue in a 1950s photo.
... and Now, the 70-year-old public bath complex succumbed in 1966 to an arson fire (but not before it was fortuitously used for scenes in the 1958 movie The Lineup). The ruins today are a nostalgic reminder of its grandeur and caught the eye of director Ashby who chose the sprawling, crumbling site for Uncle Victor's next stop.