I wake up in the Mark Hopkins Hotel ready to follow the VERTIGO trail, in San Francisco. With Cesar, my father, I am following THE book on the topic, 'Footsteps in the Fog' by Kraft and Leventhal.
My father, Cesar, accompanies on the Vertigo tour. Pic taken from Top of the Mark, in the Mark Hopkins Hotel, one of Dad's favorite SF spots.
Getting ready for the Vertigo Tour! Checking cell phone battery level. Most of the pictures taken here are with Omnia cell phone camera (5 Megapixel).
Top of the Mark, Mark Hopkins Hotel. Scottie tells Elster that his vertigo won't allow him to drink here. While he has to give up this sign of sophistication and elitism, he consoles himself that "there are plenty of street-level bars" he can choose from. One can imagine him here talking about his aspirations to be chief of police some day.
Our chariot during the Vertigo tour: a Honda "Odyssey" (of all names!). The Tour Guide is Mr. Jesse Warr, of "A Friend in Town," based in Oakland <http://www.toursanfranciscobay.com/>. He told us he moved to SF from DC in the early 70s.
This is the famous Mark Hopkins Hotel. The Top of the Mark is located behind the set of windows just below the roof. The Fairmont Hotel to left. Picture is taken where where Scottie waits for Madeleine to come out of Brockelbank Building. This is what he sees as he turns to his right.
Top of the Fairmont Hotel from Top of the Mark, Mark Hopkins Hotel. The Brocklebank building behind. Scottie waits for Madeleine along the street to the left.
Nob Hill view from Top of the Mark, the Mark Hopkins Hotel
Transamerica Building . Contemporary verticality in San Francisco. The Transamerica was not yet built when VERTIGO was filmed, but is now a major landmark of the city.
Nice mixture of architectural styles that define SF--high risers next to Painted Ladies. Golden Gate Bridge lies in back. VERTIGO offers a valentine to this beautiful city.
This is the view down Mason Street, from Brocklebank, at Sacramental Street. Fisherman's Wharf is located at the end of three street as the waterfront. If the Elsters walked out of their apartment building and turned right, this is what they would see.
View from fifth floor of the Mark Hopkins Hotel. SF is often foggy, but VERTIGO shows they city bathed in the light of a clear day, as is seen here.
This is here because Gavin Elster first mentions this spot when he talks with Scottie in his office. Portals of the Past, on Lloyd Lake, Golden Gate Park, is where he says Madeleine "spends hours." The facade is a 1906 earthquake/fire survivor from the Nob Hill mansion of A.N. Towne, serving as the mansion's entryway. The Elsters live in Nob Hill, and Gavin idealizes the period of SF history that predates the earthquake. Golden Gate Park is found across town from Nob Hill. My own take on the film explores its neoclassicism, and the facade boast Ionic order columns. Perhaps Nob Hill served as an Olympian dream.
Apologies for the picture of moi. Scottie hung from a building gutter 13 blocks north from here, on Taylor and Mission Streets. This is the walk to the Civic Center area along Mission Street. The word "mission" is used in many contexts in Vertigo. Vertigo and Mission is at the center of SF's theater district.
This is a shot of the Federal Building, which relates to the War Memorial Opera House found nearby. Gavin and Madeleine attend the opera after dinner at Ernie's. More neoclassicism.
Here is a view of San Francisco City Hall, also found near the Opera House. The classical design is called the Beaux-Arts style, from the late 19th century. VERTIGO is a Romantic 19th century tale displaced to the 1950s. The view here also mixes the old with the new.
Farmer's Market near Civic Center. Note the juxtaposition of nature's bounty and majestic, bellicose statuary. Highly mythical in is organization.
Civic Center's neo-classical rhetoric. The Elsters dine at Ernie's before they visit this area of Olympian architecture to see an opera.
Back at Nob Hill. This is the Pacific Union Club; Scottie parks his car nearby when he begins to follow Madeleine.
Pacific Union Club in Flood Masion, on California Street. Grace Mansion behind to right. Probable inspiration for Galvin Elster's club where he meets with Scottie. Scottie parks his 1956 Firetop DeSoto here while waiting for Madeleine to come out in her Jaguar. Streets and cars are important in the film.
Scottie parked here. Corner of Sacramento and Mason Streets on Nob Hill. Very posh at the time of the film production.
The Brocklebank Apartment building, where Elsters lived. This is the view of Scottie from the black car position in the former pics.
The Brocklebank Apartments. Note verticality.
Madeleine parks her green Jaguar Mark VIII at this spot in the courtyard of the the Brocklebank. "One Way" marks the tragic aspect of the film.
