RON HENGGELER

August 22, 2018
1985 Scene shootings for the movie Jagged Edge, at the Big 4 Restaurant on Nob Hill in San Francisco

Starring Jeff Bridges, Glen Close, Peter Coyote, and Robert Loggia

I recently found one of my albums of photos from the Big 4 Restaurant that I had taken from 1984 to 1986.

I started working at the Big 4 in 1984. In 1985, the restaurant was used as a location for scenes in the movie Jagged Edge, starring Jeff Bridges, Glen Close, Peter Coyote, and Robert Loggia. I was one of several in the Big 4's staff who were chosen and hired as extras ($90 a day). The restaurant was closed for three days during the shoot, since the dining room and bar was in complete disarray with the filming equipment. Outside, the intersection of Taylor and California on Nob Hill, and the front of the Huntington Hotel was crowded with the parked caravan of trucks and film crew's vehicles.

I'm fairly certain that personal photography was not allowed, but I still managed to shoot three rolls of film, mostly on the sly, and without anyone noticing.

At that time, my camera was a little Olympus XA. It was a petite thing about as small as a cigarette pack, and I carried it hidden in my left pants hip pocket (I'm left- handed). The photos are not the best images, as the camera lens was limited, and the lighting was usually very low, and I was shooting fast and covertly. The 33 year old prints are now horribly discolored, and as much as I try to, I'm not able to do too much correcting in Photoshop. In those days, I was developing my rolls of film at Brooks Camera on Kearny, a One-Hour service. I'm guessing that the combination of their chemicals, the paper, and the plastic album slip pages that these photos been in for 33 years, has contributed to the present-day unrepairable discoloration.

I've never seen the movie, but I seem to remember my parents seeing it when the film came out, and my cameo appearance consists of a brief few seconds when my torso enters the frame as I am serving Jeff Bridges and Glen Close at the table where they're seated (table 24).

My accomplice

Here's 32 year old server Ron during the filming of Jagged Edge at the Big 4 Restaurant

Glen Close in the CPRR Banquet room during a break in the shooting

Newton Cope Jr. At the time, General Manager of the Big 4 Restaurant

An Extra for the film. This woman is the one who took my little camera and shot the photo of me (that appears in the beginning of this post).

Bridges and Close having breakfast and discussing the script in the CPRR Banquet Room

Glen Close and Jeff Bridges

During the three days of shooting, I was the server who brought tea and meals to Glen Close during the breaks. It's probably why she was so accommodating, and allowed me to photograph her looking full on at the camera.

Shooting a scene in the Big 4 Bar

The large oil painting on the wall (partially seen) now hangs in the Railroad Museum in Sacramento. It's a famous oil on canvas titled The Last Spike, by Thomas Hill. The painting depicts the ceremony of the driving of the "Last Spike" at Promontory Summit, Utah, on May 10, 1869, joining the rails of the Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad. It was replaced with the beautiful fireplace that now resides at the front entrance to the Big 4's bar and dining room.

A photograph from 2012 of the fireplace that replaced the famous oil painting.

The make-up kit for Glen Close

Glen Close

Jeff Bridges and Glen Close in the CPRR Banquet Room

Their table after they finished breakfast and went back to shooting in the dining room.

The Film Director Richard Marquand, Glen Close, and Jeff Bridges

Outside the entrance to the Big 4 Restaurant on Nob Hill during the filming of Jagged Edge

The dining room during shooting as seen from the hallway

Newton Cope Jr. at the bar during the filming

I've reformatted several of the photos to black & white in Photoshop, but decided to leave most as they are, despite their discoloration.

About the movie, Jagged Edge

 

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The images are not in the public domain. They are the sole property of the artist and may not be reproduced on the Internet, sold, altered, enhanced, modified by artificial, digital or computer imaging or in any other form without the express written permission of the artist. Non-watermarked copies of photographs on this site can be purchased by contacting Ron.