Stuck in Zero Gear

I used to walk to work daily, mixing in the 38-Geary bus now and then. But job responsibilities have had me mostly behind the wheel this year and I’m trying to find a way to get back walking.

Driving is the American norm, of course. The most recent AAA driving survey found that 95.3% of U.S. resident ages 16 years and older drove an automobile at least occasionally. The average daily time behind the wheel is almost exactly one hour a day. And many killer work commutes put us behind the wheel for much, much more.

We seem to have been forever chained to automobiles, but historically it wasn’t that long ago when riding in one was a treat worthy of a fake souvenir photograph.

San Francisco’s tourist attractions before the Golden Gate Bridge, before Coit Tower, before Victorian houses and cable cars acquired quirky-relic status, were Nature and the Cliff House.

Back home, most people didn’t have a Pacific Ocean view. Most certainly did not have sea lions basking and barking on nearby rocks. So the tourists rode out to the Cliff House, which had drinks, food, and in those days, a view of the pinnipeds below.

By the mid 1890s, millionaire mayor Adolph Sutro opened Sutro Baths in a cove next door, a glass palace with a museum of curiosities, games, swimming pools, and entertainment. He also allowed visitors into Sutro Heights, his garden estate on the hill above both the Cliff House and the Baths.

Of course, you had to have a souvenir of all this and the best would be photographic proof of your visit. These were the days before selfie-sticks, before everyone had a camera in their pocket, the days before almost anyone had a camera of any type.

But the Billington brothers and others had studios set up around the “Sutro zone” where you could get a photo snapped to bring back home to Peoria.

Ironically, your proof-of-visit photo was a fake. Posing outside in front of the real Cliff House or Seal Rocks wasn’t practical for the photography business, so a painted backdrop had to do.

There were random costume pieces to don and props to hold if you chose. And to capture the excitement of the new auto age and the spirit of travel, how about a little fake car to pose in?

J. R. Billington upped his game from layered painted backdrops to construct a tiny prop car for people to pose in. Just you and your dog perhaps?

When the Cliff House burned down in 1907 and a boxier incarnation replaced it, the backdrops had to be repainted, but the same fake car drew similar men with similar dogs.

Thousands of these must have been taken. (Far more than the goat cart man ever snapped.) OpenSFHistory.org has a few dozen scanned for you to enjoy.

Kids drove the car, kids rode on top of the engine:

Older women who probably had never operated a “machine” (as automobiles were often called then) did their pretending too:

Lots of these recovered souvenirs came from the collection of Marilyn Blaisdell, who lived at Ocean Beach and used to run her own gift shop at the Cliff House.

The automobile moved with the times, getting its own license plate. Photographer Billington took his old plate from his 1913 Kissel, number 108986, and affixed it to his studio prop car for greater verisimilitude:

Even when Kodak personal cameras hit big and families were able to take their own snaps, a Cliff House automobile remained, redecorated as the “Fresh Air Taxi,” which was an element of the popular Amos 'n' Andy radio show.

If the automobile wasn’t for you, you had the option to go either direction. Back to hoofed transport:

Or forward to the aeronautical age:

John Billington died in 1925. The business continued on a while longer. There are souvenir photographs of the same automobile in front of the same Cliff House backdrop dating to as late as 1929.

As the brothers owned property and lived in the Richmond District, I keep a lookout at local garage sales. Perhaps a little prop car has been gathering dust for the last century.

Want to see more? You know you do!

Lots on OpenSFHistory (which did the yeoman’s work for this post... thanks!)

Here be lots from my friend Gary’s Cliff House site.

Here are many from my friend, Zoe.

Woody Beer and Coffee Fund

Thanks to Mike S. for pitching in to the Woody Beverage Fund. I helped coach Mike in basketball when he was in 8th grade and now he can buy me drinks. What a wonderful world. Is it your turn? I can help with your free throws between rounds. When are you available?