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I was thinking exactly the same thing as I watched the older people crossing the streets.. About all of the changes they had seen since they were young..
Was 18 years old in 1957 and really excited by cars back then, but now, just transportation and a necessity. So getting my fill by watching Perry Mason reruns. Thanks for posting this.
In the mid to late 1950's my dad owned and was sole mechanic of an auto repair shop on Coldwater Canyon in LA. These are the cars he would have been repairing.
For a while I managed a brake shop on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City. (Brake Service Boys, Inc.) This was late 1956 and the Hollywood Freeway came through Cahuenga Pass into the valley and turned left into Ventura Blvd. End of freeway. Then it was was U.S. 101 on street surface all the way up the Valley.
@@daleandrews3552 manners, signage, new feelings and shining example of polished effort, different dialects we all had, transit forms, services were faster, outfittery the average folks was wearing, less bad ideas about how racist they guess the 1950s of Los Angeles was, and the stature of excitement the city once had upholded. Now is horrific and makes me want to die, and these weren't even my gooddays in los Angeles however incredible they were. The real days of the city of angels was the 1930s, grand great 1935 inspired a movement of generous life, white neoclassical buildings of art deco appeal, modern homes at low prices of $4000 (it felt around 13,000 in 1935, while in modern day it would average to $4 million). Refrigerators were popular in the 1930s, leaving the ice box age.. however nice they were. Now the freezer makes your ice for you, a constant cycle. Its a horrible shame that the war overcame what could have been a grand life in the 1940s, then becoming a war horrified nation.
@@daleandrews3552 and the wannabe rappers trying to sell you their music, homeless and drug addicts everywhere... the smell of pee and weed..instead or the orange groves lol
Hagerty lists a 1956 Thunderbird as currently being valued at between $49,000 and $76,000, for #2 and #1 condition, respectively, though rare options can effect that.
Or like I had said a while back that they were shooting the accident on purpose to be used in a TV Show or film at the time. They get to the point seen in the clip, add screeching break sound, cut to the driver reacting then cut to the cars set up showing the result from a different angle.
I grew up in so- cal had orange groves in our back yard from Santa Ana to Riverside now they are all gone miss the smell of orange blossoms and free oranges 🍊 those where the days 😊
There are several definite 1957 cars and at least one possible '58, so contrary to what it says at the beginning, the clip is from late '57 or maybe even early '58.
It has to be the winter of '56 - '57 because of the many '57 model cars in the film, which did not become available until September of 1956. Also, all of the cars with visible license plates have the 1956 black on gold California plates (1951 - 1955 CA plates were gold on black). I could find none with the red 1957 renewal validation sticker on them yet, but most of the plates in the film are not turned toward the camera, and of the ones that are, poor resolution or purposeful obscuring of the plates makes it difficult to tell conclusively whether any of them have a red sticker along the top of the plate. The best indication of the "no earlier than" date of the film clip is the fact the theater at 0:38 is showing the movie "Friendly Persuasion", which was officially released on November 25, 1956. If this film clip had been made between November 25th and the end of 1956, I think we would see tons of Christmas decorations on the shops, strung over the streets, etc. However, there are no Christmas decorations visible in the entire film clip, which would seem to indicate that a sufficient amount of time had passed since Christmas of 1956 that all of the Christmas decorations had already come down. On the other hand, people are still wearing coats and jackets and the convertibles have their tops up, meaning it's still chilly at least in a SoCal sense of the word. That combined with the apparent lack of red '57 renewal validation stickers on any of the license plates indicates that it probably wasn't very long into 1957, meaning few license plates had yet come up for renewal. To me, barring any further evidence, all of those clues added together point to the film clip being made in late January, 1957.
Be careful what you wish for. Remember, the Cuban missile crisis and the Vietnam war was coming up. Smallpox and polio had no vaccine. Wages were VERY low and there was no economic safety net.
