You've done it again-blown my mind! I walked it, talked it, and duck-tailed it in the early '50s. Spent several summers in Balboa working at Pop's South Seas Photos, the Ballgame, and the Slingshot in the Fun Zone, and for my Dad at the Blue Room on Palm Avenue, a block from the Ferry. Ate delicious fresh donuts with hot chocolate for breakfast at the Donut Shop early every morning with the anglers going out on the day boats, had double cheese burgers and Don's Frozen Bananas for lunch, and bulked up on corn on the cob and tacos and taquitos for dinner. A typical day started with early morning fishing from the Balboa pier, swimming and sun-tanning on the Fun Zone beach, followed by rubber-rafting around the Bay for hours, then listening to the great sounds of the Big Bands while standing outside of the Rendezvous Ballroom in the evening, and afterwards making a bonfire and listening to the breakers on the ocean beach. Later we went to the Midnight Movies at the Balboa theater, which literally were a scream! The day ended with eating Chinese at the Blue Room after everything else had closed at 2 a.m. It was an extraordinary time, not only since I was a teenager spending summer at the beach, but because there was an economic boom after so much fear and pain and loss during the war years. People were happier, kinder and more considerate of others, grateful to be alive and thriving. Many thanks for posting this video.
Just curious. You seem to know this area well. In the late 50’s and early 60’s, as a young kid, we visited Balboa a few times during the summer months. One vivid memory I have is a large large tiki on a walkway. Might have been in front of a restaurant. Do you remember it at all?
My dad grew up in the 1950s on the sand on 10th and balboa. I wish this film footage went a bit farther north to 10th. My grandfather had a house right on the beach that is still there. It was before the boardwalk, walk out the backdoor right on to the sand. My grandfather was the treasurer of the local Newport Beach Moose Lodge. My dad worked at the Fun Zone doing various jobs flipping burgers, the arcades and swindling other kids of their pennies in games of chance. He eared enough money at the Fun Zone to buy his first car a Model T. Before he bought the truck he had to take a bus to see his girlfriend on PCH in Corona Del Mar. My dad’s girlfriend’s parents had a nice house right on PCH. With all the shops and businesses on PCH in Corona Del Mar its hard to imagine homes there. I wish I could remember the street. He used to point at the house driving by it when I was a kid. When I was a kid he used to take us the house on the sand on 10th. It would bore us to tears. Now, I can’t imagine what the house is now worth. He did say living on the sand wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Winters were from the ocean breezes were damp and cold. On rainy winter days(like today) i like to drive to the house from here in Long Beach, walk next to the grey (same color) house and take a gloomy walk on the beach. My dad passed away in 2014. One his birthday this last September i took a walk around the Fun Zone. Thanks for the vid. Cheers.
The Peninsula runs east-west. The video begins just east of 6th street (the lowest number of numbered Peninsula streets, which ascend in number to the west), heads east and turns north on Washington, one block short of Main Street..
I don't even need to go on vacation anymore. I get the best holiday by visiting this channel. Today I stayed overnight at the Cypress Villa Rooms & Apartments & am heading accross the street to the Dollhouse Cafe for lunch. Thanks for getting my day off to a great start, NASS 🤗
Whoa!! I grew up in Newport, but I had no idea the Fun Zone was that old... or ever that clean! The whole town looks so peaceful and chill. I really like that better.
Here’s the thing folks, your idea of “Americas past is evil and sucked” came from the mainstream media and Hollywood, and it’s a LIE. There is an agenda going on that revolves around trying to keep Americans from wanting a better, more peaceful life like in the past. They are shoving politics and “isms” down our throats, not because they care or give a shit, but because it keeps us in constant chaos. They want you all inside your homes, not communicating, and being as antisocial as possible. Think about all the things that are popular right now... streaming platforms keep you from going to theaters, food trucks keep you from dining in restaurants, online shopping keeps you from needing to go to the store, now with Covid they even want you working from home. See the pattern and don’t fall for the propaganda. The only people who will benefit from this shutoff world they’re trying to create is the rich.
