1952 - Utah, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Home Movie - Kodachrome 8mm film
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- Опубліковано 27 лип 2024
- This film was found with 2 other film reels of the same length (400 feet) on eBay and originated from an estate sale. The family name is unknown but there are many notes attached to the film canisters. This reel is marked number #3 and includes scenes of Utah, Nevada the Hoover Dam, Los Angeles and other areas in California. It is dated June 11, 1952
Scene breakdown:
0:20 - Entering Las Vegas. Driving downtown Las Vegas
1:37 - Following sign to Hoover Dam. Passenger views from the car
2:25 - Arriving at the Hoover Dam. Views
4:24 - Stop at Helldorado Village. Closed
4:41 - Arriving to Last Frontier Village
6:20 - California title card. Cajon Village Motel
6:46 - On the road. Views from the passenger seat
7:40 - Entering Los Angeles. Passenger views of the streets
8:35 - Entering West Hollywood. The Beverley Hills Hotel. Mansions
9:22 - Views of the beach and the ocean
9:55 - Back on the road. Passenger views. Busy street scenes
11:01 - View of mountains. Passenger views
11:17 - Unknown Motel
11:31 - View of mountains in distance. Lone Pine, Ca ( along highway 395)
12:02 - Nevada State Line. Man and women posing for camera next to signs
13:02 - Drinking Water station
13:12 - Tonopah sign
13:30 - Passenger views of road ahead. Desert landscape
14:16 - Salt Flats sign. Faint selfie reflection
14:31 - Passenger views of landscape
15:25 - Entering Utah. Large animated cowboy sign. Wendover, Utah
15:38 - Passenger views of Salt Flats
15:57 - Bonneville Salt Flats sign. Unknown motel. El Rancho ??
16:37 - Passenger views of the road and landscape - Фільми й анімація
![Wonderful California 40's in color [60fps,Remastered] w/sound design added](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/WBcGKLzDZuQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Fremont St, Las Vegas scenes: 0:24 the cowboy sign 'Vegas Vic' was only about a year old. 0:36 49'er Club lasted only a few months. Looks like the driver was just going back and forth around a three block area. 0:49 they're on 2nd St, and 1:30 they're on 1st. 1:37 Boulder City
Thanks for the details!
@@ChrisSmartFilms That CA footage is amazing. They're driving in along the foothills through La Verne. 7:45 Brown Derby sign, maybe the one they now have at the Museum of Neon Art.
Thanks for all these details. I'm glad you're enjoying this film as much I am. I have 2 other films from the same family but this one is the best out of the 3
Drive straight up Fremont Street without turning and you end up in Boulder City.
I miss this America. The last 70 years haven’t been all that good.
I agree, people seemed more neighborly and friendly back in those days. Just about all videos from those days everyone waved to the camera, now adays they run up and scream at you to turn it off.
Just think, Hank Williams was alive and on the radio. Elvis was still in high school.
I lived in Wendover in 1952, I remember well the Stateline and the owners, Jim and Anna Smith, we lived just to the west of the Stateline...my Dad had a 1949 Mercury and in 1954 bought a four door Ford. He used to take me out every year to the Salt Flats to see the racers and their cars, a highlight to a kid that loved cars and I still go to Speed Week when I can. He's been gone over 25 years and I'm an old man myself now but I still have my memories of simpler and in my opinion, better times then these.
Oh well I visited wendover in early 2000's and my experiences were quite different. Casino with $5 blackjack, cheap motels and a small strip club joint :)
What a beautiful country out Fathers built for us. Its as gone now as they are. I enjoyed the Boulder City views.
Everything in these old films always looks so quaint.
I also arrived in Los Angeles in 1952. That is when I was born.
Now, I'm in Lost Wages.
Dan Born in '52 in Detroit Moved to Van Nuys in '55 then to Vegas in '61 /// 60 yrs in Lost Wages; Lost a little - Took plenty !
I remember driving across the desert in the back seat of my mom and dad's 1957 Pontiac. Hot as hell. No A/C back then.
It was a wonderful time to grow up in California.
