I recall, around 1978, IIRC, on a business trip to San Francisco, staying in the Hyatt Regency, looking down from the balcony to the sidewalk below, seeing an anti-Shah rally.
Somewhere, I've got the photos I shot looking down on it. At the time, I was politically ignorant and had no idea what it all meant, other than concluding it made for some colorful photos.
I was working (TDY) in Teheran in 1975. It was my first time to the middle east and I was amazed at the wide avenues, and the people there seemed to be buzzing about as if they were in Manhattan. The traffic was the worst I'd ever seen, and we knew that SAVAK was everywhere. Still, the people seemed to me that they were more interested in making a buck than they were in getting rid of the Shah. Ole Jimmah sure screwed the pooch with his decision to stab America's pal in that neck of the woods.