San Francisco (1955 Cinemascope film) 

I lived on 27th and Anza Street as a child. I was born in 1968 so I only remember the abandoned and dilapidated version of this. But my parents used to tell me stories about how they went there on their first dates and all the fun they used to have

Now it's heavenly homeless.

@@fjm1991 ooo neato! Is that some new ride or attraction?

I cry along with you. Weekend liberties from ET school werent numerous or long enuf. Great memories of the Planetarium, the museum and Strawberry Lake; and a few visits to "The Port 'O Call" (maybe spelled wrong but its been 65 years). The conditions I see in videos of the city now do not compare to what I remember walking 8+ mi up Market St to the park in 58. How could they have done what they have done.?

I lived on 27 st n church on the late 70s early 80s what wonderful memories: I had a examiner route from Chenery st n 30th all the way to 24th n church st

Ray Lat It’s a little difficult to “ clean” an entire city when I live thousands of miles away and am a CEO, not a cleaning woman! What a sophomoric, inane comment to make. Keep mopping those floors at McDonald’s and good luck with that G.E.D. You need to study humor because you certainly don’t understand it!

So wonderful to see the native San Franciscans remember and cherished their favorite city I visited San Francisco, many times during my childhood, but I wasn't even born there. I hope they know that they are as much part of what San Francisco, was and hopefully San Francisco will once be beautiful again with no homeless encampment and no drugged people. And certainly NO MORE LITTER.

​@@conniecrawford5231 ur recording a self reflection of what U are telling Ur inner cellular record what U communicate about ur cells ATP Kreb cycle to keep compressing ur own cellular Software coded Black Mirror to expose ur own record by what U communicate to urself that others learn who U really are Thanks for exposing ur identity Mu ah 💋🌈💜🌋 Let it go Just let it go

My Dad did and my mom in San Mateo, and it was magical.

@@DeanF San Mateo!!!

I wasn't born until 73.. but my childhood memories are a San Francisco like this... below sutro garden, there on the big rock "Playland By the Beach" painted above a big clown face. I knew I was born too late

@Donald and Hillary Trump The tour.

When I was 8yrs old in 1957, in Fisherman’s Wharf my Sister & I bought striped round prisoners hats that said “Vacationing at Alcatraz” on the front!

Yes, it was - the the federal government closed it in 1963. -Tony Arioli

Alcatraz was closed in 1963.

@@robertsmith1860 I had T shirts marked 'Alcatraz Swim Team'

I grew up there during that time too. Even the public schools were pristine, well stocked and the education was first-rate. We were so lucky!

@@SusannahPerri that time has gone forever, unfortunately

too bad ya'll voted Democrat.

@@leoraroman7656 Indeed.

I was there in 1960 while serving in the US Navy remember it very well..then ..sad to see what’s become of it now….

The planks on the piers were crumbling.

Wish it was that nice now, it's just a dump now

@@williampendergast128 Literally... people are "dumping" all over the streets now. Watch where you step!

Its still a beautiful place

Right-wing propaganda. I'd take SF any day over some red state dump.

that time has gone forever, unfortunately

You forgot to inject the homeless, drug addicts, prostitutes in your Civic Center area… SF is a shell of what it once was. Democrats turn everything to shyte

Beautiful

There was also a Playland on Rockaway Beach in NYC during the Mad Men era. It closed in the 1980s. There were 3 amusement parks in the borough of Queens, NYC. And the only one left is in Coney Island Beach.

Micheal Landon nailed it when he said drugs would ruin this country.

Could people speak English then? I visited this summer, the Airport info staff could hardly help, and the hotel staff were the same! What happened?

then came the drugs and ...ya sad very sad

"Can't imagine why folks today don't dress well. We have a responsibility as citizens to better society by behaving and looking proper." My initial reaction to that was... "People need to find their own reasons to dress well." But then, I extrapolated that reasoning to... "Can't imagine why folks don't wear a mask and get vaccinated during a pandemic. We have a responsibility as citizens to prevent the spread of Covid by masking up and vaxxing up." I certainly would not react to that by saying... "People need to find their own reasons to wear a mask and get vaccinated during a pandemic." So should the pandemic of "not dressing well" since the 1960's be compared to the pandemic of Covid-19?

XXtheJUMPoffXX It’s shit today!!

@@hectormoran8249 YOU ARE SHIT, BOY.