View down Mason Street from Sacramento Street; the Brocklebank stands to the right.
Looking down Mason Street from Nob Hill.
Looking further down Mason Street from Nob Hill; Cable Car may be seen in street at center.
More exploration of Nob Hill area. Here is the Fairmont Hotel as seen from Sacramento Street.
Fairmont Hotel, Nob Hill. Hitchcock often stayed here, including during shoot.
Fairmont Htel; note neoclassical flourishes. Hitchcock stayed here often. Madeleine drives right in front during first trail scene. Scottie follows, as he parked across the street.
The Fairmont Hotel.
This is a panoramic shot from Top of the Mark taken with an Omnia cell phone camera. In VERTIGO, a panoramic shot of the city, including the right side of this photo, is shown during night scene after Scottie visits Madeleine's grave in Colma City (San Mateo County: pg. 145 of K-L). White building between B of A and Transamerica is the Russ Building, at 235 Montgomery (street of skyscrapers). Russ was built in 1926, tallest then in SF. To left is Nob Hill.
Scottie follows Madeleine, and she leads him at one point to here, Claude Lane; from this back alley, Madeleine enters Podesta Baldocchi from a side door. The alleyway is next door to 343 Grant Street. The film route does not correspond with actual physical locations, but Kraft and Leventhal, in Footsteps in the Fog, sort it all out.
224 Grant Street. Location of real Podesta Baldocchi Flower shop at time of film. Podesta Baldocchi is now found at 508 4th Street.
The Mission Dolores chapel is the oldest building in San Francisco. The Mission interacted with the many first Californians living in this relatively flat region with a stream. Founded June 29, 1776. The year is recorded on the the time line of the redwood tree cut at Big Basin.
After Madeleine buys a nosegay, she leads Scottie to here, the Mission Dolores, on 16th and Dolores Streets. MD is of 21 Spanish missions in California established under the direction of Father J. Serra.
Drawing found inside the Mission. According to a web site: The settlement was named for St. Francis of Assisi, the founder of the Franciscan Order, but was also commonly known as "Mission Dolores" owing to the presence of a nearby creek named Arroyo de los Dolores, or "Creek of Sorrows."
Inside Mission Dolores. Roof pattern taken from Ohlone tribe basket design.
Spiral, "vertical" staircase inside Mission Dolores. Not shot in film, but hard not to connect with staircase in San Juan Batista , another California Mission visited in the film.
Poor pic of the altar inside Mission Dolores. Altar pieces came from Mexico in the late 1700s and early 1800s.
Mission Dolores cemetery out back. Scottie is shown standing near her. 5,000 Ohlone, Miwok, and other First Californians who built Mission Dolores, and who were its earliest members and founders, were buried here at one time. (See www.missiondolores.org). Mission Dolores Basilica is seen behind, as also seen in the film.
Madeleine in turn leads Scottie to The California Palace of Legion of Honor. Its famous Art Gallery contains in the film the painting of Carlotta Valdes; there is no such painting in the collection, and it was painted as a prop.
The Palace of the Legion of Honor's grand Roman architecture.
Palace of the Legion of Honor portico and courtyard behind. Wikipedia: "The building is a three-quarters scale imitation of the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur in Paris. The design was based on a model of the Hôtel de Salm that appeared at the 1915 Panama Pacific Exhibition, so it is not an exact copy."
Legion of Honor, inner courtyard. Wikipedia: "The building is a three-quarters scale imitation of the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur in Paris. The design was based on a model of the Hôtel de Salm that appeared at the 1915 Panama Pacific Exhibition, so it is not an exact copy. Completed in 1924, it was given to the City of San Francisco by Alma de Bretteville Le Normand Spreckels and designed by George Applegarth and H. Guillaume." The facade emphasizes the Olympian elegance that Scottie associates with Madeleine.
In the courtyard stands a Rodin sculpture of "The Thinker." Gavin Elster owns a thinking figure (not the same) on his desk in his Shipyards office. What an audience member of the film looks like after seeing it for the first few times: Hmmm, what does this all mean ....?
At the end of Scottie's first day of following Madeleine, he is so intrigued that he seeks more information about earlier SF history. His friend, Midge, leads Scottie to learn this information from Pop Leibel, owner of the Argosy Book Shop. Hitchcock visited this place before film was shot, and it obviously may have influenced his design. The name also raises the idea of Argonaut mythical connections, but my reading of the film also connects with the figure of Argus, the 100-eyed guardian of the nymph, Io, who is later forced to "wander" during much of her life in the form of heifer.
