Clarence suspects that Sam Blotz and his crony Red Moran are responsible for the fire. He also remembers that he had overheard Blotz ask the operator to connect him to someone in City Hall. He lobbies the City’s Chief Of Police to allow Polly at the local telephone switchboard to report the address if that number is called again. The Chief (played in a cameo by the real San Francisco Chief Dan O’Brien) agrees to help.
Chief O’Brien served as the city’s Chief from 1920 - 1928. Because it was so uncharacteristic for him, the press at the time reported on his movie role.
Sure enough Blotz (top left) calls his crony Assistant D.A. Gerald Fuller at City Hall (bottom right) - he who had falsely accused Tom’s son - to crow about the Chronicle’s plight. But not before Polly at the switchboard (top right) had delayed connecting them while she looks up the originating caller’s address. She quickly notifies the Sergeant (bottom left) at the local police station.
As with the firehouse scenes earlier, Citysleuth has separated out the car scenes to present them sequentially...
Then … Clarence again hangs onto a car, this time with a police motorcycle escort, dashing across town to get Sam Blotz. Here we see them turning from Grove Street into Larkin Street.
… and Now, the background both Then and Now showcases San Francisco’s grand City Hall.
Then … Next they make a turn where behind them a store sign advertising E. J. Margett’s wholesale and retail rug store heralds this location.
… and Now, per the city street directory, Margett’s was at 989 Market on the corner of 6th Street so, above, they were filmed turning from Market into Golden Gate Avenue. Note the small retail building to the left that a century later is still there, still sandwiched between two larger buildings - Oxford Street menswear is its current tenant.
Then … And here they pass a cable car at the turntable at the south end of Powell Street at Market. Clinton’s Cafeteria is on the right at 18 Powell in the Flood Building.
… and Now, today’s Powell-Mason line terminates at the same spot alongside the Flood Building where the cable cars still depend on manpower to rotate them on the turntable. This block is now a car-free precinct, unusually free of tourists when CitySleuth stopped by on a beautiful winter’s day.
For the nostalgists out there, check out this photo taken in 1945 at the same spot; it was 20 years after The Last Edition was filmed but Clinton’s Cafeteria was still there.
Then … This next corner was seen in an earlier dash across town - it’s Market Street facing west where they are turning into Golden Gate Avenue (it’s a reverse look at the turn in the 2nd Then image in this post).
and Now, Twin Peaks in the distance is clearly visible below but hard to see in the poorer quality Then image above. The most recognizable extant building is 1020 Market at far right on the corner of Golden Gate Avenue.
Then … this clip is a continuation of the above Then clip as they enter Golden Gate Avenue. On the right is the Golden Gate Theatre; it had opened four years earlier in 1921.
and Now, the theatre continues to be an active performance space to this day. Note the traffic flow - it was two-way a century ago but is now one-way.
This 1930 photo shows the junction as it was when the above clip was filmed. Market Street crosses across the bottom with Golden Gate Avenue on the left and Taylor Street on the right.
During the frantic dash to get Blotz Polly keeps cutting off his connection with Fuller, apologizing profusely each time, holding him there as long as possible.
Clarence and on-duty cops are at the police station when he hears the news of the Chronicle fire …
… they pile into a car, Clarence hanging on the side, to rush across town to Chron headquarters. (This doorway location is yet to be found - a Los Angeles precinct, a studio back lot, somewhere else?).
Then … They drive out of Golden Gate Avenue in downtown San Francisco, captured here turning east on Market Street. The projecting marquee of the Granada Theater at 1066 Market Street can be seen in the block behind them near the corner of Jones.
… and Now, the same block today. The Granada Theater is no longer there; after being renamed the Paramount in 1931 it was demolished in 1965.
Then … They are on Market again. This view was filmed looking east from 1st Street towards the Ferry Building in the background. Note at top center the ‘MOISE’ sign on the corner of Fremont Street…
… in 1930 … Here’s a photo taken a few years later from the same spot. A city directory entry revealed that the ‘MOISE’ sign belonged to the Moise-Klinkner store that sold a mix of rubber stamps, badges and signs.
… and Now, the traffic nightmare omnipresent on Market Street over the past century has recently been exorcised by the simple expedient of restricting access to commuter vehicles and taxis. Dead center in the distance the Ferry Building still stands like a sentinel on the Embarcadero, visible along most of the 3-mile length of arrow-straight Market Street.
Then … Now heading north they are on Stockton Street entering the south portal of the Stockton Tunnel near Union Square. Market Street crosses at the south end of Stockton.
