There’s a lot of old film footage out there shot as backgrounds for movies. But this one is better than average, and here’s some unusual CC spotting to be had. Like a BMW 600, NSU Sport Prinz Coupe and a Mini, as well as plenty of other sports cars and imports. But what surprised me the most was that I counted no less than nine Corvairs, all Monza Coupes, as best as I could tell. That seems out of proportion, but it was the hot new thing.
This film was probably taken in the fall of 1961, as I spotted only one obvious 1962, an Impala. The last few minutes are from the 1940s.
Ahh the good old days back when California was a great state, before they went all progressive liberal in the late 60s.
Exactly, including electing Ronald Reagan governor for two terms, from 1967 to 1975.
Paul, you and I will have to agree to disagree. I am (and always have been for 57 years of my life) a conservative and support those things like Ronald Reagan and President Trump. I do not support liberal policies. But that doesn’t mean we can’t still enjoy old cars.
Paul, I couldn’t tell if you were being sarcastic or not about CA electing Ronald Reagan. If you weren’t being sarcastic then yes, we agree. If you were being sarcastic, then my first reply comment still holds. However, we both do love old cars. Again, I have all my life!
I was being factual.
Political comments like yours are not welcome and violate our commenting policies. I should have just taken it down.
You know I was going to say how much better everything looked back then but thought better of it because I didn’t want to possibly open a can of worms political debate. I like talking cars, to some degree of the politics that directly impact them to a point but beyond the scope of that I think the team political diatribes should be left to the Twitter et al social media cesspools.
In other words, just enjoy the cars 🙂
Matt; everyplace looked different 60 years ago. Or 100 years ago. Or 200 years ago. Or…
Change happens, for lots of reasons. It’s absolutely inevitable. Some have an easier time with than than others. Some advocate and/or embrace change, other resist it. It happens regardless.
Politicizing it is not really very useful, as change happens regardless of which party is in power. But it’s convenient.
I’m with you Paul, I like the aesthetics of the period and that’s where it ends. It’s not a commentary on social and economic conditions that made things what they were they or why they changed from there, which you said can happen completely independently of political policies. Things just change, for better or worse.
When these films were made, there were people walking around in them that were cursing the invention of the automobile and all of the “new” technology of the day. Their idea of utopia was the world in 1890 when Benjamin Harrison was president.
And then Wilson and Deukmejian, both Republicans, governors from ‘83-‘99. Not to mention Arnold, another Republican who was governor for 8 years in the 2000’s.
I’m sad that CC allowed this comment to stay. This is one of the rare places I can come and not read the delusional rantings of people like you.
Thank you Mr. Dudas .
-Nate
Indeed, that’s why everyone moved away and now the population is only 39 million instead of 16 million like it was in 1961. Oh, wait.
I can almost make out the street signs, but not quite. Does anyone know the route this is taking?
Edit – it’s in the YT description, I just went full screen on it because it’s so detailed!
I like to think of the Corvair as “foreign car adjacent”. It had quite a few characteristics in common with imports of the day and I think it attracted buyers who were interested in a different sort of car from the typical American barge, but for reasons of parts/service, or in certain areas of the country there were stigma against foreign cars, so they found their “foreign car” at the local Chevy dealer.
in 5:04 there’s a Corvair sedan
There seem to be a larger number than expected Plymouth and Dodge wagons from 1957-59, and 55-56 Ford wagons [and plus an original 1957 Ranchero too!].
On the older film, the newest car I see is a 1946/47 Packard Clipper driving by towards the end. Speaking of Packards, there are 2 more; a tan 1941 series 110 convertible coupe. While it is without running boards it still has the full rear fender skirts. About 30 seconds later the camera drives by a black 1938 Packard 12 Club Sedan.
Did anyone else catch that the 3 different views — the first pointed directly to the rear, and then the other 2 views pointing to the right and left sides — were all taken on the same drive, so they used 3 cameras simultaneously.
I did catch that there were different cameras used at the same time.
Corvairs and I spotted a number of Falcons too. Wasn’t counting things, just enjoying the view but I only saw one VW Bug. That kind of surprised me. Lots of wagons too.
I recognized a bunch of streets and places because of the LA noire video game!
By 1961, we were in the process of moving from Southern California to Pittsburgh, PA…talk about not following a trend.
