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Bethlehem Shipyards, San Francisco, California

(Redirected from Gavin Elster's office)

The Bethlehem Steel Corporation Shipbuilding Division was created in 1905 when Bethlehem Steel Corporation acquired the San Francisco shipyard Union Iron Works in 1905. The site is now home to the San Francisco Dry Dock.

Hitchcock's Films

Vertigo (1958)

Both the exterior — where Hitchcock makes his customary cameo appearance in Vertigo — and the interior of Gavin Elster's office were filmed at Paramount, mostly on October 16th and 17th, 1957. The busy shipyard visible through the office window was a rear projection screen showing footage filmed earlier at the Bethlehem Shipyards.[1]

Hitchcock's cameo outside the shipyard was filmed on Thursday 19th December, 1957 and marked the end of the film's production phase.[2]

The office interior was designed by Henry Bumstead and Hitchcock was so impressed with the panelling of the walls, he asked Bumstead to purchase similar panels for his house in Bel Air.[3][4]

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Film Frames

Selection of film frames: Gavin Elster's office

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Images from the Hitchcock Gallery (click to view larger versions or search for all relevant images)...

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Notes & References

  1. Footsteps in the Fog: Alfred Hitchcock's San Francisco (2002) by Jeff Kraft & Aaron Leventhal, pages 82-85
  2. Vertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic (1998) by Dan Auiler, page 123
  3. Vertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic (1998) by Dan Auiler, page 96
  4. Donald Spoto exaggerated this story in his biography and claimed that Hitchcock had Bumstead redesign his entire home office and then refused to pay or even thank Bumstead for his work.