(first posted 1/16/2017) Today we travel to San Francisco of the 1960s, via vintage.es. Nothing is more iconic than its cable cars, and here’s one heading down to Fisherman’s Pier, while a ’63 Chevy wagon struggles up the hill. Hope it’s not a six with Powerglide.
I see a Pontiac eight-lug finned wheel/brake drum there.
PCC street car, and a few of them are still in use.
The Fairmont Hotel has two upscale cars in front of it, but very differing ones. Behind the 1960 Cadillac is a Sunbeam Rapier hardtop coupe (CC here).
Facing west, towards the ocean and…the fog.
Some folks just don’t like to be photographed.
This looks to be in or near the Haight, which the hippies made their own starting about 1965-1966.
And of course Chinatown.
Great, there’s a lot more big American iron than I would have expected in SF at the time.
Although I do see my VW outside the China Bazaar 🙂
I’ll bet many of the early imports had more than they could handle with SF’s steep hills.
Hippies are a lot more attractive in the movies than they were in real life.
I want that carpet / tunic outfit, would look great at work.
That probably applies to more than just hippies. 🙂
At least in photos and movies you can’t smell them!
Actually, hippies didn’t smell any worse than anyone else spending a lot of time outside during the summer. And, contrary to detractors, they weren’t allergic to bathing. If anything, straight society back in the early 60’s was way more ‘clean freak’ then we are today.
As to the anti-photographers attitude, how would you like it for tourists to come thru your neighborhood and treat you like animals in the zoo?
Several very nice ’59 Fords, but I’m liking the ’67 Mercury Monterey convertible in the next to last photo the best.
There’s also a fair number of wagons of various sizes to be found here.
a Quinn Martin Production….!
Sorry could not resist!!
“Tonight’s episode – Eeeny, Meany, Miney….Murder”.
Starring Karl Malden and Michael Douglas…
Act 1, act 2, act 3, act 4 and epilogue….
I would think that a brake service garage in San Francisco would be a guaranteed money maker. The photos remind me of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 movie “Vertigo”, with newer cars.
I think I’ve posted this before–a 1955 travelogue, mostly in-town; the cars tell us that it’s a little earlier than Paul’s post (or Vertigo, for that matter): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-D05oPQUg0
Vertigo; great Jimmy, beautiful Kim, lovely San Francisco, and a perfect Desoto hardtop.
Good photos and I am surprised there are not more beat up cars to be seen considering the parking limitations. Was also trying to find cars from out of state. I assume the Smog was not as bad as LA.
Here is a photo from near Ocean Beach when I visited San Francisco last November.
Parking wasn’t nearly as bad back then.
Smog? SF has never had smog. Fog, yes, but not smog. it’s the same with all cities right on the Pacific coast: prevailing air movement is from the ocean, which is why it’s almost always cool and fresh. Or foggy.
In LA, the smog formed inland; we lived in Santa Monica in the late 70s, and the air there was great too, right next to the beach. But heading inland, it got worse and worse. The worst was in the inland valleys, like San Bernardino, 60 miles in.
Because the mountains in the IE form a bowl, and onshore flow combined with the temperature inversions that are so common in the summer act like a lid on the bowl. The smog has nowhere to go. On the other hand, the lack of inversions in the winter (or a good offshore flow other times, aka Santa Anas) makes the IE crystal clear, which is one of the reasons why winter was my favorite time of the year in the IE.
I remember as a kid we had some days that were “3rd stage smog alerts”, it you were running or swimming your lungs would actually hurt. We lived in Norwalk about 15 miles inland. I know its gotten much better since then, I moved to Phoenix in 1999, air is pretty good here but at times we also have ozone alerts and no burn days.
Thank you for the info.
Although my father taught me to turn the wheels toward the curb facing downhill and away from the curb facing up hill – just in case – this was not a law when I started driving on the relatively flat land of Long Island.
But in San Francisco, it is not only the law (on curbed streets with a grade greater than 3 percent or 1.72 degrees) but that the properly turned front tires must be touching the curb.
Makes a lot of sense, especially looking at those hills and the potential damage a runaway vehicle could cause. Perhaps even more so with some people’s confusion with the recent Monostable shift levers/devices – or whatever one calls them – in late model vehicles.
Not all automotive innovations are an improvement – especially changes to actions many drivers do by habit rather than by functional intent.
Great pictures! These remind me that I have some Kodachrome slides of a trip my parents took to SF in 1965. I need to get them scanned.
I would imagine that those 8 lug Pontiac wheels with the exposed finned brake drums had a fairly high take rate in a hilly place like SF, at least in the days before discs became available. Brake fade would be no fun there.
