F I R S TP R E V732NEXTLAST

Coffee Dan's, Off Union Square
San Francisco was the leader in the development motion pictures while Hollywood was still just an orange grove. The first instantaneous motion picture ever captured was in San Francisco by Eadweard Muybridg in 1872. Next, the first narrative film The Great Train Robbery (1903) was shot in nearby Niles Canyon. Additionally, San Francisco can also claim a share in the first talkie film every shot. Performance sequences in The Jazz Singer (1927) were shot a Coffee Dan's, a local speakeasy, at the corner O'Farrell and Powell, now Marquard's. Coffee Dan was a early San Franciscan who owned the club in the 1870's. To nobody's surprise today there is a Starbuck's across the street from Coffee Dan's old nightclub.
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