Cable Car off Union Square. A cable car bell is heard at the beginning of the Argosy Book Store scene, and at the end of it, creating a kind of "ring composition" (pun intended) common in Homeric storytelling.
Argonaut Book Shop, where I prepare my camera in front: 786 Sutter Street has been its location since 1969.
Argonaut Book Shop, taken from outside window.
Classic cable car near Union Square on Powell Street. Evokes close of ring cycle here for book shop scene.
View through window of Argonaut Book Shop. In the film, it was located at 343 Powell Street, but the street shots were in the 200 block of Powell (Footsteps, pg. 109). It is reported that Hitchcock often invited its owner, Robert Haines, to lunch with him at his Scotts Valley house.
Union Square
Union Square. Like Nob Hill, important plaza space in film.
Union Square, looking to the north.
Union Square from Geary Street.
Union Square.
Maiden Lane opening into Union Square. Alma, the model for the statue, is Alfred's wife's name. She holds a palm and Neptune's triton, linked with sea (and Elster's shipbuilding) and it celebrates Dewey as the "King of the Sea". The voluptuous young woman (evoking Kim Novak) was a well known personality in SF. She modeled for the statue in the nude, but the figure was wears a diaphanous drape.
Mosaic photo of Union Square with cell phone camera. Four different shots.
Union Square. Scottie walks through here in night of despair from Midge's to his apartment. (Would not be on route, though.) Shot an early Sunday morning when traffic would be at lowest. The affect is to show despair of Scottie, who comes from MIdge's apartment when she shows him a copy she makes of a painting of Carlotta Valdes, changed to feature her own face.
Maiden Lane and Stockton before Union Square. Dr. Padilla compares the figure of Io, a maiden nymph in Greek myth, to the characterizations of Madeleine/Judy. Io was spied by Zeus as a lover, but Hera interferes. "Union Square" is a place where such an event might happen, connecting the earth and the sky.
"Begins" Maiden Lane, other side from Union Square. Dr. Padilla walks from here along Maiden Lane in next few photos, back to where it opens out into Union Square. The physical location evokes the classical myth: the journey of nymph to "union" with Zeus, evoked by Dewey Statue.
This is 171 Maiden Lane. The Gina Khan Salon is where a working-girl Judy might transform herself into an elite-class Madeleine. Diptyque is a Paris-based company that makes and sells scented candles and perfume.
77 Maiden Lane: "Maiden Lane Salon and Spa." Maiden Lane is also important for "The Birds." This where the elite Melanie might have gone before she begins her difficult journey to Bodega Bay, or where the real Madeleine might have visited in Vertigo.
End of the 'maiden'hood of an Io-like Judy? Io is spied by Zeus in a "union square" evoking meadow. It is possible that Gavin Elster picks up Judy as she was in the area, as she worked at Magnin Dept. Store nearby. Judy tells Scottie that she's "been picked up before, you know." Gavin Elster may have been Judy's first lover, and perhaps remains in love with him even after he abandons her.
Another shot of the end of Maiden Lane across from Union Square. Loss of "maiden"hood is one way.
When Dr. Padilla visited on this day, there was a display of a large heart, perhaps getting ready for Valentine's Day a month later. (Time Square in NYC did a similar thing: see pictures of the Padilla family for its great Times Square visit during Feb. 15, 2009!). The heart is opportune for the "reading" of Vertigo: renders Union Square as the kind of place Gavin and Judy might have met and fallen in love; but Gavin, like Zeus when he spies Io, is married.
As one leaves from Maiden Lane, this is how it looks crossing into Union Square. See street sign to far left. A straight-line walks goes past Dewey statue: see next photo and caption. St. Francis Hotel is behind. St. Francis (San Francisco's patron saint) is the patron of Mission Dolores.
This is Admiral Dewy Memorial on Union Square. It commemorates Dewey's defeat in Manila Bay the Spanish navy and thus the annexation of the Philippines and Cuba in 1896. The 95-foot high statue, designed in 1901 by sculptor Robert Aitken, and by architect Newton Tharp, celebrates the city just before its 1906 earthquake; the statue survived the quake and fire. "Alma [de Bretteville] Spreckels, later the lovely wife of sugar baron Adolph Spreckels, was the nude model for the figure, which Aitken used to symbolize "the Republic, dignified and graceful, on a pedestal of granite. In her outstretched hand he placed a palm, denoting work well done, a tribute to the memory of the beloved president. In her other hand he gave her a trident, the three-pronged fork which was the scepter of King Neptune, king of the sea." Alma had sprung from humble beginnings and later married into the Spreckels wealth. Evokes story of Carlotta and Judy, who did not succeed as Alma did. Triumph of Io?
