I was going through a box of old photos at home, and found some stuff that should fit in here at Curbside Classic. All photos except one (the one with me in it) taken by me. Here’s a street scene I captured in Toronto in late 1976.
I’ll let a local identify the location. It was my first visit to Canada in winter and it was tough for this native Californian. I flew on to Toronto to visit family after interviewing for an engineering job at Ford in Dearborn. Dearborn was as cold and gray and gloomy as Toronto, without the urban appeal. When I graduated the following Spring, I took a job in California and have stayed here my entire life. Over the years, I often thought that accepting the offer I got from Ford might have been good for my development, personally and professionally. But I’ll never know …
Also in winter, but probably about ten years earlier and this time in California. Tailgating with our friends after a day of snow play. That’s me in the blue jacket standing next to our 1964 Volvo wagon. Our friends also had a VW Beetle, which I have vague memories of riding on the shelf behind the back seat. Here though, they have their 1956 (I think) Plymouth wagon. My dad’s sitting on the Volvo tailgate so my mom was no doubt the photographer. My older sister was probably trying to get far away. Our big black dog is Tippy. Before we had the 122S wagon, Tippy went everywhere with the four of us in our PV544. Who needs a three row SUV?
These next photos are way overexposed and this is the best I could do to tweak them, but I thought they’d be of some interest. Both were taken at the Berkeley Marina on the East Shore of San Francisco Bay, around 1971. With the exception of a VW Beetle and the Datsun pickup, it looks like all domestic cars, which was quite unusual for Berkeley. But between the two photos there are three pickups, which seems a little more than normal for the time. And just like fitting a family of four and a big dog in a small two door car, today no one could imagine hauling a slide-in camper in a 1600cc pickup.
Now, some photos from the San Francisco Imported Car Show in the early 1970’s. Here’s the then-new Mercedes 350SLC. At the time, this would have been a 350 (3.5 liter V8).
A people shot from the show. No comment needed.
Before switching to the Camaro, the International Race of Champions (IROC) used Porsches. This Carrera RSR was apparently driven in the 1973 series by New Zealander Denis Hulme as well as by Americans AJ Foyt and Richard Petty. At Riverside, all three drivers competed so they must have driven different cars, and finished 5th, 6th and 7th respectively in Race 1. Foyt beat the other two in Races 2 and 3. The late Mark Donohue won two of the three races, and George Follmer won the third. Denis Hulme had a fatal heart attack while racing a BMW M3 in Australia, in the 1990’s long after he had retired from top-tier professional racing. He was one of my racing heroes when I was young; he seemed like a genuinely nice guy and was Formula 1 champion in 1967, driving a Brabham, and CanAm champion twice, with McLaren. He even won a European Touring Car Championship race driving a Rover SD1.
My last car show photo. I didn’t have a wide angle lens in those days, saving my pennies for a telephoto to better capture cars at the races, so I tended to go for closeups in the crowded auto show. Besides, it seemed more artistic. Here’s a detail of a Lamborghini Espada. At the time, I was more interested in exotic cars, so sadly I have no pictures of any Datsun or Opels or early Subarus. And at the time, the show was really imports only, not becoming the “International Car Show” till much later, so not even any Corvettes or Mustangs.
I was about 12 or 13 and practicing my panning skills on the sidewalk in front of our house when I heard a very loud motorcycle coming up the street. Not quite pro quality, but I’m pretty happy with the results for a kid. This was long before California had a helmet law, but I suspect those exhaust pipes weren’t totally noise-legal.
One of my few streetscape photos from this era, but very appropriate here at CC. I’m pretty sure the New Look bus is in SF Muni colors, but I can’t quite read the route and destination sign. Do you think all that luggage will really fit in the Squareback?
Next, a few non-automotive pictures, but still transportation. First, a photograph I took on the opening day of the second phase of the Bay Area Rapid Transit metro system, in January 1973, in an immaculately clean Berkeley station. The first phase opened a few months earlier, but only further south. Service under the Bay to and from San Francisco didn’t start until 1974, in a tube laid on the Bay floor, not an actual tunnel. BART is still being extended today, at a glacial pace. It finally reached north San Jose (by far the Bay Area’s largest city) in 2020 and plans to extend it to downtown San Jose are still in process.
BART finally started serving San Francisco airport in 2003. Here’s an earlier way you could travel to and from SFO. My dad used it a few times, so I must have taken this photo at the Berkeley heliport. I believe this is a Sikorsky S61. The SFO Helicopter service ran from SFO to various Bay Area destinations from the early 1960’s to mid-70’s.
Two photos of the archetypal 1960’s and 70’s Berkeley vehicle, the air-cooled VW. This Type 1 Beetle that I found curbside caught my eye with its Ferrari badge.
Next, a Type 2 that went off the road in the Berkeley Hills. I stumbled across this while riding my 1969 Schwinn Varsity 10 speed, which I bought with paper route money and allowed me the freedom to explore all over the hilly East Bay, and started a love of bicycles which continues to this day. Unfortunately, though I had that bike for over ten years, until it was stolen, I can find no pictures of it.
I’ll wrap up with a photo I took in New York City, on a visit I took with my aunt in 1972: a 1960’s Oldsmobile with a very non-GM hood ornament.
PN’s postscript:
Dimitry (“Dman”) also made this truly brilliant photo of a Lamborghini Miura parked outside the International House in Berkeley. He didn’t notice that its young Iranian owner was at that moment dancing with joy on the steps behind it. It’s a gem, one of the best car photos ever, in my opinion, and it has quite a story to it:
First photo in Toronto looks to be the Beaches Branch Library on Queen St. East. The park next door would be Kew Gardens.
