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28 Barbary Lane Guest House
“It never rains in California, But, girl, dont they warn ya. It pours, man, it pours.”
The narrator
Tales of the City is a literary saga in the heart of the Californian city. This international bestseller immerses readers in the lives of Mary-Ann and the residents of a building at 28 Barbary Lane, one of the most famous fictional places in the world of literature. A place of emancipation whose plot in Armistead Maupin’s novels takes place in the late 1970s.
28 Barbary Lane, a building full of charm
In the first volume of Tales of the City, the reader meets Mary-Ann Singleton, a shy and uptight young woman who has just arrived from her hometown where she was bored to tears.
Before finding a job as a secretary in an advertising agency, Mary-Ann finds a place to live in a building on Barabry Lane. This charming place is located in a narrow pedestrian passage of San Francisco. Its wooden structure composes the three floors, but its brown boards are nevertheless very worn by the weather.
An eccentric owner
The landlady at 28 Barbary Lane, Anne Madrigal is a retired bookseller in her fifties. She welcomes Mary-Ann in her plum kimono and explains to the young woman that the people in her building are nice.
The old lady has a real gift for hospitality. To better accompany her new tenants, she offers them a joint from which she grows marijuana in her garden.
The Inn of Broken Hearts
The inhabitants of the building are, indeed, nice people as Anne Madrigal likes to say. First of all, there is Mona, the very mysterious bisexual friend of the landlady. Brian, on the other hand, is the real seducer of the house. Formerly a member of the Sixties, this heterosexual is a waiter after having been a lawyer. Finally, Michael, alias Mousse, is a young homosexual working in the temping business and going from failure to disillusionment with men.
The 28 Barbary Lane is a kind of inn of the broken hearts, because none of the protagonists is really happy in his sentimental life.
28 Barbary Lane, one of the most famous fictional places in literature
If all this seems to be true, 28 Barbary Lane is nevertheless a fictional place. Armistead Maupin was largely inspired by the picturesque stairs of Macondray Lane. It is therefore impossible to discover the accommodation of Mrs. Madrigal and her boarders.
Published in nine volumes, Tales of the City is the best known work of Armistead Maupin. While he recounts his childhood in Logical Family: A Memoir in San Francisco, his flagship series is no longer really based on the city he knew in the 1970s. Without being nostalgic, he knows that there are few places left as charming as Barbary Lane.
Tales of the City, a plea for the LGBT cause
It is after having fought in Vietnam that Armistead Maupin returns to San Francisco. Born in 1944, he settled permanently in the city in 1971. Russian Hill is his refuge. But to pay his rent, he has to work. He became a reporter for the Associated Press and then for the San Francisco Chronicle. It is in this daily newspaper that the novelist begins his Tales of the City. From 1978 to 2014, the author delivers sometimes funny, sometimes moving papers.
It is in the character of Michael that Armistead Maupin reveals himself. He is homosexual like his paper hero. In a letter to his parents, the novelist has him say his words: “Being gay has taught me tolerance, compassion and humility. It has shown me limitless possibilities of living. It has given me people whose passion and kindness and sensitivity have provided a constant source of strength. It has brought me into the family of man, Mama, and I like it here.”
The nine-volume saga then quickly becomes a plea for the LGBT cause. This is the first time that gay readers have found themselves in Maupin’s characters. It was the end of the 1970s and the struggles had not yet been won. Worse, AIDS, a few years later, decimated thousands of gays in the world.
That leaves 28 Barbary Lane, a place resembling Macondray Lane and its cobblestone cul-de-sac ending in a wooden staircase ramp. A green place in the heart of San Francisco. A place where we could meet Mary-Ann and her friends…
Tales of the City have been adapted into a comic book in 2 volumes, under the same title, by Isabelle Bauthian and Sandrine Revel in 2020.
Macondray Lane
A small pedestrian cul-de-sac on Russian Hill in San Francisco, Macondray Lane is a green jewel in the Californian city.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1988, Macondray Lane is a beautiful wooded enclave in the neighborhood.
At the end of Taylor Street, terminating Macondray Lane, typical wooden steps offer an unstoppable view of San Francisco Bay and Alcatraz Island.
Macondray Lane was the model for Barbary Lane, the enchanting lane in Armistead Maupin’s literary saga San Francisco Chronicles.
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Cult! movies: 100 mythical places of cinema [French Edition]
Since the dawn of cinema, films have invaded the world and highlighted sometimes unexpected places. Every film location has its secrets. The latter are sometimes as exciting as the feature films themselves.
Did you know that the cemetery where the final duel of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was built from scratch and that no body lies there? Or that the bus ofInto The Wild has been moved to discourage fans from spending the night there? From the story of the construction of The Bridge on the River Kwai to the incredible encounter during the shooting of the last scene ofIndiana Jones and the Last Crusadeembark on an exciting world tour with the greatest stars of the seventh art. Shiver in the real haunted house ofAmityville and discover the terrifying anecdotes of the making ofApocalypse Now in the Philippines. Visit the building of Blade Runner before stopping at Hogwarts and finally landing in Jurassic Parkin the middle of the Hawaiian archipelago. What if we also took you behind the scenes of the making of the Hobbits’ village of Lord of the Rings ?
Produced by a team of pop-culture specialists and enhanced by numerous anecdotes, Cult! movies tells the secrets of the places that made the history of cinema.
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Discover all the places Tales of the City 1 on our map
By Damien Canteau
Passionné par l'Histoire, les animés, les Arts et la bande dessinée en particulier, Damien est le rédacteur en chef du site spécialisé dans le 9e art, Comixtrip.