I worked @ the Gold Coast for several years & the old America featured in this film is sadly long gone! The culture, the music, the cars & the pace were so much better than the nightmare we're living in today.
Back then family vacations were real adventures. That ‘51 Ford Deluxe with a flathead was a pretty reliable car for its time, but imagine breaking down in the desert in the intense heat with no one around and god forbid- no cellphone. We lived back then without a thought or fear. No advance registration at motels, just drove until you got tired and looked for a vacancy sign…if they had a cafe it was a bonus. By the late 50’s the Holiday Inn and Howard Johnson chains added a reliable consistency to sleeping in comfort but it took away the uniqueness of the mom and pop roadside motels. This was real America as I remember it
my uncle was a chp officer in cali in the 50ties--he would come home all the time dirty from working on somebodies broke down car,drive my aunt crazy--cars would over heat,break hoses,would not start was vert common--we had '57 dodge wagon with ac--nobody had ac--people would come over and look at it and go "wow"!!!
Capo Dewey......small world , was gonna send you tapes and shirts . But your afraid to send me email
the cars of that time were really beautiful
If I could go back to this period in the USA, I would certainly do so. Great movie, thanks for posting it!
Thanks for watching!
I was born in New Zealand in 1951, and it was post war, still fairly austere but bloomed into the best era/generation of our country with personal freedoms, employment, respect for workers and indeed everybody. It was the very best time to be a child and a teenager and a young adult. Only 40 - 45 years to turn It into such a restricted, separatist, fearful, government controlled country. We just never learn.
you did!
Back in the 50s, some places in the West, your car would be the only car on the highway.
In the '70s you could drive I-5 at night through the Central Valley and go dozens of miles without seeing a single light let alone another car. Things have sure changed.
In the late 1980s, my father and my sister (then a teenager) drove through Death Valley together. My dad told me that there were times when he turned the car radio on, and couldn't pick up a single station. He was annoyed with my sister, because she sped past a cop who was lying in wait for speeders. Both my dad and sis are dead now, sadly.
@@gardendormouse6479 I can confirm that there are many locations in California, and particularly Death Valley, where there is no radio signal across large stretches of highway
That’s still the good-mail in Australia
That was before M-TV and cell phones and computers ruined everything.
America was really impressive back when they taxed their rich. They had the strongest blue collar and entry to middle class the world had ever seen. Those people enjoyed the strongest dollar ever that made everything within reach of the majority of their citizenry. Truly a golden era.
The absolute beauty of Kodachrome!
What I would give to start over back then at age 25………no mobile phones no internet. Just plain simple hard honest work which will result in success anyway.
Absolutely, unlike this crap nowadays.
Yup
I was 4 months old when this film was shot... damn time zooms by so fast.
I miss America - and I live here. When people were smart, hard working, clean, respectful and proud to be an American.
Leftist sub culture has destroyed that.
And we weren't shooting each other in schools and stores and parking lots.
@@jameswilson313 Far-right gun nuts have destroyed that. Can you imagine teachers carrying guns in the 1950s.
Beautiful...
newstart49---Everything you say is true, but what you left out is things like centuries-old ingrained racism (causing social divides) in-grained sexism (causing gender divides) and over zealous patriotism (causing the Vietnam War) in pre-1965 America fueled the gradual rise of the Left-Wing which gradually over decades broke down the good side of the society that we see here. Hollywood had a lot to do with too, pre and post 1965.
This is my era, 1953-1956 in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. No better place on earth for me, back then. It's not the same today.
Ha, LosAngeles has REALLY changed from the 50’s. You don’t dare go some places in the shithole now.
@@ffarmchicken Yes I drove through my old neighborhood in Anaheim a few years back, the demographic has changed. It's all run down now. Of course, back then, even Disneyland was new. I also lived in Toluca Lake, where a freeway runs where my house once stood. The reason for living in two places is because I changed jobs from Lockheed Butbank to Hughes Aircraft Fullerton.
I grew up in Costa Mesa and Newport Beach. Great place to be a kid. A couple of awesome, safe towns back then. My mother was a stay at home mom, you could afford do that in Orange County in the early 60’s. So we got to see everything before it started going down hill.