That red Capri or Datsun needs to move itself away from that fire hydrant. It’s a no parking zone.
Thanks, I just zoomed in and saw the Beaches Library sign. Which makes sense because I know my sister’s in-laws lived in that neighborhood.
Excellent selection, lots of fun stuff here, I recognize about half of the settings/locales having lived in the area for a long-ish time… The 350SLC pic is great with the Pirelli whitewalls with the logotype inserted right into the stripe, that’s a neat way of doing it that I hadn’t seen before.
That could be Jose Delgadillo riding by your house on his motorcycle.
GREAT SHOTS! I particularly love the BART photo, somewhat of a brutalist masterpiece there. The motorcycle shot is A+, too!
Cool pictures, dman! Like old movies and Sun records, there’s something about black-and-white film photography that can’t be replaced by digital.
VW Type 2: California Dreamin’ ends badly in Berzerkly when Chartreuse Microbus goes in ditch.
Great pictures! The fantastic RSR and Espada and particularly the panning shot of the dude on the motorcycle are particularly enjoyable, although the VW T1 in the ditch was a bit sad.
More more… Hey great memories, 1971 Berkeley at Cafe mediterraneo and in north beach at Cafe Trieste sometimes sharing table with poets, film makers, taxy cab drivers, construction workers, airline pilots, future actors and gorgeous girls coming from every corner of the world.
Frank
Always got a laugh ((small one)) from the “VW”, adds with luggage for five. As the back seat was down, several of the people would have to find other means of travel.
The mascot on the hood of the ’63 Olds looks like the “Spirit of Ecstasy” ornament from a Rolls. At one time they were made of Sterling silver. Cool period pics.
Great photos, dman, and thanks for bringing back some memories. I graduated from UCB, and bought my 1986 GTI from Wes Behel VW in Sunnyvale.
Dimitry, these are wonderful! Thanks for sharing them with us all here.
The Espada shot is perfect. Love the BART opening, and the chopper rider came out great. How well I remember bikes likes that Sportster chopper with no front brake, and of course no helmet. Just pray someone doesn’t suddenly pull out in front of you.
You might well have had a career as a photographer! And let’s not forget your most brilliant shot of all, the Miura parked near UC Berkeley with the owner dancing on the steps behind it: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/the-uc-berkeley-lamborghini-miura-little-did-i-know-when-i-shot-this-in-1972-at-age-fifteen-that-it-would-become-a-significant-part-of-this-cars-history-50-years-later/
All of these photos are great .
I wish I still had the photos I took in the 60’s & 70’s but they’re all gone now .
-Nate
Thanks for sharing these pictures! I wish I still had similar photos that I had taken long ago, but sadly they all disappeared in the Great Parental Purge of 2009, when my folks moved out of their house.
In particular, I remember taking a camera to the Philadelphia Auto Show, when I’d go there each year with my father. I’d love to see those pictures now! But none of them was as good as your pictures – that image of the 350SLC is outstanding.
And your pictures of “practicing your panning skills” made me laugh, because I tried that once. I practiced my panning skills once outside my grandmother’s apartment when I was about 10. Afterwards, I got in trouble with my parents for “wasting film” (a pretty serious offense back then) on taking pictures of random cars. I kept the pictures for long after that for some reason, and I still remember some of them, but they’re all long gone.
I love the tailgating photo, by the way. Great use for clamshell wagon tailgates!
All of the black and white photos were shot on bulk 35 mm film that I wound into film cartridges in a dark bag, and processed and printed either in my home darkroom or at the high school photo lab. Not quite “free” like modern digital photos, but cheaper than drugstore developing, and of course I only printed the good stuff (or what I thought was good). I suspect the auto show pictures with better contrast were developed at school with better quality supplies, and more frequently replenished chemicals. So by the time I took these I was mostly free of the “you’re wasting film!” parental admonishments. My mom discouraged me from many activities but was very encouraging of my photography; she had had a long though not close friendship with the professional photographer Edward Weston, famous for Big Sur photos.
Ironically, my father worked as a professional photographer in the years before I was born, doing portraits and rock concerts. But by the time I was growing up, he’d dismantled his darkroom and just didn’t have much interest in photography any longer. He had been masterful at achieving the right contrast in developing – I took up photography again in college, but never could master developing like he did.
That’s incredible that your mom knew Edward Watson!
Love these Dman. These images are so irreplaceable and finite. It’s a real lesson in taking pictures of both the ordinary and the extraordinary for future generations to look back on
Great Photos of the 70’s ,life was great back then i was born in the Early 60’s and in the 70’s i was a teenager that was a great eara to grow up in back then we didn’t need metal detectors at Schools everyone got a long back then and kid’s we’re not killing other kinds and no school shooting back then all kid’s back then new when it was time to head home when the Street lights came on . it is a whole different world 🌎 now not safe at all some of my family has been murdered in rest years for no reason at all of all my family members that have been murdered 21, 32, 45, and 51years old.
The San Francisco Municipal Railway bus is running on the #15 3rd & Kearny bus line. Defunct bus line that ended service after 150 years in 2007. I can’t quite make out the rest to see it’s destination. Maybe Sutter Street?
That makes sense as I was a regular at the old Transbay Bus Terminal, where the Muni and SamTrans buses met up with the AC Transit buses that came over from the East Bay. It was at 1st and Mission so not too far from 3rd/Kearny. Thanks.
Cold, grey, and gloomy. That pretty much describes winter north of the Mason Dixon Line for a good 5 months of the year, especially in the Great Lakes snowbelt areas. I might also add “dreary”.
You did yourself a big favor by not spending most of your adult life in these areas.