Harry Dexter White Bretton Woods conference 1944 gave America nothing but debt because if America stops its trade deficit the whole world will suffer and plunge into chaos, this genius was accused of being a Communist informant even though he was a senior U.S. Treasury department official... Fast forward to the late 1970s Michael Blumenthal is sent to Communist China to open up trade thus saving the day for a stagnated Communist ideology going nowhere.... God Bless America 🇺🇸 🙃😂👍
I am thinking that this might be some time shortly after June of 1948, when the 49 Fords were introduced. Had this been much later there would have been a lot more of them on the road. There were at least two, maybe three visible. Very cool! I wish I could be time transported back!
Drive by (pardon the expression) by 1949 Ford @ 7:24 My dad bought a 1950 ford (virtually identical to 1949) and it lasted until 1975. As a kid in the 60s I thought it was a clunker, but the History Channel recently explained that it was highly innovative and the first really modern car of the postwar era. All the other car designs looked no different than before the war.
@@johnfowler7660 My dad also purchased new a 1950 Ford w/overdrive and sold it undamaged and in good running condition for $50 in 1963. That would be about $450 in today's dollar so not as cheap as one would at first think. The brand new car that replaced the Ford cost him $3,400 Well done, astounding restoration of this film.
@@johnfowler7660 Yes, today they don't look revolutionary, but they were. I didn't know this as a child when they were still all over the place, but I did love them even then. If you like 49 Fords, check out this video, a Ford propaganda film promoting the new 49 models. The best part of it starts at just shy of 10:00. I bought a VHS tape of this at the Henry Ford Museum about 20 years ago and was happy to find it here on RU-vid. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2Cjkil0odvY.html
This is truly fascinating viewing. I live in Australia and our street vistas were not dissimilar to these. What strikes me in all of this footage is how modern these environments were. When I think of the years before the later 1960's I think of dark, musty environments and colorless spaces. There was plenty of modern design and brightness in everyday life back then.
The streets look clean in this film but they were actually covered in oil. These older cars leaked a little bit of fluid pretty much constantly. I can only imagine how slick the roads were after the first rain in 10 months.
The film is three or four drives down the same stretch of Balboa Boulevard, left turn at Main Street, with a little bit of the Fun Zone at the end. I wish they'd continued all the way down to the tip of the peninsula. But it's fun seeing how rustic and small-town the place looked then. Most of the buildings have changed, but the building at 3:16 that says "John Dory" is still there, looks about the same, it's a bike rental place now. The place at 3:39 that says "Surf and Sand" is a restaurant. The barren hills in the background that you see at 6:50 are now covered with development. I imagine it was pretty relaxed and affordable back then.
@@marcogodoy12 Balboa Theater is still there. The marquee is gone but the building is still standing. A few attempts to revive it have failed. The last I heard it was purchased by the city and remains closed.
@GoldenState So good people lives there, not wonder why newport looks so good nowadays, democratic places are like third world countries, full of garbage.
Love these videos, pretty sure this is 1949. The movie marquee at the Balboa Theatre would help verify, but I can't quite make out what is playing. Thanks for your making my day!
@@randallkarlin4115 That's cool! My mom had an old 50 Ford in the early 60s. It was a beater by then though, and ended up sitting in our back yard after a while.
Just personal observations, everything is clean, business are all independently owned, no Walmarts etc to be seen, houses mixed in with the businesses, no overcrowding and a slower pace of life. To sum it up, they never knew how good they had it.
Grew up on that peninsula on 20th street. I see a lot of buildings I recognize and many I don't. Certainly brings back a lot of good memories of riding my bike up and down the peninsula!
You can see a remaining section of railroad track, in the middle of the street, used by the red car trolley. You could ride from almost anywhere in SoCal to balboa.