Terrific pics, makes me want to break out my Bullitt DVD. I haven’t written blog or posted to CC in ages, but I’ve been busy working for Caffeine & Octane, the biggest monthly car show in the South, if not whole country! If anyone here happens to come to the show, let me know. Let’s meet in person, we are working on so many interesting projects.
Always a treat! I lived in San Francisco through most of the 1970s, first right off Haight on Schrader, then in an apt on Hayes near the Civic Center/Opera House. Most of the years were in a flat on 17th St between Dolores & Guerrero.
Only once ever did I experience brake fade, in the ’57 Austin Healey I bought there. I was happily enacting a scene from Bullitt, accelerating DOWN Stanyan St. By the time I got to Lombard, it was taking a fair amount of pedal pressure to retard forward momentum! I parked the car inside the garage at Cow Hollow Motor Inn where a friend was working, and when I came back an hour or so later, it reeked of overcooked brakes, and continued to do so for about another six days!
On the First of April, I’ll celebrate thirty-nine (39) years of ownership with that same Healey (BN6L/942). Someday, I hope to revisit San Francisco, but it won’t be in the Healey (or any of the MGBs I owned while I lived there) but maybe in an BMW M Coupe or M Rdstr 😉
The Healey on a test drive in Golden Gate Park, and in front of Austin-Healey West, on Shipley St/Alley(parallel to Folsom, between 3rd & 4th Sts).
https://scontent.ftpa1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/11109824_10153247867123291_6550466747692621628_n.jpg?oh=df591c0e7158022c332e1d355db2954f&oe=59137F44
https://scontent.ftpa1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/11035971_10153247867083291_6408442346220461499_n.jpg?oh=8d4d64c5cb70549c6b77879dd0c5eded&oe=590AEAF1
Were did you get the British licence plates from?. They would be illegal in the Uk as you have turned a 57 registered car in to a 72. “AW” is the Ipswich area of Suffolk .
Another soundtrack who could fit as well and also composed by Lalo Schifrin.
Memories indeed! I’m native San Franciscan, spent some boyhood years in and around Salem, OR, then back to SF again. I learned to drive on those hills. Curbing your wheels, the direction depending on uphill or downhill, was taken for granted; you didn’t trust parking pawls. There were even “Curb Your Wheels” signs on the steeper streets. But Powerglide was fine even on that two-block Hyde Street hill. It would stay in first all the way up, with the throttle far open!
Parking on those hills almost got me once. It was the block past (downhill from) the very curvy part of Lombard St, very steep downhill. Parking there is nose in, not parallel and I saw a spot open on my left. Turned the wheel on my manual tranny car and almost made it into the space, but not quite. Oh oh. I gotta put it in reverse, let off the clutch and go from brake to gas, backing up the very steep hill, all without stalling or moving forward toward the parked car 2 inches from my front bumper. I shortened the life of my clutch that day but I’ve never felt more relieved to get out of a car.
Perfect escape at the start of another day at work. CC and coffee or nothing’s happening…
I like the collection of images. I also like SF and hope to make it back one day for another ride on the streetcar pictured.
Some sweet wagons in those pics, especially that red Falcon and that light blue metallic Chevy II 🙂 .
I have an unexplained craving for Rice a Roni.
Or Tony Bennett.
It’s a shame the cost of living in/around San Francisco has gotten so astronomical that the majority of Americans of normal means will never get the opportunity to experience the city. I vaguely recall reading that the rent for Bullitt’s actual apartment is something like $12k/mo. It’s one of my favorite places but could never afford to live there.
This was an interesting report from a disgusted Harry Reasoner in 1967. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFBZaKmkQvk
Great photos – I guess its just my age but I had similar thoughts when I saw these; James Stewart following Kim Novack’s Jaguar as she drives around before going to his apartment in Vertigo, and Steve McQueen barreling over some crest in pursuit of the ’68 Charger in Bullitt.
I see at least four 62 Pontiacs, including 2 white ones in the third photo. Next to the one on the left in this photo is a decade-older (or more) Chevy.
3 white 62 Pontiacs! How cool is that! A wagon even!
This brings back memories! I visited San Francisco for a couple of weeks in the summer of 1970 and then lived there from spring ’74 to summer ’77. When I’d been there for a couple of weeks in ’74, I tried to take one of the hills in 3rd gear in my Fiat 128—what was I thinking? It didn’t go so well.
If the cars themselves didn’t date the photos, the “Your assurance of a clean carburetor” billboard would!
