Celebrities - San Francisco Travel Guide

Jeff Kraft of Oakland and Aaron Leventhal of Berkeley, co-wrote "Footsteps in the Fog: Alfred Hitchcock's San Francisco" (Santa Monica Press, $24.95). The film buffs were determined to identify each and every corner of the Bay Area used by the Master of Suspense in his films and show how the spots look today - From as far south as Mission San Juan Batista where Madeleine Elster - and her stand-in - plunged to their deaths in "Vertigo" to as far north as Bodega Bay ("The Birds") and Santa Rosa ("Shadow of a Doubt").

In "Vertigo," when Scottie (Stewart) first shadows Madeleine (Kim Novak) through the streets of Union Square, he winds up following her right through the back door of Podesta Baldocchi, a florist that once sat at 224 Grant Ave. and now can be found at 508 Fourth St.

Although the back door of 224 Grant Ave. (where North Beach Leather sits today) would open onto a tiny loading dock called Ashburton Place, that alley is much too small to be the one shown in the film. Spotting patterns in the brick facade, pipes and an old covered-up vent, they found the door. (Now, it's covered in graffiti and blocked by bars.)

Hitchcock was very important to the Bay Area and certainly very important to Sonoma County.

This book is sold at the Argonaut at 350 Kearny St., the model for the Argosy Book Shop in "Vertigo."

All this Hitchcock hunting began five years ago as Kraft's brainchild. The devoted Hitchcock fan had seen nearly all the director's movies.

He thought a map showing Bay Area spots filmed by Hitchcock would be a good way to mark the 100th anniversary of the director's birthday. (As the project grew, it wound up hitting the market for his 103rd birthday instead, but so it goes.)

Kraft sought a photographer to help him and found Leventhal.

The two teamed to make the map, later deciding to create a large poster instead. But they unearthed such a vast amount of information, even a big poster couldn't contain it all. From there, they decided to make a booklet, then a full-size coffee-table book.

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