Released in 1941, this black and white theatrical short subject from Columbia Pictures offers a travelogue view of San Francisco, featuring a brisk montage of urban exteriors. Popular tourist attractions including Chinatown, the Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman’s Wharf, and The Japanese Tea Garden are depicted, along with long-gone entertainment districts and restaurants. Pan Am’s Boeing 314 “California Clipper” flying boat also makes an appearance. The film was produced by legendary non-fiction filmmaker Andre De LaVarre (TRT: 10:39).
Columbia Pictures logo and opening titles. “A Columbia Tour, San Francisco: Metropolis of the West” (0:07). A panorama of San Francisco from a scenic overlook, from the ocean to the bay, with architecture dotting the foreground (0:27). Urban architecture and city skyscrapers, including the Shell Building (0:54). An elevated view of Market Street. From the ground, pedestrians are seen reflected in storefront windows. Crowded streetcars pass up and down the street. A cable car is rotated by hand on a circular table (1:22). Steel hills and staircases of the city. Feet walk down a staircase. Cars park on challenging inclines (2:27). Chinatown. Signage: “Chong Chinese Bazar.” Lanterns, pagodas, the Old Chinese Telephone Exchange building. Chinese-American children (2:55). Window Shopping. Chinatown at night, illuminated by neon signs: “Chop Suey, Chinese Food” (3:30). Golden Gate Bridge seen from a variety of angles. A steam ship passes below the bridge. The Bay Bridge connects to Oakland. Empty piers (4:04). Shipping at the Embarcadero and a line of late 1930s cars passing through (5:01). The International Settlement, a then-new entertainment district located along a one block stretch of Pacific Avenue between Kearny and Montgomery Streets. The Monaco Hotel. The Covered Wagon advertises cocktails. Bernstein’s features the bow of a ship built into the storefront. Narration invokes the “Barbary Coast.” The Joe DiMaggio Grotto (5:21). A banner: “Welcome, World Famous Fishermen’s Wharf.” A sign: “Fisherman’s Grotto,” and a parking lot along the waterfront. A harbor of small ships. Pier 43 ½. Crabs and shellfish are served from a steaming cauldron at an outdoor market (5:46). The yacht harbor shows docked vessels. A closeup on a Chinese ship, the Mon Lei Aberdeen. A Boeing 314 Pan Am Clipper flying boat (NC18602) taxis away, with the Bay Bridge in the background, a man in a captain’s hat in the foreground (6:25). The location is likely Benton Field, also known as the China Clipper flight departure site. Pan Am used the yacht harbor as their California terminal for trans-Pacific flights beginning in 1935. The luxury California Clipper in flight among a foggy, clouded sky (7:01). Fog veils panoramic landscapes of San Francisco (7:15). Clear skies reveal residential areas. Montage: Mansions with doric columns, modest homes, and hillside Gothic Revival architecture (7:33). A pet duck, “Cicero, Quackmaster of Golden Gate Park.” The Japanese Tea Garden (8:08). The Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial monument and statue in Portsmouth Square. Sutro Heights Park features battlements with parapets, cannons, and classical stone statues. Statues’s POV of the beach below (8:42). The Palace of Fine Arts (9:02). Mission Dolores and the Legion of Honor Fine Arts Museum (9:17). The United States Mint. The Civic Center, seen at a distance, with beds of flowers in the adjacent park. City Hall and its dome (9:33). “The End” with the Columbia logo (10:26).
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
