The Godfather (1972) Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece. Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay. Ranked no. 2 in the AFI's top 100 films list of all time. The reconciliation scene between Kay Adams (Diane Keaton) and Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) was filmed in Ross, Ca. in early autumn to substitute for New Hampshire. Video Clip
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Dirty Harry, 1971 classic movie. The first in the series of Clint Eastwood (as SFPD Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan) crime films that was shot on location in San Francisco and Marin County, Ca. The final action scene was shot in Larkspur, Ca. where Dirty Harry chases the bad guy to the old rock quarry after jumping on top of the school bus. The rock quarry and pond, that he throws his badge in at the end of the movie, have been developed over the last 40 years into commercial office, shopping and residential buildings. Video clip. American Graffiti, (1973). George Lucas' classic about cruising in the early sixites that was nominated for 5 Academy Awards. The cruising scenes were originally planned to be shot in downtown San Rafael, Ca. but because of disruptions to local businesses the San Rafael City Council revoked permission after one night of shooting and the rest of the movie was shot in Petaluma, Ca. Nonetheless there are several classic scenes that were shot that first night on Fourth St., San Rafael. Fourth St. is actually a two-way street but for the movie it was made one-way going West, which make the scenes shot in San Rafael easy to distinguish from the ones shot in Petaluma. The old Sylva mansion in Sausalito, Ca. Built in 1897, it was the home of Adolph Sylva a notorious political boss at the turn of the century. Sylva was a Latin and Greek scholar, musician, actor, chicken farmer, lawyer and politician. He was Town Trustee and eventually the Mayor of Sausalito, although his career included accusations of corruption and illegal activities. In 1901 an assassination attempt on Sylva failed when an explosive device was thrown at the house but instead exploded in a tree. The house gained even more notoriety in 1932 when Lester Gillis (aka. George "Baby Face" Nelson), the infamous Chicago gangster, lived in the mansion when he fled to the West Coast after escaping from Joliet State Prison. Photographer Arnold Genthe, who was famous for his photos of the San Francisco 1906 earthquake, wrote about his stay at the Hotel Rafael in his autobiography. He came to San Francisco in 1895 from Germany at the request of Baron Heinrich von Schroeder who was the proprietor of the Hotel Rafael. After some research I found out that: "The Hotel Rafael opened in 1888 and was the first luxury hotel in Marin County. It cost approximately $200,000 to build and occupied 21 acres in San Rafael, California. The hotel had 100 rooms, multiple dining rooms, an observation tower, plus gardens, tennis courts and stables. The warm climate of San Rafael attracted many San Francisco vacationers across the foggy San Francisco Bay. A fire started on the top floor and burned the hotel to the ground on July 29, 1928, despite the local fire department's best efforts. In 1939, the land was sold at auction and subdivided into smaller lots on which private homes were built. Part of the original gates are still visible at Belle Avenue and Rafael Drive in San Rafael, California." .....so I went to the intersection and found the gates buried in the foliage and shrubs. Here are some shots of the gates today along with postcards from 1900 and 1905.
There are replicas of this car out there but this is the original car down to the original Beverly Hills license plates. The car was bought used by Janis in 1968 when it was 3 years old. It's a '65 356 Cabriolet and was all white when she bought it. Big Brother roadie Dave Richmond gave it the psychedelic paint job. In later years the original paint faded and flaked off and it has since been restored to it's original condition. On loan from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Ohio it is shown here at the Marin-Sonoma Concours de Elegance. Janis drove this car around Marin County, Ca., where she lived just before her death in 1970.
Janis Joplin's redwood-studded home at the time of her death in 1970. The hard-living rocker died at age 27 from a drug overdose in a Los Angeles hotel room. She had lived in the wood-shingled, creekside house less than two years.
There were sightings of Doors' singer Jim Morrison and singer Kris Kristofferson, who wrote "Me and Bobby McGee" which became a Joplin hit after she died. Nearly 40 years later, there are still remnants of Joplin's short stay in the house, including a small bar made from redwood burl and wall paneling made by the carpenter who did much of the striking artistic woodwork that was featured in the interior of The Trident restaurant, a popular Sausalito watering hole during the 1970s. There's also a 4-foot-high dog door next to the front door that Joplin had installed for her St. Bernard. A bathroom includes a tiled sunken bath and shower below a skylight that looks out into the towering redwoods. Joplin's pool table still stands in the family room. "She loved Marin; she bought a house in Larkspur in Baltimore Canyon. That’s when she had the Full Tilt Boogie Band and met Kris Kristofferson, who was not famous at all. We’d sit around and sing country music in her house and then we’d go out and ride in her Porsche. The three of us would ride in that car together through downtown San Rafael. Janis, Kris, and me, driving down the street, waving. It was like the procession of the Queen. Everybody knew who Janis was. Nobody really knew who I was or Kris but we had a really fun time." (Sam Andrew of Big Brother & the Holding Company) Olema is a small town in West Marin County, North of San Francisco. It straddles the San Andreas fault line. The West side sits on the Pacific tectonic plate and the East side the North American plate. In 1906 the San Andreas fault ruptured North and South a distance of 296 miles creating dramatic earth movement in Olema. The Skinner Ranch red barn still stands today along with a section of fence which was displaced 18 feet by the great quake. The fault line passes under the Southeast corner of the barn. When the fault snapped in 1906 the barn and it's foundation shifted Northwest 15 feet dragging the Southeast corner with it.
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