40 Antique Films 1906 San Francisco Earthquake Fire DVD

1897 - Arrest in Chinatown, San Francisco, CA - This film shows the arrest and conveyance of a Chinese man in Chinatown, watched by a crowd of onlookers. The precise date of this film and the arrest charge are uncertain. It is possible that the arrest was connected with the smuggling of illegal immigrants from China. By mutual agreement between China and the United States, a small quota of merchants and students was allowed to immigrate yearly, but few legal immigrants actually were of these professions, and illegal immigration continued. 

1897 Hotel Vendome - This brief film shows an excursion party passing in the carriage drive of the Vendome Hotel, a major resort hotel in San Jose, south of San Francisco. The exact date of the film is unknown, but may be in October 1897. The camera faces north-northwest in the carriage drive, toward the main (east) entrance of the hotel. Two excursion stages, a surrey, and three small carriages circle past the camera with passengers waving, while other guests wave from the hotel steps. 

1898 - Troops Embarking at San Francisco - This film shows troops of the First Regiment, California Volunteers, boarding the Pacific Mail steamer City of Peking to serve in the Philippine theater of the Spanish-American War. The film was shot at the Pacific Mail Steamship Company dock between 10:50am and 1:50pm on Friday, May 13, 1898. The dock was located at First Street between Brannan and Townsend streets, and is now a segment of First Street called Delancey Street in the newly-developed South Beach neighborhood. The camera is probably facing north, from the shade of the pier into bright sunshine. The film begins with flag-waving relatives in the foreground that seem more interested in the camera than in the departing soldiers. The troops are seen climbing the gangplank with full travel kits and rifles. As the crowd watches the troops, at least one woman raises a handkerchief to her eyes. In the bright background between the ascending soldiers, troops are seen lining the ship's rails and a lifeboat is visible. On this midday, over a thousand troops boarded the City of Peking after marching across San Francisco from their bivouac at the Presidio army base. An estimated thirty thousand people watched the embarkation from the Pacific Mail dock and several nearby piers. After loading, the steamer pulled out into San Francisco Bay and re-anchored, awaiting the loading of two more steamers, the Australia and the Sydney, with the Oregon Volunteers and U.S. Army regulars. The fleet departed for the Philippines on Sunday, May 15.

1898 Launch of Japanese Man-of-War Chitosa - This film shows the launching of the Imperial Japanese Navy cruiser Chitosa at the Union Iron Works shipyard, San Francisco, on Saturday, January 22, 1898. The camera view is east, across a small inlet of Central Basin, to slipway #1. Four additional slipways lay beyond to the west. The inlet and slipway remain today, now covered with chunks of abandoned piers, adjacent to the Southwest Marine shipyard. The camera viewpoint is today called pier 68, part of Southwest Marine's facilities. The San Francisco Chronicle's article on the Chitosa's launch notes that "an Edison automatoscope caught the fleeting cruiser in a series of moving pictures which are to be sent to Japan for the edification of the public there, the Home Government favoring the project." 

1898 - Mount Tamalpais Railroad Number 1 - This film shows the summit portion of the Mill Valley and Mount Tamalpais Scenic Railway, the Tamalpais Tavern resort, and part of the adjacent east peak of Mount Tamalpais. Mount Tamalpais is a prominent east-west ridge in southern Marin County, just north of San Francisco. The summit was a popular excursion destination for San Franciscans after the completion of the railroad in 1896. The 2,571-foot east peak commands a sweeping view of the entire San Francisco Bay area and most of central California. Part of the Pacific Ocean is also visible and, on clear days, the distant crest of the Sierra Nevada can be seen. 

1903 - Roosevelt Parade Route - This film is a review by automobile of the arrival parade route of President Theodore Roosevelt, on Tuesday, May 12, 1903. The film was shot from about 2:10pm to 2:15pm (shortly before the 3pm parade) and shows street and building decorations and excited crowds. The portion of the route shown is in the heart of the downtown business district. The automobile turns northeast onto Market Street, then north onto Montgomery Street. After a cut, the driver has made the first left turn from Montgomery Street and is half a block west on Sutter Street. The driver turns south from Sutter to Kearny Street, and crosses Post Street en route to Market Street. Having come "full circle," the driver turns right (southwest) onto Market Street and continues along Market to the Grant & O'Farrell St. intersection.

