Location Detective: Finding the Missing Pier in Some Like It Hot

A Location Detective investigation into the elusive waterfront setting of Some Like It Hot’s unforgettable finale.

The final moments of Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder's 1959 film) take place in a setting that seems simple enough: a small boat pulls away from a sandy beach, carrying Joe, Jerry, Sugar Kane and Osgood Fielding III toward Osgood's yacht.

It is one of the most famous endings in Hollywood comedy. But there is a small mystery hidden in the background.

Where, exactly, was that pier?

The answer is not as straightforward as it might seem. The pier itself has disappeared, and the available production information does not provide a precise address. Yet the film contains enough geographical clues to make it possible to reconstruct a probable location.

This is a classic example of Location Detective work: sometimes the evidence is not a production record or an address, but the landscape itself.

The Mysterious Final Departure

After the chaos at the Seminole-Ritz hotel, Joe and Jerry finally escape by boat.

The scene shows the fugitives leaving a sandy shoreline and heading out onto the calm waters. Behind them is the unmistakable silhouette of the Hotel del Coronado — the real California hotel that became the fictional Seminole-Ritz.

The sequence is especially interesting because the camera gives us both the foreground action and a remarkably useful distant landscape. The shoreline, the position of the hotel, the water, and the apparent direction of the boat all have to fit together.

Nevertheless, the background provides valuable geographical evidence. The shoreline, the position of the hotel, the water, and the direction of the boat all have to fit together.

And that gives us something to investigate.

Figure 1 Sandy Beach, the BOATS Sign and Gangway to the Pier

The First Clue: Glorietta Bay

The first major clue is not hidden at all.

The boat scenes associated with Osgood's yacht were filmed in the vicinity of Glorietta Bay, across from Hotel del Coronado. The Coronado Visitor Center identifies a speedboat scene as having been filmed across from the Del at Glorietta Bay, while the San Diego History Center notes that Some Like It Hot included scenes on a nearby dock.

But saying "Glorietta Bay" is not the same as identifying the precise filming position.

Glorietta Bay is a substantial geographical area. The question remains:

Where along the shoreline was the mysterious pier?

That is where the detective work begins.

The "BOATS" Clue

Another intriguing detail in the final sequence is the small gate or entrance area associated with the boat departure.

The film briefly reveals a "BOATS" sign in the vicinity of the sandy beach.

It is easy to overlook. The action is moving toward its famous conclusion, and the viewer's attention is naturally directed toward the characters.

But for a Location Detective, even a tiny piece of background lettering can be valuable.

The sign helps establish that this was not simply an anonymous beach chosen to represent Florida. The filmmakers were using a recognizable boating environment.

Combined with the shoreline and the hotel in the distance, it strengthens the case for the Coronado/Glorietta Bay setting.

It does not, however, prove the precise position of the pier by itself.

That distinction matters.

Reading the Background

When a famous actor is standing in the foreground, it is tempting to watch the actor. For Location Detectives, the background may be more important.

If we can determine the relationship between the hotel, the shoreline and the boat's departure point, we can begin to narrow the search.

The film frame in Figure 2 allows us to examine the background and elements of the coastal landscape behind the escape motorboat.

In the final boat sequence, shown in Figures 1 and 2, several features deserve attention:

• · the sandy beach (dark at night);

• · the shoreline and its orientation;

• · the calm water behind the boat;

• · the position of the pier and apparent direction of the boat;

• · the relationship between the shoreline and the distant Hotel del Coronado;

• · the distant architectural silhouette of the hotel itself.

These elements form a kind of geographical fingerprint. But to see the details that matter, we need to look more closely.

Figure 2 The Boat Escape: Landscape in the Background

Figure 3 Enlarged Background Landscape

Reading the Enlarged Background: The blown-up background skyline, left to right:

• Silhouette of the pier, its vertical pillars and light posts (right of the Osgood’s hat),

• Dark shape of Hotel del Coronado with its main building’s conical tower, and lower roof peaks to the right of it – immediately right of Jerry’s/Daphne’s head,

• The illuminated BOATS sign and strings of lights on its both sides.

Figure 4 Magnified Details of the Background: Silhouette of Hotel del Coronado

What the Hotel Silhouette Reveals:

The background skyline, including Hotel del Coronado, captured in a different frame from the film. The main building’s tower and the lower roof peaks to its right are clearly visible.

The hotel is particularly useful because it provides a fixed reference point. Unlike a temporary set or a vanished pier, the great Victorian building of the Del remains in place. Hotel del Coronado itself confirms that its exterior was used extensively for the film, while the interiors were recreated in the studio.

