

Behold, this newly rediscovered bit of film, a Cinemascope look at San Francisco in 1955 by filmmaker and inventor Tullio Pellegrini. It's part of the Prelinger Archives, and it contains some characteristically dry, 50s-style narration. We begin with views of the city as you approached it by car from the south, east, and north. One surprise, at least to us, the population at the time, 775,000, wasn't much lower than it is now—a lot of people fled in the 60s and 70s.

Also, at that time, the Bay Bridge was the longest bridge in the world, and the Golden Gate was the longest single-span bridge.

It's over 20 minutes long (and may take a minute to load), and is extremely, some might say boringly thorough in its coverage of the hills, views, and tourist attractions about town. At 10:20 we see the Japanese tea garden in Golden Gate Park; around the 14:00 mark we get a shot of some cute families riding the miniature train at the zoo; and at 16:00 there is some awesome footage of Market Street, which was definitely in much more of a heyday than it is now. Of particular note, what is now the strip club Market Street Cinema near 7th was once a United Artists Cinema.

Our apologies if this distracts you from the work at hand this afternoon...