June 14, 2019June 14, 2019 Rick Laubscher

Flashback to 1906 on June 26

Where is this exactly? Come to our museum on June 26 and find out.

In the latest installment of Market Street Railway’s series of history talks, called Inside Track Live, you’ll be able to see the famous 1906 Miles Brothers film, “A Trip Down Market Street”, as you’ve never seen it before.

On Wednesday, June 26 at 6 p.m., at our San Francisco Railway Museum, MSR President Rick Laubscher will present the highest-quality transfer of this precious film ever made, showing a 12-minute ride from Eighth Street to the Ferry along Market Street, shot from the front of a cable car just a few days before the Earthquake and Fire destroyed almost everything visible in the film.

Rick has narrated the film, providing insights into not only the transportation history involved, but the social and economic history of 1906 San Francisco as well.

At Inside Track Live, we’ll play the film all the way through with its narration, asking audience members to note anything they see that they have questions. Then, we’ll play the film again, pausing to discuss audience questions with Rick wherever one comes up. It should be a lively, interactive hour or so of history.

Admission is free for Market Street Railway members. We ask a voluntary $5 donation from members of the public.

Take a free ride on the 1934 Blackpool Boat Tram from our museum to the Wharf the afternoon before the film presentation.

BONUS: the 1934 Blackpool “Boat Tram” will be running from our museum to Pier 39 and back that afternoon, with the last trip leaving about 4 p.m. Come down early, take a “boat” ride (free!) and peruse the Ferry Building’s great market. Make an afternoon/early evening of it!

By the way, our newly-enhanced, exclusive narrated version of “A Trip Down Market Street”, with realistic sound effects, is available on DVD both at our museum and our online store.

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April 16, 2019April 16, 2019 Rick Laubscher

Best Version Yet of Iconic 1906 Movie

In 1906, it didn’t get more high tech than this iconic 12-minute movie, filmed from the front of a cable car headed down Market Street. If you’re a San Francisco history buff (or transit buff), you’ve probably seen it before, but not like this. A new digital transfer by the noted film archivist Rick Prelinger breathes more life into it, sharper and wider-screen. (Back then, the image was captured to the edges of the film, even between the sprocket holes; this version includes that.)

Surprisingly to us, the film had never appeared in a narrated version, explaining exactly where you are and providing the social and economic context of what you’re seeing. Market Street President Rick Laubscher, a San Francisco historian and former journalist, did that several years ago, and has now updated that narration with new information that has come to light. Additionally, we have added sound effects by Mike Upchurch to provide some atmosphere.

Thanks to film historian David Kiehn, we now know that this iconic film, by the Miles Brothers, was shot on or about April 14, 1906, just four days before the great Earthquake and Fire. (It was previously believed to have been filmed in August 1905.)

To commemorate the 113th anniversary of the April 18 catastrophe, which ended an era in San Francisco, we have posted this new version of the film on YouTube. We will be providing it through our online store and in our San Francisco Railway Museum in coming weeks.

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December 3, 2018 Rick Laubscher

See ‘Lost Landscapes’ Dec. 4 and 5

Our friend Rick Prelinger, creator of the Internet Archive, has been making special programs of vintage films of San Francisco for over a decade now. Rick has collected a wonderful mix of home movies, commercial film outtakes, travelogues, and other celluloid representations of our city, and invites the audience to shout out their reactions. It’s the ultimate interactive show!

This year’s event is extra special, because Rick has made the best restoration yet of the famed “Trip Down Market Street” film made by the Miles Brothers just before the 1906 Earthquake and Fire changed San Francisco forever. This is the film featured in a Morley Safer “60 Minutes” story a few years back, including interviews with Rick Prelinger, film historian David Kiehn of the Essenay Film Museum in Niles, and MSR President Rick Laubscher, who created a narrated version of the film, available to view or purchase at our San Francisco Railway Museum.

Rick Prelinger will debut the original (silent) version of this beautifully restored film at the Lost Landscapes events on December 4 and 5 at the Castro Theater, along with many other great clips of San Francisco’s history. This is always a wonderful event and at this writing, tickets are still available here.

Proceeds benefit the Internet Archive, a great project. You’ll thank yourself for seeing this.

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February 19, 2017 Rick Laubscher

Stunning Composite Photographs

This isn’t new, but if you haven’t seen these wonderful composite photographs by San Francisco photographer Sean Clover, you’re in for a treat.

These are just a couple of them, comparing the damage caused by the 1906 earthquake and fire with the exact same location today.

Above, the gate of the cable car barn on Washington Street just east of Mason, showing how Car 155 was crushed by falling bricks. Within a few hours of the original photograph, it and all its mates from the Powell Street cable lines would be incinerated. (They were replaced by cable cars used on the Sacramento-Clay lines, stored out of the fire zone. Some of these cars, much rebuilt, are still on the Powell lines today.)

Below, two of the California Street cable cars of the type built in 1907 to replace the ones destroyed in the earthquake pass between Grant Avenue and Stockton Street, with 1906 rubble from Nob Hill to the right.

We’re lucky to live in a city with artists as talented as Sean Clover.

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April 18, 2016May 12, 2016 Rick Laubscher

110 Years Ago: Earthquake Ends the Cable Era

This photograph is of a cable car transfer that is part of our Market Street Railway Archives. It’s for the Hayes line (now the 21-Hayes bus), inbound (going toward the Ferry). The date of the transfer, overprinted with ink as was the custom) was April 18, 1906. The time punched on the transfer was 5:00 a.m. We believe this is a genuine transfer, though it can’t easily be inspected more closely because it was donated to us already encased in plastic.… — Read More

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