DETROIT The Fabulous Fifties 

Ok then….I’m an old man, born at Ford hospital in 1948 . I went to Detroit public schools and graduated from Pershing in 1966. My childhood was absolutely idyllic. We were firmly blue collar, church going, law abiding and civically proud.Every school I ever went to was racially diverse. As a 12 year old I could ride my bike to Briggs Stadium unmolested…..indeed anywhere I chose to go. There are so many reasons that Detroit went off the rails, it would be impossible to catalog them in less than a multi-volume scholarly study…..even then. I can tell you that of the 5 houses in different neighborhoods that I lived in NOT ONE survives today nor do the neighborhoods in any meaningful way. CRIME drove my parents out of their forever home in 1978 and broke their hearts. I know I’m not unique, kids in Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philly ,Baltimore , D.C. Seattle and countless others had very similar histories. I can now spend my twilight years reminiscing on the wonderful life I was afforded by being raised in Detroit by amazing parents in a safe , caring, civil society……and we had the BEST music, BEST cars, BEST hair of any epoch.

My mother was born and grew up in Detroit during the 1950's. In her last 3 years of life, my mother had dementia but she never forgot her memories of Detroit. It was the one subject she could still talk to us about. I have a very faint memory of Detroit and the last time we were there was in 1971.. Miss you mom & dad!

After six decades it still resonates as an unforgettable age! Prosperous, elegant, fantastic music. Absolutely unforgettable. The Golden Age of the US lifestyle...

“Oh boy, I sure do love living in Detroit, the wealthiest city in the world. With some of the best cars in the world being manufactured here at a surprisingly low cost, I sure do hope nothing bad happens during the late 60s that would completely change our cities image forever” - Average Detroit Resident, 1955

50 years ago today: the last full day of that beautiful, old Detroit. RIP.

Oh, how I would love to be able to go back in time to walk these streets, eat at the restaurants, see a ball game, see my old neighborhood and mingle! Thank you

The 50's, where you could say you were from Detroit and be proud to say it.

Even though I live in Windsor, we were always going shopping in downtown Detroit. Great Memories.

I saw Detroit at the very tail end of her glory days in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I remember the people, the energy, the vitality. But now, seeing that city, I wonder whether my memories were really only a dream? Seeing this video then, and seeing Detroit now, this video appears as though a piece of Hollywood fiction. In my lifetime, I have seen Detroit do a complete 180 for the worst. Some have commented on what a lovely piece of nostalgia this is and a glimpse into yesteryear. I can't agree; this video only intensifies today's pain.

One of the reasons why I'm building a time machine.

I remember going to Hudsons in the late 50's with my parents and the streets were packed with people even later at night. After the riots, Hudson's closed at 5PM and the streets were deserted at night.

Detroit of today: A shell of it's former glory. Detroit of the pre-1960s past: A wonderful, vibrant city to live in.

I can remember riding the bus downtown to see a 50 cent movie.... My first apt there was $12.50 cents a week---completely furnished w/ WW2 furniture...amazing radio, post-war as well...The year was 1965..! BTW it was not fancy but for a kid of 19 it was fine!

I'm crying because this is how I remember my birthplace. It's now a bombed out war zone filled with nothing but crime and violence.

What a time to be alive! I wish there were a place that replicated this era so people could trip back in time and enjoy it.

Thanks for posting. I only wish I could put myself back in time to wander the streets when Detroit was really something. What a shame what this country has become.

This is amazing! Its awesome seeing these black and white images come to life.

That Firestone sign and the Ford dealer signs are worth huge amounts of money now. This is "Motor City".

i would have love to be in my early twenties back then. i was born in 73. missed a golden era. Decent music, decent women, proper cars.

shame. how far detroit, and America as a whole has fallen. just an 18 year old who wishes he lived in the 50s.

People that got to grow up in this era are the luckiest in the history of mankind...

Put your hands up for detroit! I love the city!

A lot of stuff in this video is still there today, and a LOT of it has been beautifully renovated. Detroit still has one of the finest downtowns in the Midwest.

Sadly, this video shows Detroit just on the verge of it's downfall. One factor which killed the city are the interstate freeways that carved the city center to pieces , destroying whole neighbourhoods in the process. Another is the lack of a viable rapid transit system which would have kept populations living closer to the urban core. Effective rapid transit creates a vibrant downtown along with desirable living areas on the periphery as seen in San Francisco, Boston, New York and most cities in Europe. But the federal government in the mid 50's put unlimited money towards roads and highways. No thought to mass transit. Easy access by freeways to sprawling and lifeless cookie cutter suburbs killed the city. This city is now just basically a parking lot for suburbanites to come into town to either work or watch a game or concert and then leave again.