In ’75 or ’76 an old friend of mine who’d lived in Toronto for a while moved to the Bay Area. Around this time Toronto sold some of their PCC cars to the San Francisco Municipal Railway. One day we were walking around downtown, and one of the Toronto-sourced streetcars went by. I asked my friend if the colors looked familiar to her.
One day a tourist asked me where he could catch a streetcar. I took him at his word and directed him to the streetcar terminal downtown. I later learned that tourists often say streetcar when they mean cable car.
I first set foot in The City in 1970 when visiting from San Diego. My father then took a new job in the Ferry Building July 1972. I personally found The City boring compared to San Diego and the great beaches. So to pass the time I would drive over to The City, from Orinda, around 2300 hours to just drive the streets. Drove many of them from the Marina and North Beach all the way down to Hunter’s Point. When summer ended it was back to SDSU till 1977.
When I started grad school at UC Berkeley I knew I was up for four years so I might as well get to know The City better and I did. That point from 1977-2000 was a great fun time. Lived in a flat, 1989-2000, at 21st between Clement and California. Some of the sights pictured I recall from those drives of mine at night. Fine tuned my ability with a stick on those hills after my disaster on First St. between Folsom and Harrison.
I haven’t set foot in The City since 2009 though. Frankly it is not The City it once was. All character, unique to each district, is or has disappeared. Tech and the money rush in the city has erased what was San Francisco. Since I have seen all the sights there is nothing there any longer.
Correction early 1989 on 21st cause I was there for Loma Prieta.
Great photos. Couple cars I can’t id.
First photo. What is the gold convertible to the left of the Chevy wagon.
The toll booth photo. Middle of the shot, between the 64 Ford & the 56 Chevy there is a smaller car. English Ford maybe?
Opel or Vauxhall–maybe. I’m no more confident than you are.
I want to say ’63 Skylark, but it’s not quite the same. I’m stumped.
It’s an Opel Rekord P1, which was sold fairly well in the US from 1957-1960.
I think the gold convertible in the first shot is a 63 Buick Skylark, as Paul said, or the same year Olds F-85 Cutlass.
Great pics, especially the night Chinatown shot.
Good thing the little blue Rambler is pointing downhill for an easy getaway!
Returned from a trip to SF in mid-December..those hills have not gotten any easier to walk or drive!
Cheers
The Cable Car Museum has this video playing on a loop. While the main point is to explain how cable cars work, it is full of great street scenes of San Francisco circa 1984. And also a huge dose of ’80s campiness.
The shiny “blue, Rambler” makes me happy!!
The “Buick, cousin” was the really “gaudy, grotesque” version. (imo)
That being said, stretch the Buick out to the “wagon iteration”; looks not too shabby.
The “Olds”, versions are all nice looking.
Photo #6 = 1958 Oldsmobile? Seems kinda crazy-Baroque nowadays, but pretty darned striking here in the early-ish 1960s:
+1 for “the shiny blue Rambler”
I spent a year, 1990-91 as a research fellow at UCSF with a lab at San Francisco General Hospital on Potrero and lived in the Inner Sunset near the “N” Judah line within walking distance of the main hospital, not long after the earthquake (the Embarcadero was still a huge smush of concrete around the city). I seldom ever needed to drive in the City–shuttles, cable cars, the MUNI and occasionally the buses. I bought a mountain bike (Bianchi Osprey, Shimano X-1 gearset) that had no fear of hills. I remember that the old cars, particularly VW Beetles, seemed so pristine–nothing had rust. On street parking was a hassle because of the weekly street sweeping (it made going out of town trips somewhat problematic but I found a work around), and for the year I had an out-of-state plate on my ’82 Toyota (the hills of the City were a good place to refine manual clutching skills at stop signs); I’m proud of the fact I survived the entire year there without getting a single parking ticket. Even then, I listened to attendings complain how unaffordable it was to buy property in the city though the rents at the time were not unreasonable to me as a post-grad. I enjoyed my time on the west coast. With all the dot-com money there, I’m surprised anyone who isn’t upper upper middle class can afford to live there anymore. The one thing I miss most is riding the cable cars.
San Francisco: Old Indian term for, “My clutch is burnt…”
During my first visit to SF, there was a small Asian woman holding a late-model Honda Civic at a hilltop junction by revving the engine and slipping the clutch. Brake lights not lit; I guess she wasn’t confident in her ability to proceed uphill from a stop. I can see (smell) it in my mind’s eye (nose) as though it happened yesterday.
Spent much time in SAN FRANCISCO in 80s through early 2000s. Usually had Town Car for a rental. Going up hills, huge hood blocked view as approached Crest of hill. A little scary, but almost felt like big luxury liner was about to be launched into the air! 😉.😎