It is a golden age for those of us weirdos completely normal people who enjoy “ephemeral films,” those education flicks that were shown on crackling 16mm projectors in schools from sea to shining sea. YouTube channels such as “Periscope Film” have uploaded them by the thousands, and many of them are prime conduits for car spotting.
Today’s example, titled Bicycle Rules of the Road, is just one of many bicycle safety films produced in the 1950s and 1960s.
It was produced by Charles Cahill & Associates, a production company from Hollywood. Judging by the Adam-12-like scenery and the participation of the California Highway Patrol, I think it’s safe to say that this film was set in the greater Los Angeles area.
It follows a couple kids on brand new Schwinn bicycles, a Racer for him and a condescendingly named (by today’s standards) Co-Ed for her. The kids make it out of the video unscathed because of their rule-following vigilance, but the bikes aren’t so lucky. The “shock” film, featuring disturbing real-life images of accidents, was definitely in vogue in the 1960s, so a few gratuitous bike-smashing scenes don’t come as a surprise.
On a peripheral note, Bicycle Rules of the Road, like many ephemeral films, is a car-spotter’s bonanza. Here’s a 1956 Plymouth Belvedere “Sport Coupe” that’s been subjected to a scrape or two.
Unfortunately, these videos are digitized from original sources, so their quality can be a bit fuzzy, especially when the cars are paused in motion; that makes narrowing down models a little more difficult, but we can get the basic idea. Two favorites of mine from this scene: the small-bodied ’54 Buick (Special or Century) and the Studebaker GT Hawk headed in the opposite direction.
This 1961 Ford Country Sedan just happens to be the “bike smasher” at the end of the film, and it shows up in several scenes.
Based on the trim, I’d say that this is a 1954 Oldsmobile Super 88. One of the tricks of the film trade was to update videos as time went on; in some cases, street scenes showed cars that were significantly older for one scene, while the next scene was clearly newer.
Here, the male and female protagonists are walking their Schwinns across the street, a lesson taught in the film (that was almost certainly never truly learned). Here, a 1964 Ford Galaxie 500 Convertible waits for them, while a 1961-63 Rambler American pulls up.
Speaking of Ramblers, here’s a ’59 Super Cross Country station wagon.
Being presumably filmed in Southern California, it’s no surprise that there are some swankier models in the background, such as this ’61 T-Bird that pops up a few times.
A ’52 Studebaker, another Rambler, a 1963 or ’64 Chrysler, and a 1962 (most likely) Oldsmobile enter the scene, but the Oldsmobile turns into…
A Riviera! This one is a 1963 or ’64 model, but I’d lean toward 1963.
That’s because it almost appears to be painted the same “Fawn Mist” as my personal ’63, but it’s hard to tell on an old film.
If a Riviera wasn’t expensive enough, how about a 1963 Continental Convertible?
This scene has a couple 1960 models: a Buick coming toward us and a neat ’60 Ford Galaxie Sunliner parked at the curb.
Here’s that ’61 Ford Country Sedan again, its panicked driver locking up the brakes to avoid running a stop sign.
Speaking of locking up the brakes, the film spends a couple minutes talking about reaction times and stopping distances, which seems to be a prerequisite topic for making a 1960s movie on vehicular safety. The Highway Patrol uses a beefy ’63 Dodge 880 black-and-white to demonstrate.
Seconds later, that 1963 Dodge becomes a 1961 Dodge Polara.
Then, it’s back to the ’63.
Back out on the street, we find a ’54 Chevy 210 two-door sedan, with a ’56 Ford (and others) waiting over its shoulder.
At eight minutes comes the carnage. The nice officer here is parking this poor old Schwinn Co-Ed in the path of a moving car. A neat ’58 Chevy station wagon (a sergeant’s car?) waits in the background.
That car happens to be the Country Sedan…again. What have they done to the front end of this thing?
Does it really need this battering ram to take out a girls’ bicycle? Is that made of cardboard?
Here comes the pathos. These films were very good at making you picture things that are uncomfortable to think about.
There’s no help now (cue Jaws theme).
I’ll spare the gruesome details, but the film doesn’t; in fact, they take a run at the boys’ Schwinn Racer next, at an even higher speed.
Yes, they even include this solitary rim, divorced from the bicycle proper, slowly wheeling itself to a halt.
But those are the consequences for those who don’t follow the rules of the road, not these children. As they wheel past this 1955 Chevy, there’s more fun to be had.
