Images of Detroit - 1937-1949
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- Опубліковано 14 лют 2013
- The selected clips in this vintage movie are from my father's collection of 8mm home movies taken during the period 1937 through 1949. The scenes shown in Detroit include locations on 14th Street in west Detroit, Fort Street in downtown Detroit, Indiana Street in northwest Detroit, Bramford Street in northeast Detroit, the Belle Isle Children's zoo, the Detroit Zoo in Royal Oak, and several other unidentified locations. Also included are clips of my parents and my sister, grandparents and other family members and friends. I hope you enjoy a unique view of the City of Detroit during some better times.
To see some of the locations in this video as they are today you can view using Google maps:
14th Street, Detroit
goo.gl/maps/4KoYI
Indiana Street, Detroit
goo.gl/maps/RG2f5
Bramford Street, Detroit
goo.gl/maps/Do67t
Detroit Children's Zoo, Belle Isle, Detroit
goo.gl/maps/p2tzP
Music by Liona Boyd.
i’m from Detroit (i was born in 1999 btw) i am so addicted to watching these videos because i love to see my city in its prime. i have hope for my city, Downtown is beautiful and there’s a lot of things to do. Abandoned buildings are being flushed out and reconstructed, no matter what anyone says i know my city is beautiful. don’t forget about us, we’re trying 💛
Swear midtown looks so nice they are building the city back up
The city is coming back but it will take time to be like in the 50s....but it s on the way ....the first step should be not lose population anymore.
I was born in Detroit in 1960. It is nice to be reminded of good times. Detroit has so many problems to address that it is going to be a difficult journey to restore the neighborhoods. I am talking about the century old infrastructure that needs to be replaced, taxes that are too high, and insurance rates that should be considered criminal. With housing prices soaring I believe young people would like to come to Detroit. I'm an old person who wishes I could return. Just for the record I am not a maga idiot. I realize these clips just show a white Detroit.
Some of the most beautiful architecture I've ever seen..
Wow. It’s funny you said that you are addicted to these type of video clips from back in the day in Detroit Michigan. I myself was born and raised in Detroit Michigan in 1962. I am so addicted as well to see what was going on back in the days when Detroit was in his prime. There’s so many older people, white and black, and I ask series of questions pertaining to Detroit. My father, (Co-Worker)’s. And just on my elderly friends, which was my mother, Friends and so on. There are certain places in Detroit once I see a video clip of it from the 50s or 30s I would go and drive to that location and reminisce. I asked my father years ago and some of my ex- coworkers when I was working for Beaumont Hospital. I said, what happened to Detroit? They all speak highly of Detroit back in the days before there was a Motown, they told me a riot took place in 1967. Well, I was five years old. The story that I have received was, they did not put money back into the city after the rain yet. Misappropriating funds and so on. I still love Detroit, I love the history that comes with it and the knowledge. I just thought I would piggyback on your comment about Detroit because I feel the same way. Take care.
This was a great city...
Ammetta Carrillo and will be
My aunt described Detroit as the Paris of the west in the 40's. She came from Paris to Detroit in 45'
generatrix999 Actually Detroit became known as the 'Paris of the Midwest' well over 100 years ago. Belle Isle can show you some reasons why (from years ago- it lost its appeal from the late 60s until just recently- drugs, homelessness, safety concerns)- a few photos from years ago, my family's. flic.kr/s/aHsjETFoZb
+generatrix999 At this rate of how things are changing in France, spiraling downwards... One day the "modern" Paris, will become the "modern" Detroit. Also it's history will be for nought, and slowly forgotten. Just like the formally famous city of Detroit. Almost like a sad ironic twist to a poem.
no it will never be france is not america and thanks for that !
Paul Rentz Have you been to Belle Isle lately. State runs it now. Looks incredible.
@@davidspeaks5879 idiot
I miss the old days, when things were much more simple, and the family unit was strong.
+Victoria Salek are you parents moved from Poland ?
Reinhard Gehlen No, why do you say that? My mom is from Detroit.
