Golden Gate City: San Francisco 1940

[rogerrrubin]

This vid is too cool! In the 1950's I lived in Oakland. Playland, the place to go, was just a two block walk to the Key System train, over the bridge to San Francisco. Grab a street car to the beach. After that it was fun, fun, fun for the day and then back over the Bay Bridge to home in what I now consider (having moved to The City in 1964) the Far East. We also went up the hill to the Cliff House and watched the seals on the rocks beyond the shore. :>}

[emuguy2003]

Notice most of S.F. is dummied down today. That is courtesy of some Americans communicating w/ locals opposing those times.

Now a days most cars don't have 3 layers of sheet metal. In this video you say a brunette in a sail boat w/ a white skinned dark haired man. Today's time are slitely different.

Most things around today are devalued. O we feel sorry let's take away from our folks & give to yours.

On Treasure island people are suppose build 15% more low income housing projects. I'm curi

[GeorgeVreelandHill]

I love your vintage travel videos.

Thank you.

George Vreeland Hill

[chyaos]

"... posted everyday from the Chinese journals, not good news today... (music goes woah woah woah...) , moving on..." 

[belogio]

I was just in this city yesterday....nice place...kinda crowded, but kool place and tons of rain!

[reyleon2010]

that filming so awesome, I love this video, I love istory and although I would like to see become of those times, you be who the people were very nice and without malice and tranquility of people, but it's nice to see this video, I like filming a lot and is golden.

[buzzclick500]

Look at the CLOTHES. When we went to the beach, I wore my swimming trunks under my suit. ;]

[Jeffredo729]

My mom was born and raised in SF and she told me lots of stories about when she was in her teens and twenties in the 1940s. Completely different city than today. Men and women did not go out without dressing nicely and it was a lot cleaner, safer, saner place to live. Basically, the middle class families that moved out to the suburbs in the 50s, 60s and 70s still lived there. I know nothing stays exactly the same, but it would be nice if a remnant of mid-century SF still remained.

[buzzclick500]

@Jeffredo729 : I still have my first necktie that my mom bought for me at the Emporium in 1959. Sometimes the trolley would come loose from the overhead wire, and the driver would climb on top of the streetcar to re-attach it. Neighbors looked out for each other even in apartment buildings. The first books I ever owned and read(at age 5)were Grimm's Fairy Tales and Spacepower. Education was a strong priority in San Francisco at that time.

[lukebccb]

@Jeffredo729: there are plenty of "middle-class families" WITH CHILDREN living in San Francisco NOW...... it's just that all those that bemoan "no middle-class in San Francisco" think ONLY of WHITE middle-class families...... HINT: the HUGE numbers of middle-class families in present day San Francisco were once corralled into a ghetto called "chinatown".

[Jeffredo729]

@lukebccb Don't have to lecture me - I live in The Sunset and the folks on either side are Chinese-American with kids. Still, The City is far less middle/working class families than it was 30 or 40 years ago. There are areas that have such families (The Sunset, The Richmond, Noe Valley) but more transient single professionals are what the town is about now. That was not the case when my parents were young.

[kngkrl22]

@Jeffredo729 San Francisco was a way better city back in the 1940's when it was known as the Paris of America or the New York City of the west coast. Also, it was a strong middle class town. Now the only type of people living in San Francisco are either single professionals making over 6 figures a year or the working poor making minimum wages. San Francisco has taken a turn for the worse.

[matthewelync]

I look at this and think China 2000 in terms of potential & expansion in tech and dominance into the future.

This is a great film.

[NobHillBorn]

I think he was a professional newsreel and travelogue announcer. I've heard voices like that on many travel films.

[HistorySmithCom]

1940 & the Golden Gate International Exposition (World's Fair) was in it's second year. Free Speech? There were anti-war oratories at the fair as well as a strong military presence, each tolerating the other. Levi's became the new leisure trousers, encouraged by the fair.

...and if you think SF's attitude about cannabis is a sign of the times, Mayor "Sunny" Jim Rolph, the police and the DA all openly rejected Prohibition, keeping organized crime out & the city very wet.

[oldwarrant]

Back then San Francisco was one of the most transit intensive cities in the world. Just about every major street had a streetcar line.  A streetcar entered the Ferry Loop every 4 seconds in the rush hour, which meant thatas many as 900 cars went around the loop in an hour! There were three interurban companies plus Southern Pacific commtuer and long distance trains. Prior to the construction of the Bay Bridge the Ferry Building was the second busiest passenger terminal in the world.

[lukebccb]

@oldwarrant: your WRONG when you write "*WAS* one of the most transit intensive cities in the world"

[TomLibby100]

It really is an extraordinarily good video, and great to watch. But it was made in 1940, before the US got involved in WW II. I suspect that if people were interviewed, they would run the gamut from very naive to somewhat worldly. Free speech? I'm not sure that the term applied in quite the same way then.

[sebbbo77]

ITs fascinating to see these films before and during the second world war. What would be even more interesting is to interview the people and see what was going on through their minds at the time. Pity they didnt have as much free speech and access to information as we do today. Their lives would have been bound by censorship for the war effort. Poor souls. I hope we all realize the struggle they went through and NEVER forget the awful sacrifices they had to make during ww2.

[werzoid]

Thats really cool, it looks like it was a wonderful city, and it still is today, only "wide market street" Doesnt make left turns now.

[gravysauce]

GREAT VID!

[rkmugen]

what kind of accent is this guy talking in? it sounds like some form of transatlantic, but i'm not sure.

[SF1940s]

kool i saw this on my dads bookmark kool

[im4wur]

Not the place to learn how to use a clutch. - lol

[sfgunner88]

@im4wur haha. i pray for those who learn to use stick on these hills

[lukebccb]

@im4wur: live/lived in San Francisco and both my cars - a sedan and a SUV - are both stick shifts. EVERY car I've ever owned was a stick shift.

If you can't handle driving a stick shift going uphill WITHOUT USING THE HANDBRAKE then you should not be driving a stick shift at all.

[im4wur]

@lukebccb - It's not driving uphill that's at issue, but rather starting up from the lower slope after waiting for a light to turn green. Personally, I find using the handbrake useful to keep myself from rolling into the car behind me while transferring my foot from brake to gas. Especially, when some clown is 6 inches off my back bumper. ...but then, I've only got two feet.

[sendhelp444]

If you like to step-over street urchins and human fecal matter, then make your next trip to San FranTASTIC, San Francisco!!

[donkeypoodle]

get out of the tenderloin

[BroodingARTist]

i'm moving there soon!!!!!!

[perth45]

Love this video, truly one of the greatest cities on earth, if not THE greatest.........

[iampersian12]

that was a really kool video.