My mother's family were the original land developers of Hollywood, CA. I lived in West Hollywood in the mid-1950's and distinctly remember these kinds of street scenes.
YOUR FAMILY HAD A VISION,UNFORTUNATELY NOW PEOPLE DON'T CARE ABOUT ANYTHING BUT MAKING MORE MONEY AND DESTROYING ANYTHING THAT GETS IN THERE WAY, I FIND IT REPULSIVE
@@jcp012000 at the end of the mexican war as part of the truce we paid them for alot of land and a few years later more some more land- alot of texas calif and arizona.. now they want it back after we developed it
@@AlonsoRules actually by the late 70s, the Hollywood neighborhood area was looking pretty gritty and deplorable, streetwalkers, pimps, trash on the street, x rated movie houses, just watch the movie Foxes from 1980.
I’m a lifelong Los Angeles resident born in 1989. My parents weren’t even born when this video was taken, and I long for and feel nostalgic for this 50s Hollywood. I wish we could go back. NO traffic! There is always traffic galore in Hollywood today 😭 it’s very run down too in a lot of areas.
I didn't pay attention for that in this video, but back then, THE LEFT TURNER was the big problem. Most streets even 4 lanes wide had no left turn lane, and if someone wanted to go left, they ended up waiting and blocking all traffic behind sometimes for the entire duration of a traffic signal, if there happened to be a traffic light at that corner.
The strangest part is there is no driver visible in the T-Bird at any time. I've captured this video and looked at it frame by frame. When the T-Bird is broadside and at its closest in front of the camera car, you can clearly see the top half of the steering wheel, plus the shadow of the rear view and the steering wheel on the seat where the driver should be. There are no hands on the wheel. And no driver. Nothing. My best guess is that the T-Bird driver saw the camera while still at the red light and ducked way down out of sight for some reason. And when the light changed and traffic on his right started out, he started to make the left completely blind! As if he was completely panicked. This dufus really didn't want to be on film!
zomby woof At 3:41 I can see the driver , but before I could just see the steering wheel, like he was ducking down like you said. Back then (1957) they did however have handheld video cameras even though I doubt that is what he is using.since it is in color, unless someone remastered it recently. It just looks too dam good not to be retouched.
CajunMetalHead1994 This is a large 35mm film camera mostly likely mounted on a platform just ahead of the grille of a pickup truck. It's not like you wouldn't see it. Sorry, I don't see the T-Bird driver.
I knew Alan Hale Jr. (skipper on Gilligan's Island.) In between gigs in movies and TV shows he sometimes worked as a Maitre D (sp?) (greeter) at Musso and Franks.
I can instantly recognize and identify the year, make and model of every car seen I watched the entire drive and didn't see myself anywhere. Used to cruise those Blvds, mostly at night, in a new red body white top 57 Chevrolet Belair hardtop. Worked for a while near all these shots as a new car get ready mechanic at Nugent Chevrolet on LaBrea Avenue. Ricky Nelson sometimes joined me at night and we cruised. He was driving a white 57 Plymouth Fury. Underage though so his folks made him come home at nine weeknights. Ricky had an album cover, forget the name, but it showed his face with a shot of a red 57 Plymouth Fury. His personal car was white, and probably used a red one on the cover so less people would recognize him on the street.
@@crimestoppers1877 I'm still around, driving a much modified Mazda Miata, a Prius, yes, a Prius, and a hot Victory Octane motorcycle. But no longer in California, thank goodness.
@@johnhand871 Those old films are fun to watch. i used to drive "slowly" from west on Sunset or Hollywood blvd, turn around after Doheny and return East for hours. Sometimes you could take Doheny South for restaurant row. In LA, If you didn't see it here, it didn't happen. I forgot. Add a few beers and a bowl of chili at Barneys. I also moved and now "drive" a horse.