And more friends to be made. Just make sure to walk those bikes across the street, kids.
Related CC Reading
Bicycle Classic: 1957 Schwinn Corvette – Mechanical Sympathy (by me)
Bicycle Classic: 1966 Schwinn Deluxe Racer – Another Step Toward Clinical Hoarding (by me)
Bicycle Classic: 1969 Schwinn Deluxe Racer – Something There Is That Doesn’t Love A Wall (by me)
Bicycle Outtake: 1973 Schwinn Speedster–Kool Lemon for the Long of Leg (by me)
Yes that is the CHP. No doubt about the filming location. Periscope Films is one my favorite YT channels.
Sad to see the destruction of those poor Schwinns, but I guess it was for a good cause.
I really enjoy Periscope Films as well. I do wish that the quality of these 1960s films in particular was better. I’m pretty sure that the 1960s weren’t that fuzzy and discolored, but I’m beginning to doubt my memories 😉
I suspect many of these films were uploaded to YouTube from VHS transfers. I doubt anyone would go to the expense of digital transfers straight from original 16mm prints, assuming any still exist.
In any event, whatever 16mm source prints these originally came from were probably beaten to hell after being handled and reused for years, long before they were ever transferred to video or digital.
There are several channels that specialize in direct transfers from original film, including AV Geeks and, from what I’ve been able to gather, Periscope Film.
Here’s another one from 1963, even more strange. It has been set to numerous other songs but this band’s “library” sound seems fitting. Pretty cool stuff and fortunately no Schwinns were harmed in the filming of this one.
I’m pretty sure I saw this one in elementary school ca. 1969. One of my classmates was hit by a car and quite badly injured riding home from school and we were shown this shortly afterward. I remember that ’58 wagon because my Mom had a ’58 Bel Air at the time.
Given some of the things we did on our bikes in our pre teen years, I don’t think it did us much good.
When we got near driving age we were treated to movies featuring gory accident scenes from a couple of decades ago, and they didn’t work either!
Well, now I have a new way to spend time, looking at these Periscope Films on YouTube.
This one is so similar to films we’d watch in elementary school, though well after the scenes became antiquated. Didn’t matter though – it was still better than schoolwork.
Oddly enough, my own kids (teens now) didn’t have any walking or biking safety lessons in elementary school, other than an occasional teacher telling kids that “pedestrians have the right of way,” and leaving it at that. That does kids a huge disservice. I didn’t realize there was never anything about this in school until recently, when I asked about it. These old films may have been hokey, but they did serve a purpose.
I loved film day in school, because invariably the films were 10-20-30 years old and there were often opportunities for car spotting. And I’ve always had my head in the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s anyway; I was listening to oldies when hair metal and grunge were popular, and obviously I loved the cars.
One anachronism I clearly remember was in one of the Driver’s Ed videos that we watched. This was a 1960s-era film that we watched in the late 1980s, and I recall the film imploring people to exit their cars on the passenger side when parallel parked to avoid stepping out into traffic. It showed a lady just sliding across her vinyl bench seat to step right out onto the curb. Even in the late ’80s, bench seats were becoming pretty rare, and I thought that was an amusing thing to teach kids to do.
I loved any time we had films in school. Regardless of the school (I attended about 5 different schools between 1st grade and 9th grade…we moved a lot) I was usually one of the select few kids who would be tasked with going to the library – “Media Center”! – to fetch the film and the 16mm Bell and Howell on the cart…and then tread up the projector and show the film.
One of the sad things to me in modern school – and I say this as an educational technologist – is that with everything moving to online videos that the teacher calls up on the laptop and plays on their SmartBoard, there’s no job any longer for the AV kid. Unfortunately, this is just one more thing that increases student passivity and the lack of any special tasks/jobs for students other than assigned “learning” activities. Sure, teachers can consciously create such things, but it takes work on their part as well…and unfortunately, good things might not happen. Some students (i.e., me) really needed those unusual tasks in order to feel engaged in the enterprise and to extract more value from it. As I think I mentioned in my piece on school buses and safety patrols, if I’d stayed in NC until I reached driving age, I would have absolutely signed up to drive the school bus (something they allowed 16 year olds to do in NC through the 1970s).
But back to school movies, I loved the act of showing those films as much as I loved watching them.
