Joined January 2023
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463 Photos and videos
May 28
Green screen skate commercial in 1990s San Francisco.
This is footage edited together from a few different Levi's commercials that came out in 1992 when they released a line of jeans called "BIG Jeans". There was a huge campaign around it which became known as the "Livin' Large" campaign. It basically encouraged consumers to walk with bigger footsteps, think big, and embrace a larger-than-life lifestyle.
There was a huge green screen trend happening at the time where it felt like every single commercial on TV had this sort of vibe to it. It was everything from cereal and junk food commercials to local car dealerships, furniture stores, and even injury attorneys.
From what I was able to find, the skaters and rollerblader who appeared in this commercial are Jesse Roach, Willy Santos, and Jim Trimble.
The best part of this footage for me is shots of the Lili Ann Mural that used to exist at 17th & Harrison. It was painted in 1986 by Jesus "Chuy" Campusano, a San Francisco muralist who also painted "Homage to Siqueiros" in the Bank of America on 23rd and Mission.
The Lili Ann was the first large abstract mural commissioned by the City, funded by a $40,000 grant from the Mayor's Office of Community Development, and painted with the permission of the Lilli Ann Corporation whose building it lived on.
Campusano passed away in 1997, the year before the mural was destroyed. When the building was sold, the new owner whitewashed the mural without giving the required 90 days' notice and people were beyond pissed!
Neighbors, artists, and local organizations were outraged, calling it an attack on the Mission's cultural identity.
source footage 🎥: Levi's
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May 26
Captain Cosmic, Bay Area superhero.
Captain Cosmic was a late-afternoon weekday show that aired on KTVU from September 1977 to January 1980. It was created and hosted by Bob Wilkins, who was also the creator and host of Creature Features, a late-night horror movie program that ran in the Bay Area from 1971 to 1984.
In many ways, Captain Cosmic was a companion show to Creature Features, just aimed at a younger audience.
The show primarily featured serials starring Japanese superheroes, including Ultraman, Spectreman, Star Blazers, Godzilla, Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, and the original Flash Gordon serials. Within three weeks of its debut, Captain Cosmic became the number one kids' show in the Bay Area.
If you want to go check out Captain Cosmic's sidekick, Wonder Robot 2T2, and see it in person, it currently resides at Atlantis Fantasyworld in Santa Cruz.
source footage 🎥: KTVU
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May 17
Today would’ve been Bob Saget’s 70th birthday. Danny Tanner lived at 1709 Broderick Street in the Painted Ladies. Happy birthday, Bob. 🏠
📸: 49erscast Facebook page
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May 16
Sammy Davis Jr. & Eartha Kitt in San Francisco, 1953.
He passed away 36 years ago today, on May 16, 1990. Sammy Davis Jr. had a notable connection to San Francisco, even if it wasn't as central to his story as cities like Las Vegas or New York. He performed here during the height of his career appearing at iconic venues like the Fairmont Hotel's Venetian Room.
San Francisco's social climate also made it one of the places where he felt more welcomed especially compared to many other parts of the country.
This photo was taken on the roof of the Fairmont Hotel.
📸: Jess Rand
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May 11
The San Francisco smoking ban. San Francisco, 1998.
California banned smoking in bars and restaurants on January 1, 1998. I was working in a restaurant at the time. Management still let the regulars smoke after closing until things cooled down.
Twenty-eight years later, Supervisor Myrna Melgar introduced a bill to extend the ban to open-air patios and parklets at bars. Health advocates say it will protect workers and patrons from secondhand smoke.
Bar owners at places like O'Reilly's Pub, Zeitgeist, and El Rio say it will hurt their business. The question being raised is why cigarettes on a patio are the priority when fentanyl overdoses in the city topped 700 last year and open drug use is still a common sight around downtown.
Cannabis retailers are exempt from the bill.
source footage 🎥: KGO-TV
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May 7
The fat guy at the Guinness Museum of World Records in San Francisco, 1980s.
Robert Earl Hughes was known for being the heaviest recorded person during his lifetime, weighing 1071 pounds.
By the time he was 10 years old, he already weighed 375 pounds.
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Born in Monticello, Missouri, Hughes was average size at birth but began gaining lots of weight after contracting whooping cough at five months old. His family later moved to Fishhook, Illinois, where he spent much of his life.
Hughes earned a living by selling photos of himself and making guest appearances at carnivals and fairs. At 27, he joined a traveling roadshow and was invited to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show but those plans never materialized.
As his health declined, walking became increasingly difficult, requiring family members to assist him and carry a custom steel-reinforced chair for him to rest in when needed.
