"San Francisco" Earthquake

The legendary 1906 earthquake sequence from "San Francisco"(directed by W.S. Van Dyke) starring star-crossed lovers Clark Gable and Jeanette MacDonald.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• 1906
• Earthquake
• San
• Francisco
• Clark
• Gable
• Jeanette
• MacDonald
• W.S.
• Van
• Dyke

[Scotsbell]

Appreciate that films based on fact are often changed for dramatic effect but this earthquake actually hit at something like 5am. :)

[Zacatown]

@Scotsbell You're right and so is the movie: it begins with a title card that says the quake hit at "Five-Twelve a.m." The scene depicted is an all-night event.

[crazypenny94]

Was this real?

[Zacatown]

@crazypenny94 -- Just great special effects recreating the real-life 1906 earthquake. However, Clark Gable's character was based on a real-life person, Wilson Mizner, a gambler from the Barbary Coast. Mizner was a friend of the screenwriters and they based their script on his memories.

[LVmusiclover]

Please give a little help here. In the Movie San Francisco, Mary Blake (Jeanette MacDonald) sings a beautiful aria. She actually sings it 3 times. For the life of me I cannot figure out which opera was used in that film and what the name of that aria is. Heeeellllllllpppppp!!!......Th­anks.

[Zacatown]

@LVmusiclover -- According to a website devoted to her, she sang arias from "Faust" and "La Traviata" in the film.

[TomateFarcie]

I'm really impressed by the special effects. It really does look pretty realistic and considering the age of the movie, really it's impressive. Thanks for posting!

[jacoul7]

Re: earthquakes:Sorry Glock but check your facts...earthquakes vary in duration and strength. The 1964 Alaska earthquake, began at 5:36 P.M. AST on Friday, March 27, 1964.[2], Lasting nearly five mins, ,It had a magnitude of 9.2, at the time making it the second largest earthquake in the recorded history of the world.[2][3]" This movie is shown with respect and love in San Francisco, every year. Its a classic, for the cast, the music the special effects. Regards, former resident of So. Calif.

[stayAU]

@loufalce there is a fault in VA and we do get earthquakes every couple of years but the ones I did feel one sounded like a truck and this larger quake sounded like military jets. I wonder if we are on the same fault line? Yes that quake in the DC Metro area was pretty scary depending on your location to the fault line. Our walls were jerking. Mean ol California making fun of us. This felt the same as a CA quake to me, I was born in CA.

[loufalce]

@stayAU ....a very rare.occurance in Metropolitan NY.. Thank God it only lasted for a few seconds.At first it felt like a big truck passing by, until I saw the news that a TV show was interupted for. I wouldn`t like to experiece that again, pretty scary.

[DiegoHitched]

HOLY SHIT IS THIS REAL?

[stayAU]

@loufalce I am in Virginia and I was thinking of that roaring noise in the film. We heard that thought it was military jets. It was weird because I have relatives in California and I was on Youtube checking out the Quake during the World Series I was all worried for them. And I felt the the jerking and then rolling motion they described. I was waiting to vaporize and my mom is like its an earthquake. We had to run out of the house cuz there are no real secure beams or doorways to stand under. =P

[getback9691]

Save me Rhett!!!

[MrDuhhrr]

don't like it , I Love it !!! :D

[mlitsonata1]

Very well done! Although as a member of an old San Francisco family (since the 1850s with several residences in the city at the time of the quake - some survived some didn't) and as a historian of the quake, I'm a bit disappointed by the severe inaccuracy of it. Although I was impressed that they recreated a model of the capital building.

[gwtwcarlos]

It,s amazing to see that big tower falling down in pieces, I think it was the City Capitol- I saw real footage of that same building and this movie shows exactly how it fells-Also that big man-statue falling in the carriage- Horses running in terror...Everything so real!!- I have been 3 times in San francisco, I,m from Argentina, and I must say that it,s my fav city from the States- Carlos

[CitrineVlogging]

@CHNJ101 Oh Wow how sad.

[CHNJ101]

@CitrineVlogging But they did and still do. The earth is very powerful. My great uncle was a very high society lawyer back then, he was 27 when the quake hit, it woke him and everybody else up he ran to the street his house collapsed in 8 seconds. Any expensive thing he owned in there was gone. He was left only with the clothes on his back. He said that was the first time he felt like a human not rich or poor, not black or white he said it was good to see the natural family of man.