@@ffarmchicken You lived in the rich area.
@@howellwong11 Hollywood is a (rich area) too. Look at it now.
great film. Always so cool to see these great places long ago in full color.
Couldn't agree more!
I'm loving their '51 Ford Victoria. I hope it had Overdrive, going 90 miles an hour across the desert.
Such a cool car
Glad these were saved. My family spent the summer of '54 living in the San Joaquin Valley for my dad's work. We did a major cross country auto trip, returning to Alabama. These views bring back many memories.
I'm so happy that no soundtrack was dubbed to this video Thank you...
You are very welcome. I feel the same way. These were meant to be viewed in silence.
@@ChrisSmartFilms I agree and I'm a pianist composer. Just let the footage unspool with no audio whatsoever. It makes it that more haunting. I was 8 years old in 1952 and my parents would drive to Vegas maybe three times a year from Glendale, Ca about a 4 ½ hour drive with one picnic stop along the side of the road.
Please share, what songs are playing in Your Own head, if any....😆
@@comfeefort Well, there were songs on the radio which I purchased in 45rpm form but the trips to Vegas from Glendale were mostly minus any music. I don't remember my father-the driver- putting on the radio. Even if I had a small transistor
radio with me the times along the side of the road half way to Vegas were filled only with conversation. We've abused the magic of music for mundane reasons for maybe seven decades.
I did some film to digital conversions, 16mm, 8mm, and super 8. For the audio, I left the click, click, click of the projector in because that is what you heard in the old days when you were viewing them on the projector screen.
I moved to California with my family in 1960. My dad was in the Army and we had been in Germany since 1950. In fact I was born there in 1951. When I heard we were moving to California I couldn't believe it. California was the epicenter of everything and seemed like the promised land. I was not disappointed when we arrived. Although we lived in rural northern California, it was still a great place and time to live there. I went to school and university there and married a local. We raised 2 kids and lived there until last year. Unfortunately California is not what it was. High taxes, extreme homelessness everywhere, illegal immigrants, poor infrastructure maintenance and traffic among other thing caused us to leave the state. It is a beautiful place with mountains, deserts, beaches and much more, but it is difficult for many to live there now. Last year was the first time the population declined in recorded history. Those times are gone-never to return. RIP to the California that was.
CA was run by Republicans in the past. That's why it was golden. The Treasury even had a surplus of money. Now its all DEBT.
Agree 100%. I watch these old videos of California, and it’s pretty sad what the state has become. Something changed in the last 30 years and it continuously get worse every year.
Yes, you lived in California during the best of times.
So you’re an old hick who’s upset that a state progressed and didn’t stay perfect for an inbred like you? Got it.
@@messyfilms6325 ...''progress'' is another word for communism.
Went through Wendover about 5 yr ago. I get a kick out of seeing how sparse it was in the early 50s. This was a lot of fun to look at, thanks for posting.
Amazingly good quality. Loved the Ford and seeing other cars. Frightening to compare the water level in Lake Mead today with the level shown in this movie. Thanks for posting
I noticed that as well , it was full ,
Born and raised in las vegas . Wish it still looked like that . Awesome video
Home movies were a popular hobby back in the day. Bet there Is a lot of old films like this just stashed away awaiting discovery. Hope to see many more.
Sure has changed since I was there in 2004 . Flew from Australia and a mate and I drove about 5000 miles through 18 states. Amazing what the little 8mm Kodak film could capture especially the colours.
Wow. 5000 miles???? Sounds fun. Can you do that in Australia?
Beautiful transfers of this footage. Color corrected and as clear and clean as possible.
Thanks! I did no color correction. This is a straight up conversion. Kodachrome is beautiful
That 50s architecture of Vegas was the pinnacle. Vegas died when they changed gambling into gaming and put up those hotel monstrosities on the strip. They will never see one dollar of mine.
Me neither, I have a Grandmother and a Great-Grandmother buried there, not the town I remember.
Wasn't Vegas a one-stoplight town not too long before this was filmed? Yes, it's definitely different from the giga-hotels we see today!
@@DeflatingAtheism yes, to be fair if you last visited from the pre-war era you wouldn't have recognized the town by the 50s.
