Growing up in suburban Detroit in the 1960s, we’ve seen bums delivering advertising newspapers. When they made enough money, they’d buy a cheap bottle of wine and find a flop house room to spend the night. The bums were never on street corners begging, they kept out of sight and minded their own business. They looked very similar to the persons depicted in your video, dressed in suits and coats and leather shoes that were provided by the Salvation Army and other charities. They weren’t a problem to solve, they ended up based on how they chose to live their lives.
Thanks, mate. I really enjoyed looking at these old photographs of your country, and the men who fell through the cracks. You're doing a valuable conserving such pictorial histories. I wish you rainbows.
Compared with today's standards, those people looked downright respectable. I can't recall ever seeing a homeless meth addict wearing a suit and tie. Thanks, great video.
Wow! Those guys bumming around looked to have more class and respect for each other than the people living in those areas t today that aren’t bums. Wow.
Skid Row is a logging term and the first use as applied to bums was in Seattle as far back as the 1800's. Something to be proud of. Growing up in Seattle I remember the bums being mostly on the waterfront and Pioneer Square/1st Avenue. Now they're everywhere.
Shot and a beer: 39 cents. That just says it all. I attended a barber school in Oakland, Ca. in the early '70's and there were winos everywhere. We started school at 7am and it was a dangerous place to be at that time of morning. They were building the BART system and there were open trenches in front of our school. I saw six or seven men fall into those trenches and none lived. I saw men fight over the last pull on a wine bottle. Men stealing shoes from other passed out winos was common. One of our students was sliced in his face by a broken wine bottle for a little bit of change. Tough times in a tough town. It's worse now. The whole damn city is now a giant skid row. Nice going, Oakland. That's real progress.
Wow - that’s interesting and scary. Much worse everywhere today, but it does seem the California cities have it especially bad. Thanks for sharing these details.
I find this time period fascinating because for the most part this was pre welfare / food stamps etc... So most of the help just had to come from local missions / churches. Also back then we had a lot more mental hospitals.
they would ride the rails into maplewood, mn and walk past our house in the 60's. they would have a camp at near the ramsey county nursing home/fairgrounds. our home was marked and my mom would feed a few on the back steps, mainly in the summer months. this is a great vid, thanks for posting
I see no Mental Health issues, I see organized, labor halls, Salvation Armies, Good Will, boarding houses, the recognition of living indoors and safety are at the top of the list. Helping Hands and Strong backs, everyone is wearing a hat and jacket, they might be destitute but the majority is all white older men, probably with physical problems or drinking problems or physical disabilities or mental disabilities. Nobody shitting in the street or mobbing up 50 deep to rob an Apple Store or a designer store at a mall. That really was a trip to watch.
I was just thinking that. Not only WWII, but WWI, and even Korea in many cases. Were they bums, or just normal guys suffering at various levels of PTSD?
I'd say many of these guys were vets. Back in the old days every able bodied person would be off fighting the Germans and Japanese. Or going to Korea in the 50's.
@@MrRufusjax yep, and they came back, all messed in the head for the things they seen and were forced to do and noone was there to help them when they came back home.
The one thing that stands out constantly in these old photos, is just how bland and dreary their world back then was. Besides the close shops crammed together in the downtowns with the multitude of signs, everything else looked lifeless, gloomy and sad. The inside walls had mostly nothing decorating them, except in a wealthy person's house or the lobby of a hotel, but the blue collar people didn't have much going on. I often feel drawn to this bygone age, as if I was born in the wrong time, but I am thankful for the much easier and colorful world I live in today, when I compare it to the past. My heart often hurts for those who suffered and did without, so I don't. The millions of men who died in countless wars, the slaves throughout human history, the dirt poor serfs, the brutal hardships of settling new territory, the lack of food, medicine, cloths, money, religious understanding, opportunities, freedom from work and everything we take for granted. I always appreciate seeing historical pictures, because they do a great job of leaving me humble and keeping me thankful.
It’s good to be humble and thankful, but your view of the dreary and hopeless lives of the people is tainted by the black and white photography and narrow field of the camera’s view. There are millions of American success stories from every decade; true rags to riches tales. I’m one. Why do you think millions of people are streaming through our borders right now? America at its worst is - or was - better than most nations at giving people opportunities to succeed.
