Let's Look At Florida, 1950 

Now THIS is the Florida I remember as a kid in the early to mid '60s!! What fun we had at Silver Springs and Cypress Gardens!

I was 9 years old when the parents and grandparents took me and my brother to Florida for a vacation in 1959. We all piled into a 1957 Pontiac and drove from Maryland to Florida along 301. I95 was only a dream back then.

I'm a Virginia native, but my Mom was from Port Orange and we traveled there every year in the 50's and 60's. Very good memories, renting floats to ride the surf, cookouts, renting Bridgestone motorcycles on the beach, all kinds of fun. Mom moved to South Daytona in '75 after my Dad died. She passed away in '76 and is interred next to her Father in South Daytona. Still have good memories of our visits there.

I love the USA and have NEVER had a bad holiday there in my twenty five years of visiting. Earlier this year I decided it was past time I visited the Florida Keys, and I absolutely loved them! The wonderfully relaxed vibe of Key West was a revelation... it was so nice just wandering around the place with "no particular place to go"! As a Londoner living in the 'crowded howse' of S.E.England, America's huge horizons and stunning landscapes give me a feeling of freedom & wellbeing that is impossible to overstate... God Bless America!

I'm born and raised here in Jacksonville Florida and this was awesome to watch, pure time capsule!❤💯

My Boston grandmother & her sister retired to Sarasota in the early 1960's. My sisters & I visited a lot of these FL tourist places when we visited in the summers. Old FL is just a memory now & this video is a reminder to what once was. We really did pave paradise.

Timing is everything. In Collier County, there's a museum that has artifacts and letters written by soldiers involved in the Seminole Wars back in the 1800s who complained bitterly about the heat, bugs and the misery of fighting in such a God forsaken land. They could never imagine that the future would bring tourists, junk souvenirs, and people still complaining about the heat.

We lived in Miami Beach in the 50s when I was 10 years old. I went to North Beach Elementary School and I found my old house on Google maps tonight. Our pool was outside my bedroom window. The house is still there unchanged. What a great place for a kid to grow up. Ps. I used to have to dodge falling coconuts making my way to the bus for school. Lol

We used to vacation on A1A in West Palm Beach in the 50s. Back then, there was only the Lake Worth beach bath House and a few motels along the 35 mph road.

My cousin's family always went to Fla for summer vacations. They'd bring us back small crates of orange gum-balls. Yum!

Look at St. Pete now in 2019 is has grown soooooo much it’s almost unreal. I live here and I see all the old structures that still stand that are in this video.

"It was better in the old days before all these weirdos showed up and took it over." -- Joe Seminole, 1880

Looks lovely! I LOVE these old travel vids great channel!

13:25 That is Lejeune road at 36th street . They used to drive the airliners across the street to takeoff.... They had their own red light😅.

As a child I grew up here. The fond memories of my past. To bad things change but nothing stays the same. Rather be here than Bagdad or Poland. Count your blessings

Narrated bt Peter Graves before he was Peter Graves. 😉 I look wistfully at these videos and think how wonderful it must have been to be able to go anywhere and not be afraid. Bet no one even thought to lock their doors. Must have been amazing.

It's so interesting to see the downtowns 50 years ago. The beaches are much the same. The film would definitely make Northerners want to visit and stay!

This is back when Florida was decent even up to the mid-70s now it's a cesspool of crazy people

I was on board until he said it was “seldom too hot.” LOL. I am a Florida native and can attest that it is constantly too hot here for about 9 months out of the year!

thanks for sharing!

The narrator almost sounds like Peter Graves.

Port St Lucie, where I live, didn,t existed yet. Wish I was born in USA. Great country!!!

Florida has changed but its still a fun State to see!

Excellent video of my native state. Makes me homesick.

"...clad in gay cottons and cool sport shirts." If the people of 1950 could only see what people are clad in now or should I say not clad in.

"Have you ever been in a cockpit before?"

I moved to Miami in 1953...brings back a lot of memories.

So happy I was raised starting from 1954 in Ft.Lauderdale and left in 74 and never came back....I caught all the goodness and left in the nic of time..:) Great video...oh those orange groves with the parrots...many old photos of myself and my Sister with those all over our arms...LOL...super memories... Jolly Roger by the beach front...Morrison Cafeterias....Birch State Park....Drive in Theaters....Yankee Clipper...on and on..

