MovieChat Forums > What's Up, Doc? (1972) Discussion > Hotel location

Hotel location

posted 15 years ago by SueBee55
16 replies | jump to latest

Does anyone know the location of the Hotel Bristol (presumably not real name!) in this film?

"You're not too smart are you? I like that in a man!"

[–] JohnEDiCarlo 15 years ago

The San Francisco Hilton was the shooting location for the "Bristol Hotel".

[–] SueBee55 15 years ago

Thanks John, I assume they used they interiors too. Must check out the frontage on Google Maps!

[–] BarbraMemories 14 years ago

I have a blog called Barbra Memories and I have documented virtually all the locations from the movie. I don't think we can give out web addresses here but if you go to Google and type in Barbramemories it should be one of the first listings. The What's Up, Doc? postings will be from February 2010. Enjoy. Hart

[–] SueBee55 14 years ago

Thanks for this, very useful and interesting.

You're not too smart are you? I like that in a man!

[–] Devans00 10 years ago

BarbraMemories
I have a blog called Barbra Memories and I have documented virtually all the locations from the movie. I don't think we can give out web addresses here but if you go to Google and type in Barbramemories it should be one of the first listings. The What's Up, Doc? postings will be from February 2010. Enjoy. Hart

Excellent work, Hart.

I looked for What's Up, Doc? on http://reelsf.com/ but you did as good of a job. I found some of the locations on Google Maps, not as many as you. I recognized many places by living in the Bay Area, I just didn't know the street names.

Thanks

http://barbramemories.blogspot.com/2010/02/whats-up-doc-filming-locati ons-part-1.html

No two persons ever watch the same movie.

[–] Blueghost 11 years ago

I've many a brunch where Babs and Ryan...uh, "got it on" in what used to be "City Scape". I miss that restaurant.

[–] BarbraMemories 14 years ago

Looks like they do allow web addresses here:

http://barbramemories.blogspot.com/

If you look under February 2010 you will see the locations as they appear in the film then and now.

[–] Screenwhisperer 13 years ago

Wow - like all of the other posters who commented on that site, I repeat their words..."I'm in awe"! It must have taken a lot of work, time, and an especially good eye to find all those places. What fun to see them! As much of a nature lover as I am, I found myself disappointed that some of the characteristic SF architecture has been obscured by overgrown greenery. One of the reasons for visiting that city is to be able to see it! I also agree with someone who said they liked the way something was painted back then compared to now - I found myself thinking that with many of the outside photographs. Seems that a lot of the homes or bldgs. next to each other have been painted more uniformly. Have not been there in almost 30 years but I'm heading back in a few weeks and I hope I won't be disappointed... Will be going into Chinatown, which I think I'll have the best chance of recognizing a few things since I'll be getting on Jackson Street!

Thanks again for all the good work and making it available on this discussion board!

[–] Blueghost 11 years ago

You're kidding, right? The area around the hotel (notably the west side, extending for two to three city blocks) is a mini slum. The Eastern side faces the upscale shops near Union Square.

No building has been taken down nor "painted over" in 30 plus years.

[–] musicradio78 11 years ago

I scouted all those locations years ago too. At the time, the former drugstore was coffee shop under construction. Steps of course still had chips from the cars going down them in park. Really neat!

[–] Blueghost 11 years ago

The steps are still there. I've driven by them, but I can't remember whether they had ever been fixed or not.

[–] urgeking 11 years ago

No building has been taken down nor "painted over" in 30 plus years.

Are you trying to say that all of the buildings seen in the background in this movie are still the same color as they were in 1972? Not only would that be extremely unlikely, but there's photographic evidence to the contrary on this blog page (especially in parts 34 through 36):

http://barbramemories.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-02-16T16:56:00-05:00&max-results=7

[–] Blueghost 10 years ago

Well hell, I used to work in SF years back, and used to drive there all time. I think I'd noticed something radically different.

[–] ilnmatt-1 11 years ago

I agree with everyone else... VERY COOL! I tried to map out the chase scene before a trip to SF in 2007 using Google Maps street view (that post is now buried several pages deep on this board). One of the locations I couldn't figure out was where the guy was running from the rolling hoard of garbage cans and jumped over a half wall onto a patio restaurant table. Thanks to the pictures posted in your blog I now know that this is at the Ghirardelli Square ice cream shop! I was probably looking for that white half wall in Google Maps, which of course I never found. The other location I could never pinpoint was the spot where the cars actually go into the bay. Just before that shot all the cars are headed down Hyde Street toward the cable car station at Beach, but I know the cars don't go into the bay there because in that shot you can see the Bay Bridge in the background. If you (or anyone) can provide a location for that shot, it would solve a minor years-old mystery for me.

[–] andrewsk8s 10 years ago

Thanks for that AMAZING then/now photo series! I am totally blown away at how many sometimes obscure locations you found.

I remember that escalator and lobby of the Hilton very well and I was there in the mid 70s when it still resembled the decor in the movie. That "drugstore"/gift shop next to the escalator is particularly memorable to me even before I ever saw What's Up Doc?.

A visiting friend of my mother's (from Japan) who was staying at the hotel sent me, a child, down to that gift shop to buy her a pack of Lark brand cigarettes. It was the first time I ever bought any cigarettes and I remember being very nervous. They did sell me the cigarettes.

Now I enjoy those scenes from the movie also as a nostalgic glimpse of the old Hilton.

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]