@@riverwildcat1Exactly! If those same photos were colorized, the perspective would change. Which is the response people give whenever they see film footage or photos from 100 years ago. They see the world in color, not in black and white. All that aside, there are plenty of folks in this country, who are living drab, bleak existences right now.
@@philiporourke7896 Most of the drunks here in L.A.s skid row have been pushed out by heroin, meth and crack addicts along with the mentally I'll. The winos that once called skid row home were generally a very peaceful lot.
Prior to WWII these streets were called "The Main-Stem." Hobo vernacular for the main street. (For them) These areas were created to cater to the traveling workingman; The Hobo. Many of these men, after a life on the road and working, would then come to retire here. Over 60% were former train hopping workers.
I remember these types of men in NYC from when I was a child in the 1970's. In suburbia, everyone had a neighborhood "handy man". He did odd jobs for some money of a hot meal. These men meant no harm. Today, NYC streets are filled with drug addicts, criminals and illegal aliens.
When I was a little kid, my Dad would drive me into San Francisco to visit the zoo, or the park, or the art museum. But first, he would enter the City at one of the southernmost off-ramps which led to Howard Street and Third...."skid row"...where he would point to the "bums" (his words) and tell me that this would be my fate if I didn't pursue an ethical life and get a good education. Thanks Dad.
Haha! My Dad took me down to Madison St. in Chicago and we would look at the "bums" and he said, "this is what happens if you don't get a college education". I got that education.
There were differences between Hobo’s, Bum’s, & drifters. And like always some were just down on their luck. Willing to work! Those were usually the ones who worked at the CCC and other FDR programs.
When it was European they were drunks, and had issues but were Not Violent. Theres Hobos would Not hurt Mothers or children. They stayed amonenst themselves.
Even the most destitute of individuals, dressed as best they could. Some quite well. Almost everyone in a coat & vest of some sort, which was the norm. Unlike today, where folks have seem to lost all common sense on how to dress. And they're still working.
When one looks at photos of men in soup lines in NYC or Chicago during the 30s, they're all in ties and jackets. Even the men living in shanty towns in the major cities back then, made themselves, look respectable.
Alcohol is still king, cuz nothing conquers fear like John Barleycorn. From fear of asking a woman to dance, to fear of dying and everything in between. Alcohol is THE drug.
Nothing has really changes that much in my opinion, except it is getting worse because the "middle class" are now entering the ranks of the homeless. America is really just a rich and poor society now............
These people are better dressed and have more hope than our modern version. As a kid in 1950s San Francisco, I occasionally had to go down to the "Tenderloin", south of Market Street and close to the shipping docks on SF Bay. Sailors, stevedores, hookers, down-and-outers, and drug addicts found cheap housing and plenty of bars and strip joints to hang out in. These photos capture that world perfectly, and even the ragged dignity of people who never had, or lost, a good life. Nobody was allowed to sleep or stumble around on the sidewalks and streets. "Paddy wagons" manned by police scooped people up and took them to jail for "vagrancy", but once there they sobered up, bathed, and got fed for a week or so. The Salvation Army, Goodwill, and Charity Churches helped men and women try to get back to work and a decent life. In the 1970s San Francisco chose to ban shipping and focus on high finance, a la Wall Street, and cater to the rich. They tore down thousands of cheap hotels and apartments, replacing them with expensive skyscrapers and townhouses, but the financial renaissance moved to China. Now San Francisco is a post-Apocalyptic hellscape, and the big corporations have fled the downtown in waves. Outstanding compilation of photos and music. History comes alive here.
The very same thing happened in Chicago's Skid Row, which was an area west of the Loop and concentrated on west Madison, south to Canal Street. They also had one on north Clark Street, north of the Chicago River, in what is now known as River North, and other areas surrounding downtown.These areas had cheap hotels, flop houses, burlesque theaters, bars and taverns. The Urban renewal programs destroyed many of these city blocks, which left little alternatives for those in difficult circumstances. Chicago still has a few SRO's left on south Clark St n the Loop. In my opinion, the downtown area, was far more interesting then the antiseptic,boring, bland, streetscapes, one sees today.