Victoria Salek because you have polish sound surname and many of polish imigrants lived in Detroit in 30's....
Reinhard Gehlen Ahh I see. Actually, it is my married name, and my husband is part Polish :)
Victoria Salek hehe so i was partly right ;) greetings from Poland
I'm old enough to remember the very tail end of the glory days of the old Detroit in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Crossing over into Detroit, I remember the throngs of people, the vitality, the life, the vigour and the energy. In my lifetime, I have watched that once beautiful city do a complete 180 for the worst and I sometimes wonder whether my memories are real or whether I dreamt it all? By the way, at this very moment fifty years ago, that beautiful, old Detroit was in the fourth of the seven days that would be her death knell. Make no mistake, this Detroit will NEVER, but NEVER, return to the way she once was. I miss that beautiful, beautiful old Detroit terribly. RIP.
HalisIstanbullu m
I was there when Detroit burned. 67 riots. I was 17. Now I am 73 and I can still it as clearly as that 17 year old saw it. Horror struck!
I seen the same thing in my lifetime. I'm from Wyandotte close to Detroit
We all do...
My grandpa was born in 1912 and he always said he lived in the best of times he grew up in Detroit and saw it all he finally moved out of the city in the 80s to the suburbs but I loved hearing about Detroit and seeing his pictures it's sad how bad Detroit is today. Some areas look like a 3rd world country or a zombie apocalypse and to see how beautiful it was once is just amazing
Sad the people who was around in the 40s and 50s are all old if not dead by now i would love to talk to some of those people
thats what happens when the b-l-ack-s move in.
God I wish much of Detroit still looked like this here!!!!! It is so sad to see so many empty plots of land where there use to be countless historic houses and nice neighborhoods.
lawnmowers and 12 gauge days
Thank you for sharing this. My grandparents are at the new year celebration! Your family must have known them. I almost fell off my chair when I saw them. This made my day!
So your grandparents lived in those restricted and segregated neighborhoods?
@@lawrencedaniels555 Is that a problem?!
And it was called the American Dream....sigh
This is great to see the time when people cared and took pride in their homes. It makes me sad to
See what had happened to
These homes & locations that your family had such great memories in. I don't even have ties to detroit but have seen whats happened and it's heartbreaking,
Whites built it
Blacks destroyed it
Rinse and repeat.....
Do you know why it happened?
Images of Detroit they are quite precious thank you
I was born in Detroit. One thing I miss is when you’d talk to people and they always had a relative who worked at, Chrysler, Ford, Cadillac or General Motors . It was a given .
Wow...this made me cry
When the white flight hits, everything is completely lost forever. Sad but true.
Can't black folks maintain what the whites left behind? Apparently not! Racist? No! Their generally broken family lifestyle? Obviously, yes!
So true I seen it happen in my lifetime
Thank you, for sharing. The images of the areas today broke my heart. My dad would always say $1.00 can buy you a bar of soap. Never a reason to be dirty. $5.00 can buy you a gallon of paint. Never a reason to live in a place that looks like a shack. You'd be surprised at what a little paint will do. Why doesn't some people not have any pride in themselves to take care of things? At least at the minimum?
Because generations of black people living in Detroit had the rug pulled out from under them by white families like this, who couldn't bear the thought of living next to someone whose skin was a different color. They took their money, and the jobs, out of the city. Now there are tens of thousands of households in the city who, yes, cannot afford $5 for a can of paint
@@slavrenz88 I wonder why
@@normanalvarez5751 decades of systemic racism and a hollowed out middle class in the city. And sheer private sector greed in some cases... After all, people here are forced to pay $300+ per month for car insurance.
Such nonsense
Victim malarkey
SouthWest Detroit disagrees with your hogwash
Everyone dressed nice back in those days.
It was nice and white !
America has gotten too casual. People go out in their pajamas now. It's as if they have lost pride in themselves.
Alan Boyd white? There's nothing wrong with black people. The city wasn't brought down because of one race
..anything goes values of today ruined everything..
