Trolley Thursday 3/29/21 - San Francisco's Cable Cars in Film and Television

There are two things certain in life whenever the city of San Francisco is established in a film: the appearance of the Golden Gate Bridge and the familiar "clang-clang" of a cable car. In the 148 years since the establishment of the Clay Street Hill Railway, San Francisco's once-revolutionary cable cars are as much a part of the city identity as Coit Tower, Fisherman's Wharf, and Lombard Street. Hollywood studios have since caught on to the cable car's inextricable link to the city identity, so much that if a film is set anywhere near San Francisco, there's bound to be the familiar "clang-clang" and clatter of a passing cable car, even if they don't appear! On the last Trolley Tuesday of April, let's look back on the film cameos of these wonderful little cable cars! (And by no means is this an exhaustive list, just some films I find interesting that are worth checking out.)

  

A Trip Down Market Street

A modern day title card for a Darby Cicci arrangement of "A Trip Down Market Street".
The Embarcadero is at the top center of the photo, still unchanged today.
(Darby Cicci)

The Miles Brothers' film exchange in New York City.
(Cinelog)

Though it wasn't the first film to feature the cable cars, "A Trip Down Market Street" is certainly the most important extant documentary about life in San Francisco before the Great Earthquake of 1906. The film was produced by the Miles Brothers, with the main bulk of production handled by cinematographer Harry J. Miles, who arranged to have a Market Street Railway cable car armed with a camera that he operated sitting in front of the gripman. The Miles Brothers were early documentarians and billed "A Trip Down Market Street" as an "Actuality" or "Phantom Ride" film, intending to show this off in theaters to people who had never been or couldn't travel to San Francisco at all. Thanks to the works of film historians David Kiehn and Richard Greene in 2009 and 2011, respectively, the film was found to have been shot between March 24 and March 30, 1906, with a San Francisco newspaper from March 29 advertising the Miles Brothers' intent to film aboard a cable car, placing it three weeks before the Great Earthquake.

A screenshot of a colorized version of "A Trip Down Market Street" from 2020.
(Mike Upchurch)

Like living color, newsboys wave at the cable car
at the Ferry Terminal turntable.
(Mike Upchurch)

Like many "actuality" films of the time, "A Trip Down Market Street" is an early example of what we would call "reality TV" as it was meant to capture a slice of real life for as long as the celluloid film held together. At the start of the 13-minute picture, the camera'd cable car is at 8th and Market, north-eastbound towards the Embarcadero. As it trundles along at a leisurely 9.5 miles an hour, it passes other south-westbound cable cars coming away from the Ferry Terminal and some early electric streetcars crossing Market Street. Thanks to the newly-popular innovation of motorcars, those things start harassing the cable car as well, with one car (possibly a hired extra) passing the cable car ten times. At the end of the journey, the cable car trundles onto the Embarcadero turntable and is turned around, surrounded by curious and jovial newsboys.

 A screencap from "A Trip Down Market Street,  After the Fire",
 showing the absolute devastation in the city.
(The Prelinger Archives)

Film development wrapped on April 17, when Harry J. and Joseph Miles boarded a train bound for their New York City studio with the two film reels of "A Trip Down Market Street" with them. The next day, the Great Earthquake hit, taking their San Francisco studio with it but sparing their brother Earl's house on Turk Street. When the film was released on April 21, 1906, it now had newfound context as it was advertised as "The only documentary about San Francisco before the Great Earthquake and Fire". When they returned to the city two weeks later, the Miles Brothers shot more footage of the now-destroyed city and that included a recreated trip down the now destroyed Market Street. The latter footage was believed lost until 2017, when the only reel was found in a California flea market and purchased by Jason Wright of Silver Shadows Gallery. 

Silent Film Suspense

Buster Keaton hangs on tight to the back of a 
"speeding" Powell/Mason car in "Day Dreams".
(First National Pictures)

Following the city's rebuilding, Hollywood studios soon appeared to start filming more lighthearted and comedic fare using the city's cable cars. One of the more prominent silent comedies shot aboard the cars was Buster Keaton's "Day Dreams", a short romantic comedy from 1922 that featured an elaborate cable car chase. After getting into one-too-many clumsy antics, Buster Keaton is chased through North Beach by SFPD cops before suddenly grabbing onto a passing Powell-Mason car northbound to Fisherman's Wharf. Despite the slow cable speed, a little movie magic suddenly sweeps Keaton literally off his feet as he speeds away from his pursuers. Unfortunately, Keaton declined to notice his cable car needs to turn around at Bay and Taylor (where the original turntable was located on the street), which means all the cops have to do is wait for his cable car to return at Washington and Powell. Keaton's use of a familiar San Francisco mass transit system is nothing new, as outside of his silent film stuntmanship, the actor was known to be an immense rail enthusiast as seen by his films "Our Hospitality" and "The General". 

