Dark Passage #2

Here you see Humphrey Bogart climbing the Filbert Street steps. He has just encountered the first two of a trio of fairytale characters, the first being a lonely cabbie who identifies him as a convicted killer and drives him to a plastic surgeon. Now THIS guy, the plastic surgeon, looks like a wierd little gnome who lives in a tree. He laughs way too much and only charges $200 for the 90-minute treatment he invented which caused him to get thrown out of the A.M.A.

This is the wooden path up to Irene Jansen's apartment in the art deco building, which runs beside the Marchant Gardens now. It was a trash-filled area  between the cottages on either side until Grace Marchant moved there in 1949 and built a beautiful hillside garden. After she died, others took up its maintenance. There are more photos and history of this beautiful enterprise here.

North Beach/Sugar Mountain

Photo taken around sunset in San Francisco's North Beach. Note the moon-faced barker at left, looking as if he just stepped out of a Damon Runyan story, and off in the distance on the right, the Bay Bridge.  The Hungry I Club is of course where Lenny Bruce performed, now dedicated like the rest of this block to places where you can see disrobed ladies (euphemism to deflect spam from comments). The anti-Sugar Mountain song, for me, is Ry Cooder's Down in Hollywood.

I've been spending a bit of time in San Francisco photographing the little people. Going back to the Filbert Street steps in the morning to photograph a few things in a different light. As well as being the site of Dark Passage, the Filbert Street steps are one block over from the street where the wild parrots of Telegraph Hill live.

The explosive conclusion of LOST tomorrow.