Clean streets. Nice cars. Friendly people. People looked nice. Manners. Looking at people straight in the eye. Talking to another. No trash around. Quiet and no loud noise playing from a booming radio.
I lived in Costa Mesa for 35 years and road my bicycle to Newport Beach almost every Saturday for exercise. That was a great video!!! Thanks for posting.
My great grandparents had an ownership in the Balboa Market. This is the first time I’ve ever seen a video of the market. They lived in the peninsula for awhile. My grandad worked their for awhile when he was in his 20’s. They sold the spot and opened a bigger market in Santa Ana.
I've watched a couple of these videos of yours, and can't help but notice how clean everything is and how nice it all looks. I really wouldn't mind going back in time and living in the 40s, 50s, 60s. I personally think post-war times were the peak of this country, everythings gone downhill since then...
@@SacredFire777 Newport Beach remains quite conservative. If you need to see how Republican it is, search YT for Trump and Newport Beach. You'll see huge crowds lining the streets.
I reckon to understand cars from the 1940s and 50s. The newest car in the video is a 1949 Ford parked at a curb. There was another Ford coming in the opposite direction, possibly a 1950 but I could not see the parking lights, gas filler door and trunk latch which is how you tell the difference between the two years. There was also a 1949 Hudson. This video is beutifully made, thanks for the posting.
Good job grabbing the Back to the Future Delorean, travelling to present time to grab the go pro, going back in time to film this, then travelling to present time again, to post this for all us to enjoy in RU-vid! Hats off, you must be exhausted!
Yes. I agree for the most part. However, there are still areas of the US that are clean, where people are respectful and kind, and there is no homeless encampments and needles on streets. Such as most of the Carolinas, Coastal SC, Georgia, and Northern Florida.
I grew up around there in the 70s and 80s but I can still recognize some of those buildings. The Balboa theater used to show midnight screenings of the rocky horror picture show. The area is way more intense and pretentious now. I moved away.
A huge thanks to the people who used their fancy movie cameras to capture these scenes of their times, even jaywalkers who surely didn't think they'd be scurrying across the screen in a future RU-vid video.
As recently as the early 90s, I lived in a little place that cost me $500 a month and while it was in Costa Mesa is was just outside the Newport Beach city line. I could hop on a bike and coast into Newport. I looked the place up now and it's been turned into condos that look like prison cell blocks.
Mon Dieu le rêve.... Le rêve Américain des années 50 ! En France et en Europe on sortait d'une des plus horribles guerres et en Californie on goûtait au bonheur du glamour des années 50 ! Si je pouvais remonter le temps je quitterais le Sud de la France pour aller vivre au soleil de la Californie...
From the look of everything, it looks very basic simple and clean. I would like to be transported there just to make some land purchases. However, I'd then want to be transported back into the future, now being the owner.
Le rêve californien était bien réel en 1950. Prospérité d'après-guerre et densité de population beaucoup plus faible dans le grand Los Angeles. Des hivers chauds, des oranges cultivées dans votre jardin. Qu'est-ce qu'il ne faut pas aimer ?
I want that 1948 Buick Special with Dyna Flow transmission and a fireball 8. I saw it parked on the right. The fast back. A real bomb. A grill like a sharks mouth. Chews up the road and damn near takes flight. Maybe it was a Roadmaster.
Wow, I love these old films and actually prefer the way it looked in the 1940s with the occasional sandy vacant lot and sandy boulevard raised medians. At 7:22, on the right is the Balboa Theatre. I looked it up and the theatre was located at 707 E. Balboa Boulevard. The building is still there but apparently closed awaiting its fate after years of preservation attempts. One of my uncles had his 38 foot sailboat anchored at Newport Beach. My parents would drive us kids to see him and his family during summer vacation. Always exciting to sail out to sea from there. Great memories.
" listening to the great sounds of the Big Bands while standing outside of the Rendezvous Ballroom in the evening" thank you, for sharing this...how lucky you were to be a part of that !!!!!