Well said, Jeff. The demise of the A/V club (or taking a job away from the trusted AV kid) is just one more thing made obsolete by advancing technology. It’s inevitable but sad, because how many other jobs that gave people purpose (and/or a paycheck) have become obsolete?
100 percent agreement from this alum of the AV club! I could probably still running one of those B&H 16mm projectors if called upon.
If this was filmed in 1960 then that shot with the 54 Olds shows how bad the smog, looking down the street, already was. I biked around the San Fernando Valley in 66-67 but have to say never down the middle of the street, with traffic, like shown.
I should have watched this film when I was younger. When I was 9 or 10 and about 1960, we lived in San Francisco. I was racing down a hill trying to catch up with my older brother who I am now sure was trying to lose me. He caught the light and I didn’t….bam, hit by what I remember was a Plymouth. Luckily it happened right in front of a fire station. I was pretty banged up and my bicycle even more so. Oh my, I still remember how mad Mom was that I damaged somebodies’ car. No pity for my little self and I didn’t get another bike for about a month.
Today I cringe every time I see a bike on the street. About six years ago when I still lived in Ottawa, Ontario, I was coming home from diner with friends. I was at an intersection with a light and planning to turn right. To my right was construction blocking the view, light turned green I started to turn and bam, got hit by a bike going the wrong way on the street and running his red light. He hit my right front wheel and bounced across my hood. The hood had to be replaced, his bike was finished, he broke his leg. Lots of witlessness’, traffic cam, etc. so clearly not my fault. What really pissed me off he was charged with three violations: running a light, traveling the wrong way on the street, and something else. I was furious when I found my insurance paid him something and I had to pay my $500 deductible. I hope his leg aches when it rains.
Speaking of San Francisco I once hit a bicyclist at Market and Eight around midnight. I heading north on Market to turn right on 8th with a green light. Two bicyclists shot out from the sidewalk in front of me. I slammed the brakes and just barely touched the second bike. He proceeded to hit my hood with his fist. Ok, fine. I let the clutch out for a moment and knocked his bike down. SFPD shows up while I am off to the side on 8th and tell the officer most of what happened. He tells me to take off and I did.
I check Periscope almost every day. They have a lot of job training films that would have helped me TREMENDOUSLY when I was learning those jobs. The films weren’t openly available back then, perhaps only inside the corporations that made them. Now training videos are available to everyone for old jobs and new jobs. Youtube has done a great favor for real education.
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Here’s one I remember from driver’s ed in 1992; it was 20 years old at the time, and the messages the film was trying to convey were lost when this came sliding into the scene.
https://youtu.be/PdK8a7bXprY?si=PAU8UcwDSMliH1LS
Unless someone mentioned it, I see no helmets whatsoever, almost a sin today. We never thought of it, really, perhaps we thought we were tougher then, and took many a lump, but all in good fun. Besides, an ER visit was like, what, $18? A cast was almost a badge of honor, must have done something cool, you didn’t get those from reading books. I remember 1 particular wipeout, on my 10 speed, I was maybe 13, drag racing a dump truck from a stoplight, missed a shift, did one of those “cross bars in the crotch”, fell, and I remember the truck tires inches away, and the squeal of the truck brakes. Besides, aside from an old Packers play football helmet, there really wasn’t anything anyway.
Fast forward to today. When I moved to Colorado, I had my mountain bike with me, rode all over creation, until the bike broke in half, sending me to the ground, injuring my shoulder. The FIRST THING they asked at the ER, did you have a helmet? No, got another bike, passed out for an undetermined cause, again, down I went, no helmet, only this time, much worse. At 70 years old, I’ve given up on 2 wheelers, sadly, as 3rd time surely would be the charm.
My advice, injuries heal more slowly as we age, ER visits cost thousands today, and if you ride a bike, E bikes too,,,please, wear a helmet.
If only folks today (kids mostly) would heed some of these rules today on their electric bikes. I guess bike lanes have grown out of the hazards shown in these.
Then there are those electric scooters that now litter a lot of big city neighborhoods. I understand the appeal, but the whole concept is inimical to safety, because it basically guarantees that no riders will wear helmets, the scooters can go about as fast as a regular bicycle (ridden briskly by someone who isn’t a hardcore cyclist), and both riding in the street and riding on the sidewalk present different sets of hazards.
I miss riding bicycles , I went everywhere on one in the 1960’s .
I agree helmets save lives, notably mine twice .
-Nate