Old Film of NJ and Chicago?NY - Lots of old cars

[bill pritchett]

I do not think these have been seen here before.  Interesting to see what had whitewall or blackwalls.

 

NJ in 1920's  

 

 

NY/Chicago 1930/1940's

 

[Walt G]

EXCELLENT! thank you. Vehicles look best when in motion. Note the lack of Trippe lights , spot lights, fender skirts, etc.

[bill pritchett]

The  cars did not have all the accessories as they were preparing for Hershey.  Walt, you should know that.

Good observation.

 

[prewarnut]

Thanks for sharing! I am a fan of history and its documentation. One thing I like to do is pick out something interesting. In two places one can see a guy in the center of an intersection holding a 4-sided stop/go sign (before automated traffic signals). I've seen traffic towers but not sure I've exactly seen this. Before liability issues, random gunshots and general vulgarity these guys still had a tough job. I wonder: How long were their shifts? What was their pay? Were they employed by the city directly or the Police Dept? Who relieved them for bathroom breaks? How often were they hit/what was the attrition rate? Did they have rain duty? One has an umbrella but did they generally get sunburned? How was their job performance evaluated? It would be an interesting tale of a job - probably the details are lost to history.

[Billy Kingsley]

Seeing the Sweet Orr Jeans signage in Times Square was a thrill. Their headquarters is (was) in walking distance of my house, and I have visited both of the their graves, as they are the same cemetery my dad is in. 

I notice the lanes being a suggestion and people walking out whenever they felt like hasn't changed much in all these years, too. 

[pfloro]

These "videos" are fun...!

 

Just before the 3 minute mark in the NY film, the theater marquee on the "Times" picture house is visible. The main feature they are showing is "The Princess and the Pirate".  This was a 1944 Technicolor picture staring Bob Hope and Virginia Mayo. Since this movie theater is most likely a "first run house" and this picture was released on November 17, 1944, one would think this footage was shot in late 1944 or early 1945. However, the shadow angles and clothing don't feel like it's a winter day... I suspect, this footage was shot in late spring or summer of 1945...

 

I wondered how these old B/W films were colorized. I suspect that the software uses the gray scale to at least partially assign the colors. The results are too bizarre for me. I'll take the gray scale on any day...!

 

 

Paul

 

Edited July 13, 2021 by pfloro (see edit history)

[JamesR]

Thanks for posting the footage! Both were great, but I particularly liked the Chicago '40's clip.

 

Question: how much would you pay to ride in an ultra-rare '42 Desoto taxi cab today ? The passenger in the film probably paid 75 cents or something! 😄

[John348]

The 40's clip or Chicago clip looked like around the 2:00 minute mark that it could have been Manhattan? A lot of the stores referenced "Times Square" is there a Times Square in Chicago as well?