@@19LondBuch72 wow, and 16 people liked your comment that shows that the racism spirit is strong and alive working till this day. You acting like it's something wrong with black people or people of color moving in a neighborhood. I'm gonna pray for you
As Detroit goes, so goes the nation. Detroit was the most prosperous city in the WORLD at one time.
Blame the government for pumping drugs throughout the city.
It was. Then all the white people decided that they didn't want to live near anyone who wasn't white, so they all left. Very sad indeed.
@@slavrenz88 If they hadn’t had justiciable reasons for being forced to flee THEIR OWN COMMUNITY, Detroit would still be a beautiful, thriving city.
@@mrs.hancock4124 their reasons were that they didn't want to live next to a black person. Are you saying that's justified? Once that mentality took hold for a few decades, then yes the city really went downhill fast. But that was decades after this video.
@@daffyduckfan4478 lol, thanks for reminding me that all sorts of wackjob conspiracy theorists are alive and well on the internet.
Seeing this made my night
I am 65 yrs old n I am remember the houses n streets n the wooden 2 seater swings n the roller skates with the key that went attached to your shoes n Belle Isle n the Detroit Zoo in Royal Oak. What a blast from the greatest of pasts!!!! Thank you for posting!!!!!
Back in the day everyone lived in Detroit. My Dad came here from Italy in the late 60's, himself, his parents, a sister and brother lived in Detroit. He said really there was no where else to live the burbs have not even been established well enough. Heck he used to go hunting at 14 Mile and John R which for those who don't know now is full of shopping centers and offices....I remember when he told me they had to leave Detroit though they did not want to, because the crime was getting so bad and people were vandalizing the houses around him. it is really sad
They said the same thing about Italians circa 1900. Read Iacocca's book the WASPs made fun of the pizza that he brought to school for lunch. His mom told him to ignore them. The rest is history.
When did your dad leave Detroit?
Many remember Detroit as "Little Italy" where street after street held family members ... nieces, uncles, aunts, 2nd cousins, all related and with one common bond to help one another. We were a close knit family unit and many worked at the Ford factory. I can remember at the age of 8 going about three blocks in each direction to visit with all my relations. I never starved and I never went without when I was near family.
There were many different ethnicities in the city. Polish and German were also large communities as well as others.
This video was really beautiful. Thank you for sharing. I loved the music you put to it.
Gloria Hanes All that is quite sad to look back upon and see what it is today. Lets learn from the past however because democrats have been running Detroit since the 50s with their high taxes and big labor union buddies.
I wonder how whites were able to get these houses and jobs getting off the boat from Europe when the black people were already in America and couldn't get access to education, jobs or housing.
Wow. My grandfather built a home on Bramford Street (20199) in 1947 or so. I had spent a lot of my childhood on that street. The clip of this street brought back a flood of memories. Grandparents had to move out around 1975/1980 because of crime and threats, sad.
Was your grandfather a war veteran?
You also said they moved out because of crime and threats. Who threatened them? Your grandparents likely were victims of block busting that was done by banks and realtors. They used scare tactics to get whites to sell their homes then would turn around and sell the house to blacks who were living in overcrowded slums for 2 or 3 times as much as what they paid.
My mom would have been 88 today, so these films make me want to cry. She grew up on the west side and always claimed a delightful childhood.
Did your mom raise you in Detroit?
So sad. I looked at Indiana Street on Google maps and looked at the street view. It's a shit hole now lined with abandoned, vandalized houses and overgrown vacant lots. Looking at this and seeing the history of the good people that used to live there makes my heart ache. Amazing how certain people in that city worked so hard to destroy it.
I don't think you really understand. You're judging from afar without understanding what happened and why.
I have some 16mm footage from that same era, there's boat races off Belle Isle, boxing at the Detroit House of Corrections, U of M football, the 1946 Thanksgiving parade on Kercheval and a bunch of family stuff. Thanks for sharing, you have a lot of good stuff there.
I'm a native Detroiter (born in 1949). I love seeing these videos of how my city used to be.