I love Florida my favorite one

Nearly 25 yrs ago I drove along the coast from St Pete to Tampa. Traffic was worse than anything in the USA. That was 1992.

Ah, 1950, when I was -5 years old (that's minus 5). But my future parents were in Florida around that time.

Looks like Walgreens logo has remained the same. 9:05

I remember the glass bottom boats.

Man, we dress like dirtbags these days.

This documentary missed Tallahassee, the capital and Pensacola 😂 Overall, it was a fun watch for this native Floridian 👍🏻

Funny since Disney World wasn't even on Walt's mind yet, Orlando is not even mentioned.

Take us back in time...ide like to see what broward county was like...and the cities inside it

Ahhh, when Florida was cool.

And then the spoilers came along!!!

In 1950 I was 10 years old, stuck on the farm in Michigan and snowed in. Depressing.

The bridge leading into downtown Tampa has changed soooo much lol... I know it because of the drawbridge but wouldn't even know it was the same landmark otherwise

Can’t beat good memories

My family has been here since 1947. I had an uncle who skied at Cypress Gardens in the mid 50's. My grandpa owned the St Pete Pier in the early 60's and he was a builder of many homes in the central FL area. My parents are both FSU grads and were married in Jax where they taught school and music and had me! I love FL but hate the heat and the large influx of people that Disney brought.

I View this film with a feeling of recollection. A Geography films for my classroom in the early 60’s. looking back at it now I can see all the propaganda in it. One of the quotes I picked up on ...Florida has a romantic history. I think not. Living in Florida now, I see the destruction of the land and the loss of the trees. The poisoning of the beautiful pristine Springs, caused by agriculture and cattle racing. The loss of land through all the development. Destruction is always in the wake of human progress. It’s a sorry state of affairs in which we live..

Amazing window into the past. This was more than 20 years before my time. Marine land is gone and cypress gardens but silver springs is still in operation.

I would love to see this colorized. I've lived on the west coast since the early 80's and recognize some of the streets and certainly the attractions.

I grew up in Miami and Coral Gables from 1942 through 1955. Went to CG Elementry school, Ponce De Leon Jr. HIgh, and CG Senior High (rember Harry Rath?). Spent my summers in Venetian Pool with mom and my kid brother, while dad worked. Sometimes we would pack a lunch and go over to Miami Beach for a swim and step on the sandspurs with our bare feet. Ouch! Now and then we would drive down to the Keys for some bridge fishing. Oh those pesty mosquitoes! The Tropicaire drive in movie near Tropical Park was a great attraction for us teens. Our friend borrowed his dad's car and some of woulld hide in the trunk. You know why I'm sure. Anyone remember the Tower theater on 8th St or the Gables and Coral theaters in CG? How about those tiny White Castle hamburgers around town for 10 cents? Rootbeer only 5 cents. Gasoline could be had for 15 cents a gallon at times. Neighbors who lost sons in the Korean war, so sad. Life is made up of memories. Don't let them fade away.

Too many well dressed white people! This would be unacceptable by today's standards! 😂

Love to see old travel logs like this! :) At the time this video was created, most Floridians did not have air conditioning. We had fans, lots of fans. We sweated profusely while eating diner, sleeping, whatever. Florida's population would certainly be less than half of what it is, without air conditioning. This place sucks for residents. We hibernate two thirds of the year indoors.

Ahh Lovely Florida! This is the Florida I remember as a child- back before the world went sideways & you could still have Fun!✌️

Hard to believe in 1950 the popular background music choices would be Sousa's works of Semper Fidelis and Washington Post... this was the year before my grandparents took their honeymoon there and there's a film on my RU-vid channel from it.

A dolphin isn't a 'fish', it's a mammal!

In the fifties in St.Petersburg you could shop at Webb’s City. World’s Largest Drug Store. Don’t forget to look through the port hole at the mermaids. Near Al Lang field you could find the “Fountain of Youth”. Al Lang field is gone, the Fountain of Youth is still there. The original fountain bubbled out water with the taste of sulfur. The new fountain has the taste of city tap water.