While traveling in Indiana, Hughes developed measles. Due to his size, he couldn’t be transported to a hospital and was treated in his trailer.
He passed away on July 10, 1958, at the age of 32.
He was buried in Benville, IL at the Benville Cemetery with about 2000 people attending his funeral
June 4, 1926 – July 10, 1958
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May 6
Top Gun Opening Day, March 20, 1993.
📸: California’s Great America
Apr 22
The day Top Gun launched at Great America. Santa Clara, 1993.
Top Gun opened at Great America on March 20, 1993, and the event was a big deal. Both local and national media were invited, and everyone who attended received commemorative dog tags.
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May 5
The corner of 21st and Church Street. San Francisco, 1952.
An unpainted frame house with mom or grandma & four kids out front.
Lots of cool details to look at in this one pic. My favorite: the colorful little window garden on the second floor.
📸: Charles Cushman
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May 5
I probably looked at this photo for three minutes straight when I first discovered it.
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May 5
Scenes from a 1980s lowrider happening. Union City, 1982.
Vicente Fernandez's vocal performance on this track still blows me away every time I hear it. You don't need to understand the lyrics to feel what he's saying.
The passion in his voice is undeniable. The trumpets, guitar, and strings hit just as hard.
“Soy México” is a proud, patriotic anthem that celebrates Mexican identity, heritage, and values. The lyrics portray Mexico as a personified voice: strong, dignified, humble, and deeply rooted in tradition.
It’s not just a patriotic song, it’s a statement of identity, expressing love, strength, and respect for the culture and country.
source footage🎥: Barrio Expressions
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May 4
The premiere of Star Wars: Episode I at the Coronet Theatre. San Francisco, 1999.
The Phantom Menace was released May 19, 1999. Fans camped outside the Coronet for days before the premiere, sleeping in tents on the sidewalk. Back then, if you wanted to camp on the streets of San Francisco, you needed a permit from the city. In 2026, I don't think that holds true anymore.
The Coronet opened November 2, 1949, at 3575 Geary Blvd. It closed March 17, 2005. A senior living facility stands there now.
Shoutout to the UPS Jedi Council from Vallejo. Hope you're all still out there.
🎥: KRON / We Can't Wait
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Apr 30
This man laundered 17 million dollars in coins. San Francisco, 1979.
Arnold Batliner worked at the St. Francis Hotel washing coins for 31 years, beginning in 1962.
My dad worked there around the same time. He knew him.
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Arnold continued a tradition that started at the hotel in 1938, when silver dollars were widely used. Dan London, the hotel manager at the time, bought an old coin washing machine after receiving complaints from female guests that the coins were making their white gloves dirty.
During his 31 years on the job, Batliner washed an estimated 17 million dollars in half dollars, quarters, dimes, nickels, pennies, and silver dollars, nearly one million pounds of coin in total.
Arnold Batliner was born in Feldkirch, Austria, and came to the United States in 1923 at the age of 19. The opportunities he found were modest. A laundry in Indiana. A welding shop. A cruise ship.
In 1961 he joined the St. Francis Hotel, starting in the wine cellar. Less than a year later, the manager asked him to try his hand at coin washing, a task that soon became his life’s work.
After his wife of 30 years passed away in 1969, he lived alone in an apartment and took the bus to work each day. He died in 1995 and was laid to rest in Colma.
When I first came across this source footage, I showed it to my dad, who also worked at the St. Francis around the same time. It was my dad’s first job in San Francisco.
I asked if he remembered Arnold and he did. They worked together for years. He told me he was a really nice guy who always had interesting things to say about life and the history of San Francisco.
RIP Arnold Batliner
June 17, 1904 – November 18, 1995
source footage🎥: NBC
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Apr 30
Scenes from Mountain View High School in the 1980s.
This was Mountain View in 1988. Every kid you remember from high school is in this video. They were always there. Still there now, and somehow they'll still be there forty years from today.
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Apr 29
San Francisco in the 1990s was something special. Check out these 11 videos, they’ll put a smile on your face and take you straight back.
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Apr 29
Mountain View before Google.
Before Google moved in and transformed it, Mountain View was a quiet and working class suburb, the kind of place that in the 1980s felt like the setting of Stranger Things.
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Apr 29
Then 2004 happened.
Google chose Mountain View for its headquarters and nothing was ever the same.
“When Google moved in next door, their landlord raised the rent by $700 a month.” — Susan Barkin, speaking at a Mountain View city council meeting, 2019.
The old timers didn’t leave because they wanted to. They left because they had no choice.
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Apr 29
In 1980, the median home price in Mountain View was around $90,000.
Today it’s $1.8 million.
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📸: Mountain View Historical Association
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