This is an incredible time machine. As someone who grew up on the peninsula in the 80's and 90's, it's awesome to see the place I know so well, some 40 years before I was born. So different and yet so similar. Just spectacular.
At 3:02 is a 1948 Studebaker just like mine . What a rush ! I date these by the newest model of auto that I can see . You do a wonderful job with the background sound , A-1
I have vague memories of the old style traffic signals ( red and green only, no yellow) with the arms that stuck out and the bell would "ding" when the light changed. Even older was the one diamond-shaped stop sign (that one predates 1922 when the octagonal stop sign was adopted as a nationwide standard). I lived in both New York and California as a child, the stop signs in New York were yellow at the time, and red in California.
Yeah, a few "shoebox" Fords with the '49 "FORD" grille lettering in this film instead of the '50 crest. Judging by that and what people are wearing, I would guess it was the winter of '48 - '49.
Virtually ALL of the vehicles are from the 1930's to the late 40's, going down the same street filmed from both the back and the front of the camera car. Life at a Much Slower and Safer pace than today, that a lot of us Boomer Generation folks can appreciate. Another Great Job Nass, for Preserving History and how life could be lived Much Easier than the Self-Centered Madness that is festering in this country today.
@@GotScout Sorry Got Scout. It's the Far Right Gun Crazy Pro-Hate Trump Loving Inserrectionist's that intend to Destroy our Democracy that are at the root of this Backslide of our country. Or have you been living in a hole and listening to HATE Programs instead?
@@stairwaytoheaven4330 Sounds like YOU TOO, have also been living in a dark hole like a mushroom. Being Fed CRAP. So Sad. Just enjoy the video and keep your Political Nonsense To Yourself, Grow Up, and Appreciate this Fine Reproduction.
@@GotScout is that a joke or just a cheap shot? Not that I’m a fan, I’m not into corporate, Wall St friendly, militarist right wing Democrats. But that still comes across as tasteless on your part.
@@davemckolanis4683 Trump made his share of enemies but, I'm shaking my head at how our present POTUS is arguably no better overall. Note I'm a Classic Liberal, think JFK; otherwise we're known as the Alt-Lite today, since we aren't racist and not homophobic, either.
I lived in Newport Beach 30 years ago. I remember it well, and I'm still fond of the place. In fact, I would move back there in a heartbeat if only I had the income.
I lived there on Balboa 1984-86, and my apt. building is still there and is shown in this film actually. Loved the area but moved up to LA for work and a career 30 years ago.
@@rockrecordreport7136 Balboa in those years was amazing, nothing like it is now.. it was so happening, lots of motorcycle riders you couldn't even drive into Balboa without that sticker on your car window.. now it's pretty dead.. the Fun Zone used to be packed all the time.
I lived in SoCal for 8 years and hated it, but Balboa is a pretty nice area. Loved the ferry, The Wedge, and the fact that it was significantly different from the drab interior of Orange County,
This looks like a movie production "driving reel". The actors sit in the cars...and this plays on the projection you see thru the car "windows". We see the same blocks, but with rear, left, right and forward versions.
Me too.I would have loved to grow up on the beaches of California.Maybe late 40's,early fifty's.The car culture was also a growing thing during this period.It would have been paradise.
Wow! My family has deep roots in California (my parents were married in San "Peedro" during the war....yeah, WWII), so this was a lot of fun to watch. I think I'm gonna go and re-read one of my old Raymond Chandler novels now. Please post some more like this.
Watched a lot of classic cinema in that movie theater... and if you wanna adjust your 'color key' the Dog House had a red roof. It was their signature...
A fantastic historical document! I agree with the consensus that the film was shot in 1949, judging by the cars. As someone noted a while back, there are quite a few Studebakers. Studebaker had a factory not far from here. Maybe they cost less than other makes because the cars weren't shipped in from another state. Or maybe a lot of Studebaker employees lived in Newport and they got a discount on their cars! Does anyone know what that motorized chair around 5:00 is?
