1911 - A Trip Through New York City

[bill pritchett]

I found this on YouTube. Enjoy the old cars.

 

[Lebowski]

Great video. The best part for me was from 4:00 to 4:40 with the rich family in the car driven by the black chauffeur. The little girl in the front seat didn't look like she was enjoying the ride at all. Thanks for posting it.... 

[John S.]

Thank you for posting the video, bill. Lots of great shots of the Elevated trains,  the Staten Island Ferry., horse drawn wagons, and cars. Streets look a lot cleaner in 1911 than they do now. 

[Laughing Coyote]

Cool video. Did you notice all the hats everyone is wearing. Fast forward 100 years and all them hats are now cell phones.  Everyone has one. 

[keninman]

I am really dubious about this being actual footage shot in 1911.  I am skeptical of the high quality and there is no flicker of the hand cranked cameras of the day. It seems unlikely that even with modern technology you could not overcome all of the deficiencies of that era not to mention a 100 years of degradation of the film. 

[Rusty_OToole]

Somewhere in that crowd was  George Burns  trying to break into vaudeville.

[JV Puleo]

On 8/15/2019 at 10:05 PM, keninman said:

I am really dubious about this being actual footage shot in 1911.  I am skeptical of the high quality and there is no flicker of the hand cranked cameras of the day. It seems unlikely that even with modern technology you could not overcome all of the deficiencies of that era not to mention a 100 years of degradation of the film. 

 

Well, then when do you think it was? 1912? There are far too many details in that short film for it to be anything but from the period... do you think someone made a fake New York City and hired hundreds of actors - not to mention things like the steam tugs and horse drawn conveyances – in order to shoot a 5 minute black & white video? Look up the recent British film "They Shall Not Grow Old"... 100% original footage of WWI from the Imperial War Museum. It is simply astonishing how the speed and lighting was corrected.

Edited August 17, 2019 by JV Puleo
typo (see edit history)

[R Walling]

 How did those people survive?

 There was not one warning sign not to cross in front of traffic, no guard rails protecting people from trains, not even a stop sign to guide traffic!

 

 Oh, wait a minute, there was common sense, something that is lacking today.

[John_S_in_Penna]

It certainly was an interesting film, and thank you for sharing it.

 

One has to remember that all of the sound--the hoof-claps, 

the horns, the whistles and bells--is entirely a newer addition,

since film was silent in those days.  Thankfully, the title

of the video makes that clear.

 

One man, writing in the 1890's in The Horseless Age,

called that period The Age of Noise.  All of the carriages 

and wagons with grating steel tires, ball-bearingless axles,

horses' iron-shod hooves, etc. made a lot of dissonance.

 He felt that the advent of the automobile, with its

pneumatic tires and ball bearings, would quiet things down a bit. 

Edited August 16, 2019 by John_S_in_Penna (see edit history)

[1912Staver]

One other observation, only indirectly automobile related. Notice there are very few overweight people. Most regardless of age are reasonably slim. More exercise and less junk food in this age ?

 

Greg in Canada

[Steve Moskowitz]

As far as the quality of the film , it was probably restored and digitized.  Our library is able to take period films and put them in digital format and they look great.  I am sure  the film is authentic.

[John_S_in_Penna]

13 hours ago, keninman said:

I am really dubious about this being actual footage shot in 1911.

 

It's certainly a film of good (and improved) quality.

But it is definitely authentic, Ken.  I see buildings there

that haven't been around for many decades--and

none of the tall modern buildings that have lined

so many of the streets in the last 50 years.

[8E45E]

Being from the Museum of Modern Art, one can bet it was restored and digitized to the best standards to the point of perhaps making it appear 'unauthentic' to some.  And they would not lie about its age.

 

Craig

[8E45E]

14 hours ago, JV Puleo said:

 

Well, then when do you think it was? 1912? There are far too many details in that short film for it to be anything but from the period... do you think someone made a fake New York City and hired hunderes of actors - not to mention things like the steam tugs and horse drawn conveyances – in order to shoot a 5 minute black & white video?