Film's location for Argosy Book Shop. Other side of Maiden Lane from Union Square. Note Ionic order. Part of St. Francis Hotel. Evokes Maiden Lane salons, etc. St. Francis Hotel Building: offers mix of Catholic and pagan ideas.
After walking down Maiden Lane, across Union Square, past Dewey Memorial, one now finds Victoria Secret's. Fictitious address of Argosy Book Shop.
Top-view shot of the Pacific Union Club and Huntington Park (to left), Nob Hill. Taken rom Mark Hopkins Hotel, Top of the Mark. Scottie visits Elster here after he learns Carlotta's history from Pop Leibel in Argosy Book Shop, with Midge.
Pacific Union Club, street level. This club for a long time was for men only. Only men are seen in the club scene with Elster and Scottie. The kind of place a "rich and powerful man" seeking the glamorized days of "old Bohemian San Francisco" might plot murder of wife and hence greater "freedom."
Madeleine leads Scottie on the second day of trailing to ("old") Fort Point in the Presidio, an army base that has been the home of Spanish, Mexican, and American forces.
Fort Point, Presidio. "Madeleine" jumps into bay and Scottie fishes her out. A famous scene in Hitchcock and fifties film.
View from Fort Point towards city.
Fort Point is a picturesque place to exercise.
After Scottie "rescues" Madeleine, he takes her to his apartment, undresses her, and puts her into his bed. Scottie lives at the bottom of the most crooked part of Lombard Street. This is the top of Lombard; Coit Tower is in back; Scottie's apt is below. A very famous tourist spot.
Lombard Street seen from near Scottie's apartment. Tourists line up to take pictures here all-year round.
Crookedest Street, Lombard, just above Scottie's apartment.
Lombard Street. Metaphor for Scottie's state of mind--a maze of conflicting emotions and ideas. Gavin Elster traps Scottie in a maze like world, as Minos does to Theseus in the Cretan Labyrinth.
Dr. Padilla, across from Scottie's apt, before "the most crooked street in the world," behind.
Lombard Street. Scottie was not emotionally prepared for Elster's nefarious use of him. He loses his Madeleine twice in the process.
Scottie's apartment in 2009.
Close up o fScottie's apartment in 2009.
Closer up still to Scottie's apartment door on Lombard Street. This is where Madeleine puts her thank you letter into Scottie's mailbox, before they go "wandering" together to Big Basin and Cyprus Point.
Scottie's apartment at 900 Lombard Street. Moment of intimacy here. One can see that Judy, playing Madeleine, is falling in love with Scottie even while she is playing the part of serving as a mysterious and aloof "damsel in distress."
Scottie's apartment door, the same address as in film. Vertigo scholars have gone so far as to rent the apartment while working on the film, and hence obsessed with a film about obsession.
Coit Tower, from Scottie's apartment. Inside the apartment scene, the tower had to be moved into the window view by special effect. Once can see that the tower would not be seen in the window. Hitchcock put in "Coit" "as a phallic symbol." A pun on the name, too: "Coit"us!
Coit Tower, important SF landmark seen from Scottie's apartment on Lombard Street. It stands on Telegraph Hill, built in 1933. Madeleine says she used it as guide to find his apartment, following her wandering "maze" on day three when Scottie trails her.
Coit Tower
Coit Tower from corner.
Scottie's apartment
Scottie's apartment, where Madeleine parked her Jag. They leave from here to "wander together," evoking an Argus and Io falling in love away from the watchful eye of Elster/Zeus.
Sign and tree from Norfolk Botanical Gardens, in VA. Taken during Padilla family visit there in summer 2008. Scottie and Madeleine drive to Big Basin Redwood State Park, near Boulder Creek, CA. Dr. Padilla's father, seen in other photos, lives in Boulder Creek. The Hitchcocks has an estate at near by Scotts Valley.
Madeleine returns to Scottie's apartment troubled by a dream. Scottie deciphers the dream as referring to San Juan Bautista Mission, south of San Francisco by about 100 miles (and inland from Cyprus Point). After driving through the a grove of trees, Scottie takes Madeleine here in hopes to cure her.
"Avenue of the Tall Trees": Eucalyptus Grove south of San Juan Bautista; Scottie and Judy drive through twice, each time leading to "Madeleine's" death. The trees thus signify a journey to the underworld, as the "tall trees" do at Big Basin.
Eucalyptus Grove south of San Juan Bautista. Picture taken from pull off.
Another pic of Eucalyptus Grove south of San Juan Bautista.
Construction of mission started in 1803; has been in use since 1812; owned by Catholic Church.
