Buster filmed scenes from Day Dreams (1922) and The Navigator (1924) across San Francisco. Most locations look remarkably unchanged a century later. My latest YouTube video reveals every SF locale with then and now views, intercut with scenes where sneaky Buster actually filmed in Hollywood and Oakland instead.

The video quickly identifies every scene (as does this printed PDF tour you can download), and highlights a fun fact – Buster filmed near three famous SF landmarks BEFORE they were built. This post highlights these “prenatal” landmarks by diving deep into vintage aerial photos.

Click to enlarge – to begin, this 1922 aerial photo of the SF North Beach neighborhood reveals four Day Dream scenes; filmed looking west from Lombard at Taylor (red), looking east from Bay at Taylor (orange), east from Lombard at Columbus (yellow), and south from Lombard at Columbus (green). Notice how Buster filmed efficiently on flat streets relatively close together. David Rumsey Map Collection.

Three SF landmarks, the Lombard Street hairpin turns, Coit Tower, and Saints Peter and Paul Church on Washington Square, are absent in the above image. They would have appeared in the background of Buster’s scenes, but they hadn’t been built yet! The images below shows their future locations. OpenSFHistory.org – Lombard – Coit Tower – Saints Peter and Paul.

Click to enlarge, the same circa 1922 photo as above, shows the future sites of the three SF landmarks Buster missed because they weren’t built yet. The red and yellow patches in the movie frames above show where the landmarks would have appeared in Buster’s scenes. The church’s missing appearance is explained further below.

A closer view west up Lombard from Taylor, the first silent movie location I ever discovered, back in 1996. The block farthest up the hill would later become famous as “the crookedest street in the world.” Construction plans for the eight hairpin turns were approved June 9, 1922, around the time Buster filmed. The brick street was quickly torn up, but work halted all summer awaiting one homeowner’s approval. The nearly completed construction photo is dated December 14, 1922, so Buster missed capturing this future landmark by only a few months. On the other hand, Buster was ten years too soon for Coit Tower. The landmark honoring the City’s firefighters was built in 1932-1933. OpenSFHistory.org.

Later in the film, further south, Buster rides a cable car turning the corner from Washington onto Powell, blissfully unaware of the cops who reverse course to chase after him. Looking north, the setting is nearly unchanged, except today for the twin spires of Saints Peter and Paul Church now appearing at back. This beautiful church, facing Washington Square nearby (see aerial view above), played a major role in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments (1923), where it appears under construction (left). Once again Buster was too soon.

Vertigo – Day Dreams, same NE corner of Washington and Powell. Keaton (oval) sits in the cable car.

There’s more. Buster’s Day Dreams intersects with Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece Vertigo (1958). When Scottie (James Stewart) traces Madeleine (Kim Novak) by car back to his own apartment, they cross paths twice with Buster. Note matching window (red box). Read more HERE.

Matching views from Day Dreams and Bullitt.

Buster and ‘King of Cool’ actor Steve McQueen also crossed paths filming stunts. McQueen’s celebrated car chase in Bullitt (1968) matched views from Day Dreams looking SE down Columbus Avenue, with the same prominent apartment block at Mason and Greenwich at back. Read more HERE.

Click to enlarge – more views from Day Dreams, Washington at Powell, view north red, view west orange, and Second at Minna, view east green and view west yellow. David Rumsey Map Collection.

In closing, a scene above from The Navigator staged at 2505 Divisadero.

I hope you will check out Buster Keaton’s San Francisco footsteps, a true window into the past.  It also contains many Day Dreams scenes filmed in Oakland and in Hollywood, as well as scenes from The Navigator. Please also check the many other Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and Harold Lloyd videos posted on my YouTube Channel.

Below, Lombard at Taylor on Google Maps.