Nothing has changed in San Francisco in the Tenderloin District since the 1970s when I was a kid. The Hippies got jobs and moved out but the same Bums stayed where they were. The Hobos almost disappeared with a few traveling around. They were respectable because they would do odd jobs to earn money.
Social services are more directed to support women and children, which they should be. But, that said, geez....you can really see the fall out, which puts legions of males at the very bottom.
Face it, places like this have to exist. Business needs seasonal workers. They have to live somewhere. City planners need to allow room for SROs. These would soak up a lot of the homeless that are working but cant afford apartments.
my city they had cheap rooms no more, or they could pay a few cents and hang out in an all-night movie house. westerns, or 20th run features no more. now its tents on the sidewalks
Skid row comes from Seattle, the loggers would come out of the woods on the weekend and spend their loot on Yestler way. The logging companies would pick up their workers on skid row to go back and do it all over again. Booze, gambling and “seamstresses” would consume their pay.
Looking at these old pictures of the days when hobos lived a life without good housing, I'm reminded of the recent video stating that the "homeless population has been growing steadily at the rate of 6 percent since the mid-1970's. And the coming worldwide recession/depression will cause homelessness to expand to ??? The coming bad times could dwarf anything the world has gone through in the past economic contractions.
No - not for a long time. Years ago a "bum" could get a super cheap room for very little money, but you know that already. As real estate, and the land it was built on, became more and more valuable they started tearing down the old buildings.
I'm old my father was born in 1915 , in his youth he was a bit of a rounder , so he spent some time on skid rows all through the Nation during the depression , one time he caused a uproar at my parents church here in the deep south when he said , if he was hungry and broke he would be more likely to get a handout on skid row than from any church. Needless to say the God fearing church folks were shocked by such a comment
Agreed..personally I witnessed those years late 40s and early fifties.there were plenty of good stories that came out of those Hobo camps..kinda like the old movie..meet John Doe ..starting Gary Cooper, and Barbra Stanwyck ….
How are you doing sir thank you for your wonderful cultural documentary channel. Iam Arabic lady subscriber to several British and American UA-cam channels. I sent comments to you from very long time. I learned there are slums special places for poor people where lived there and spread of crimes and outlaws and serial killers as famous jack ripper . I looked up for meaning of skid row is poor district of city , town where there are inexpensive hotel , bars , etc . People who are drink too much often go there synonyms red light distract. Skid row originated from skid road which was forest track over which logs were dragged to get either water or transport or mill by 1915 skid road had come to be used to indicate street or area cheap shops or resorts relatively distributable street . Thank you for your giving us chance to read learn new information improve our English as well. Good luck to you your dearest ones . Happy Halloween in advance.
It's kind of like growing up an American boy and knowing that you must sign up for the draft at age 18. Like in the Viet Nam era. We'd have a more appreciative public and a closed border.
Ciao from Bagheria Sicily. Minneapolis goes from a beautiful well kept and reasonably safe and clean majority White City to a majority black all GHETTO City. Sad but true.
Poor Italia. The migrants from across the Mediterranean are changing your beautiful culture and trashing your cities and picturesque sea and country towns as well.
@@abef.9085. Ciao once again, and good evening from Bagheria. Now the blacks are talking more SHIT about their so called great history. Now they are saying that the Lone Ranger is based on a black Deputy US Marshal. In truth the Lone Ranger is based on a White Texas Ranger. Oh, and now the you people are claiming that a black really invented the Automobile, but Henry Ford stole the plans. And here is a better one. Now they air claiming that some black guy invented the gas mask and the Scott air pack system, that's the mask connected to the oxygen tank used by the Fire Departments World wide. And all of these inventions were in truth all invented by White People. Now here's a really laughable one. Now they claim the first Flag raising at Iwo Jima was actually done by a small group of black Marines. In reality they are just a group of insecure cultureless People who are afraid of the truth.
There were many more cheap hotels back then. The police would not tolerate sleeping outside at night you would get arrested and treated roughly to teach you a lesson. Here in LA the police told vagrants to keep going and not come back. When a known vagrant returned he was picked up by the police and driven to the desert and dropped by the side of the road.