I'm sure it's really a stab in the heart to Detroiters to see what has happened since this.

I have lived downtown for 16 years now, We love it, lots to do, great neighbors, its very nice once again thankfully

As a heavy car guy, i like all those classics cruising by. Where did those vehicles end up, I wish to know.

Born in Detroit in 1939. I remember the end of WWII - what a block party that was and I got to stay up late.. Relatives all over the city and suburbs. I can't stand to go near downtown Detroit any more. It's like going into one of the Iraq or Syria cities.

Its messed up that the city used to be so beautiful like this and now im 15 living in a crime/drug invested city. Girl, i was born in the wrong decade lol.

Wow, These little excerpts from the past are fantastic and Nat King Cole singing that wonderful tune coincides with the era. What a wonderful time to have lived in, Those 50s. Im from New Zealand and i loved those early days. I am enjoying what you have posted. Cheers James

Fabulous music for a fabulous video! Thank you tennforever, it was grand seeing wonderful old Detroit again after all these years!

A beautiful homage to yesteryear

My mom and me ( I was 6 years old in summertime 1958) took the bus from Roslyn Rd and Mack Ave (Grosse Pointe Woods) all the way to Downtown Detroit to shop and eat lunch). Mom didn't have a car but the house walls were closing in on her. We ate at the lunch counter of Cunningham Drugs then stopped by a Sanders store for Hot Fudge Sundaes. What a wonderful world we lived in back then.

Before White Flight 🕊️ What a beautiful city.

Really wish Detroit was still this nice :(

I lived in Detroit several years ago and loved it there. I wish I could've seen it when it was booming like in this video!

Detroit was a marvel city at the time.

I love the Qwikee Donut Shop sign! The hand dunks the donut! 1:00

My Home. I will always love the D. It’s so making a comeback! It so nice downtown❤️❤️❤️❤️

This gave me chills seeing the good ol' days of America (Detroit in this case) when people were happy in a clean city, had jobs and came home to a family to feed. Hard working people in a prosperous city. Now I can't even drive my Dodge Journey through there without avoiding couches, mattresses and some dude on crack nocking my window for the last crumpled newport menthol cigarette.

When Detroit was called...The Paris of the Midwest. In 1965, Detroit was voted as the Most Promising City in the United States.

Make America Great Again

A collage of scenes from different years that seem to range from the early to mid 50s. great to see them.

My heart is broken 😢🇺🇸

Qwikee donuts!!!! I used to LOVE that sign. Oh boy ❤

How can you NOT make racial remarks? Plain and simple - black crime killed Detroit, along with Democratic Party leadership that gave out ridiculous sums of entitlements to these people.

Fantastic video, Beatiful Video. La musica muy bonita, muy bien realizados, mucha sensiblidad ,que bonita ciudad se merece todo lo mejor del mundo para sus habitantes, fuerza y coraje amigos. Pongan más videos son maravillosos, I love Detroit.

I had extended relatives who lived in Detroit from the late 40's to the early 90's, including the nice period highlighted in the video. Everyone but one relative left that area. Three relatives and an in-law have passed on. But they saw a once mighty industrial powerhouse sink to the depths of despair. One relative was a robbery victim twice. The 1967 riots destroyed the innocence and trust that Detroit once had. How sad. Even if it's rebuilt, it still won't be the same city as before.

Started its slide in the 60s. After the riots it has since become unrecognizable.

I was born in Australia and live in Australia. But my grandmother I believe lived and worked in Detroit for Ford I believe. But was born in Flint Michigan and lived there as a child. She also drove a 1950s ford fairlaine I think during the late 50s and 60s I think when she moved to California.

Look at that impressive skyline@ 5:58

No one, and I mean NO ONE, can say that things are better now. Most US cities were "working" cities, meaning that things mostly worked in them. Today I can't think of one thing that actually "works" in the US. Everything is dysfunctional today, all thanks to the politicians, greed, and the lack of caring from our citizens. Look at all those factories turning out goods for the consumers - all gone now. I can't believe the US society will exist as we know it in a few years. Sure, there were problems back then, but not like today. You have to appreciate that someone back then had the foresight to film all this.

What a great time and place to be alive.

Detroit was a booming city, I mean look what happened there and even the car population and in the middle of the previous century, it started to become violent and dangerous due to high crime rate and mostly abandoned businesses. And throughout many years, Detroit became the most dangerous city in the US. I think some settlements, towns and cities in the Great Lakes like Detroit (most in the US and some in Canada) are dangerous except the Greater Toronto Area looks mostly fine and is like the safest metro area in the Great Lakes.

Thank you Detroit for givivg us Nolan Strong and the Diablos and their great song “The Wind”. From Martin in Harlem New York.