The position of the lower roof peaks to the right of the Hotel’s main tower is consistent with a view from roughly the east or south-east. This strongly suggests that the boat was east or south-east of Hotel del Coronado, rather than out in the Pacific west of Coronado.

The Pier That Disappeared

This is where the investigation becomes particularly interesting.

If the pier had survived, the problem would be much easier. A visitor could simply walk onto it, compare the structure with the film, and perhaps identify the exact position of the camera.

But the pier is gone.

That means we have to work backwards.

Instead of asking: "Is this the pier?"

we have to ask: "Does the surviving landscape explain what we see in the film?"

This is a very different kind of location identification.

Buildings can provide architectural fingerprints: windows, doors, rooflines and façades.

Natural landscapes provide geographical fingerprints: shorelines, islands, bays, hills, vegetation, water and the relative position of fixed landmarks.

In this case, the landscape is doing most of the detective work.

Looking Across the Bay

Analysis of the geographical fingerprints – the shore configuration and silhouette of Hotel del Coronado – is based on the contents of the film frames posted in this article. Magnified fragments of the background coastal landscape point to eastbound direction of the boat in the final scene.

This reconstruction places the missing pier along the north shore of the entrance to Glorietta Bay, near the southern end of the Bay Circle Park and golf-course area.

We are not claiming that a surviving pier can be found there today. It cannot.

Nor do we have a surviving production document saying: "The pier was located at this exact point."

Instead, the proposed location comes from comparing the geography visible in the film with the geography that still exists. The shoreline configuration in the specified point of the Bay Circle Park is compatible with the film’s evidence. And, most importantly, the direction and apparent position of the Hotel del Coronado provide a useful reference for reconstructing the camera's viewpoint.

Figure 5 displays modern map of Glorietta Bay, Hotel del Coronado, Bay Circle Park and the golf course along the shore.

The map’s markup places the non-existent pier near the sandy beach, and the arrow shows the suggested direction of the escape motorboat. This relative location of the beach, pier, boat’s route and the line of view to the Hotel would produce the background we see behind the characters in Figures 2, 3 and 4.

Figure 5 Relative Location of the Hotel and Sandy Beach

The changing width of the beach provides another clue. In the film, looking from the water toward the shore, the beach immediately to the left of the pier is unusually narrow: the water comes close to patches of grass, a railing, and the BOATS sign visible in Figure 1. To the right, in the direction taken by the departing boat, the beach becomes considerably wider and more uniformly sandy, with a slight rise and palm trees farther behind it.

This arrangement is significant because the proposed position of the pier on Figure 5 falls almost exactly at the point where the narrow, concave section of the shoreline gives way to the much wider sandy beach (the specific beach configuration is even more pronounced on the aerial view in Google Maps). In other words, the pier would have stood at the western beginning of the wider beach, precisely where the film's geography suggests it should have been.

The evidence therefore points toward this stretch of shoreline as the best-supported candidate.

A Small Change Between Takes?
The two sequences also reveal an intriguing difference in the treatment of the path leading to the pier. In the scene where Sugar leaves for Osgood's yacht, the railing appears to begin at the water's edge, near the BOATS sign and the gangway. In the later scene, when Junior helps Sugar back from the yacht (see the title image of this blog), the same pathway appears to have a railing extending much farther inland, almost to the gate and BOATS sign.

The surrounding beach, pier, and other visual landmarks appear consistent enough to suggest that these are not necessarily two different locations. A more likely explanation is that the temporary set dressing was altered between filming the two sequences — perhaps by extending the railing for one of the shots.

This is another reminder that even apparently permanent features in a mid-century location shoot may not have been quite as permanent as they look on screen.

Then and Now

The most satisfying part of this investigation is comparing the film with the landscape that exists today.

The original pier has disappeared, but the broader geographical setting survives.

A visitor standing near the proposed location can still look across the water toward the Coronado landscape and understand why this part of California was so useful to Billy Wilder's production.

The modern landscape may not reproduce the film frame perfectly. Decades of development, landscaping and changes to the shoreline inevitably alter the appearance of a place.

But the large-scale geography is what matters.

• The bay is still there.

• The shoreline and the beach are still there.

• The grown-up palm trees are still there.

• The Hotel del Coronado is still there.

And the relationship between these elements provided the framework within which the vanished pier was reconstructed.

A visitor taking a boat ride from Glorietta Bay toward San Diego Bay today can enjoy a view broadly similar to the one shown in Figure 6.

That is the essence of a Then-and-Now comparison: we are not necessarily looking for an unchanged photograph. We are looking for the surviving geographical relationships that explain the old image.

