General Discussion
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(37,457 posts)Politicalboi
(15,189 posts)It's neat to look back and see how things were, and that film was spotless. I remember dad's old home movies. Mostly of my mother carrying me so my feet won't burn at the beach while my father filmed. He always got the cleavage shots to boot. I have this booklet of the Hotel Majestic built in 1894, and torn down in 1929. Here's a few pictures from the booklet.
<a href="http://imgur.com/Qe56M8d"><img src="" title="Hosted by imgur.com"/></a>
<a href="http://imgur.com/mGILZYZ"><img src="" title="Hosted by imgur.com"/></a>
<a href="http://imgur.com/nrO2kG6"><img src="" title="Hosted by imgur.com"/></a>
RebelOne
(30,947 posts)I did not know there was color photography then.
JohnnyRingo
(18,689 posts)Rare and expensive, color photography spans almost the entire 20th century.
Check out these color photos from WWI:
http://www.worldwaronecolorphotos.com/
The quality is stunning.
Kurovski
(34,655 posts)I love this kinda stuff. And NYC
Geez, is that layers of pollution, or a fog?
Even in summer, industry needed energy and a lot of that energy came from coal. In winter, more coal. In summer, stagnant air.
It wasn't until the late '50s that air pollution started to decline, and it declined more rapidly in the early '60s, with the clean-air legislation passing some time in the mid-'60s.
onlyadream
(2,168 posts)Graybeard
(6,996 posts)...or even a little overweight. Not one of them.
Notice all of the hat, hats, hats. Worn by both the women and the men.
The double-decker busses on 5th Ave. were a treat.
Lots of memories. Thanks.
tom_kelly
(963 posts)that too. The adults weren't obese either.
That was very nice.
adieu
(1,009 posts)when you don't have gallons of HFCS drinks flowing through your veins.
rug
(82,333 posts)Posteritatis
(18,807 posts)Retrograde
(10,181 posts)but also little diversity in the crowds: the people up in Harlem are all Black, the rest seemed all white.
No Vested Interest
(5,167 posts)also shown.
But, in general, you're correct.
WillyT
(72,631 posts)Ah...
& Rec !!!
Johnny Noshoes
(1,979 posts)As a New "Yawker" I love this video. My mom was 9 in 1939 and dad was 12. Thanks for the chance to time travel. Oh and the music - jazz just seems to fit New York.
BlueStater
(7,596 posts)He was 23 when when that footage was recorded. He moved to Florida when he was in his 60s and has lived there ever since. And, yes, he's still alive at 97.
tom_kelly
(963 posts)May he see a few more! (if that's what he wants)
BlueStater
(7,596 posts)He's been having a few problems recently but for the majority of his life he has been in fantastic health. He loves tennis and frequently played it into his 90s.
ellie
(6,929 posts)hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)GraniteDem
(30 posts)life as it was in NYC!
Rose Siding
(32,623 posts)reformist2
(9,841 posts)It's like there's what I'll call "historical" America, and then there's "real", modern-day America. And the dividing line is when color newsreel and color photos came on the scene, somewhere in the 1960s. I wonder if it's the same with anyone else.
Color movies of real life from way back then throw me for a loop!
Posteritatis
(18,807 posts)Prokudin-Gorskii's photos from turn-of-the-century Russia are particularly incredible that way.
Beacool
(30,254 posts)Thank you for posting it.
colsohlibgal
(5,275 posts)Somewhere on YOu Tube is someone's color movies of the 1939 world's fair - maybe the same guy did it.
I imagine the lack of obesity can at least partly be explained with hardly anyone having a boob tube, let alone 400 channels, to sit and stare at.
Posteritatis
(18,807 posts)Around the time those videos were taken the US economy was just beginning to crawl out of the Depression, and the average life expectancy was a full generation less than it is now.
The thirties were not exactly a shining city on a hill.
Eleanors38
(18,318 posts)JI7
(89,287 posts)and look at everything and everyone.
i love how the video shows different races also.
chollybocker
(3,687 posts)@ 0:17 - 0:20
From Rodgers & Hart's "Manhattan" (1929?)
We'll go to Yonkers
Where true love conquers
In the wilds.
And starve together, dear,
In Childs'.
Ron Green
(9,823 posts)It's like pseudo-jazz. A better choice would be Coleman Hawkins' Body and Soul, recorded in that same year.