Nobody cares if you go to Vegas or not. You’re that desperate for attention where you have to announce it on social media?
Awesome! Enjoyed every frame.
My dad filmed many "home movies" from the late 1940's to the early 1970's...in the 1990's, we had them transferred onto video tapes...today, they're probably gathering dust in a box in my brother or sister's garage. Also, my aunt and uncle had hundreds of Kodachrome color slides from their many road trips in the 50's and 60's...those probably got thrown away after they died.
If you still have the film reels you should get them transfer to digital. VHS copies are really bad. Send me an email and I can help with the digital transfer of the 8mm home movies.
Upload them
Thanks for sharing, and not letting this amazing footage get lost or thrown away. I always wonder at what point my home videos will be thrown out. My kids may enjoy them, and maybe my grandkids, but at some point...
I've started making my own 8mm films in the hopes that one day, when I am long gone, someone will discover them.
@@ChrisSmartFilms Thanks to UA-cam, your movies may last forever.
YOU see to it they get on the net
7:34 - Flagpole at Orange Grove Blvd & Colorado Blvd in Pasadena
8:11 - Roberts drive-in at Olive Ave & Victory Blvd in Burbank
9:14 - 11725 Sunset Blvd in Brentwood
10:57 - Mulholland Fountain Riverside Dr & Los Feliz Blvd
Thank you for the extra details!
I saw Tonopah, NV in there. I lived about 50 miles away in Smoky Valley NV until 2008. I love that part of the country. I bet who ever shot this film had no idea that nearly 70 years later, people from all over the world would be able to watch it. I will say this again….”The beauty of Kodachrome”
This is cool. About the same year that my dad and grandparents visited boulder dam and last frontier. I have their still pictures they took. Even found the same location on the dam that was taken of my dad and then took picture of me at same place when I visited a few years ago. Thanks
Thank you for this wonderful video. As I watched it, how sad it made me to think that organized criminal gangs in some California cities have made it impossible or nearly impossible for small business owners to make a honest living.
Thanks for sharing. would it be a paradise on Earth, there was in west of America. Impressive footage for sunny and colorful ole automobiles and cool ranch style houses of stunning 50's.
Great footage. Thank you for posting.
My pleasure
Look how hazy and smoggy Los Angeles was back then. The skies are a whole lot bluer now. At tease one thing got better over time.
love all the old cars
Yes, everyone drove a classic. 😉
Chris, I’ve got to thank you for the post. My parents lived in Utah at the same time this was filmed. Ironically they drove a 1951 Ford too. They traveled these same roads, on similar journeys. To see what they witnessed is priceless. I have a lot of slides that they took back then and recognize the sights. You have really come across a fabulous series of films. It looks like something they would have done. Once again thank you, I owe you my gratitude.
Thank you for your comment! I'm so happy you enjoy the films
Whoever bought this on E bay made a great purchase. Not only is this a great historical record of Las Vegas back in 1952 and in color but to have the original film that is a great find. Also thanks for not adding music I hate when people on UA-cam think there Steven Spielberg and add some god awful horrific sounding music.
Thanks! The film is in pretty bad shape and already starting to disintegrate. Im going to try and record at a higher quality before it's too late. And yes I also hate it when people force their taste in music on to others. It's the worst.
The people over there, in their ignorance, think that they’re Steven Spielberg.
Great video...cannot take away from that. But if this had audio too............this would have been an outstanding video! Not to take away anything from this wonderful film. Back in these days a picture said 1000 words. I love everything , a gem! For sure
My Mom said when we drove out from Nebraska to live in California 1967 there was a small town that looked completely deserted but the lights in the stores were all on like people were there. She said it was near Vegas and it scared the heck out of her and my Grandparents.
I like the road scenes. They remind me of being a little girl in the 1960's and sitting in the back of Mom & Dad's old blue Pontiac. They liked to take us on a driving vacation every summer, and get some sun. Oh and those nice little motels.
Good steady camera work.Today's 'vlogers' could learn something here.
Amazing picture quality! Feels like actually being there!