Good one!

 

How many MILLIONS would it have cost a film producer for NYC to close the Brooklyn Bridge to traffic, install rails with operating streetcars and add some horse-drawn wagons to the mix?

 

Craig

[LI_BENTLEY]

The car with the no. plate on radiator shows a 1912 plate film made up out of many clips of era   notice the two  men eyeballing the ladies crossing the street 3/4 way in.

[nzcarnerd]

Note the mechanism of the paddle wheeler right near the end.

[bill pritchett]

I don't think this was taken by the same people who faked the lunar landing.

[Locomobile]

13 hours ago, Roger Walling said:

How did those people survive?

 There was not one warning sign not to cross in front of traffic, no guard rails protecting people from trains, not even a stop sign to guide traffic!

 

They often didn't, fatalities from train and car collisions at crossing was almost a daily occurrence back then, pedestrians too. Even today there are about a thousand people per year that get killed by trains.

 

Study old traffic laws, Most cities and states, Cars were required to stop at every cross road and alert any on coming cars to their crossing, fire a gun, yell loudly etc. There were no stop signs because the driver was supposed to stop anyway. Cities became jammed and that was the introduction of the traffic cop at the intersection to keep the traffic moving. Then someone invented the multi color stop lamp. I think the first ones were Green and red only. A green "Proceed" and a red "Stop", the traffic officer stood on the corner and operated it. Then someone invented the automatic control for it and added the yellow.

 

Most cities had speed limits of 10-12 miles per hour, anything over 15 mph was considered "furious driving"

 

There is a DVD video that is/was available on Amazon (Was on Netflix too) called "Merrily we roll along" that covers the early motor car, made back in the early 60's and narrated by of all people, Groucho Marx. It is a good comprehensive look at the early motor car and how the people of the day resisted it's introduction.

 

It's on YouTube: Part 1

 

-Ron

Edited August 17, 2019 by Locomobile (see edit history)

[Locomobile]

5 hours ago, bill pritchett said:

I don't think this was taken by the same people who faked the lunar landing.

 

I like how they faked installing and focusing that reflector on the surface of the moon during one of those fake moonwalks so we could shoot a laser from earth and have it bounce back to measure and monitor the distance the moon is from earth. It is still used to this day.

[Paul Dobbin]

Yes the film was very clear as the Jay Walking was too.  Al the people walking in the street would never happen in todays traffic.

Also I was suprised to so many closed cars for 1911.

 

[Lebowski]

On 8/16/2019 at 11:12 AM, 1912Staver said:

Notice there are very few overweight people. Most regardless of age are reasonably slim. More exercise and less junk food in this age ?

 

No McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, Arby's, Pizza Hut, Dairy Queen, Wendy's, KFC, Papa John's, Dominos, Jack in the Box, etc.... 

[broker-len]

THANK YOU----------------------for posting this----------------I remember when I was a kit watching our TV with rabbit ears     loved this piece    the magic that Gouchoo marx brings to the dialog       some where I have it on real to real  magnetic tape

[Jubilee]

On 8/16/2019 at 9:12 AM, 1912Staver said:

One other observation, only indirectly automobile related. Notice there are very few overweight people. Most regardless of age are reasonably slim. More exercise and less junk food in this age ?

 

Greg in Canada

My Dad was born in 1900. He use to tell me in his younger days overweight people were an oddity. Children were scolded for staring. He passed in 1993. I wonder what he think of the weight of the population now.

[ply33]

1 hour ago, Jubilee said:

My Dad was born in 1900. He use to tell me in his younger days overweight people were an oddity. Children were scolded for staring. He passed in 1993. I wonder what he think of the weight of the population now.

 

Not just 1900s. Prior to retirement I'd usually take a couple mile lunch time walk near work that took me past an elementary school. I noticed that the average weight child on the playground was as heavy as the "fat kid" that got teased/hassled when I was that same age back in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Too much junk/fast food and too little exercise nowadays for the average child. Strike that "average child" and make it the "average person".