1903 - TR in San Francisco - President Roosevelt reviewed the school children of San Francisco from 10:00 am to 10:30 am on Wednesday, May 13, 1903. An estimated 40,000 school children gathered along both sides of Van Ness Avenue, west of the downtown area, for the parade. The wide north-south boulevard, partially lined with the mansions of the wealthy, was the approximate boundary between the old gold rush era city (to the east) and the newer western addition to the west. To better organize the students, each school was assigned a specific block and each student was given a flag to wave. Many adults were also on hand to watch the parade, which entered Van Ness at Pacific Avenue, proceeded south to Market Street, then doubled back up Van Ness to Pacific. The presidential carriage kept to the right so that all the children could get a good view of the President.

1903 - Teddy Roosevelt Carriage - This film shows President Roosevelt in San Francisco, passing in the arrival parade on Market Street on Tuesday, May 12, 1903. The camera view is from the north side of Market Street, just east of Grant Avenue. After leaving the Southern Pacific train station at Third and Townsend streets, the parade proceeded up Third Street and wound through downtown San Francisco before continuing up Market Street to a ceremony at the Native Sons Hall on Mason Street. The film was taken a few minutes after 3:00pm, when the extensive military portion of the parade had already passed. Some of the store signs seen in the film along the south side of Market Street include Townsend's California Glace Fruits, Swan the Painter, Charles Lyons (merchant tailor), Morley Billiards, and Spreckles Market.

1903 - Panorama of Beach and Cliff House - This film is an afternoon panorama of weekend crowds at the north end of Ocean Beach, the western shore of San Francisco near the famed Cliff House. 

1903 - Panorama, Union Square, San Francisco - This film shows the crowd gathered in San Francisco for the dedication of the Dewey Monument in Union Square, on Thursday, May 14, 1903, from 9:00am to 9:20am. The Monument, which is still in place, commemorates the victory of Admiral George Dewey and the American fleet over Spanish forces at Manila Bay, the Philippines, on May 1, 1898, during the Spanish-American War. The monument is also a tribute to the sailors of the U.S. Navy. Union Square was - and is - the center of San Francisco's retail district, and is located two blocks north of Market Street. The camera was located on the roof a building at the southeast corner of Stockton Street and Union Square Avenue (today's Maiden Lane). Looking north on Stockton, the camera pans left along Post Street, and across Union Square to Powell Street and the St. Francis Hotel to the west. The pan continues south to Geary Street and on to the Stockton Street intersection, then sweeps back north to Stockton Street before drifting back into the square.

1903 - Scene in Chinatown - This film was shot in an alley of San Francisco's Chinatown on Saturday, September 15, 1900, at midday. The topography of the site (sloping down to the far street), the width of the alley, the location of utility poles and the location of buildings across the far street suggest that the view is north from Washington Street down Washington Place (today's Wentworth Street) to Jackson Street. Washington Place was known locally as Tuck Wo Gai ("Virtue and Harmony Street") and adjacent Washington Street was called Wa Sheng Dun Gai ("Waystation to Prosperity Street"). Washington Place was located in the northeast part of old Chinatown, just northwest of Portsmouth Square, around which gold rush San Francisco was built. Chinese provision stores lined the west (left) side of Washington Place, with fish and poultry stores on the east side. Three gambling houses were also located on the east side toward Jackson Street. The film features a group of white men ascending the alley before dispersing down Washington Street. A few Chinese men with characteristic queues are seen in the alley and several Chinese women in fashionable dress descend Washington Street near the end of the film. The first woman may be a family servant, the second and third women may be a mother and daughter; unescorted women of good character were rarely seen alone outdoors.

1903 - San Francisco Chinese Funeral - This film shows most of the ceremonial portion of the funeral procession of Tom Kim Yung (1858-1903), military attache to the Chinese Legation to the United States. The funeral procession took place at 1:00 pm on Wednesday, September 23, 1903, and was probably the largest ever seen in Chinatown. Tom's death (note that Tom is the family name) was the tragic consequence of a police assault, leading to his subsequent suicide. Following an elaborate service at the Chinese Consulate, the funeral procession formed and proceeded through Chinatown. Then, the participants rode in carriages to the Ning Yung Chinese Cemetery at Colma, just south of San Francisco, for a final ceremony. The body was then returned to Chinatown and kept by an undertaker before being shipped home to China, as was the custom. 

