Then … Blotz arrives at his destination. Finding this location was easy for CitySleuth - he turned to John Bengston, host of the blog silentlocations.com, knowing that he had already discovered it in numerous silent movies and that he had described it in detail in his blog. This is E. Cahuenga Alley in Hollywood, since renamed the Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd Alley in recognition of the silent movie stars who filmed there (map).
… in 1922 … 3 years earlier Buster Keaton was filmed at exactly this spot in the comedy My Wife’s Relations.
… and Now, here’s how that location looks today. The building facing us, other than its brick walls having been stuccoed over, hasn’t changed.
In this 1920s aerial photo the T-shaped alley is highlighted in yellow. It has an east-west section between Cahuenga and Cosmo and a north-south section down to Selma Avenue. The circle shows where Blotz’s car was parked, at the corner with Cosmo.
… and Now, this matching Google satellite view shows the alley as it looks today. It’s a century later but several of these buildings are still there.
Then … Blotz enters the Pal’s Club via a back entrance. But where was this doorway? There aren’t any other views or clues to help find it, other than the adjacent elevated window on the left.
Once again silentlocations.com provides the answer. John Bengston came across the same doorway in the 1932 silent movie Hells House (on the left, below). This was filmed 7 years after The Last Edition but check out how various wall features still matched up.
Hells House had other scenes that identified precisely where the doorway was. Here’s another 1920s aerial photo viewed from a different angle showing the doorway (within the circle), on the north-south section of the alley and around the corner from where Blotz’s car was parked.
… and Now, the doorway is still there, seen here looking south along the section of the alley that runs down to Selma Ave.
Meanwhile Clarence has caught up with Blotz and spots him entering the club. This was filmed in the east-west section of the alley; Cahuenga Blvd crosses in the background.
Then … Unable to enter the back door he takes a chance on spotting Blotz within one of the building’s windows; He (well, a stunt-man, no doubt) daringly climbs to an adjoining rooftop then down to the window. Note the address above the Chime Lunch entrance - 6374; this is the rear of 6374 Hollywood Boulevard.
That building is circled in this 1920s aerial view; the arrow points to the window that Clarence is about to peer into…
… and Now, the purple-walled building facing us at the end of the alley has since been added in front of the Chime Lunch building. This north-facing view also captures the Pal’s Club doorway, highlighted at left. (Note the continuity hiccup - we now realize that the doorway and the window he climbed up to were not at the same building).
… then when Clarence looks inside there’s another continuity goof - this is a different window; the brick windowsill is not the same as in the Then image above. To be fair, most movie watchers would never notice, but CitySleuth obsesses over details like this.
He’s in luck - he sees Blotz conferring with his accomplice Red Moran and overhears him, livid over his exposé by the Chronicle, making a call to the city’s assistant D.A. Gerald Fuller to get the police off his back then instructing Moran to deliver a cash bribe to him.
Director Wang trained a camera on a bus stop to capture the ebb and flow of the activity there. For a minute and a half we are voyeurs as shoppers pass by and make their way in and out of the two stores. Waiting passengers gaze expectantly in the direction of the oncoming bus in hopes it will hasten its arrival. The GIF below is a brief representation.
Then … the clue to finding this location was the brick detail highlighted below; fortunately it’s still there today. The bus stop was on the west side of Stockton Street near Jackson alongside a restaurant and a flower shop.
… and Now, here’s that location today. The rectangle outlines the movie frame’s field of view; the oval outlines two vertical columns of bricks, now partly covered with security bars but the exposed left column matches Then and Now. On the right Wellman’s Pharmacy at 1053 Stockton was the Lai Wah Florist when Chan was filmed while the restaurant on the left was then, and still is, the Gourmet Kitchen at 1051 Stockton.
That same bus stop was the subject of a wide angle 1970s photo by Bob Eckert Photography, perfectly capturing the diurnal hustle and bustle of Chinatown. But you won’t find the bus stop at this location now, it’s been moved south one block.
Interesting trivia - the movie Petulia was filmed here twelve years before Chan. It included a scene showing Julie Christie shopping on Stockton Street in Chinatown. The boutique on the left, street number 1053, was the Lai Wah flower shop seen above (the Chinese characters on the window say so and the phone number was the flower shop’s number) repurposed for this scene to complement the colorful fruit stand next to it.
Undulating waves and ripples fills the screen, capturing Jo’s confusion as he admits he no longer knows who Chan Hung really is. He recounts one by one in voiceover how everybody he has asked remembers Chan as a completely different person. Is he real or is he really the embodiment of the Chinatown community?
Then … Jo muses on while driving along Grant Avenue. Just as in the movie’s opening scene the sidewalk storefronts pass by horizontally while concurrently the upper floors of the buildings, reflected and flipped 90 degrees by the steeply raked windshield, overlap and slide by vertically.
… and Now, he was passing the elaborately oriental-styled building on the corner of Grant and Clay, home of the Soo Yuen Benevolent Association and the Louie Fong and Fong Family Association. This corner had also been seen earlier in the movie.
From a location point of view this post could have been titled ‘A Tale Of Two Cities’…
Then … Clarence gets word that Sam Blotz is at San Francisco’s City Hall; he parks outside, intent on following him.
… and Now, the imposing Beaux-Arts structure was built as a replacement for its predecessor that was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake; more than a century later it hasn’t changed at all, viewed both Then and Now from Larkin Street. (The three tall cylinders in the foreground in this recent view are ventilation units for Brooks Hall, an underground exhibition space built in the the late 1950s but unused since 1993). At far left beyond City Hall is a glimpse of the War Memorial Opera House on Van Ness Avenue, not yet built in the Then image above.