The cable car is turned at Bay and Taylor. This turntable still exists today,
albiet moved off Bay and Taylor and now guarded by a curb.
(First National Pictures)

Mr. Humphrey bogarts a seat aboard the O'Farrell-
Hyde-Jones line in "Dark Passage", 1947, while making
a daring escape from the authorities.
(Warner Brothers)

From comedies came film noirs of the 1930s and 1940s, as the cable cars became not only background objects but often featured in important scenes. In the 1947 film "Dark Passage" (as recommended to me by the Cable Car Museum), legendary actor Humphrey Bogart is seen boarding an O'Farrell-Hyde-Jones car while on the move at Chestnut Street, something the modern San Francisco Muni will certainly discourage you from doing. In the next scene, however, he's seen exiting Powell Street car No. 520 at Market Street, a logistical impossibility that remained so until the Powell-Hyde hybrid line in 1953. But then again, who's really going to notice? Alfred Hitchcock certainly didn't when he filmed both "Vertigo" in 1958 and "The Birds" in 1963, with only the latter containing glimpses of a Powell Street car at Union Square. Despite the former being set in San Francisco, with a climax at Coit Tower, it was not filmed near any cable cars.

A Powell/Mason cable car departs Union Square, approaching
the Westin St. Francis in Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 film, "The Birds".
Hitchcock was also a noted railfan, as his scenes were sometimes lettered for
London Underground stations instead of production numbers.
(Universal Pictures)

  

The San Francisco Treat!

The current Rice-A-Roni logo, in the familiar shape of a cable car.
(Rice-A-Roni)

Powell Street cable car No. 23 is clad with a 
Rice-A-Roni sign, which was very popular on tv.
(Rice-A-Roni)

Around the time that "Vertigo" disoriented theatergoers as much as it did lead actor James Stewart, the DeDomenico family of Oakland decided to make a snappy, catchy tagline for its new Rice-a-Roni brand of instant rice pilaf and pasta under the Golden Grains company. The tagline ended up being "The San Francisco Treat", playing on its Bay-Area heritage, while television commercials from 1962 featured the familiar "clang-clang" of the cable car with lyrics talking about the product "starting out where cable cars play this song". This nostalgic take on the cable cars unfortunately came to an end in 1987, when new owner Quaker Oats decided to branch out the brand by removing its San Franciscan heritage in favor of a dish that will "please everybody". Thankfully, this advertising didn't last very long, and the jingle returned in 1990, banking on TV dinner nostalgia to boost its domestic sales. PepsiCo acquired Quaker Oats in 2001, that familiar tagline and clang-clang cable car logo have returned to grocery store shelves for many years to come. Maybe I should try a box one day...

Those Lovable Cable Car Comedies

Powell-Hyde Car No. 524 (now numbered Muni No. 24)
crests the top of Russian Hill at Hyde and Lombard, being
followed by a rather peculiar car...
(Walt Disney Pictures)

As the 1960s wore on into the 1970s, more iconic films were shot around San Francisco that utilized the familiar image of the cable car. While "Bullitt", a classic 1968 film noir that happened to have a car chase in it, only featured the cable car tracks in a couple scenes, two films from Walt Disney Pictures featured the cables cars in a much greater light. One was "The Love Bug" from 1969, a film about a fantastical little Volkswagen centered around San Francisco. In an early scene, star Dean Jones is seen boarding Powell-Hyde car No. 524 outbound from the Hyde Street turntable but he doesn't see the little car following him home. 

Kearny, Leavenworth, & Larkin Street Line No. No. 22
in Herbie Rides Again, a masterpiece in prop cable cars.
The destinations are indeed old Clay Street Line stops.
(Walt Disney Pictures) 

Ferries & Cliff House No. 101 demonstrates
the original Powell Street "open" car design
that Old 22 was based off of.
(Hoodline)

The next film in the series, "Herbie Rides Again", featured greater emphasis on the cable car in the form of Hollywood Prop "Old 22". Puns aside, I give major props to the prop designers that created "Old 22", as its fantastical brass accoutrements and bright red paint is certainly emblematic of the Golden Age of San Francisco's Cable Cars. The film dialogue by veteran actress Helen Hayes' character, Grandma Steinmetz, says that "Old 22" was built for the "Clay Street Line" before being used as a chicken coop, but the design of the car more suggests one of the earlier open-sided Powell cars with two ends of bench seats. Nonetheless, the film is very much a love letter to the city, as Herbie's defense of both Old 22 and the Victorian firehouse they both live in against an encroaching real estate magnate speaks volumes about the city's own real-life efforts to save their Victorian-era landmarks. 