1905 - Market St Before the Fire - This film, shot from the front window of a moving Market Street cable car, is a rare record of San Francisco's principal thoroughfare and downtown area before their destruction in the 1906 earthquake and fire. The filmed ride covers 1.55 miles at an average speed of nearly 10 miles per hour. Market Street, graded through sand dunes in the 1850's, is 120 feet wide, and nearly 3.5 miles long. The street runs northeast from the foot of Twin Peaks to the Ferry Building. Different street grids, diagonal on the northwest side and parallel on the southeast side, create several awkward diagonal intersections along Market Street, contributing to the chaotic traffic situation that is evident in the film. San Francisco's cable cars, which first began operations in 1873, have no power of their own, and operate by "gripping" a moving cable beneath a slot in the street. This is the origin of the name "south of the slot" for the South-of-Market Street district. In all, the film shows some thirty cable cars, four horse cars and four streetcars. An interesting feature of the film is the apparent abundance of automobiles. However, a careful tracking of automobile traffic shows that almost all of the autos seen circle around the camera/cable car many times (one ten times). This traffic was apparently staged by the producer to give Market Street the appearance of a prosperous modern boulevard with many automobiles. In fact, in 1905 the automobile was still something of a novelty in San Francisco, with horse-drawn buggies, carts, vans, and wagons being the common private and business vehicles. The near total lack of traffic control along Market Street emphasizes the newness of the automobile. Granite paving stripes in the street marking ignored pedestrian crosswalks, making the crossing of Market Street on foot a risky venture. The pedestrian "islands" for homeward-bound downtown cable car commuters are among the few signs of order visible in the film.

1906 - A Trip to Berkeley, CA - This film, shot from a moving streetcar, shows portions of north Berkeley and the adjacent University of California campus, circa 1906. The apparent abundance of undeveloped land seen in the film is a bit deceptive; trees, hills and the narrow viewpoint of the camera hide much of the neighborhood, which was fairly well built-up by 1906, although much room remained for further growth. Over the following decades even the Berkeley Hills were covered with homes, as the University matured into a world-class institution. 

1906 - Scenes in San Francisco - This film is a compilation of views and pans among the ruins of San Francisco after the earthquake and fire and dates from Wednesday, May 9, 1906. The film was shot in the downtown area along Market and Mission streets.

1906 - More Scenes in San Francisco - This film is a compilation of panoramas filmed in the ruins of downtown San Francisco and outlying refugee camps following the 1906 earthquake and fire. The film dates from Wednesday, May 9, 1906.

1906 - San Francisco earthquake and Fire - These films show the aftermath of the San Francisco earthquake of April 18, 1906, and the devastation resulting from the subsequent three-day fire. The 8.3 magnitude earthquake struck at 5:12am and was centered along the San Andreas Fault, which slices through coastal California. Most of the cities of central California were badly damaged. San Francisco, with thousands of unreinforced brick buildings - and thousands more closely-spaced wooden Victorian dwellings - was poorly prepared for a major fire. Collapsed buildings, broken chimneys, and a shortage of water due to broken mains led to several large fires that soon coalesced into a city-wide holocaust. The fire swept over nearly a quarter of the city, including the entire downtown area. Dynamite was used with varying success to prevent the fire from spreading westward. Over 3,000 people are now estimated to have died as a result of the disaster. For the surviving refugees, the first few weeks were hard; as aid poured in from around the country, thousands slept in tents in city parks, and all citizens were asked to do their cooking in the street. A severe shortage of public transportation made a taxicab out of anything on wheels. Numerous businesses relocated temporarily in Oakland and many refugees found lodgings outside the city. Reconstruction of the city proceeded at a furious pace and by 1908, San Francisco was well on the way to recovery. The scenes in the film are preceded by titles, many of which are sensationalized. One entire scene showing a family eating in the street was almost certainly staged for the camera. The film was probably made in early May, as one scene can be precisely dated to May 9, and another to sometime after May 1.

1906 - San Francisco after the Earthquake & Fire - This film is made up of five panoramas, four wide and one close-up, of the ruins of downtown San Francisco shortly after the 1906 disaster, plus a panorama and scene in a nearby refugee camp. Original inter-titles precede each change of scene, but the locations provided are incorrect for three of the five views. The state of the ruins and camp suggest a date in late April, 1906. 

1906 - San Francisco Disaster - This film shows the partial burning of a small-scale model of downtown San Francisco in an early attempt at simulating the 1906 disaster. The model is seen in aerial view from above the South-of-Market district, looking northwest toward Market Street and the downtown area. Russian Hill (left) and Telegraph Hill (right) are shown in a painted background. The Call Building at 3rd and Market streets is modeled at left center, and the Ferry Building (Market and East streets) is shown at right. Market Street and downtown have been greatly shortened between the two enlarged model building. It is likely that the producers of the film wanted their audiences to think that they were viewing actual footage of the fire, and the film was probably promoted as such. In reality, the location of the initial fires was more widely scattered than is shown, with many more blazes beginning out of view, at left, and a few more north of the Ferry Building. And while the principal fires did coalesce and spread from the area shown burning, the flames never reached the spectacular proportions shown in the simulation. Note the heavy puffs of smoke wafted in from the left, both to give the impression of a rapidly spreading conflagration and to put out the flames for the final "smoking ruins" view. In fact, every part of the city shown (except a few small pockets) burned over a three day period. No doubt today's special effects wizards could produce a far more convincing simulation of the disaster.