On a historical note, here’s the older City Hall after the dust settled and the fire burned out. Located across the Civic Center Plaza where the main library and U.N. Plaza are today, it was destroyed a mere nine years after it was completed.
Then … Clarence, parked in front of classically styled columns, spots Blotz …
A 1922 vintage photo reveals where this was filmed. But this isn’t San Francisco, it’s the Masonic Temple at 6840 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, Los Angeles (map).
… and Now, The Greek Revival building with Ionic columns is still there today, the home of the Jimmy Kimmel late night television show. Clarence’s car in the Then image above was parked exactly where the black sedan is, below. This block is part of Hollywood’s Walk Of Fame - note the embedded stars arrayed along the sidewalk - at this address they honor artists as diverse as Jimmy Kimmel, Rod Serling, Little Richard and Donald Duck.
Then … Clarence sees Blotz exit the building and climb into a swanky Pierce/Arrow town car. The number above the doorway that looks like it was written by a 2nd-grader reveals where this shot was filmed - still in Los Angeles, this was the Hotel Regent at 6162 Hollywood Boulevard (incidentally, for the picky amongst us, this is several blocks from where Clarence was parked).
… and Now, over the decades this block has changed drastically - right here is where the hotel used to be.
... a late 1920s photo captured it back in its heyday, between N. El Centro and Argyll Avenues.
… from this newspaper ad it’s clear that the hotel had newly opened when the scene was filmed there (The Last Edition was released in November 1925 ). Note the proud boast … “A Radio In Every Room”! (TV was not yet invented).
Then … But as Blotz’s car takes off we are transported back to City Hall in San Francisco. Note the continuity goof; Blotz is sitting behind the driver but in the Then image above he’s behind the front passenger seat. Note too the car is right hand drive which means it was a 1920 or earlier Pierce/Arrow model.
… and Now, This is the Grove Street side of City Hall, the same one seen in the first photo in this post. The long balcony in the center is shared by the Mayor’s office and that of the adjoining office staff.
Then … For this next shot as Clarence follows Blotz we jump back to Los Angeles to the southwest part of Downtown. The camera looks east along 12th Street with Trenton Street crossing just ahead.
… and Now, in the late 1960s this block and several others aound it were demolished to create a site for the Los Angeles Convention Center which opened in 1971. The Staples Center indoor arena was built there in the late 1990s - this recent photo of the south edge of the arena shows where the two blocks of 12th Street, above, used to be.
CitySleuth thanks reader Notcom for tracking down the 12th Street location and unearthing this 1917 newspaper photo of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company building at 1265 Figeroa, the large building at the end of the block in the movie’s Then image above. Compare the building’s left side, on 12th Street, with that image - they match.
Angelenos have at least one thing in common with San Franciscans: a nostalgic preference for beloved stadium names. Staples Center was renamed Crypto.com Arena in December 2021 but continues to be referred to by most as Staples Center, aka ‘The House That Kobe Built’. In much the same way, San Franciscans still fondly remember Giants ballpark Candlestick Park, eschewing subsequent renames 3Com Park and later, Monster Park.
Then and Now aerial view … Click or tap the 1928 image below to see the dramatic urban transformation of the blocks containing 12th and Trenton Streets. ‘X’ marks the spot where the camera was set up to film the 12th Street shot.
Jo has had his money returned but is still curious as to the whereabouts of Chan. He decides to ask his friend Mr. Fong (Leong Pui Chee). For this scene director Wang chose to have them speak in Chinese so that his American audience could experience the lilt and cadence of the Cantonese accent.
Then … They meet at Brenham Place bordering the west side of Portsmouth Square between Clay and Washington.
… and Now, in 1985 Brenham Place was renamed Walter U Lum Place in recognition of the Chinese American civil rights advocate born in San Francisco in 1882. The plaza was redesigned in the 1990s but the view from here retains a similar look today.
Then … Mr. Fong doesn’t know where Chan is. He tells Jo he has just given a talk at the Chinese Cultural Center on, appropriately, Chinese culture. He explains there’s more to it than eating. There’s north versus south, there’s ancient versus modern. He gives examples in poetry and in opera, breaking out into stanza and song to illustrate the differences. The building behind him is the Chinese Congregational Church at 21 Brenham Place.
… and Now, the church is still there, captured in this recent photo that also captured a rare sight for Chinatown - a destitute street person.
Mr. Fong also shares a Chinese lantern riddle which Jo recounts afterwards to Steve while they are parked at the edge of the bay. They have a good laugh at its sexual connotation. Lantern riddles date back 1200 years to the Song Dynasty; they were written on the sides of lanterns at Chinese Lantern Festivals where participants were rewarded for correctly solving them.
Then … They are parked at Fort Point in the Presidio below the Golden Gate bridge (map).
… and Now, the only change today is a more mundane, but safer replacement in 2023 of the chain barrier alongside the water’s edge causing some consternation amongst regular visitors, CitySleuth amongst them, who preferred the prior maritime look.
… in 1958 … but there was an even more mundane barrier there when Scottie followed Madeleine to Fort Point 66 years ago in the movie Vertigo.
Rippling waves in the bay mirror Jo’s thoughts; the mystery is appropriately Chinese - what’s not there seems to have just as much meaning as what is there. Nothing is what it seems to be. He questions his Chinese-ness; he can’t accept a mystery without a solution.
Then … Back once again at Chester’s Cafe at 1269 Mason (described earlier) Jo nurses a beer, lost in thought. Across the street on the left is the Junior Co Bakery at 1250 Mason.
… and Now, the most recent tenant in the 1250 Mason space was an art gallery, Orangeland .
