Down in the boiler room Red Moran, determined to avenge the Chronicle’s exposé of his boss, plies the boilerman with booze and challenges him to a coal shoveling contest, having first closed off the steam line. Tension mounts as the camera cuts repeatedly to the pressure gauge slowly moving into the danger level, an audience suspense-building technique often used later by the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock.
Then … His sabotage causes an explosion and fire at the Chronicle headquarters; multiple alarms summon a frantic response from the city’s fire brigade.
… a vintage photo … here’s a 1915 photo image showing the Chronicle Building as it was when the movie was filmed.
… and Now, the building, also seen earlier in the movie, is still there today at 690 Market on the corner of Kearny Street. It has since been remodeled and doubled in height to create the swanky condominiums of the Ritz-Carlton Club and Residences.
Then … Firehouses in San Francisco and in Los Angeles were filmed for the response scenes. The director jumps all over the place with random cuts between firehouse and other scenes but for this post Citysleuth presents the firehouses sequentially. After this first truck exits the firehouse (below, left) the camera cuts to a wider view allowing us to see where it was filmed.
… in 1950 … here’s that location, unchanged even though this c. 1950 photo was taken 25 years later. The arched doorway at the bottom right corner is where the fire engine exited, top left above. In San Francisco, this is the Truck Company 1 firehouse at 418 Jessie Street, South of Market, in what’s now known as Mint Plaza (map).
… and Now, a recent view of Mint Plaza today, again mostly unchanged except the firehouse is no longer there; today it’s the restaurant Burma Love, now readdressed as 8 Mint Plaza.
Then … In this shot the building on the left looks familiar …
… and Now, that’s because we are still in Mint Plaza alongside the old Mint Building. The restaurant that replaced Truck Company 1’s firehouse is over on the right side and the building facing us is the one on the left, two images above.
Then … Inside the next firehouse a message is received on a Gamewell Punch Register (top corner) that identifies the source of the originating alarm on a ticker-tape. Firemen waste no time manning a fire engine (on the left) and a fire truck (on the right). Fire engines usually carried water; fire trucks usually did not , instead carrying a rescue ladder and other equipment such as jaws of life.
Then … As the fire engine leaves, the firehouse name is the clue to its location; this was filmed at the Engine Company 24 / Truck Company 1 firehouse in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo district at 204 South Hewitt Street (map).
… in 1922 … here’s a vintage 1922 photo showing the station three years earlier. At that time a different truck company, No. 5, shared the building with Engine Company 24.
… and Now, the station, on the corner of S. Hewitt and E. 2nd Streets, is no longer there; the space is now a parking lot. What a waste of a fine old building.
Then … Two engines from Engine Company 2 at 460 Bush Street in San Francisco’s Financial District are the next to respond. The compact 1908 firehouse, at far left, was the first firehouse rebuilt following the 1906 earthquake. The columned building next to it was a Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company building at 444 Bush Street.
… and Now, the classy Beaux Arts firehouse building is still there but it has been converted to office space.
Chan is never found, leaving one to suspect that Chan per se did not exist. Was he a representation of Chinatown’s Asian community? If so, Chan is captured everywhere in this selection of photographs of 1970s Chinatown residents taken by photojournalist Bob Eckert. These images and many more are on Bob’s website.
Could that be Chan waiting for a haircut inside Benny's Barber Shop at 718 Pacific Avenue?
Or perhaps he is here, reading the daily news displayed at the Chinese Times Publishing Company, 117-119 Waverly Place.
Then again, he may be found relaxing at Portsmouth Square ...
... or even feeding the pigeons there.
Certainly Chan would spend time shopping in Chinatown ...
… especially at eye-catching places like this.
... or (on the left) outside 1151 Stockton Street where the Man Ah Trading Co. announces a new location. Then again (on the right) he may be spotted at the Hong Kong Co Grocers at 851 Clay Street. Reflected in its window are signs for Tommy Tong's Golden Star TV Appliance store and Radio KBRG across the street at 846 Clay. Radio KBRG was the first Chinese language radio station in North America.
… and Now, a weather-beaten extant KBRG Radio sign is still there at the corner of Clay Street and the Spofford Street alley.
These two always-busy blocks on Stockton Street would be a likely place to bump into him.
Could this well-dressed shopper on a rainy day be him?
After shopping he most likely waited here for the 30 or 45 Muni bus to take him home. (The Gourmet Kitchen is still in business at 1051 Stockton today).
Who knows, Frenchy’s Adult Book Store at 1265 Stockton Street may have caught Chan's eye. (Or the Macao tavern at upper right across Broadway at 1313 Stockton).
He would of course have trudged through the noisy Stockton Tunnel linking Chinatown with Downtown.
Finally, he could be pausing for a solemn moment here as a decorated photograph of the deceased leads a funeral procession east down Jackson Street towards Kearny Street. (He might also have frequented the Great Star Theatre down the block at 636 Jackson).
Then … Clarence happens to be parked across from the police station when the police arrive; he sees them hustling Ray McDonald inside. This was filmed in Hollywood as evidenced by the stores behind him - Ford & Ford Chiropractic on the right was listed in the 1925 Los Angeles city directory at 5911 Hollywood Blvd and Star Cleaners was listed at 5913 Hollywood Blvd.
… and Now, the chiropractor’s office at 5911 is now Sparadise Massage & Spa; Star Cleaners at 5913 is now Bread and Butter lunch and coffee shop. Note the lamppost in the center - remarkably it appears to be the same one a century later as in the movie shot above.