1906 - Exploded Gas Tanks, US Mint, Emporium & Spreckels Building - This film is a spectacular pan of the downtown area of San Francisco as seen from south of Market Street. The location among low ruins was ideal to view the tall ruined buildings along and north of Market Street. Since the facade of St. Patrick's Church is not visible in the pan, the film is probably later than May 9, the date the facade was demolished. The camera, placed on the east side of 4th Street near Natoma Street, one and two-thirds blocks south of Market Street, pans a full 240 degrees, from southwest to southeast.

1906 - Army Pack Train Bringing Supplies - This film highlights the role of the United States Army in transporting supplies following the 1906 earthquake and fire in San Francisco. The Army's relief operations headquarters was at their base, the Presidio, outside the burned part of the city. The Army played a major role in relief and refugee operations. In the first weeks after the fire, food, water, tents, blankets, medical supplies, and hay for horses, were the principal needs. To pay for these supplies, Congress appropriated nearly $2.5 million in emergency aid for San Francisco. An estimated 300,000 people were camped out in late April, but the number had dropped to 25,000 by July, and emergency relief switched to long-term care in the substantial camps of "earthquake cottages."

1915 - Mabel Normand & Fatty Arbuckle Viewing the World's Fair - The 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition was San Francisco's second fair (following the 1894 Mid-Winter Fair) and her first major exposition. The 1915 fair celebrated both the opening of the newly-completed Panama Canal and the newly-rebuilt San Francisco, vital and vigorous after recovering from the 1906 earthquake and fire. The fair opened on February 20, 1915, and closed December 4, 1915, having attracted 18,876,438 visits by several million visitors. Mabel Normand and Fatty Arbuckle were major comedy stars of the silent screen. Mabel Normand (1894-1930) was a brilliant comedienne and prankster with an irrepressible vitality who became a Mack Sennet star. She played opposite such greats as Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle and was perhaps the most talented comic star of the silent screen. Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle (1887-1933), a vaudeville veteran, became one of Sennet's Keystone Kops in 1913 and rose to stardom. In 1917 he was accused of sexual assault in the death of starlet Virginia Rappe, who collapsed during a wild drinking party he threw in a suite of the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. Although acquitted, Arbuckle's career was ruined. This series of 5 charming films was produced by Max Sennett.

1916 - San Francisco's Future - By mid-1916, after viewing the carnage in Europe, the United States saw itself poised with great reluctance on the edge of participation in World War I. Isolationism and anti-preparedness feeling remained strong in San Francisco, not only among radicals such as the International Workers of the Worlds ("the Wobblies"), but also among responsible labor leaders. At the same time, with the rise of Bolshevism and labor unrest, San Francisco's business community was nervous. The Chamber of Commerce organized a Law and Order Committee, despite the diminishing influence and political clout of local labor organizations. Radical labor was a small but vociferous minority which few took seriously. Violence, however, was imminent. The huge Preparedness Day parade of Saturday, July 22, 1916, was the target date. A radical pamphlet of mid-July read in part, "We are going to use a little direct action on the 22nd to show that militarism can't be forced on us and our children without a violent protest." At 2:06 pm, about half an hour into the parade, a bomb exploded on the west side of Steuart Street, just south of Market Street, near the Ferry Building. The bomb was concealed in a suitcase; ten bystanders were killed and forty wounded in the worst terrorist act in San Francisco history. San Francisco screamed with anger and outrage. Two known radical labor leaders were arrested. In a hasty and bungled trial carried out in a lynch-mob atmosphere that included several false witnesses, the two were convicted. By 1939, evidence of perjury and false testimony at the trial had become overwhelming. Governor Culbert Olson pardoned both men. The identity of the bomber will probably never be known. The San Francisco Preparedness Day parade of 1916 was perhaps the largest parade ever held in the city. The 3.5 hour procession had 51,329 marchers, including 2,134 organizations and 52 bands. This film, with its animated propagandistic prologue, was made shortly after the bombing and was clearly aimed at local audiences. Perhaps it was thought that the film might help to "flush out" the bomber. The Hearst-Pathe film of the bombing scene was filmed after most of the bodies had been removed.