Lots of it is still there. Some things have changed.. When the Cable Car is going over Nob Hill, you can see an old Chevron Station, which was across the street from Grace Cathedral, that's now The Masonic.

San Francisoc was known as the BEAUTIFUL BIG AMEEICAN CITY. Not New York...ever😞

The World is the same. It's Human Beings that have changed.

Its all still there. except for PlayLand

Surprise, you're no longer a child. It's the memories we keep that are important.

There are so many beautiful things still waiting to be seen and visited in San Francisco! Sure the world of 1955 is gone now but the city survives. When you seek out and enjoy it in 2022, the differences will melt away.

I was nine years old in 1955. Born and raised on 42nd Ave and Ulloa. We could walk to the zoo and the beach. The zoo was free admission back then. Sometimes we could hear the Howler monkeys Howling, or the Peacocks screaching, and the train whistle from our house. A few years later my friends and I could ride our bicycles to G.G. park to see the Aquarium an DeYoung museum, or Playland or Sutros baths (before it burned down) and the Cliff House. A great time to grow up in “The City.”

that time has gone forever, unfortunately

Post-war, Baby Boomer America might have been the greatest period in our country's history. It's extremely sad to watch this footage and compare it with the city of today. It's like viewing a different planet.

@r3alrand0m So, you live in Sacramento?

No way the country will ever be the same again. Sure it was far from ideal back then, that's life anywhere, but U.S. cities have declined to such an extent with ever increasing homeless, drug addicts, obesity in the average citizen, lack of civic pride etc., the "golden age" in now forever in the past.

@@paullewis2413 that true I'm afraid the golden age is gone forever

Good luck on that one

Sister Diane😃I'm a 1952 baby too!.. ( from Daly city) .🌹

@@johnmorgan2619 I’ve lived in the Bay Area all my life. My dad lived in Daly City for a time

@@corvettedm1 ... didn't get to D.C.". until I was 5.. . Went to JEFFERSON HIGH . grad"..in 1970.. . HUGE difference.. Looks like old parts of S.F"..😳

Shooting on Sunday morning will do that.

Man everything looks so peaceful

About the same population now as there was before

How about the two way traffic on the upper span on the bay bridge? The lower span had trains.

And no median guard rail on Hospital Curve.

Yeah, because you can totally believe a film from the '50s, meant to encourage tourism, will tell you the whole story of how it was back then...lol.

You said it WAS!!!! now it's garbage full of traffic homeless and expensive as FUCK....

@@CesarHernandez-gn4sy san francisco has always, I mean always, had that problem. Well, not right after the place burned down.

Ken Bob not a tourism film. Advertisement for the Bell & Howell Filmorama camera and lens. Camera companies do this all the time. Obv can’t be depressing, but definitely not a tourism video.

Paula Harris Baca now it’s just blue hair and tear gas

They cleaned the sewage from the Bay and dumped it in the Tenderloin.

Bay is cleaner, but not so much the sidewalks.

??? The sewage some how made it in land to the streets of San Francisco now! San Francisco now is a lot dirtier for it citizens who walk the streets!

@@Agent77X It's Nancy Pelosi's district. How can she tell anyone how to run the Country when she can't help her district. She should be forced to fall on the sword.

@@dredned relax dood, we actually have lots of beautiful districts you might try visiting sometime instead of watching filtered propaganda designed to reinforce biases.

This is how my generation feels about the '90s-the new '50s. Comfortable, clean, and nice compared to today.

@A Tangerine No, that just shows you how much society has fallen, in terms of eloquence. The more I learn about my genealogy, the more I realize that my Great-Grandfather, born 1900, was the hardest worker of my family, and that trait trickled down each generation. He is of the same generation as your grandfather. If anything you should take away from your perception, is that your grandfather is right, just like you are. Saying one person is wrong, and another person is right, over the same issue, in different consecutive timelines, is asinine. Is is the same problem continuing, over time.

@@Enigmatism415 by the 90s we were in trouble , i think the last great period to be alive was up to late 80s

@@cnfuzz Whatever trouble we had in the '90s, specifically the Clinton reign, was nothing compared to what was to come. It was the last decade where Brick & Mortar ruled absolutely, and the World Wide Web was but an optimistic niche curiosity.

Yea, I remember when you could just jump on a cable car to get to anther part of the city, those days are long gone.