Grandfather lived on Balboa Blvd on the Bay and Aunt lived on East Ocean Front during the forties and the entire 50’s decade. Was a dream world then to a kid from Wyoming . Grandfather’s house had a dock on the bay with a sizeable sailboat moored there (for weekend trips to Catalina).! Aunt’s large new construction on the ocean cost $50,000. Both houses still there.
I see two Chevrolet 5 window pickup trucks in this film. When did they come out? 1950? 1953? Great video. Life was chill then. I was born in 46. The good old days..
I wonder if anyone could find out the owner of the car on the left with license plate 27W965 or 966. I'm sure their descendants would get a hoot out of seeing great, great grandfather driving his car in 1949.
The early forties is a time where a house down here could be had for hundreds of dollars. I had a neighbor who paid $200 for a long lot with cottage across the bay in Corona Del Mar.
I hate to be a party buster, but I could identify at least 7 cars from the early 1950s, including two 1951 Fords. My family had during the war a 1939 Chevy and finally bought post-war a 1950 Ford (of which I saw none in the film). I am 82. My experience of the time was very positive, loved America until the 1960s began when something malicious enter into the American life from the left, and the good old days slowly became "past". Thanks, anyway, for the marvelous memory trip, only 10 years to early.
We used to rent a small place on Balboa in the early 60s during the summers. I would swim across to the ferris wheel and arcade, buy a corn dog and play the various games there. I literally bumped into Buddy Epson in a little toy shop on the main street in Balboa. He gave me a rather stern look so I didn't ask for his autograph. I loved it when we went to the Jolly Rodger restaurant and pigged out on really large bowels of multicolored ice cream. At night my friends and I rowed around the island in a small sabbot. My name is Michael so they sang "Michael Row The Boat Ashore" which was popular at the time. Good memories.
I note a couple things. First, all the cars all seemed to be observing the speed limit. That’s rarely seen these days. Great trip. I enjoyed it very much. But, this film may have been shot later than the forties. I saw 1949 model cars, but i also think i saw some cars from the early fifties too. In 1949, Studebaker models were still of the, ‘’you can’t tell whether it’s coming or going” style, the bullet nose Studebaker. The Commander model didn’t come out until 1953 and that modeling lead to the Golden Hawk and Silver Hawk models.
Grew up in South Eastern Huntington, bch. So I have a ton of great memories of Newport and corona del mar.summer's were awesome. This definitely looks like summer of 1948, by The looks of the classic cars. It has a small town beach city feel to it. Thanks for posting This.
This looks to be later 1948 to perhaps early 1949, as the 'newest' car that I see is a 1949 Ford sedan at 7:38. Unfortunately, I could not quite read the marquee at the Balboa Theatre as that could absolutely determine the exact month and year. Great video!!!
It would interesting to know What the Average Cost for a " house " was in Balboa, California at that time ! In the ( early ) 1970's a, " 1K to 1200 sq. ft. house " on a " 1/4 acre Lot," in Riverside, Calif., cost $ 40,000. The same house & Lot in Newport or Laguna Beach [ 40 miles away ] cost around $ 350.000 !
Cray fish ~I worked with and knew very well a retired deputy sheriff from the Placerville area of California, he also was in the Korean war and was married to my 1st cousin. He explained to me that he missed the chance to get rich by passing up a chance to buy land at 29 Palms, California. ~Real estate was the number one millionaire maker. If I was back in 1949 at about 18 to 20 years of age in California, then I would go all in and buy the largest size parcel of vacant land (about 20 to 50+ acres with no buildings on it) that I could acquire, as close to Los Angeles as possible, pay the taxes, (build my own house with my own hands) and hold on to it as long as possible to become a multi millionaire...then I would buy Xerox stock shares in the late 50's and also buy into the Walmart IPO in about 1971...then the Microsoft IPO in 1986. Boy my hind sight is 20/20, now all I need is a time machine...
