This was clear a few weeks ago when I found myself exchanging phones with a man from Australia so I could take his picture in front of the “Full House” house and he could take mine and my wife’s.
Yes, I said the “Full House” house.
It wasn’t on my list of Top Ten Things to Do in San Francisco. All I knew about “Full House” is that it starred John Stamos, Bob Saget and the Olsen twins.
But the site was on my wife’s itinerary, so I went along to get along, as the saying goes, despite signs the people who live in and around the house wanted lookie-loos to stay away. These include a literal “no trespassing” sign and a ban on tour buses on the street, located in the Lower Pacific Heights area.
So we took our photos and kept moving. Yet in the short time we were there, several other cars drove slowly by and dozens of pedestrians, cameras snapping and fingers pointing, showed up too.
A little Googling taught me that despite being set in San Francisco, “Full House” filmed only its opening credits and some exterior shots in the city. Most of the show was shot on the Warner Bros. studio lot in Los Angeles.
It reminds me of a situation much closer to home, the “Christmas Story” house in Cleveland. While the book the movie is based on takes place in Indiana and most of the movie was shot in Toronto, the Cleveland location (where exterior scenes of the home and neighborhood were filmed) has become a tourist magnet.
Unlike the “Full House” property, however, the “Christmas Story” house, purchased and restored to its original working-class splendor by a fan, welcomes visitors, especially those willing to pay to go inside or patronize the gift shop across the street.
This embrace of a modest pop-culture distinction may be the difference between the unpretentious Rust Belt and the tony west coast.
Our acquaintance from Australia seemed embarrassed by his pilgrimage to the “Full House” site. He needn’t have been. We all like what we like, after all. No apologies necessary.
It did get me thinking, however, about how certain places become popular, sometimes out of proportion with their larger cultural significance. Certain perennially popular sites speak to our values systems and to what a society considers worth commemorating. If you believe history is written by the winners, then you must concede tourist guides are, too.
The places most people find worth visiting also benefit from extensive promotion. Some of the lesser ones survive because of proximity to more-popular attractions. The “Full House” house, for example, is one mile away from the Painted Ladies, a row of Victorian homes facing Alamo Square Park, drawing thousands of visitors every day. (Those homes are also featured in the “Full House” opening, I’m told.)
So if you’re already in the park and have even a passing interest in “Full House,” you’ll likely go.
Of course, San Francisco is notable for its many hills, making a normally short trek akin to scaling the Matterhorn. Would you do that for “Full House”? Or for somebody you love who loves “Full House”?
In most cases, getting there is half the fun of vacation. But this is not a hill I’m willing to die on when climbing a hill I’m not willing to die on.
Reach Chris at chris.schillig@yahoo.com. On Twitter: @cschillig on Twitter.
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