Karen Cohen I live in San Rafael now. Moved here in 1965. Our rent in Cow Hollow was about to shoot up to $165 dollars a month so Mom bought our house here. The only time I (I’m 65) spend anytime in the City is when my son takes me to a Giants game at AT&T. Otherwise it doesn’t exist for me. I still love it in my memories of the 1950s and 1960s. Nowadays I just want to keep my distance.and admire it from a distance. Remember the Colonial Bakery vans? They followed us up here to Marin. Like an old familiar friend. But then they disappeared along with the milkman and rinsing out milk bottles. Those were the days!

Shizue Hicks I grew up in Bret Harte area of San Rafael in the 60s I remember it also was wonderful there also

My family lived in San Francisco when I was born, in North Beach and Twin Peaks. how different it is now. Still beautiful, still great, but ALOT more cars and people. there's alot more trees now. Sad that the DeYoung Museum and Steinhart Aquarium were torn down. The new museum doesn't have the same elegance.

I'm still here and I do that at least once every day.

Karen Cohen yes SF was very beautiful back then and it is still now

East of...................

@@death2pc East is correct.

My thoughts; exactly. Mostly the same, but more crowded.

This sums it up perfectly! So much remains the same but yes, more tourists, more Uber’s, more crowded these days. I still love SF.

I thought the same thing. Not a whole lot has really changed, but of course, the downtown area would be unrecognizable if someone from 1955 were to appear in 2019.

Folk flocked to Dan Francisco because of its tolerance for diversity. Unlike Los Angeles San Francisco looked like a BIG CITY but clean unlike frightening New York😞

@K I think you're right, K. We are always nostalgic for times before our own. I lived in SF many years ago (1984-1992) and slowly had to give up my hold on the city and let it go. Think of how many hundreds of thousands of people have come and gone from that once-great city!

Safeway...lol Yep. What I missed seeing here was the 'Fun House' and the 'Laughing Lady' at its entrance.

@@gregparrottlaughing Sally

@@Fcukthedems Ah yes. You have a good memory.

@@gregparrott did you go to Topsys Roost?

@@Fcukthedems I don't remember that name, so I looked it up. As best I can tell, that was closed long before I was born. (In other words, I'm not THAT old.)

O. W. Have you ever stepped in any human feces?

Olivia Who Knows , it's a complete disaster area. Embarrassment to humanity. Deep down you know this is true.

matt6360 with that logic many things are very wrong and shameful

O. H. W.: The SF area has long led the radical march toward socialism in America, and is suffering the inescapable impacts thereof. Sadly no amount of “love or cleaning” will cure what is destroying it from within. It’s a cancer that’s systematically consumed the initiative, determination, and drive of everyday people causing those folks able to escape, to relocate away from the area. This has left only the very rich who are able to insulate themselves from the resultant mayhem and filth on the streets, and of course, those many thousands of the permanent underclass who are living in absolute squalor, or in subsidized areas largely dependent on government assistance. Often these two are the ones who because of their sad conditions, are routinely causing mayhem and contributing to the filth on the streets. If you want to clean up SF, you’ll need to reject socialism, communism, globalism and the like, and begin making people individually accountable as they were in 1955. Return to teaching kids the fundamentals in schools and eliminating all remnants of Socialist philosophy in secondary and higher education while encouraging prayer in the schools again. This won’t be easy given all the many footholds established by Satan there, but its a simple blueprint that will pay dividends. Good luck, and God bless!

Sorry but SF is a city that allows public defacation, public drug consumption and trash in its streets...but their focus is banning vaping. Something that keeps cig butts off the already filthy streets despite what you feel about it. Skewed priorities, just like my city of Los Angeles.

You hate it, but once you've had it you can't live without it

@@tablo1394 ???????????????????

@@leoinsf When people first move in the city can feel overwelmkng, but once you've been there for a bit it's hard to leave

@@tablo1394 Tablo: I agree completely!! The weather, the location, etc. makes San Francisco completely addictive!

Was William Randolph Hearst from San Francisco?

That was a terrible scandal. A real estate shark bought the land and promised an elegant boulevard like the French Riviera. Instead they built some tacky townhouses.

Remember Laughing Sal above the entrance to the Funhouse, and the big wooden slide where an attendant would give you a burlap sack to sit on for the ride down? - Tony Arioli

Loved the outside slide with the burlap sacks you had to sit on.

