90021_43769_01_SF_Apartment_Building
1970s
Here's raw footage from the early to mid 1970s showing interiors and exteriors of a San Francisco apartment building. The clip reveals that the building is falling apart and neglected, though still functional.
Clip begins with a wide exterior shot of three apartment buildings. Traffic passes by in the foreground.
Inside an apartment building, garbage sits on the landing of a staircase. Four young people -- twenty somethings -- walk up the stairs. One person holds two large boxes of pizza. Others hold full plastic bags and drinks.
The camera then focuses on the holes of a wall and the hole on a ceiling; the ceiling hole is next to a chandelier. More garbage is on the stairwell, including a Budweiser beer can, clothes, a paper bag, a plastic bag, and rubble.
A maintenance person, or handyman, in the building removes the packaging from a new padlock. He then uses this lock to shut and secure the door to an apartment.
We then see the exterior of a large apartment complex in the late afternoon. Each apartment has a balcony. On the street below, cars are parked, and two women chat as a child sits on the hood of a car. More people are seen chatting on the sidewalk, and cars pass by.
Next, we see a close-up of the apartment building’s front door. On the door is “429”; graffiti on the door reads, “ABSOLUTELY.” There is a close-up of the door knob. A youth exits the door and looks at the camera. There is also a shot of a panel of the names of the people living in the apartment building; each name is next to a button, perhaps to speak to the person whose name is listed.
There are more shots of the neglected staircase, which is covered with junk like clothes, bags, etc. The wall beside the staircase has several holes. A file cabinet nearby has bottles, a cup, and other trash on its top.
We next see a shirtless white man looking out his apartment window. He’s on the top floor of an apartment building. On the sidewalk below, we see several pedestrians.
There is a wide, exterior shot of the apartment building’s entry way. The door has the numbers “429” and is the same door mentioned above and seen earlier. A sign that’s hanging from a metal frame says, “APARTMENT FOR RENT - FURNISHED - SEE MGR. APT.” The sign is wafting or blowing in the wind. A black man and a white man enter the apartment building, looking back at the camera. The white man is carrying a brown grocery bag and is wearing a rainbow jacket, suggesting that he might be gay or gay-friendly.
Within the building, a copper fire extinguisher is hanging from a white wall.
In an alley or basement, two large bins of garbage sit. One bin sits beneath a metal chute. A third bin is seen and focused on. In the distance, a door to the alley or basement is open. A grocery cart and sign are near the open door.
Within the apartment building, the camera looks up a white staircase with black handrails.
A red fire alarm box is secured to a wall. The box says “FIRE ALARM - PULL DOWN - EMERGENCY.” A nearby sign reads, “BUILDING ALARM ONLY - DOES NOT CALL THE FIRE DEPT.”
There’s another shot of a large ceiling hole.
A handyman uses pliers to secure a bolt to a door frame. He then opens the package to a brand new lock, and opens the lock with a key.
Lastly, a woman’s hand moves the fire alarm box mentioned above, showing that the box is empty and, thus, not working.