Bristol Hotel

The Bristol Hotel is actually the Hilton Hotel bounded by O'Farrell Street, Mason Street, Ellis Street, and Taylor Street. At the time of WUD (1972), it was in a slum area referred to as the "Tenderloin" (winos, pimps, prostitutes, etc.) It now encompasses the entire block, but at that time, also had a "Downtown Airporter Bus Terminal" on the O'Farrell Street Side. The main entrance in the movie was on the Mason Street side very near the Ellis Street corner. That entrance is still there with the escalators, but is no longer the main entrance, which has been relocated to the O'Farrell Street side, while the bus terminal has been replaced by an extension of the hotel. The little store where "Steve" went to buy bufferin is no longer there, but was there for years. The hotel interiors were mostly shot within the hotel, including the under-construction scene where she does her Bogart impression. I enjoyed looking out the window and seeing the old Embarcadero Freeway, which has since been torn down. Most hotel interiors were shot in-house. The lobby scenes particularly were all shot in the hotel. When Barbra defines "propriety" and disappears down the escalator, this scene is accurate and inside the hotel. And finally, the pizza parlor where the cook throws the pizza up and it doesn't come down, it's still there and looks the same. It's at the intersection of Bush and Mason Streets where the two motorcycles have the collision.