Nice seeing quality, color 8mm film, street/road footage of "Vegas", Hoover Dam, the L.A. area, California and Utah in the early 50s. Interesting to see the cars, people, businesses and homes back then. If you look quickly, you'll see a vintage (even then), semaphore traffic light displaying "STOP" along Hollywood Blvd. at 10:45. The car the folks were riding in and filming from was a 1951 Ford Victoria hardtop. Thanks for sharing!
This is the type of footage I love finding. Wish I could find some footage of a classic diner
@@ChrisSmartFilms Yeah, footage of a diner from this time would be nice.
Nice seeing old 8 mm film. Reminded me of watching movies my grandfather took when I was a kid.
Good job putting this together and thanks for not adding any music or narrative. It was great seeing the America I remember.
Great video ,América was the envy of the world ,so sad where you guys are today .
Ahhhhh, the good ole days that I truly long for 😟
I was only born in 1975 but I can see that the 50's were a truly remarkable time to be alive.
Yes sir nice time !
So cool..we have taken two trips to Cali this year and on both trips while visiting Death Valley I am almost 100% positive that we stayed at that same little motel in Lone Pine...it is the Portal Motel. I have no idea what it was named then. It has been really well updated.
Thats amazing that the motel still exists!
@@ChrisSmartFilms there are two or three old 40s-50s era style hwy motels in Lone Pine and all of them are restored-refurbished...we love staying in those on our trips.
Thanks! This is very awesome stuff!
From a guy that grew up in that area, and that era, I say Bravo! Very well done. Also in the video is Mt. Whitney, and Tonopah, NV.
Nothing beats the Lone Pine area, right?
LOVED seeing Red Rock Canyon , Lone Pine and the Alabama Hills , Mt. Whitney , Hwy. 6 outside of Bishop and all the Welcome to California Signs , one of them at Topaz Lake I believe .
I would rather see home movies than anything else......thank you for upload
Great video and in color. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for watching!
Great vid , thanks for sharing them. Very cool 😎
The Lake Mead water line was low that year too. GoreBull Worming!!!! We’re all going to die!!!!
Just subscribed, hopefully more to come, great work Chris.
Awesome, thank you!
I really enjoyed this! Such good stuff in 17 minutes.
Glad you enjoyed it!
great of you too share these
Glad you like them!
So cool, thanks for uploading this
Im happy you enjoyed it!
Thank you for sharing it.
1:44 Boulder City, It looks the same......They always wanted to keep it that way, far away from the RiffRaff.....that image is very familiar
Me Logan, UT, first night in Vegas, NV. Second night across Harbor Blvd. from Disneyland in Anaheim, CA in summer of 1958. A few days later eventually arrived in LA.
This is great! love the timecodes you provided!!! we subbed you !
Thank you very much!
Raridade. Acho que alguém no passado pensou no futuro um dia,e disse: olha como éramos e veja como somos hoje. Espetacular viagem! Grande postagem.
At 10.16 we can see the car driving along the Grauman's Chinese Theater in which at 10.26 we can see a poster for the movie The African Queen (Humphrey Boogart and Katherine Hepburn). Accordong to wikipedia, «The African Queen opened on December 26, 1951 at the Fox Wilshire Theatre in Beverly Hills[». We can see the Fox Theater at around 10.06
Wow...I had a back flash( Better than a flashback) ...I was 7 when this was filmed. Thanks for time travel to the 50"s.
Once upon a time when hoover dam wasn’t under it’s history’s worst drought conditions in over 65 years
Nice to see the California that no longer exists. Great to see Tiny Naylor's on Sunset Blvd. I was still going there in the early 70s.
Sadly, it was demolished in 1984.
from 1952-72 cars fashions and music really changed, a lot, but the last 20 years not much change at all
6:36 I think that may be Cajon Village, rather than Cajun Village. Cajon Summit is on I-15/US 66 just north of San Bernardino.
11:00 Based on the travel plan, that's probably the South Sierra Nevada out of Bishop and Lone Pine, from US 395. Mt. Whitney should be in there somewhere.
13:12 Tonopah wasn't quite there yet, but the Air Force was coming.
