The Miles brothers: Harry, Herbert, Joseph, and Earle, were film and cinema pioneers in San Francisco. They are best known for "A trip down Market Street", a 12-minute film shot from a cable car conductor's POV. I stumbled upon it following a LiveScience link that's got info on footage from the SF Earthquake of 1906. Fate and good fortune intervened for this gem so that today, we can get a glimpse of what traffic and life was like then in the bustling metropolis. Because it is now assumed that the filmreel was sent by train to New York the night before the earthquake struck, and among the 28,000 buildings it destroyed was the one housing the Miles Brothers' studio!
For me, this Trip clip is also a trip down memory lane, cause in 1995, almost 90 years after the devastating earthquake, I walked myself down Market Street. That summer, I was going to travel the length of the US's West Coast up northwards starting from Frisco with a small international group, and, having arrived two days before them, I found myself with nothing to do but reconnoitre the area. I was staying in the Ramada Hotel on Market Street; walked to its northern end. I also remember strolling over Union Square. Anyway, on Google Earth I checked out how the Ramada was doing these days, and I found out it's now Hotel Whitcomb.
Ah... memories!!!
MFBB.
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