The term Skid Row was wrong. The proper term is Skid Road. And was started in the 20th century in Portland, Oregon. Because when they were felling tall trees they used Burnside street to let the logs skid down the street to the nearby Willamette river. The loggers called it skid road and the term stuck. It was a rough area and attracted hobos because of the saloons, brothels and gambling.
@@lucianomezzetta4332 ..sure it's okay but merely pointing out the historical facts. I prefer using the original term but it's obviously not a big deal.
@@gilactico I think being homeless and decrepit had an entirely different meaning in those days. Just look how things are in most skid rows these days. Full of haggard junkies high on fentanyl or crack sitting on the sidewalks between trash, abandoned furniture and tents.
I’m suspecting that *real* help, and *real* opportunities, might have been somewhat more common back then, also - as long as you fit the “desirable” mold, of course. They were a whole lot scarcer than now if you did *NOT* fit that mold - Jim Crow, *The Ugly Laws,* (what I would have been subjected to; like Jim Crow for disabled/disfigured people, only worse in some ways), and various other laws regarding deviance made certain of that. Help was reserved for the *DESERVING.* You had to fit that mold fairly well to be seen as *worthy,* and it was a narrow mold in most places. (That *might* explain the relatively higher standard of dress..?) Deviation from the “strait/straight and narrow” - regardless as to why, also - meant you’d be in a lot worse shape than most people shown in the film clip.
At least back then one could get a cheap room or a warm bed out of the elements. Today it's tents on the sidewalk. In the '70s I missed the last bus back to suburbia after seeing a rock concert in Manhattan. I had little money so someone suggested a flop house. I was very impressed how clean and quiet my very small room was. It had a strong smell of disinfectant. I got a good night's sleep and caught a bus home the next day. I doubt there are such establishments left in NYC or anywhere else for that matter. There should be cheap housing for the poor, the elderly, or those that just had a run of bad luck. Housing of any kind is just too darn expensive in the US. Since money is created out of thin air when someone gets a home loan, why is interest attached to it? The major price of a mortgage is interest. The loans should be given interest free so everyone could afford housing. Do you ever wonder why a bank can just write a check without money to back it up? If you or I operated like a bank the authorities would lock us up.
The term "skid row" came from Seattle. In 1852, "skid road" was first applied to a slum area at the loggers' part of town in Seattle, Washington, USA, and before 1900 it had come into common usage in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The name was shortened at some point in time to skid row, referring to Yesler Way, where lumber was skidded downhill to Henry Yesler's mill on the waterfront. In the early years of the community, people went there when they needed work or hit hard times.
![A Failed Experiment - The Prohibition Era in America [Colorized]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/FNK0dyNXR60/mqdefault.jpg)
Growing up in suburban Detroit in the 1960s, we’ve seen bums delivering advertising newspapers. When they made enough money, they’d buy a cheap bottle of wine and find a flop house room to spend the night. The bums were never on street corners begging, they kept out of sight and minded their own business. They looked very similar to the persons depicted in your video, dressed in suits and coats and leather shoes that were provided by the Salvation Army and other charities. They weren’t a problem to solve, they ended up based on how they chose to live their lives.
We’ll said.
I am from San FranSkidrow! I long for the days when the bums at least wore hats and ties!
Thanks, mate.
I really enjoyed looking at these old photographs of your country, and the men who fell through the cracks.
You're doing a valuable conserving such pictorial histories.
I wish you rainbows.
Compared with today's standards, those people looked downright respectable. I can't recall ever seeing a homeless meth addict wearing a suit and tie. Thanks, great video.
Each one had a mother and father. Each one had a story to tell. Every story a sad one. No exceptions.
Wow! Those guys bumming around looked to have more class and respect for each other than the people living in those areas t today that aren’t bums. Wow.
Some were alcoholics, of course but some just couldn't find work.
Maybe it's because a lot of them,if not all had something in common.
Skid Row is a logging term and the first use as applied to bums was in Seattle as far back as the 1800's. Something to be proud of. Growing up in Seattle I remember the bums being mostly on the waterfront and Pioneer Square/1st Avenue. Now they're everywhere.