The arches are called "Cloisters" at San Juan Bautista
The Church at the San Juan Bautista Mission.
Livery Stable where Scottie and Madeleine kiss; the kiss is remembered and incorporated in famous scene of kiss in the Empire Hotel.
Livery in SJB
Livery in SJB; "old gray mare" that troubles Madeleine's thoughts.
The "gray mare" that Madeleine remembers, says Scottie in a rare comic moment, is a plastic replica of horse.
A mosaic picture of SJB.
San Juan Bautista; bells evoke bell in tower
Entry to SJB; studio built its own door for filming of Judy and Scottie entering.
Entry to SJB; studio set copied for filming.
Where inquest takes place at SJB. Stands next to Stable/livery. Taken from cloisters side.
San Juan Bautista
San Juan Bautista; entry into cloisters.
A building Scottie connects with Madeleine's visions; place of saloon with low ceiling
Saloon in Plaza Hotel at San Juan Bautista
Night scene from Mark Hopkins Hotel. The moon is out (in a special effect) over Union Square during Scottie's lonely walk past the square after leaving Midge's apartment. After Scottie visits Madeleine's grave in Colma City, the films shows a a shot of the city from the venue of the Mark Hopkins Hotel. The shot presents SF in a gloomy, nightly aspect, matching Scottie's emotional state of loss, guilt, and nerve strain.
View from fifth floor of Mark Hopkins Hotel. Coit Tower and Bank of America Buildings. Part of the gloomy nighttime shot from MH hotel after Scottie visits Madeleine's grave, but with current sky scape of time.
Transamerica Building to left from as seen from the Mark Hopkins Hotel.
This is the exterior of the former St. Joseph Hospital, film location of the sanitarium where Scottie recovers from his nervous breakdown. It has been converted to expensive condos.
The former St. Joseph Hospital, now luxury condos.
The sanitarium location is near Haight Street, which in the 1960s would be come home to psychedelic art styles, already anticipated by Ferren animation scene to depict Scottie's breakdown.
The Brocklebank Apartments. Scottie returns here after he is released from hospital and thinks he see Madeleine near her jaguar, but it was sold to another blonde woman living in building.
Mark Hopkins Hotel from Sacramento Street; the Fairmont to left. Part of Scottie's haunted area when he recovers.
Location of Empire Hotel, now Vertigo Hotel, on 825 Sutter Street. Scottie follows Judy here after he sees her in front of Podesta Baldocchi as she walks home from work at Magnin's Dept. Store. Perhaps this was the same place Elster picked her up. A "Carlotta bouquet" is placed in the window at this magical moment. Evokes again a displaced Io myth.
Location of "Empire Hotel" site. Judy Barton lives here, and shows herself in a window, reminding Scottie of "Madeleine" showing herself in the window of the McKittrick Hotel. Green fluorescent light fixture in front is gone now.
Closeup of Vertigo Hotel, site of Empire Hotel.
Close up of current site of Empire Hotel.
Inside lobby of Hotel Vertigo, site of Empire Hotel, "Vertigo" scenes of Empire Hotel play continuously on the television. Receptionist at desk, a young woman, never heard of the film when Dr. Professor asked her about it; she claimed that she had no idea why it was showing. (A joke?)
Judy looks out, as Madeleine did from McKittrick Hotel, while Scottie watches from street both times. This area on Eddy Street is less chic than those around Union Square, and it borders on the Tenderloin District, the adult-only action area of SF.
Panorama shot of Palace of Fine Arts park. Where Scottie and Judy walk in love.
Palace of Fine Arts park, where Scottie and Judy walk.
Palace of Fine Arts park, where Scottie and Judy walk. Designed for the 1915 Panana-Pacific Exhibition, by Bernard Maybeck.
Palace of Fine Arts park, where Scottie and Judy walk. The Palace of Fine Arts is a frequent site for weddings today.
Palace of Fine Arts park. The buildings were inspired by Greek and Roman architecture.
Palace of Fine Arts park. The lagoon and trees suggest in mythical terms Io's home on the banks of the Inacchus River, her father.
Venetian Room, Fairmont Hotel. Scottie and Judy dance here. The Venetian Room was once a famous entertainment venue. Tony Bennett first sang "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" here. Scottie left his hearth there, too.
California and Mason; the Fairmont Hotel to left, Mark Hopkins Hotel to right. Bay Bridge to rear. At the top of Nob Hill looking down California Street east.
End of tour. Time for Dr. Padilla to relax with Dad in the Tonga Lounge, located inside the Fairmont Hotel (see picture before for sign to mark California Street entrance). Thank you for viewing these Vertigo Tour pictures!
