- A Barbary Coast saloonkeeper and a Nob Hill impresario are rivals for the affections of a beautiful singer, both personally and professionally, in 1906 San Francisco.
- Mary Blake arrives at Blackie Norton's Paradise gambling hall and beer garden looking for work as a singer. He embarrasses her by asking to see her legs, but he hires her. She faints from hunger. Nob Hill Socialite Jack Burley and Maestro Baldini of the Tivoli Opera House see her singing and offer her a chance to do opera, but Blackie has her under a two-year contract and she ruefully stands by it. Later, when he makes up posters featuring her in tights, she does leave for the Tivoli. He gets an injunction against Burley but knocks out the process server when he hears Mary perform as Marguerite in "Faust". She proposes marriage to him, and she agrees to go back to the Paradise as his kind of singer, but his childhood chum, Father Tim Mullin, intervenes. After he slugs him, Mary leaves. She is soon the star of the Tivoli and the Paradise is closed down. She sings a rousing "San Francisco" on behalf of the Paradise at the annual "Chicken Ball" and wins the $10,000 prize which Blackie throws to the floor. As she storms out of the hall, a terrible rumble betokens the famous 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Buildings collapse, streets split wide open, the city burns, and the army dynamites whole sections of town. After staggering around in a stupor, Blackie finds Father Mullin and they find Mary at a Salvation Army camp. Backed by hundreds of others, they look out over the ruins which are gradually replaced by the shining new city with a reprise of the title song.—Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>
- On 31 December 1905, a fire destroys a building at Barbary Coast. The next day, singer Mary Blake from Benson, Colorado, who lived in it, looks for a job at the Paradise gambling hall. The owner, Blackie Norton, is a ruthless but good man and hires her after he asks her to show her legs. He is also invited to run to the position of Supervisor of the Coast by his friends and acquaintances. When his competitor from Nob Hill, Jack Burley, and his friend, Maestro Baldini, hear Mary singing, Jack invites her to sing at his fancy Tivoli Opera House. However, she has a two-year contract signed with Blackie and is in love with him. But when the other artists from the Paradise see her with him and make malicious comments about her, she quits and goes to the Tivoli. On her debut there, Blackie goes there with an authority to call off the concert. He has an injunction against Jack since Mary is still under contract with him. However, when he hears her singing in the opera, he changes his mind and agrees to marry her. She returns to the Paradise but when Blackie's friend, Father Tim Mullin, sees her exposing her legs, he does not allow her to go to the stage. She works at the Tivoli and Jack proposes marriage to her. Meanwhile he uses his influence with the Powers That Be to close the Paradise and arrest the performers. During a musical competition between the clubs, Mary helps the Paradise with her presentation. However, it is 1906, the year of the famous San Francisco earthquake.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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