Shot and a beer: 39 cents. That just says it all. I attended a barber school in Oakland, Ca. in the early '70's and there were winos everywhere. We started school at 7am and it was a dangerous place to be at that time of morning. They were building the BART system and there were open trenches in front of our school. I saw six or seven men fall into those trenches and none lived. I saw men fight over the last pull on a wine bottle. Men stealing shoes from other passed out winos was common. One of our students was sliced in his face by a broken wine bottle for a little bit of change. Tough times in a tough town. It's worse now. The whole damn city is now a giant skid row. Nice going, Oakland. That's real progress.
Wow - that’s interesting and scary. Much worse everywhere today, but it does seem the California cities have it especially bad. Thanks for sharing these details.
I find this time period fascinating because for the most part this was pre welfare / food stamps etc... So most of the help just had to come from local missions / churches. Also back then we had a lot more mental hospitals.
i'm glad you used the word bums. I'm old enough to remember bums. They weren't the same as the "homeless" people we have now.
Was "bum" actually a less derogatory word at one point?
@@gregorymalchuk272. No, it was derogatory but in those days, you could say that.
Those Hobos looked classier than Fetterman...
they would ride the rails into maplewood, mn and walk past our house in the 60's. they would have a camp at near the ramsey county nursing home/fairgrounds. our home was marked and my mom would feed a few on the back steps, mainly in the summer months. this is a great vid, thanks for posting
Yep, they would leave a mark for the next guy if you fed or have some respect. 😅
Bums back than dressed a whole lot better than just regular people today.
Especially GenZ.
I see no Mental Health issues, I see organized, labor halls, Salvation Armies, Good Will, boarding houses, the recognition of living indoors and safety are at the top of the list. Helping Hands and Strong backs, everyone is wearing a hat and jacket, they might be destitute but the majority is all white older men, probably with physical problems or drinking problems or physical disabilities or mental disabilities. Nobody shitting in the street or mobbing up 50 deep to rob an Apple Store or a designer store at a mall. That really was a trip to watch.
How many of these "bums" were vets from WW2?....sure, you can count on the VA to provide quality care of you after you serve your Country.
I was just thinking that. Not only WWII, but WWI, and even Korea in many cases. Were they bums, or just normal guys suffering at various levels of PTSD?
I'd say many of these guys were vets. Back in the old days every able bodied person would be off fighting the Germans and Japanese. Or going to Korea in the 50's.
@@MrRufusjax yep, and they came back, all messed in the head for the things they seen and were forced to do and noone was there to help them when they came back home.
Very interesting choice of subject. And well done. Thank you.
Thank you!
The one thing that stands out constantly in these old photos, is just how bland and dreary their world back then was. Besides the close shops crammed together in the downtowns with the multitude of signs, everything else looked lifeless, gloomy and sad. The inside walls had mostly nothing decorating them, except in a wealthy person's house or the lobby of a hotel, but the blue collar people didn't have much going on.
I often feel drawn to this bygone age, as if I was born in the wrong time, but I am thankful for the much easier and colorful world I live in today, when I compare it to the past. My heart often hurts for those who suffered and did without, so I don't. The millions of men who died in countless wars, the slaves throughout human history, the dirt poor serfs, the brutal hardships of settling new territory, the lack of food, medicine, cloths, money, religious understanding, opportunities, freedom from work and everything we take for granted. I always appreciate seeing historical pictures, because they do a great job of leaving me humble and keeping me thankful.
So right. And something so few would ever have considered
It’s good to be humble and thankful, but your view of the dreary and hopeless lives of the people is tainted by the black and white photography and narrow field of the camera’s view. There are millions of American success stories from every decade; true rags to riches tales. I’m one. Why do you think millions of people are streaming through our borders right now? America at its worst is - or was - better than most nations at giving people opportunities to succeed.
@@riverwildcat1Exactly! If those same photos were colorized, the perspective would change. Which is the response people give whenever they see film footage or photos from 100 years ago. They see the world in color, not in black and white. All that aside, there are plenty of folks in this country, who are living drab, bleak existences right now.
San Francisco looks pretty lifeless & sad right now. It’s WAAAAAY worse than anything in this clip!
My dad would sometimes say, what do you think this is a flop house, if my room was messy.