And in a pinch, a 40-Horsepower living Volkswagen can 
double as a mobile gripcar up those steep San Francisco hills.
(Walt Disney Pictures)

Science Fiction Setpieces

Lt. Chekov and Cmdr. Uhura look around for people
who can help them find the nuclear "wessels" in
Paramount Pictures' "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home."
(Paramount Pictures)

Another iconic San Francisco symbol is, in the eyes of science fiction nerds like myself, Starfleet Headquarters on Point Baker. Thanks to this association with the Star Trek franchise, it's no surprise that cable cars have shown up in two Star Trek movies. The first major cameo came in 1986's "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home", where the crew of the Enterprise find themselves time-traveling back to 1986 in order to raid a Sausalito aquarium to appease a giant space cigar that will destroy the Earth in 2286 if it doesn't get its whales back (perfectly normal film, I know). In one scene, while Commander Nyota Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) and Lieutenant Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig) are tasked with finding some nuclear "wessels" to repower their Klingon Bird-of-Prey, a Powell-Mason car passes by in the background as Chekov struggles with a Pacific Bell phone. Can't be a San Francisco film without it.

Spock runs through what supposedly is California Street
in the 23rd century, with the all-too familiar cable car
just off to the left of center.
(Paramount Pictures)

The next appearance of cable cars in a Star Trek film came in 2013, with the quasi-remake of "Wrath of Khan" known as "Star Trek: Into Darkness". In it, the charismatic authoritarian Khan Noonien Singh (Benedict Cumberbatch) is getting his revenge on Starfleet by crashing their largest and most-modern flagship, the USS Vengeance, right into Starfleet Academy. In a sequence very pleasing to someone like Michael Bay, Alcatraz Island, Telegraph Hill, and Fisherman's Wharf all get obliterated in the impact. However, as Mr. Spock (Zachary Quinto) is running in the direction of the crashing starship, he is seen passing by a familiar sight: a California Street cable car looking very much out of place compared to its more futuristic surroundings. According to Memory Alpha, the main canon Star Trek wiki, the cable cars are fitted with "anti-grav devices" as fitting an alternate reality. One wonders if these "hover cars" still need something as primitive as a cable to drag them up the hill. 

Atrocious Action?

It just isn't a Michael Bay movie without a gratuitous explosion.
Click on the film clip at your own risk.
(Bruckheimer Films)

Finally, the last film worth mentioning in this report is the one I'd want to see the least. As classic as Michael Bay's "The Rock" from 1996 is, complete with one of the finest performances from "Shir" Sean Connery as SAS Captain John Mason (James Bond in all but name), one scene completely baffles me, the Cable Car Museum, and even my readership. In the film, a California Street cable car is seen cresting a hill before suddenly turning into a road-going Powell Street-type car that is knocked off the tracks by the main characters. The car then careens downhill, much to the distress of its grip-man, smashing into many parked cars before hitting a parked Chevrolet Blazer and exploding and sliding downhill into Nicholas Cage's Ferrari, destroying it. After the... debacle, the grip-man is heard presumably alive, mourning the loss of his cable car. All I can say is... yeah, I have no comment on it. Explosive end to this month, though!

  

Thank you for reading today's Trolley post, and watch your step as you alight on the platform. My resources today included a PBS video about the rediscovery of the Second Trip Down Market Street, an Associated Press article about the removal of Rice-a-Roni's iconic tagline, the archives of the San Francisco Cable Car Museum, the SFMTA Photo Archives, the Market Street Railway, and all of the film owners credited in this report. The trolley gifs in our posts are made by myself and can be found under “Motorman Reymond’s Railroad Gif Carhouse”. On Tuesday, we fly across the bay for a look at the interurban operations in Oakland, Alameda, and Berkeley! For now, you can follow myself or my editor on Twitter, buy a shirt or sticker from our Redbubble stand, or purchase my editor's self-developed board game! It's like Ticket to Ride, but cooler! (and you get to support him through it!) Until next time, ride safe!