GREAT VIDEO!! BUT MOST OF WHAT YOU SEE HERE HAS ALL DISAPPEARED. SPECIALLY THE ORANGE PLANTATIONS AFTER HURRICANE ANDREW. DEVELOPERS PAID HIGH $$$$$$ FOR THERE LAND AND STARTED CONSTRUCTION WITH A NON STOP! I WISH SINCERELY THAT FLORIDA WOULD BE LIKE IT USE TO. NOT THE SAME ANYMORE. BUT THKX FOR THE MEMORIES.

Just so you know, most of South Florida is fairly new compared to the northeast. Much of the beautiful Miami real estate and its suburbs in Dade and Broward are from the mid to late 20th century. Until then, most of south Florida was rural and bare wilderness.

" so that the plane may cross the street" that sounds so freaking awesome lol I was born in the 90's so I never saw anything like that lol

Any time I hear The Liberty Bell march, I'll think of Monty Python.

My family moved to Miami in 1957....great place to grow up...

i spent the winter in miami in 1950 when i was 6 years old ha ha ha i remember everything give or take

My great grandfather told us growing up that he moved to Florida because after being in the Pacific in WWII it was too cold for him up near Pittsburgh where he lived before then. My grandma moved up here to NC with my grandpa and she’s said even in recent months that she’s glad she’s not there anymore because of the crime, that’s a main fear of being there in modern times especially compared to where we live, most of our crime is drug related and fortunately not the gang activity variety. I’ve been considering moving to Broward County or somewhere near there.

Very nice video. Wish they would re-scan the film at higher quality. Only 360p and some soft focus issues.

Compare California from 1950 until now and you can see how CA has worsened far more than FL. Many things about FL actually improved.

I visited FL many times as a child and lived in the Tampa Bay area for 8 years early in my marriage.

First time I hear dolphins called 03:33 porpoises. They are related but not the same. We have porpoises here. They are smaller and darker.

Not much traffic at all down there . All the roads are sparse.

Awe i wasnt even born yet 🤣❤️ my dad was about 16 yrs old

@ 12:25 Goodyear blimp just passing by in the very top left.

My Daddy worked at Graham's Dairy. Their son became Governor. Dressel's Dairy had the little train for kids to ride.

As being from palm beach Florida and only being 26, I wish I was born then😮‍💨

I been here all my life born and raised

Flippy! Is that Flippers Dad?

LOL I love that vintage diving suit, but thankfully we have better dive equipment now

I'm 87 and I remember how beautiful this State was. But the last 20 years is a dump left and right. I have been every where in FL You can find a great community, and two miles away is a complete slum, gunshots, wreckless driver, etc. Note: My grandson wrote this for me.

The Florida I miss.

this is the America that I love

All gone now. 😢 I still love living here though!

Holy shit Jacksonville looks nothing like the hood it is now!

I live there

Peter Graves the narrator, and James Arness ( Gunsmoke) were brothers

The St.Johns river flows South to North 🍊🕊️🌏🇺🇸

It looks hot and humid.

I keep expecting that wolf in the model T and bazooka horn to drive across the bottom of the screen

@19:36 TAMPA FL 813 WE LEGENDARY

I don't give a crap for the naysayers. I am a native Floridian. I love my home state. Florida may have grown too much for my liking, but the people, native born or foreign born have added interest. If you don't like Florida and live there, go back to wherever the hell you came from!

I also like the USA despite an underlying worry about gun violence as well as recent price increases. RS. Canada

Sounds like him

Oh , it gets plenty cold

I 💘 me some Flora days

My uncle bought a brand new3/2 house in WPB in the 60’s for $17,000

At 13:08, where the airplane is seen crossing the roadway, does anyone knows what airport / road this was?

No Crime, No Skells, If only we knew the future

Shame on the video editor who is guilty of committing the video atrocity of BBC (Blow-up, Blur, Crop) 4:3 aspect ratio films and video (or 4:3 films transferred to video) to fill the 16:9 frame. Doing "click to fill" may look OK on a computer screen (other than the unnaturally overly large images) but on a TV the loss of resolution is terrible. You are taking standard definition video and degrading it to substandard definition video. You are also altering/censoring the carefully composed and framed 4:3 aspect ratio images by the historical cinematographers. Leave 4:3 alone!

Man I wish I had a time machine. RU-vid: “We can do that”

11:56 is that little island brickell key?

Peter Graves is doing this narration .

Amazing video but did he call the dolphin a fish ????

This is when life was good.

that is Peter Graves Narrating

Before Disney, nice

Wow, Walgreens logo sure has changed a lot 9:08