Figure 6 Present-Day View of Glorietta Bay. The Suggested Locations of the Scene Elements

What We Know — and What We Don't Know

WHAT WE KNOW

• The final boat sequence takes place in the fictional Florida setting of the film.

• The Coronado area was used extensively for the film's exterior photography.

• The boat scenes are associated with Glorietta Bay, across from Hotel del Coronado.

• The film clearly shows

  • a sandy shoreline,

  • calm water,

  • a pier or landing structure,

  • and the Hotel del Coronado in the broader setting.

• The original pier no longer survives.

• Aerial photos made in 1930-1960’s (see references below) show the sandy beach in the same location, albeit less treed than it is today.

WHAT WE DON'T KNOW

• The documented exact historical coordinates of the pier.

• When the pier was constructed or removed.

• Whether production records exist that could definitively establish the precise camera position.

Consequently, the proposed location should be regarded as highly plausible, but not proven.

That may sound like a weakness. For a Location Detective, it is actually part of the fun.

Did We Find It?

So, have we solved the mystery?

The cautious answer is: We have probably found the area — but we cannot claim to have proven the exact pier position.

The evidence points toward the sandy shoreline at the southern end of the Bay Circle Park/golf-course area, along the north side of the entrance to Glorietta Bay. The calm, sheltered-looking water is also consistent with the scene having been filmed within Glorietta Bay rather than on the open Pacific.

The original structure has disappeared, leaving no physical object that can provide a definitive confirmation.

But the surviving landscape fits remarkably well. And sometimes that is as far as film-location research can go.

There is a temptation, especially with famous movies, to believe that every location can eventually be reduced to an exact street address and GPS coordinate.

Real filmmaking is messier than that.

Sets are dismantled. Buildings are demolished. Beaches change. Piers disappear. Production records are incomplete.

What remains is the evidence captured by the camera.

Visit the Missing Pier

Perhaps the most rewarding aspect of this discovery is that you can still visit the scene — even though you cannot visit the pier itself.

Go to the shoreline near the proposed location and look across the bay.

Then think about what the filmmakers were trying to achieve.

• They needed a place that could become Florida without ever leaving Southern California.

• They needed a resort hotel, a beach, calm water and a convincing place from which the characters could make their final escape.

• They found all of those ingredients around Coronado.

Today, the pier is gone. But the geographical setting remains.

And that means a visitor can still stand on the same broad landscape that helped create one of the most memorable endings in American comedy.

Figure 7 Glorietta Bay, Sandy Beach and Distant Hotel del Coronado

From Film Frame to Landscape

The investigation illustrates an important principle of Location Detective work.

A filming location does not always announce itself. Sometimes there is a surviving building with a recognizable façade. Sometimes there is an address in a production record.

And sometimes there is nothing but a piece of shoreline, a distant building and a few seconds of film.

In those cases, the question changes.

Instead of asking: "Where is this object?"

we ask: "What geographical arrangement could have produced this image?"

That is what makes the missing pier so fascinating.

We may never know its exact coordinates with absolute certainty. But by reading the landscape captured in the film, we can come surprisingly close.

And that is enough to turn a vanished piece of scenery into a place that can still be explored today.

References:

o Coronado Historical Association

o Coronado Local History Photograph and Map Collection

o Historic Moments from Coronado: 1890-1900 - Coronado Times.

Continue the Journey

If you'd like to explore the real locations, history and production geography behind Billy Wilder's classic, discover our pre-planned self-guided tour American Classic: Following Some Like It Hot.

Press the image below to explore the Tour:

Another Clue — or a Trick of the “Night”?

The final boat sequence contains one more intriguing geographical clue. Behind the departing boat, a bright source illuminates the water and produces a distinct reflection path (Figure 3). At first glance, it might be interpreted as the setting sun, which would place west behind the boat and therefore support an eastward departure hypothesis — precisely the direction suggested by our map.

Some evidence suggests that at least portions of the Coronado material were photographed in daylight and made to appear nocturnal through cinematographic techniques. The bright source could therefore be the sun in a day-for-night shot, or a deliberately created lighting effect.

For now, we should treat this as a tantalizing clue rather than proof. If the source can be established as the setting sun, however, it would provide remarkably strong independent support for the boat’s eastward direction indicated by our geographical reconstruction.

Get in touch

info@az-literatours.com

Note: Our Social Networks links will be available soon

Film stills appearing on A‑Z LiteraTours are reproduced solely for critical commentary and educational analysis under Canada’s fair‑dealing framework. All rights to the original works remain with their copyright owners.

Click on the image below to see Terms & Conditions:

Cinematic & Literary Travel Experiences by A‑Z LiteraTours