… and Now, the first block on the left was rebuilt in 1960 as the Sutter-Stockton garage.
Here’s a reverse look at the south entrance of the tunnel in 1953 seven years before the current Sutter-Stockton garage was built.
… and just for fun check out this cool 1913 photo of the tunnel being excavated. It opened in 1914 after taking only 17 months to build. People worked hard in those days. The building at top right at 590 Bush Street is also visible in the image above.
Then … We then see them emerging from the tunnel’s north portal into Chinatown.
… and Now, the north portal today looks the same.
Clarence arrives outside the Chronicle press room to find an angry crowd surrounding Tom, wrongly accusing him of starting the fire. He is hauled off to jail where he briefly sees Ray before being dragged off to his own cell.
Meanwhile the fire rages on while a growing crowd of onlookers gather where Market Street and Geary come together. Customers of Bercovich Cigars on the ground floor at 700 Market Street could conveniently head up to dentist Chas. Strub on the 3rd floor to take care of the yellow stains. The stylishly-hatted lady in white on the 2nd floor windowsill has the best view of all.
Then … Across Market another crowd stands in front of the Monadnock Building at 685 Market adjacent to the Palace Hotel.
… and Now, The Beaux Arts building, built the year after the ‘06 earthquake, now features in its atrium lobby colorful murals depicting in Renaissance Baroque style many well-known San Francisco personalities including Mayor Adolph Sutro, fountain donor Lotta Crabtree and Supervisor Harvey Milk.
For history buffs here’s a 1910 postcard photo of the Monadnock showing the original iteration of Lotta’s Fountain in the foreground.
(The next location shot lasts for less than two seconds but there’s enough in it to justify a dedicated post… read on… )
Tom, mortified by the Chronicle’s front page exposé of the bribery arrest of his son, tries to stop the presses but he’s knocked to the ground in a tussle with his boss.
Then … He imagines a busy downtown street, seen here through the doorway of a corner store as a cable car passes by. Lots of people are walking past a newsstand and in his mind’s eye he sees them all snapping up the Chronicle’s scandalous last edition.
… and Now, here’s what a time traveler standing in that doorway would see today. The view looks east across Powell Street along O’Farrell to Stockton (at the Macy’s sign). A cable car passes by just as it did, above, one hundred years ago. CitySleuth is delighted that the old low-tech cable cars are still running. May they always.
This location was confirmed by identifying the two buildings on either side of Stockton circled in red and in blue, and by the sign circled in green…
… Here are contemporaneous vintage photos of those two buildings. On the left, circled in blue above, is D. Samuels Lace House Company (today replaced by Macy’s store). On the right, circled in red above, is the City Of Paris store with its huge rooftop sign, (today replaced by a retail/residential building). In 1925 when the movie was filmed the KFRC radio station (you did spot its vertical blade sign above, right?) was broadcasting from this store. (Note that the City Of Paris occupied the whole Stockton block from Geary to O’Farrell back then - the photo shows at far left an identical rooftop sign at Geary Street.
In the movie shot the sign partially legible in the green circle reads “… INTON …IA”; it’s part of the Clinton’s Cafeteria sign mid-block at 136 O’Farrell, listed below in the 1925 city directory.
Just in case more confirmatory proof is needed … note that this location was a street junction where cable car lines crossed as evidenced by the glimpse of another cable car down the road, circled in red…
A cable car map of the system as it was after the 1906 earthquake confirms that the California Street Cable Railroad ran along O’Farrell across Powell (circled in yellow). This map is fascinating; it shows how extensive the system used to be, extending west to Golden Gate Park in the Richmond and south to Noe Valley before being cut back to today’s 3 surviving lines.
But wait, there’s more … kudos to ReelSF reader Notcom for pointing out that the headlines of the newspapers on the stand precisely date when this scene was filmed…
Two different newspapers report the death of politician William Jennings Bryan … the date was Monday, July 27, 1925.
And finally, this ad in a newspaper dated April 11, 1925 tells us that the corner store from which the scene was filmed was the Lundstrom Hat Company store; they had opened up there, their 9th location, just 6 weeks prior. Thanks to the vicissitudes of fashion, there aren’t many of those stores around any more.
Here, photographed the year the movie was filmed, is the actual newsstand that was at the Stockton/O’Farrell street junction. The photo indicates it was at the northeast corner which is kitty-korner from the southwest corner location in the movie shot but who knows, perhaps it was moved there during filming.
Enraged, Tom grabs a spanner intending as it were to throw it in the works.
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.