That was my local beach growing up in the 70’s. I was a child and the arcade and ski ball and all of that stuff was still there. They had PAC MAN, Asteroids and all kinds of video games you had to pay a quarter for. The Fun Zone and the Balboa Peninsula, where you see the car driving through, had some things that were still there when I was a kid, 30 years after this footage was taken. Newport, Ca was rustic and kind of middle class when I was a kid. But, it changed, because wealthier people began to buy out the beach properties there. And it became this inaccessible property, because the value shot through the roof. Then, the hoity toity people took over and they lost their hang lose surfer vibe. Lots of Trumpers live there now.
1979 - I'd take the Balboa Ferry across with my bike, cost me a dime. The place had a real rustic vibe even into the 80s and around 200-2001 etc you could find cheap places to rent on the Peninsula as long as you didn't mind NO parking. The area's got to be full of Trumpers now .... Imagine Berlin 1923, artsy, rockin' town, and Berlin 1933 ....
@@alexcarter8807 , I do remember the ferry in 1979. I hung out in the 80’s as a teenager and there was this community with an open door policy to hang out and kick back in their homes and the beach. In one house where this man who’s nick name was Sharky, had us young people hang out and one time Brook Shields was there, even though I didn’t know her. There were sometimes bon fires at night with friends back when it was aloud. I also hung out with friends who rented homes along the coastline. You’d just walk out of the house and meander onto the shore. But, now… Like we’ve observed, wealthy people got wind of this nice town and bought up the properties that are worth 10 times what they are now. They took over and don’t want to pay taxes, ergo, they’re Republicans. But, again, OC was mostly Republican and being raised there, I too, was a voting Republican when I turned 18. But, its important to note that the Republicans during my time, were like the Democrats now. They are not the same party. It got hijacked by conspiracy and fascists. Ashamed of my party, I switched to Democrat when Trump won the presidency. There’s a hole army of converts like me. Hundreds of thousands of us who switched parties, because of the congressional scandal involved. But, I digress. I still go to annual whale watches in Newport Beach. Its inexpensive for something so incredibly beautiful and wonderful.
Now it looks better with no powerlines through the sky and more trees. And it´s still clean. But in the late 40s it was also awesome with those incredible cars.
Wow, what a gorgeous video. The sepia tone of the colour and the realistic background sound from the moving car is just perfect. That Art Deco architectural period is so timeless. I just want to go back to that time for a week to experience it :)
Yeah, before even Chuck Berry, did they even have LPs? Those cars drove like grocery carts loaded with bricks compared to modern rides. I look at it and think about how going back with a modern budget and getting set with some real estate deals.
Wow! I always wonder what it would have been like to be there in those days. The scene seems so tranquil and few people on the street. It looks middle class. Was Newport Beach middle class back then?
My grandfather said it was middle class, but the homes did cost about 50% more compared to homes that were inland. Nowadays even a small beach bungalow in Newport Beach will cost millions of dollars.
It was! I grew up there from 1952 onward. Just another local beach town, just like all the others.No one had any idea of what it would become. My Grandfather lived here on the Peninsula after WWll, very quiet and peaceful. The beach was on the right side, usually very empty.
Sure would love more … I moved here to Newport in 1981 from NJ, I guess about 30 to 35 years after this video , it didn’t look that much different in 81 ,,, funny but the peninsula looks more recognizable to me in this video than in person … I drove down to Dick Dales house this morning , the peninsula is still a beautiful place, wish I would have bought some property there in the early 80’s , was a bargain then lol …
I have never been to Newport but it seems so real in this video that I feel that I was there. I see a lot of 1930´s cars which makes me think this video was filmed in the early 1940´s.
![California 1940's, Newport Beach in color [60fps,Remastered] w/sound design added](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