I have watched the videos on you tube like the Shae show that show Detroit today. Burned out abandoned homes. I always think to myself 'I wonder what it looked like 50-60 years ago. So that is what it was like! Wowwww! I cant believe it went from that to what it is now!
i like the shea show also
hes trying to bring some of the homes back to nice conditions again
Sad to see what Detroit turned into and it's not getting better it's only spreading and will be hitting a city near you
It has arrived.
HoustonRailFan ™ it’s even worst today omg
Dean Toma you think an influx of faddish hipsters indicates that the city in on the rise? Just because downtown to cork town is build up doesn’t mean the city is improving. The east side , especially on McNichols, is a WAR ZONE.
@Legacy Mann if people raised there kids right that wouldnt happen plus who tf asked
They use call Detroit, Murder Capital Of The World, It Should Be Murder Capital Of Baby Killings, Stop Killing Our Children Who Can't Play Safely In There Own Front Yard, Is This A Gang Initiation, Killing Children, Or What!!! Mothers Listen Closely Your Children Need A Safe Place To Play, Remember FRONT YARDS ARE DANGEROUS FOR YOUR CHILDREN'S HEALTH 🙌
Thank you for sharing your films of my hometown in its glory days. I really miss those wonderful times growing up in the city I loved.
Thanks for sharing these personal movies. Great shots. An era long gone.
Thank you so much for sharing these! Wonderful memories!!
thankyou for sharing your family videos im 43 years old born and raised till age of 14 on southwest side i loved seeing the belle isle zoo brought back alot of great and wonderful childhood memories forme so i say thank you from the bottom of my heart i loved a minute of video and again thank u for shaaring and god bless
Thanks so much for sharing. I especially enjoyed the little girl on the roller skates. Now that brought back some fond memories.
Great video. Thanks so much for sharing. It was a honor to watch it.
These are the days my great grandmother would tell us about. She came here in 1933. My mom was born here in this era.
Great job thank you for posting!
I work in Detroit, I drive by indian village, its so beautiful I can only imagine how the rest looked
Wonderful pictures. That period covered my childhood in Detroit.
A very beautiful video that I watch often. History is fascinating!
Video speaks for itself.
the music is wonderful. thank you
Very interesting video, thank you. Hope, better times will come again to Detroit.
it was before the riots, and white flight from the city.
Yes, also before the globalism and the flight of all the factories from Detroit to south east asia. Rush belt they call, is not only the riots, don't lie.
There was a pretty big riot in 1943.
@@saralopez3335 The city was destroyed by the forced displacement of the founders, the original occupants who’d built the communities, infrastructure and city. They were driven from their homes by the hundreds of thousands of African Americans who’d migrated in from the South (the Great Migration) & flooded other peoples long ago established communities.
I can remember my Grandmother and Grandfather telling me that DETROIT was a beautiful city. B.in 1903 and 1908.
You can just see on there faces how good it is to live in America and how happy they are to be there.
Big Baller The American Dream which everyone envied so much!
I noticed that right away too. Sad to realize the contrast of then to now
How can a city and a country change so much in just a couple of generations. Detroit was a very blue collar city yet everyone dressed elegantly and conducted themselves with respectability.
0.38 - Look at 14637 Indiana Street on Googlemaps - that's the property in the background!
+KatyandJoemac - Look at 14818 Indiana Ave. on Googlemaps. That's the property in the background.
Wow..do your parents know they raised someone racist like yourself?
Hi - just reported the ignorant comment.
From R1 Bayside. You Tube removed it so it's not clear what I'm talking about.
KatyandJoemac... at one point as a child, my family lived very close to there.
At this point in time Detroit was the 4th Largest US City and still growing… topping out at 2M residence in the City limits around 1955.
Only NY,Chicago and Philadelphia were had more residents!
Great! I loved it. The film is in great shape after all of those years.
I didnt move to Detroit till the 90s. Wish I could have seen it back then. Thanks for sharing this footage.
Wonderful pictures. I was a child in Detroit during this period.
Unforgivable. What they have done to the motor City
Who is they?
incredible to see Detroit back then in the 1930s, 40s. we are used to black and white images most of the time, so to see it in colour is awesome. it makes it so real.
