Unearthed footage of San Francisco's Market Street in the '60s looks like a different city

This footage of Market Street in the mid-60s feels like the opening of a Scorsese masterpiece, the passing neon signs and movie theater marquees giving a glimpse of a vibrant city’s central artery at night. Passing billiard halls, cigar bars, nightclubs and record stores briefly tease what life, music and vice may lie behind the clean, bright post-war facades, before disappearing into the dark, and into history.

The camera, seemingly fixed to the back of a trolley or car, glides from Market and 8th streets, down five long blocks before coming to a halt near Market and 3rd, capturing some remarkably high-quality footage along the way. There’s bristling electricity in the air, the street is alive and full of potential — it's an American city on the brink of a counter-cultural explosion, where even the Greyhound station looks enticing.

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Some of the signage gives us a clue as to the precise date of the video, first posted to YouTube in 2017 by SFNeon.org. The billing of David Lean's oscar-winning epic "Doctor Zhivago" on the Orpheum marquee means it was likely shot sometime in 1966. Of hundreds of neon signs on display, the only ones that remain alight in 2020 may be the Golden Gate Theatre and Odd Fellows Temple.

Archive footage of San Francisco's Market Street in the 1960's. Archive footage of San Francisco's Market Street in the 1960's. Photo: Getty Images/Petrified Film Photo: Getty Images/Petrified Film Image 1 of / 13 Caption Close Unearthed footage of San Francisco's Market Street in the '60s looks like a different city 1 / 13 Back to Gallery

Click through the above slideshow to see more archive photos of San Francisco and Market Street in the 1960s and 70s.

The film gives us a peek into a street almost unrecognizable next to the often maligned and divided Market Street of today, without a tech backpack, electric scooter or homeless camp in sight, the three-minute film is a mesmerizing look into a city that was.

Andrew Chamings is a digital editor at SFGATE. Email: Andrew.Chamings@sfgate.com | Twitter: @AndrewChamings