Hollywood Blvd. looks somewhat the same. I truly LOVED living in Hollywood in my early days. Every spring the smell of the Sycamore trees was the sweetest smell in the world. I lived 2 block from Manns theater and the streets were crowded with people out to have a good time. Those were the days...
WOAH, bro wtf seriously I looked at it from a bunch of different angles. There is no one in that car! The sun is shinning through the steering wheel onto the seat, there is no head in the window from the front view. This is either some weird Back to the Future, Mandella, butterfly effect and that person has been erased from history, that's one short old lady, or this is Herbie's cousin.
Oli S Those cars had fewer parts to them, I'll tell you that. My grandfather's 1940s Dodge has an engine on it so simple; a 4 year old kid could replace the spark plugs on it.
I lived in Hollywood, right around the corner from Manns Theater in 1982 for about 5 years then moved to Seward Ave in Hollywood. I very much enjoyed my days there. People who haven't actually lived there talk a lot of stuff about the place but for the most part don't know what they are talking about.
@@totallysmooth1203 Jimmy Carter and the Democrats F***ed up the middle east. Islamic revolution of Iran, President Jimmy Carter and the democrats stabbing the King Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi of Iran in the back destabilized the whole region. Women went from wearing mini skirts, forced to wear burkas and hijabs. Killed millions upon millions, and threw that region of the world back into the dark ages.
Such a simpler time without the extreme concerns that all of us face these days. Sometimes I wish I had been born sooner so that I could have experienced what generations before me did.
The era of prosperity and peace between 1945 and 2007 was a historical aberration. Most of human history is the history of war, plague, and social unrest.
@@bigboineptune9567 According to the Communists... Most of history is the story of people living peacefully with occasional wars. Do some reading, maybe you'll lose your dependence on those who control your mind.
Totally agree. American cars of the 50s, 60s and 70s are the sexiest cars ever made. Even the compact cars they made were better looking than what we had over here in the UK. The only sexy cars were had were the ones that copied the Americans, like the Vauxhall Cresta PA. Thank God for American aesthetics I say, I dread to think what Britain would have looked like without its influence, but what's happened to it now? Shame. All down to world over population I think. If there weren't so many people on this planet there'd be no energy crisis and no global warming.
Ooops, watch out! I'm in trouble. I like the Mk 1 Cortina actually (American influenced), but only the Riley / Wolseley Mini. I went for the Fiat 126 instead as my diddy first car. Lovely little bug.
The title on the screen says "1953," but I agree with Craiglaca1 that this was very late 1956 or early 1957. There are four movie theaters shown: The Iris is showing the Gary Cooper film "Friendly Persuasion" (advertised in big blue letters), which was released around Thanksgiving 1956. Across the street, Warner's is showing "Cinerama Holiday," which was released in 1955, but Cinerama was such a sensation that it's reasonable to think it was still showing nearly a year later. Around the corner on Vine St. was a "second-run" theater, The Admiral, showing a double feature of John Wayne's "The Searchers" (released March 1956) and Donald O'Connor in "Francis in The Navy" (released August 1955). TeeBee Overdahl reported seeing a 1957 Cadillac in this clip-- that makes sense, because the 1957 model year began appearing in showrooms in summer 1956. All of that to say, this clip was likely filmed in November or December 1956, or possibly even January 1957.
i saw a couple 57 chevys . what year was the tbird that made the left in front of the other traffic . looked like the phone truck made a left in front of the traffic also.
1956 Ford Thunderbird - external spare was unique to that year. Produced I believe from late 1955.. Thunderbirds started production in late 1954, so film is definitely later than 1953.
At 0:32 on the right hand side, a white building on the corner is Mandel's ladies shoes. My wife's family (Grandfather and father). My mom who went to HHS, said she bought her prom shoes there in '41, when I told her I was dating the granddaughter. This is the first time I've been able to spot the store in a old motion picture clip! Thanks for the memories!
