Quote:
Originally Posted by
Manton 
It's the original rotunda from the old City of Paris department store. As late as the 70s, Union Square was still ringed by native SF institutions, including CofP and I. Magnin. When CofP closed in (I believe) '75, Neiman's wanted to replace the whole building, but preservationists forced them to retain the rotunda. The rest of the facade is new, or was new to Neiman's. (BTW, it is a couple of blocks from the Palace, which is actually on the south side of Market.)
Back then, even a few private houses remained on the square. I dimly recall visiting a house on Stockton, at the east side of the square, where the mother of one of my father's law partners lived alone. Or, really, not one of his partners because at the time he was not a partner. Anyway, she was an intimidating old dowager. I could have the location wrong, but I don't think so, because he and I have spoken about it in more recent years.
It's in there. There are also great shots of the "McKitrick Hotel," a/k/a Carlotta Valdez's house, at Eddy & Gough. The movie was filmed shortly before the house was torn down. The pictures were taken just after the film, and right before demolition. Today, the lot is a soccer field.
That water is unbelievably dangerous. If the tide sucks you out even a little bit, you are going to have a problem. Sailing out the gate, while a hell of a lot of fun, has a delightful element of danger, in that if you pitch into the drink between the towers, over the channel, you are probably not coming out. The water is like 300 feet deep in the channel, and the sides are steep as hell, and that narrow gauge combined with the tides means that the water zips in and out of there at incredibly high speeds.
There is a guy who is convinced that he lives in Dashiell Hammet's Tenderloin apartment, where he wrote The Maltese Falcon. He can't prove it, but he makes a good circumstantial case.
Fascinating.
Now New York City of course would have countless sites from countless movies filmed there, but you might know this. 650 Madison Avenue, now the location where Ralph Lauren is headquartered, is the office building Cary Grant walks out of in the opening scene of North by Northwest. Correct? I've seen the onset stills and it's as clear as day, but as with all of these things, it's good to get further confirmation and agreement because you can easily miss something.