We’d only moved there from the Northeast less than 2 years before, my Dad got a job working in El Monte for Hoffman Electronics…he was a chemist who started working on semiconductors in 1956 and back then we moved a lot since he had to be where the devices were made. He worked on solar cells (his first and only job with them) some of which went up on Explorer 6 in 1959…that’s the satellite that took first picture of Earth from space. He drove his ’56 Plymouth out there since he was carrying some chemical in a cold chest surrounded by dry ice (which he ran out of when on the trip). I didn’t ask him what the chemical was, but apparently it was very unstable when warm, he had to stop at a military base and ask for some on the way, when they found out what he was carrying, they were shocked. My Father had been in the Army in the early 50’s and was comfortable stopping at a military base…I don’t know why he had to bring chemicals with him (from the East coast) as I’d assume he’d be able to get them there. My Mom, sister and I flew out there. He ended up buying a ’61 Rambler in Compton for the move to Pittsburgh in early 1961 (we were old enough to drive back across country with him by then).
Fast forward to 2005, we drove back to Southern California for a rare non-family (other than us 3) trip, my parents and I…neither had been back in 44 years…my Dad showed me the El Monte location he worked at (company was sold to some defense oriented company upon the death of Les Hoffman in 1972). Even went back to the first home they ever bought, in Covina, and the lady who lived there was gracious to let my Mom have a tour (it was a small home so my Dad and I tried to look as inconspicuous as we could waiting outside, as we didn’t want to intrude more than we already were). We moved many other places after Pittsburg, until 1982 when a final move took them to Texas, and I followed within a year myself…my Dad retired in 1990 (never having worked on anything besides semiconductors his whole career from when he graduated from College in 1956) and passed on in 2016 (same year as his other 2 brothers, whole generation gone in 1 year).
Neat video, saw both a ’56 Plymouth and ’61 Rambler my Father owned out there at the time. It looked like 2 different era videos judging by the cars, the one at the end had lots of 1930’s cars, though there were some older cars in the first one too, almost all the cars in the later one were much older than in the first . Believe it or not, a friend of mine inherited a NSU Prinz when his Father passed; he’d bought it for parts to make a tractor from but never did the project. One of his friend’s wife is restoring the Prinz. He told me the Prinz was so light that when it got stuck in snow (they owned it in North Dakota) he and his brother could just get out and physically pick it up and move it somewhere where the traction was better.
Anyone know what streets/roads, neighborhoods we’re seeing?
I find old, restored, footage like this fascinating. Thanks for posting this!
Unless I missed it, one of the things about the footage from the 60s (and there appear to be two different time periods in there?) is that there’s not a bicycle to be seen. Yes, there’s a group of kids on bikes at the beginning of 1940s piece, but I’m sure that if one were to today to visit the streets seen at the beginning of the piece, you’d see bikes as well as cars and buses. Granted, I haven’t been to downtown Los Angeles in quite some time, so maybe I’m wrong.
Jeff,
There is another aspect of this film that differs from modern city life: Almost NO trash on the streets or sidewalks.
Yeah, it looked a whole lot better then!
I did notice that! My thought was that NYC at the same time (since I actually knew NYC at that time) was considerably grittier and more trash-strewn than was Los Angeles.
Babk in the days when after an accident, they just hosed you off the dash and sold the car to someone else.
Many observations from this fine footage.
I was surprised to see streetcars (PCC’s?) running around in active service. Obviously a product of their times in LA.
I didn’t see as many Corvairs as you did, but I saw what seemed like a dozen Ford Comets.
Seeing New Look GM buses made me recall that I always thought those quite up to date in styling, even in the ’70s. To see them in the early sixties means that it was a great design that lasted well for years.
I noticed some fellows wearing their trousers fairly short, a trend that came back for a while recently. Up around the ankles on a few guys.
In the ’40s footage, I see that most of the cars did not have a shiny finish. That shine from the factory must have worn off quite quickly.
Thanks for defusing the political discussion up above. There are lots of other places for that.
Yes, older car paint lost its lustre much faster than what we have now, especially under constant chemical attack of Southern California’s smog. But much of what you’re seeing in the videos is an artefact of the artificial colourisation.
Streetcars went away for good in 1963 so this footage would be close to the tail end of seeing them
Great piece of history! The newest vehicle that I saw is a ’63 Cadillac. Loved the Dodge heavy-duty truck and the neighborhood with the older cars. One looked to be late twenties or early thirties – and in need of some bright paint, too. Thanks for the memories.
One thing that always gets me with these 1950s-60s films are the small niche retailers that were so prevalent back than. An entire store for Schick electric shavers! A vitamin store, etc.
Thanx for this Paul ! .
I didn’t make it to Southern California until the Summer of 1969, it wasn’t much different .
This appears to be Figueroa headed North ? .
I recognized a few intersections, 7th, 9th and Pershing Square, wow have they changed .
The second film, was it later or simply a less affluent neighborhood ? .
-Nate
The film was most likely filmed in late 1961, as there was only one 1962 car that I spotted. A black 1962 Lincoln Continental at the 2:00 mark behind a 1961 Falcon.
I saw a ’62 Impala, so yes, as I said in the text, almost certainly late 1961.