15:57 You're right. The El Rancho in Murray, Utah, just south of SLC. Well to do suburb now, that wreck is probably long gone.
That family sure took a traveling vacation. Thanks for posting this.
Thanks for all the details!!
Came here to say that the 11:00 mark looks like Bishop. Definitely looks like they're in one of the motels off the main drag.
I Thought Bishop too. They filmed 'Bad Day ay BlackRock,' not to far from there!
can you imagine the changes coming in the next 70 years 2092
Would like to see more home movie road trips.
This was my first ( second hand ) car, a Ford Customeline from 1950/51 in Holland ( the Netherlands )a very solid car and was provided with a bumper crick !
It would be great if one of these old videos contained conversations about whatever people talked about at that time. It would also be great if the people filmed here somehow found this online and commented about it.
For an European like myself, this is the only one american dream in the most glamourous decade ever !!! GO AHEAD USA !!!
Beautyful and vivid🌸
Thanks for watching!
These were the best days in america. Life was simple. You could work most anywhere and make a living. Homeless people didn't exist. Streets were clean. Most people were nice and respectful. Far cry from the america today. Now everything is trashed and half the country is on welfare. Government is a joke and the country's that liked us now hate us. America is no more. Just ruins of a once proud country.
It all ended when JFK was shot.....the difference between 63 and 68 was enormous .
All the Hispanics I know had a perpetually drunk dad and were always poor broke. There was a lot of domestic abuse and drunk violence as well.
I would NEVER go to that era. The life stories of those growing up then was a hell, not a utopia. It was common for both parents to beat their kids for no reason at all. And by beat, I mean beat, as in bar-fight style beatings. Then families kept TONS of secrets, no one sought help, and families were cheated out of their money in heritage claims.
- 1980s born Hispanic.
He had that old Ford just humming coming across the dessert and salt flat
At 10:56 that's the Mulholland fountain in Griffith Park (LA). It was used in the final scene of one of the Nightmare on Elm Street joints. I think it was either 3 or 4, but I can't remember exactly..
Wow, Nevada had it all back then. Imagine having a place to, well, you know...12:14
Wouldn’t it be nice to go back to 1952 and make another go at the future ,
Two things: 1. At 7:00 mins and beyond, they are driving Old Route 66 though the Inland Empire and into Los Angeles. 2. At 9:40 mins, there is a very quick shot of P.O.P. (Pacific Ocean Pier) on the edge of Santa Monica and Venice.
Thank you for the extra details!
When I was a kid, my family moved to California...
...but I found them.
If the film is in chronological order, then the red sandstone bluff at 11:01 is probably Red Rock Canyon State Park near Ridgecrest, California. this is on Highway 14 which connects to 395 and Lone Pine.
Thank you very much for the details!
Cars back then has no lumbar support or headrests. I grew up in the 80s and 90s...we had our home videos of crappy VHS. Film and 4k are much better alternatives now.
Me acabo de suscribir a tu canal me gustó mucho por fabor sube más vídeos 🙏🙏☺️☺️
Look at the low water level in Lake Mead at 2:43, 2:53 & 3:07. The water level in Lake Mead was at a near record high level in 1952, then it dropped precipitously in 1953 and 1954, hitting a record low level in 1955 that wasn't matched until 2007. Looking at the cars in this old film, I don't see one that looks as new as 1955, so my guess is this film was shot in 1953, or 1954 at the latest.
At 4:56. there is a 1950 Cadilac Series 62 parked in the foreground and what appears to be a 1950 Packard convertable in the background.
Beautiful
Nice details of the day. Hope the descendants see this
I hope so too
Interesting thanks
Lindas imagens !
When I glanced at the picture of the video, I thought it was from "Rainman".
Show. Very beauthiful. I like Shoebox and Studebaker. From Garibaldi RS Brazil.
We have overpopulated this beautiful area. So sad.
Great find!!! May I ask what software was used in this upload? I have my Dad's 8mm movies, from Los Angeles to traveling to Mexico in the 70's and would love to upload and share how Life was before the digital age.
Hello! I use a Wolverine machine. Send me an email, I can digitize those for you.