@@mryusuf9607 Yes all the brown and black skinned "multiculturalists" are the racists, along with the brainwashed libtards who believe the lies taught in the Public Fool System and sold out media. The globalists are using them as brainwashed pawns to destroy white Christians and to dismantle America to form their New World Order Police State of communism and misery for everyone....
Depending on what MONTH this was shot, I was busy being born a few blocks from where some of this footage was made: Ceders of Lebanon hospital (now an HQ for Scientology.) The address on my birth certificate, my first home on planet earth, is now a Korean electronics store. It's amazing someone took the time and, given the film technology of the era, effort to record these small frames of daily life.
So Mister cruse went and brought it did he? I bet he probably added a helli pad to all of his scientology churchs, so he could practice his death defying stunts for the next mission impossible and top gun movies🤭 Also let me guess, the Korean electronics store is a sammy store where they would sell those crazy flip phones that the kpop fans go mad for😂
@@55tumbler like to hear you say that when you are at that age! Have you seen a front ender between these and a modern car. These oldies drive away and the new cant even be towed have to be loaded onto a low bed!
I'm from the 90s, and I miss it already. Already alot has changed, for example ofcourse the mobile phones, everywhere where you look you see them. TV, their were so much better shows on it then todays. I'm not gonna cry that I'm born in the wrong time but I wish I could go to the 40s/50s/60s/70s.
***** This isn't only to you but to anyone who is still subscribed to this: Maybe you've been looking for these things you've been talking about? I mean, any time I suppose something's true I end up seeing more of it as I focus on it. There do still happen to be good things and attitudes around even now, so I suggest you have a look for it.
i as born in 70. what did u miss (besides the music). no internet in homes til i was 25, bro. cells not popular til i was 27. no way to research anything except for libraries (omg, i'm fucking old). no gps. HIV killed babies, gays, etc. fuck the old days except for the music. fuck em.
I was born in the 1950's, wish I could have been in high school in the 50's. Love those cars and the way people dressed. Really classy. Thanks for sharing. Really enjoyed this video.
Some of those old women crossing the street in this film were born in the 1800s. Some of the newborns today will live to see the year 2100. I always find it fascinating how just a few generations can link together several centuries like that.
my great grandma was born in 1880s east tennessee and i remember visiting her in the nursing home as a kid in 1978, and im only 45. she would have lived around civil war vets for sure and i knew her. trippy connections!
I was born in 1938, can remember much of WW2 and I remember when the last Civil War veteran died ( a drummer boy) and I can remember of course, when the last WW1 veteran died.
This is classic car heaven. Plus, people seem to have a briskness in their step which is lacking nowadays. I always feel like I’m walking behind zombies.
Thanks to Lord Jesus Christ for being there at the right time. Otherwise, you could have born way after. Roll the dice: perfect timing for your existence.
@TuffBud..Nothing like today with BLM and Antifa burning down cities, looting and murdering innocent people (Jennifer Whitacre in Indianapolis for example), Einstein.
Wow, to have a camera to film the times on that day on Hollywood blvd . Good video quality for that time. Good to remember the good old days with swing music on the car radio. Over 60 years ago.
I know the 1950's wasn't perfect, but if I could bring back the cars, clean streets, and architecture from that era and earlier I would. Imagine taking the aesthetics of that time, and just implementing the tech we have now
The cars look good, but the smog they produced/contributed towards was pretty awful. The smog was full of all sort of nasty stuff like ozone which meant the air tasted and smelled like bleach on a bad day. Maybe keep the catalytic convertors and emission standards of today. But those cars do look good
This is absolutely shocking! That somebody had the wherewithal to film this is AMAZING. It's so fun to immerse yourself in it, especially if you play traffic sounds along with it! SO COOL!!!