Downtown Detroit..Hudson's...Kinsel's Drugs...Kern's Dept. Store...and, you could buy a Hammond organ at Grinnell's, or buy a Wurlitzer 2 blocks over...then drive up Woodward to Greenfield's for dinner...

It's ironic that as Americans we yearn for this nostalgia but at the same time way too many of us have abandoned our home town / city in the good old rust belt. Be it Detroit, Cleveland, Toledo, Buffalo, Flint, etc....

Only time I’ve seen a bunch of people walking downtown like that was at the NFL draft this year. It looks like a ghost town sometimes throughout the day now.

Not one piece of litter on the streets. Wow

Beautiful places....... thanks for sharing....

Similar changes currently going on in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Paris, Berlin, Melbourne, Malmo, Johannesburg, Zimbabwe - just to name a few. But no connection, right?

" I'll Always Love 💘you Hayden Panettiere " " In All Honesty," Neal Patrick Fry from Detroit, Michigan USA.

But where are my diverse ghetto homies?

Safe wide streets, beautiful architecture, hard working class of people, well dressed and mannered.....ohh yeah that was before the Demoncrats took over...

Golden times

You should come visit Downtown today, Detroit is the comeback City, you’ll be very impressed. Come on a sunny day, you’ll get to see it’s very very beautiful. And a lot of history still preserved. :)

Before hip hop , drugs,,gangs, low lifes ..ratcheting,,

One beautiful city to be proud of.

Hopefully Trump can bring this era back!

Detroit is definitely a better city to vacation in AND it beats New York City.

First part of the video taken where the trains are and the weights by the Detroit River that shows the skyline of Detroit, is actually taken where I live in Windsor Ontario. The trains are gone and it's now parkland but the weights by the river still remain and when I was 15 in 1987 i sat on them to watch the Detroit Windsor Fire works, at the time the railroad tracks and trains were still there.

Crazy to think that this used to be the richest city in America at its peak

Ah, a time where you could have shit in Detroit

Tnank you, "Getty Images", for this!😀

Today Detroit beez Wakanda!

Detroit used to be so beautiful. As soon as it hit the late 50s and early 60s, it start to become ghetto. I get that people have pride in Detroit, when it is known for abandon buildings, high crimes, drugs, gangs, pimps and prostitutes. Sad to see a once beautiful city to how it happened right now.

Then came food stamps and section 8...

What a lovely City. I sure hope it doesn't become over reliant on a single industry

Great choice of music. How'd you pull that off with all of RU-vid's restrictions? Nice video allowing me to look back to when I was just a kid.

Bruh it dam near looked like New York we have distinctive look and I'm proud to say I'm from the 313

Lord please use your powers to make that city great again please

Enjoy the present day because in 70yrs people will look at old footage of us and fantasize about being back in the year 2021

What a beautiful city it was and Gee I wonder who messed it up, it was beautiful already and someone came in and did this to Detroit, well I lived here all my life and I know what happened so do the Detroiters

What is the earliest year that abandoned homes started to become more noticeable? Before the 67 riot? Immediately after the 67 riot? Early 70s? Does anyone know?

Look at how much life there was

Then the block busters came.

Really makes you think

As a brit i found this video profoundly moving and so sad..why did US government not help??..Ron brit..ps american cars are..or maybe were..GREAT..God bless the US....from the UK..x

00:48 - Start of the song 'Unforgettable' by Nat King Cole

I wish that gettyvideos wasn't there - it really detracts from the video but this is interesting. Detroit streets were filled with people - like N.Y. What a difference. I hope to see that again in Detroit - I remember it being a fun town back in the 1970's when I was growing up.

unbelievable

That's when I was a kid in southwest Detroit

How far we've fallen 😢

Down town still looks like this just more modern.

What a shame that this once-beautiful city went to shit.

Hammond Building came down in '56. Can a car expert find the newest model shown?

Joe Rogan told me to check this out

So did Getty Images hit you with a copyright bill for using their footage? According to the Wikipedia page about Getty Images, they don’t send you a cease-and-desist letter or a take-down notice. Instead, a Getty agent shows up at your door with an outlandish bill for thousands of dollars. Images which were once in the public domain have been copyrighted by Getty Images. Whoever took these movies is long dead by now; all of the scenes were in public; but Getty Images claims the right to show these films. In economics, this is called “rent seeking.” Much of the U.S. economy is based on rent seeking: collecting money for work that someone else did, because this corporation bought the rights.

Another City of light snuffed out......😡😡🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬😤😭🥺

Detroit in the 50s: A bustling city with a huge car manufacturing industry Detroit now: A dying city that can only make money off of Eminem's success At this point, Eminem really is the only good thing about modern Detroit.