New subscriber!!! Love these throw backs
Not one man with his pants hanging down and showing his butt? Amazing.
The footage shows how far our country has fallen since then. So sad.
I can relate to everything in those clips. Those were good times.
Thank you for this.
Beautiful Music.
A beautiful piece showing Detroit was not always such a sad place. You and your father have done us all a great favour sharing this wonderful footage from a better time. Oh yes, and Al Gore too for inventing the internet!!!
How sad to see what's become of Detroit.
this is beautiful.....
Such a shame, my Grandmother born in 1919( now deceased) grew up in Detroit, the house her Father built for her Mother became a drug house, when my Mom tried to tell her what happened to Detroit and that house, she refused to believe it. Her Father owned a bakery from the early 20s into the late 1940s.
Lovely video.
Thank you for sharing! My great grandfather was an Italian immigrant to the east side of Detroit in about 1915. I looked up both areas in this film and it’s so sad. Now just gone. My grandparents said how nice Detroit used to be and I got to see it from your videos. Also my grandpa met my grandma when she walked off a Detroit streetcar about 1937. Who knows it may be the one in the video!
I’d like to see these streets now
Pretty much all destroyed
Abandoned
I was always told that the neighborhood I grew up in was nothing but open land. The view of Bramford Street is exactly what I imagined it to be.
"Oh my" only if life in today's world could be like it was back then .
Lakeshia McGee , you wouldn't like what would have to be done segregation would have to be reinstated all the blacks would have to leave Detroit the whites would all have to move back in it will be wonderful for whites but terrible for minorities
For who?
@@MegaBOBCAT11 that’s why the city failed cus the white ppl left
@@aprilsims8309
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Wonderful old movie clips of domestic life in Detroit
In the late 40's my Dad's uncle owned a house on Ford Street between 14th and LaSalle near to these images. My newlywed parents rented the upstairs flat there until Nov 1951 when they bought a brand new house "way out" in Redford Township.
What a shame that a once beautiful city has been reduced to a pile of rubbish and crime. Half or more of the neighborhood's that used to stand are no longer there, only vacant lot's full of burned out houses. I lived in the city as a kid and where I lived now you can't even go in the place without getting robbed.
@A2Z Real Estate Services Everyone has a hard life or at least some hardship in it no matter what situation you happen to be in. My life is no different than anyone other's. I don't like to fear being robbed in my own neighborhood and the crime is out of hand these day's almost like it was back in the early 90's in Detroit. Who wants to live like that and it's not a matter of how anyone's life has gone so far no one should have to live that way .
Let me add you have a beautiful family with class and style bless them
My grandfather worked at Detroit Edison back in the day. He named some streets after his family. Donald, Jean, Fern and their last name of Ruby. My mom (Fern) and I found them back in the late '60's or early '70's but I haven't been able to locate them since.
it would be nice to see a video of how the streets looked like in the past compared to the present
What a WONDERFUL collection of memories from a lovely family!! I encourage everyone to look at the Google maps link's as they simply transport you into the movies and another time. Very interactive!! SUPERB EXPERIENCE!!!! Very lucky to have had these personal films shared by this UA-camr. Thank you so much!! I watched them all several times, which I never do!!
One question; does the man who took the films appear in any of them?
Outstanding! What made it successful to me is that nothing was sugar coated: everything was shown as it was from normal people's perspective where the middle class and the working class go about their business unpretentiously! While looking at the children being so happy it suddenly stroke me that the very beginning of the video happened before WWII, at a time when people were free from war traumas! But the most pleasent part of the video was that beautifully tender guitar piece! It put me totally at ease and made feel piece and joy! What is the title to it and who is the composer? I'd be immensely appreciated! Thanks very much for sharing such great, historical video!
Detroit was a beautiful city!! What the hell happened!!!???
*****
LoL.