I don't think many people who watch these know what they are. Most were shot on 35mm film by a '2nd Unit crew" driving up and down the city streets, none were shot on video because in 1957 video equipment was big and not portable and not in color. They are called process shots or process plates. They were made for shots that required outside window views as actors were talking. There was a front, back, passenger side, driver side and sometimes shots looking to a back angle outside the rear window for the actors in the back seat. A lot were made for specific movies or TV shows, some were just meant to be stock footage. Some were made for a specific movie or TV show then sold to a stock footage library later. The shots were either projected on a screen set up near a car on a soundstage or used as a plate, which was added later. The shot of the T-Bird pulling in front of the camera car may well have been a specific shot intended to be inserted into a movie or TV show. We see the T-Bird pull in front, and then we could cut to the interior of the point of view car (camera car) and have the actor slam on his break, stop and get out of the car and go over and talk to the T-Bird owner. That’s why the face of the person in the T-Bird would be hidden because it’s the stunt driver and not the actual actor in the scene. I also wouldn’t be surprised if there was a police escort around the camera car to clear traffic and an assistant director to cue those ladies crossing the road in front of the car. They would have had to sign releases. If these films were just hastily shot, the footage would not be as clear and either be shot on 8mm or 16mm film. They would also tend to be jerky and abrupt. Also there would be pans and tilts. There are none on this film and no attempt to capture signs or specific buildings because very little of the frame we see on this You tube video was actually seen. Remember everyone didn’t have professional movie cameras back then.
I think you're correct on all counts. I grew up not far from there. In 1965 my Dad began working in that industry making commercials. Interesting work, but long hours, repetitive shots, uncooperative lighting, etc. I do believe, along with you, that this could have been stock footage. Also, all of us who own Thunderbirds don't drive like the guy in the '56.
There is/was a similar film clip in black-and-white of the old 'Bunker Hill' area of L.A., filmed from a camera-truck (looking back into traffic) in the late'40s, almost certainly for back-projection use in a movie. Much of the area seen in the clip, land and buildings, had gone by about 1970.
@@johnk6598 I don’t think so. There was a camera mounted either front, rear, left side, right side. The people on the street usually were the people who happened to be on the street.
Buicks ready to eat you under their grills, Cadillacs showing off their fins, Oldsmobile lights looking like a shooting stars, Chevys throwing a friendly smile and Fords standing out with multicolored cuts..... The 1950s!!!! Golden era of the automobile ❤️❤️❤️
+leonard bolton Yep. "Civil rights," which are not constitutional rights because they had to be legislated, pitted constitutional rights against concocted "rights."
"Racism" is a form of primitive tribalism. It has always existed in humans and always will. These days however the term is being watered down by overuse. It's become just another knee-jerk put-down term to call someone and try to demonize them for having a different point of view even when the word doesn't fit. If you're judging decades solely by race relations however, the 1950s sure beat the 1850s. Whether they'll beat the 2050s remains to be seen. Maybe not. We seem to be losing ground in some ways.
It's amazing that someone actually filmed this back in those good ol' days, and in color too. Kind of like "Google Street View in the 1950s and Early 1960s". Great!
But you and I are watching this fascinating stuff because of all this "social media crap". What is being recorded on smartphones today maybe regarded as trivial, silly, annoying, laughable, but in sixty years time it will take a whole different perspective. It will be FASCINATING!!!!. Make no mistake about that.
Just brilliant, Lovely. Kudos to you for sharing these beautiful videos. Best part no tents and crazy homeless people cluttering the sidewalks. I bet the people from these days whom are still with us today are shaking their heads in dis belief of what dump Los Angeles have become.
My mother worked with her mother at Schwab"s Pharmacy at Hollywood and Vine where the movie stars would drop in. My mother's mother married the Pharmacist and won the West Coast Ballroom Dancing Championship at the Aragon Ballroom. I inherited his diamond and platinum wristwatch which I still have.
Actually, the drugstore at the corner of Hollywood and Vine was The Owl Rexall Drugstore - Schwawb's was located in a totally different area on Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood.
My error. I was Schwabs but as the building is not around anymore I just guessed. Looked on Google Satellite and it seems to be a residential area now?