Then … He rushes over to see what’s going on; inside he is astounded to hear that Ray is being charged with accepting a $50,000 bribe; he is helpless as Ray is manhandled, protesting the whole way, to a jail cell.
Police Station 6 appeared earlier in the movie. It’s on the right side in this vintage photo where it shared a building with LAFD’s Engine 27 from 1913 to 1930.
… and Now, what’s more, it wasn’t opposite where Clarence was parked; it was a good 7 or 8 blocks away at 1629 N. Cahuenga Blvd. Check the location now, completely rebuilt. (Note the adjacent brick building partially visible at far left, above, - it’s still there today).
As a close friend of the McDonald family Clarence can’t bring himself to call the shocking news into his newspaper, leaving it instead to the local beat reporter who doesn’t hesitate to call the city editor. With eighteen minutes to press time it’s all hands on deck to rewrite the front page in time for the day’s last edition.
Then … In the next sequence the audience gets to see step-by-step how a newspaper story is created - from its initial composition to the final printed page. It begins with the copy editor receiving the story outline from the city editor. He writes the story and sends it on to linotype machine operators who turn his words into metal ‘slugs’ - lines of text cast from molten metal as fast as the operator types them in.
This and the sequence of operations that follow were all filmed in the Chronicle’s newly built 901 Mission Street building in San Francisco’s Soma district (map); the 1920s photograph below shows the composing room where the linotype machines were filmed.
Then … The metal slugs and an etched photo plate are arranged by compositors at makeup tables (on the left, below) into a full page format (on the right). The words and images are reversed, like a negative, so that when printed they will read in normal format.
The makeup tables were in the same composing room as the linotype machines. This photograph of them also shows a linotype battery at far right.
Then … When the page is complete a sample sheet is printed out and checked for errors. A papier-mâché sheet is then beaten against the completed layout to form a mold (called a ‘flong’) which in turn is used to cast a curved metal plate (called a ‘stereotype’) which will pair with a rotary press to print the newspaper page.
Here’s a photo taken at 901 Mission Street of the same equipment being used to cast stereotype plates.
Then … With time running out the finished plate is winched down to the press room below. Tom’s supervisor grabs it and sends it along a conveyor to Tom, waiting at a press. He bolts it into place, jubilant, knowing they’ve pulled it off - the presses start rolling just in time for the day’s last edition.
This 1920s photo taken in the Chronicle’s press room looks from the opposite direction along the plate conveyor seen above. Alongside it are the massive rotary printing presses, 14 of them in a row.
Tom’s celebration is cut short when he sees the front page with a photograph of his son under a huge headline trumpeting the bribery charge.
Then … There’s a lot going on in the next montage image; kitchen workers prepare dim sum through the window of a restaurant while reflected pedestrians pass by outside.
… and Now, this was the Hong Kong Teahouse at 835 Pacific Avenue; it’s now the New Wing Long Food market. The arrow points to that part of the window, only recently covered by bars, that the camera spied into.
As confirmation that this is the right place, let’s take a closer look at the movie’s window reflection. Since it’s a reverse mirror window image, we first reverse it, like so…
… then we turn around and see if the same image is across the street. Voila! The building is part of the Ping Yuen North public housing complex at 838 Pacific Avenue, photographed here in 2019. The red box outlines the area in the movie image above.
… and Now, following a 2019 street level remodel, only the section at far right in this view (mostly obscured by trees) remains unchanged today.
Then … Next, viewed from Jackson Street across from the Tao Tao restaurant at 675 Jackson, the Transamerica Pyramid office tower rises in the background .
… and Now, newer structures partially block the view of the pyramid from here. 675 Jackson, currently vacant and recently listed for sale, has retained its oriental styling.
Then … Here’s another restaurant; after struggling for some time to find it, CitySleuth was bailed out by ReelSF reader Notcom who came up with its location. It was Meemie’s Coffee Shop restaurant at 727 Washington on the corner of Walter U. Lum Place. The view on the left looks through both corner windows across Walter U. Lum Place and Portsmouth Square towards the Bank Of America Center at 555 California Street rising in the distance. Another clue was the reflection of three window arches from a building across the street (arrows).
… and Now, the current tenant, Sweet Mart, has been shuttered since the pandemic but in this pre-pandemic photo the vertical post inside the corner window that supported the shelves, above, was still there.
… and Now, here’s the building opposite showing the window arches reflected in the Then image above.
Then … What?? An Italian market in the heart of Chinatown? At least it’s advertising Chop Suey. This is 699 Jackson on the corner of Grant Avenue.
… and Now, the store now sells souvenirs, not food, but that old Chop Suey sign is still there.
Here, the camera slowly pans along a large group of elderly ladies as they congregate on a sidewalk. But where? Director Wayne Wang told CitySleuth that the scene was filmed “somewhere on Kearny Street” but even knowing that, this location remains as yet unfound. Anyone who recognizes it is asked to contact citysleuth@reelsf.com.
Also yet to be found is this store displaying a Confucius figurine in a festive tinsel-framed window.
Then … In this, the movie’s final image, the sign and the 1980 city directory tells us where this window was filmed. It’s one of the rooms of the Wing On hotel at 917 Kearny Street. The Far East Travel Service store is below it at 911 Kearny Street.
… and Now, the sign today advertises the current tenant - Wayne’s Liquors. The name has changed but it’s the same original sign, even down to the support wires, a convenient clothes line then as now for the occupant of the room. The Wing On hotel now operates as a single-room-occupancy building called the 917 Kearny Street Apartments.
… and Now, a wide angle view of the window and Wayne’s Liquors. The hotel entrance is the orange doorway at far right.