@@yoncalla44 --- Laughing Sal is at Fisherman's Wharf now.

Penny Arcade is not at Fisherman's Warf, thankfully it was preserved.

The film is okay the way it is it doesn't need any tampering.

I don’t think the gang running SF is into the past other than possibly history revision.

I was born in San Francisco in 1947. A great city then. Miss those times.

@@dr.migalitoloveless1651 The film is deteriorated. It could stand to be restored.

@@johnhoward3042 Spot on. If anything, they'd prefer this evidence be destroyed.

Best Crab Sandwiches bar none.

Aliotos crab is mm mmm the best. Served properly in the restaurant with a glass of chilled white wine and the famous sourdough, is a special treat.

@@bogieboog you got that right. Nothing beats Dungeness crab and sourdough French bread 🦀🥖

John, You nail it! I feel the same way. We got here in 68' it was such a nice time then. This video brings back good memories. Vertigo was Da Bomb! Still is to me. Cheers my Friend!

I drove cab in "The City" for 30+ years. I always told my riders I learned my driving skills at the bumper cars at Playland. Thing is, it's true...

You are a very lucky man. I have wanted to live there most of my adult life and one thing or another kept me in New Jersey. Now it’s just too expensive and out of my grasp. I am so sad because it truly feels like “home“ when I am there and yet money (well, lack thereof) is standing between me and my dream. I play the lottery in hopes of winning a few million so I can move there. Appreciate every minute because despite all of the negative comments that everyone has, there are still plenty of people would love to live there!

It really was with all the hills and CLEANESS😍

I was born and raised in Pittsburgh (1953). In 1977 I visited San Francisco and fell in love with this city! Moved here in 1978 and still love it. It's my home.

seriousearthling I remember the Woolworth’s cheesecake,Blue Waltz perfume, the deli counter.

@@donnaaveni Yes! Blue Waltz perfume! Now that's a trip down memory lane.

The world's most beautiful city.

Wow, you are so fortunate. I moved to San Francisco, in 1993 after experiencing hell in Concord. And I never knew how wonderful it was before the homeless took control of everything. I wish it could go back to being beautiful once again. I was born in New York City, in 1965 and by then in 1955, I think my mom was uh, in high school or boarding school, or something. I don't recall It because I wasn't born during that year.

Ethnic Chinese were prohibited from buying any real estate outside of Chinatown when this film was made. The ordinance was finally repealed in 1960.

@K Chinatown was the one geographical region deeded by the city government and private property owners which allowed Chinese people to inherit and inhabit dwellings. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Chinese_Americans_in_San_Francisco

@K Born, raised, and still live in.

@K The Chinese Historical Society of America has exhibits at 965 Clay Street and online at chsa.org/ . Their new permanent exhibition _Chinese American: Exclusion/Inclusion_ chronicles the complex history of the Chinese in America, from the early days of the China trade to the history of Chinese immigration and the life of Chinese Americans. The exhibit is a recent gift from the Museum of Chinese in America. NBC Bay Area featured CHSA in a four-part episode at chsa.org/2017/01/nbc-features-chsa-in-the-story-of-chinese-american-immigrants-in-the-bay-area/ Paper Sons and Angel Island Immigration Station ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Hhc-om3SXKw.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-OMVzI4xpPp4.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-f_EQY-0ThOM.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZnpgiUY5ip4.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-RtQYhNuIXxQ.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-cW6f96SgknY.html If you have relatives who were detained at Angel Island Immigration Station, those records are preserved at the National Archives in San Bruno. www.archives.gov/research/chinese-americans/guide The San Francisco History Center on the 6th floor of the SF Main Public Library is a good resource for San Francisco history. sfpl.org/locations/main-library/sf-history-center

And most of the restaurants there had signs advertising "Chop Suey," a Euro-American concoction. The restauranteurs started changing these signs to read "Chinese Cuisine" around 1967.

That screeching was dubbed-in sound effects. Unless you were driving really fast, there was no screeching (just the rattling of driving on bricks). The REAL eye opener was just 2 blocks south - Filbert street. Mid block it abruptly transitions from level to one of the steepest streets in the city. Anything over ~10mph and cars goes airborne. I launched over it several times as a teen in the '60's. I finally got 'wise' about how dangerous that was and stopped doing it. But then, 'Bullet' came out, and we did our best to copy the Steve McQueen stunts. This too was dangerous - but at least you could see what was ahead. In contrast, on Filbert, all you saw was your hood (horizontal), until the car landed on a STEEP downhill. So many copied the McQueen bit that the city installed barriers to prevent us from taking the hard left turn at the bottom of the roller coaster section. I laugh now, just thinking about it.