Glad the person had the foresight to do this film to show future generations like myself of what exactly it was like back then. The details like how the people dressed, the names of the shops, the cars. What a wonderful time capsule and yes if only we had a time machine , I think a lot of us would go back and relive those times. Thank you for uploading ......
ONLY someone white would return to those times. Wages for skill laborers up thru tech, medical and office professionals ranged from $50 to $200 a week. No "equal opportunity"...only white women in the office and they only for payroll, secretaries. No women or non-white men in the corporate world. Terrible times.
@@weedermannMost women didn't need to work outside, one salary was enough for the whole family. Make no mistake about the reasons who force women to work outside nowadays
Chris Platt that's only true if they started on walk sign if they did not have the walk light and they are in the cross walk they are in violation though if it is not regulated by a light and they are in the cross walk the vehicles must yield to Pedestrians. Though if the vehicle has a green light and it is not regulated by cross walk light pedestrian must yield.
I knew Alan Hale Jr pretty well. First met him at a party in El Sereno in 1957. Then, between movies, he was selling Buicks. Ran into him again in the 70s and he was working as a Maitre de at Musso and Franks. That was quite common with stars back in those days because they had no income from residuals such as TV like today. Interesting thing was, he remembered me from years before, and came out with details of when we met, so not only was he a great outgoing personality, he had a memory to match.
Watch the blue T-Bird at 3:39, The driver mysteriously disappears as it moves off! Pouff he disappears into thin air!! Watched the film over and over but cant figure it out!
I don't know what you're looking at, but the driver of the blue T-bird is visible the whole time. He momentarily goes into a shadow as he turns the corner, but he can still be seen.
Nolo C I see what you mean. I think his head is obscured by the rear view mirror, then the windshield reflects so you cant view him. If you pause you can see a white collar. I am not sure why you disappears after that, maybe slammed on his brakes and was out of view.
Wow, that was awesome! I moved to Hollywood from the midwest over 20 years ago, and it's really cool to see the boulevard way back in the day, and recognize the buildings that are still there.
Traffic was very agressive in those days. Drivers didn't give pedestrians right away on crosswalks; oncoming traffic made unsafe turns and crosses when oppossing traffic had the right away. People were well dressed when they went out in public. The streets were much cleaner. RTD bus was slow and non aggressive. No bums on the sidewalks, pan handling or prostituting.
Montery12 the population of Los Angeles was much smaller then. Less smog and congrstion. No era is idealic. Every decades had it's problems, big and small. The 50's and 60's were prosperous coming after WWII. Yet much more sexist, racist and intolerant but not mentioned in polite company.
Montery12 really, unemployment was considered vagrancy and the pigs did a job on locking them away: also drinking in public: notice no sidewalk cafes, L A was under consruction. Notice the smog free day (rare as I was born on melrose between lillian way and cahuenga).
Montery12 Yeah but there wasn’t a road rage like there is now in people shooting one another. There is still aggression in a different way, a much worse way.
This was 1957, the year I was born. The Music was by Harry James, who I saw Live in Disneyland in 1967 when "New Orleans Square" was opened. I'm just old enough to have caught of glimpse of those 'good old days' and I think they were pretty good. People were definitely more civil and polite and that alone is priceless in a society in decay like ours appears to be in...
Definitely after 1954, the streetcars have been removed. The Woolworth's and Newberry's were still there well into the 1990s, and of course Musso and Frank's is still there, approaching its 100th anniversary...
I sure love the architecture of Los Angeles . My dad was born there 1937 & my uncle attended Hollywood high in the end of the 60's . Grandma had a 2 bedroom craftsman bungalow in Monterey park east L.A. Thanks 4 video .
Hey thanks for the ride Craiglaca1, that was something I really enjoyed. I really get a kick out of seeing old films about the way major cities used to look even if it was before my time in some cases I think it's a real blast, please give us more.