Bcoz of the evil Capitalism
***** Detroit will be beautiful again.. Lots of new business have opened up in downtown Detroit as well as 77 new Restaurants.. There have been some major renovations i} the Opera House as well as the a famous Hotel that has been compleated... The real estate market has been going up & recently just completed the River walk Project... Check on you tube for the Video... Detroit the Comeback City....
+Laura Murphy It has nothing to do with business. Get rid of the crime. The rest will take care of it's self.
+Laura Murphy downtown might make a small comeback but the neighborhoods surrounding Detroit are ruined and gone forever . To much damage now . How on earth could you find enough white people who would even remotely consider moving back into a war zone .
Love this about Detroit! 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖
Before the dark times
My Dad grew up in Delray. My Mom was born in Pittsburgh before moving to Delray. (It was THE Hungarian section of Detroit.) They were married in 1936 in a church on the corner of Vanderbilt & ? (if anyone knows what church it was, plz, let me know ) My Dad established his Optical firm, Dobrik Opticians, first in River Rouge and then, on the corner of W. Fort St. & Campbell, above Cunningham's Drug Store, where he remained for over 50+ yrs. I remember, before the riots, what a wonderful city Detroit was. And, I am so happy to finally see the city growing again. I'm VERY proud to be a Hungarian American who remembers what a Great city Detroit was AND, will be again!!! #GoDetroit! #GoHungarians! ❤
Hajra Magyarok.
Greetings from Poland
Love this.
Really nice video
mikcollmi 20201216
A few questions:
Was this 10 min video all from a single reel or multiple reels?
Did you enter all the text labels yourself?
Who added the music, you or the digitizing service?
Did you do any other editing?
Thanks so much for sharing this video. It was great to look back. :)
This is the point in time when you got mad at someone.. you got in a fist fight and went home.. instead of pulling out guns and killing someone.
Strange to see people respecting each other and maintaining their property in Detroit.
Humans once populated Detroit !!!!!
used to sit on chairs lol
Today only niggas
babalu soares shut up bitch
Isn't it weird seeing Detroit a safe city?
What changed?
I was born & raised in Detroit in 1941 It was a good city back then. I'm so glad I moved to Ft Lauderdale in 1976 and never regretted it. What a shit hole now. My best move was retiring in Medellin Colombia. Great people.
lol Do you wear a vest daily. Place has highest murder rate in the world.
The children in this video, if they are alive at all, are now in their late 70s to mid-to-late 80s. The adults have been dead for decades. The lives they lived and the world they knew, people living peacefully and prosperously, safely; securely and simply, has died or is finally dying with them. That saddens me greatly. I wish I had been alive then. I'd happily trade my iPhone for a family unit as seemingly solid as the ones depicted here.
Anyone notice what's missing in ALL of these clips? Yeah, me too.
It was a city populated with over 90% ethnic Europeans at this time. Some from Poland, Germany, France etc. ("Detroit" is french for strait) Now less than 10% of the population is made up of ethnic Europeans
I'm sorry about the lumber yard fire, but overall it looks like a hell of a lot nicer place compared to today. I notice everyone's white.
@Its Business Democrats seem to be the racist bitches. It's all they talk about, bitch!
I noticed that as well.. hard to find videos of Black Bottom
Anybody notice the billboard advertising that new housing development… the one with the prominent lettering (inside a black band) that states “A RESTRICTED DEVELOPMENT” Now, who do you think that refers to…
@@TucsonBillD I think it refers to who now makes up 80% of the population today.
A reality that’s fully substantiated their needs for such restrictions.
Beautiful City
I wish more people could see this
Good stuff.
Yup my aunts cousins live there in Poland Irish Greek town. Very sad now
Absolutely incredible, area was still wasn't fully suburbanized
Hey, I used to play classical guitar, is the music a Carcassi Study? I grew up in Detroit and ended up buying a guitar and studying at Joe Fava's store/school at 15 and woodard.
Is the music by Francisco tarrega?
Is this footage available for use in a documentary??
Hi is it okay if i use 5 seconds of your video in my movie for school? I would very much appreciate it thanks
Those could be my grandparents in those clips. Lived off Livernous and Elmhurst.