Agreed! 😳😆

How about that scary ride LIMBO ☠️🎢🎡

That was new to me. I remember Playland well, but not the tram.

@@robert3302 Me too, I showed up in 1966, and I do have some stories...

I never knew about the Sky Tram" WE lived in DALY City I was two YRS old" then.. Still learning things" 67 now. Born in 52. Born Again in 1980" .GOD BLESS..JOHN 3:16 LOL..Oneday" I'll be looking" About 30" or so FOREVER'😉

And in June or July of 1966, Sutro Bath burned to the ground, and just 6 years later, Playland at the Beach would be closed forever on Labor Day, and later razed & demolished 😫😩😡

Also when admission to the first two you mentioned was free. -Tony Arioli

I used to go to camp at the Jewish Community Center, in the late '60s. They offered day camps during the summer... basketball, tye dying, trips to Stinson Beach and Half Moon Bay... had a great time there as a kid.

@K Is it true that your streets are mass public latrines?

@@badreality2 No - a lot of right-wing propaganda.

@@yoncalla44 That seems like some "shitty" propaganda. lol

Francisco Venegas jr. My grandfather worked for the SF newspaper in charge of circulation back then.

I used to love the Giants as a kid. My dad took me to my first baseball game at Seals Stadium right after the Giants moved to the City. When this film opens one of the first things I spotted were the stadium lights just to the left of the freeway. Some of the coldest nights of my life were at night games at Candlestick Park. Precious memories.

And the area to the southeast of it (now called Diamond Heights) was open, except for a couple of radio antennas.

Judi - there's a great little book you should take a look at: "San Francisco Bay Cities" by Josef Muench. It was published by Hastings House in 1947, and is chock-full of photos of the city (black and white) that were taken in 1946. -Tony Arioli

@@yoncalla44 You post a lot of interesting comments which you attribute to Tony Arioli. Who is he? Did he write a book about S.F.?

Moscow vs. S.F. What a contrast! I was in the south Bay during the Loma Prieta quake. My parent's house in S.F was modestly damaged. Can you recommend any RU-vid or other videos which highlight Moscow and how it beats S.F.? (long history will be one aspect)

Even I can see the 1940’s cars driving by too.

Rob G. Actually, no vagrants. They would have been picked up. Mission Street and Folsom Street had plenty of flop houses. Fifty cents a night. Those were the days. Gas was 15 cents a gallon at Chevron and 12 cents a gallon at the Regal gas stations. We were so spoiled.

I was born in San Francisco in 1950, and very well could have been walking down Market St with my mother at the time this film was shot, as I would have been 5 years old and my mother and I used to take the bus downtown from our home near Mission/Valencia frequently and have lunch at the Woolworths lunch counter.. Great to see SF in its heyday.. So damn sad to hear how its gone to seed nowadays...

Rob G. You wouldn't have been running around with the ball cap beard and tee shirt. You would have frightened people. Back then only men running from the law hid behind a beard.

@@shizuehicks7442 BS. There were plenty of wine-os on the street.

Carmen Peters I agree. They stuck to the area around Market Street, Mission & Folsom Streets. Plenty of $2 a night flophouses so not as many homeless. Nothing like now.

You got that right! They have completely destroyed that City.

That’s because it is!!! Liberals make all poor people poorer, and rich people richer! Just like San Fran and L.A.

@@omi_god You know you are wrong. If it was simply greed , why is EVERY poor city Deomcrat run. The only big city in CA without a homeless problem is San Diego. Guess the party of the mayor

Vikram Parmar bigger cities make democrats. Bigger cities also happen to make homeless problems. They are not related. San Diego is not big enough to be subject to this effect, elsewhere it would, but it’s location is overshadowed by LA

@@tablo1394 why do bigger cities make democrats? is there a reason that you can think of? ...perhaps the ultra-wealthy in these cities would like to create chaos and poverty, allowing them to keep their upper class status. And what party would be the perfect one to create disasters? Venezuela, soviet Union, China....the list goes on and on....