Stunning color photos show San Francisco's wild 1950s nightlife

A dancer dressed in a white sequin bikini and elbow gloves performs for patrons at Sinaloa Mexican Cantina. The Sinoloa, located on Powell and Broadway, was a hot spot for decades, serving up Mexican food and Latin entertainment. less A dancer dressed in a white sequin bikini and elbow gloves performs for patrons at Sinaloa Mexican Cantina. The Sinoloa, located on Powell and Broadway, was a hot spot for decades, serving up Mexican food and ... more Photo: Nat Farbman/The LIFE Picture Collection Photo: Nat Farbman/The LIFE Picture Collection Image 1 of / 85 Caption Close Stunning color photos show San Francisco's wild 1950s nightlife 1 / 85 Back to Gallery

Celebrities looking for a good time in the 1950s didn't just stick around Los Angeles; they took a quick flight up to San Francisco for a weekend of drinking, dancing and colorful debauchery.

San Francisco's nightlife seems tame today compared to the vibrant, all-hours scene it used to be. When LIFE magazine sent photographer Nat Farbman to capture San Francisco's booming restaurant and club scene in 1956, he came back with an array of stunning color photographs. The images show famed SF hotspots like the hungry i, Blue Fox restaurant and Sinaloa Club, all packed to the gills.

A 1958 Playboy magazine guide to San Francisco nightlife profiled 60 spots in the "wonderfully friendly city which will gladly yield you your fondest dreams unless you're a clod and a boor." Playboy reported that the downtown bars were all full of models — and well-dressed gentlemen hoping to impress said models.

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They singled out the Black Hawk jazz club in the Tenderloin as "one of the craziest in the country," and raved about how San Francisco didn't shut down when the clubs did. "After curfew," partiers headed to "private parties to which they're apt to invite a personable stranger they've met earlier."

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Lucky San Franciscans might have run into a number of celebrities who frequented our watering holes. Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe and Joan Crawford were all regulars at the Blue Fox restaurant. Crawford even had her own vodka supply stored at the restaurant.

To see Nat Farbman's LIFE magazine photos, check out the gallery above.