Geez...even the hobo's back then had more class.
The kids in high school wear pajama pants to school. This is a new for me. Never had this back in the 80’s. Weird trend.
The drunks today have no class at all.
@@Luigisalibi ohhh gosh yu are not totally wrong about that 😬🙄 I’m a college student and I have wetness those trends of today social
@@philiporourke7896 Most of the drunks here in L.A.s skid row have been pushed out by heroin, meth and crack addicts along with the mentally I'll. The winos that once called skid row home were generally a very peaceful lot.
Ha yes I was just about to say that , better dressed etc but u beat me!
I’ll take the old skid row over the new skid row.
Yep - me too.
and great music too
Music sounds like a person would play in a bar or saloon.
Not living in tents but in cheap rooms n flop houses. We need to bring these back! 🍻
Prior to WWII these streets were called "The Main-Stem." Hobo vernacular for the main street. (For them) These areas were created to cater to the traveling workingman; The Hobo. Many of these men, after a life on the road and working, would then come to retire here. Over 60% were former train hopping workers.
I remember these types of men in NYC from when I was a child in the 1970's. In suburbia, everyone had a neighborhood "handy man". He did odd jobs for some money of a hot meal. These men meant no harm. Today, NYC streets are filled with drug addicts, criminals and illegal aliens.
Minneapolis had a problem now they have a nightmare.
your videos are vary good i for some reason enjoy watching. I am a Canadian guy 61 thanks
When I was a little kid, my Dad would drive me into San Francisco to visit the zoo, or the park, or the art museum. But first, he would enter the City at one of the southernmost off-ramps which led to Howard Street and Third...."skid row"...where he would point to the "bums" (his words) and tell me that this would be my fate if I didn't pursue an ethical life and get a good education. Thanks Dad.
Do you have an ethical Life and a good education?
Haha! My Dad took me down to Madison St. in Chicago and we would look at the "bums" and he said, "this is what happens if you don't get a college education". I got that education.
Your dad did what a dad is supposed to do.
Skid row back then was cleaner then any major city today
Damn safer too.
There were differences between Hobo’s, Bum’s, & drifters.
And like always some were just down on their luck. Willing to work! Those were usually the ones who worked at the CCC and other FDR programs.
Notice how almost none of them have needles sticking out of their arms while sitting in a pile of their own filth!
I'm guessing that there were also no "poop maps", as they have for some cities now. 😜
Or how they’re not bent over high out of their minds getting their bootyhole slammed by another druggie
Loved these pictures; put on some Herbert Huncke, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Lucien Carr, or Jack Kerouac to listen to while looking at em
It’s noticeable that there don’t appear to be any female down & outs in the photographs.
True - I definitely found that to be the case, at least in the photos I could find.
They had them.
It’s because naturally if there are homeless females they have a better chance of someone taking them in.
It shows all through human history there has existed the down and out.
When it was European they were drunks, and had issues but were Not Violent. Theres Hobos would Not hurt Mothers or children. They stayed amonenst themselves.
Great photos. Thank you.
Great pictures of Chicago. 😊
Great vid, so fun to watch.
Back then 3 thousand a year was skid row, now 3 thousand a month is skid row.
Even the most destitute of individuals, dressed as best they could. Some quite well. Almost everyone in a coat & vest of some sort, which was the norm. Unlike today, where folks have seem to lost all common sense on how to dress. And they're still working.
When one looks at photos of men in soup lines in NYC or Chicago during the 30s, they're all in ties and jackets. Even the men living in shanty towns in the major cities back then, made themselves, look respectable.
That was before drugs took over and bums washed themselves everyday and tried hard to look clean and presentable.
Alcohol is still king, cuz nothing conquers fear like John Barleycorn. From fear of asking a woman to dance, to fear of dying and everything in between. Alcohol is THE drug.
How do you know this?
@@matt3024 Seriously dude, if you ask that you must lead a very sheltered life.
I seen a dude get so drunk he smashed a trans bootyhole in Thailand thinking it was a chick and only tried to fight it after he finished in him.
Nothing has really changes that much in my opinion, except it is getting worse because the "middle class" are now entering the ranks of the homeless. America is really just a rich and poor society now............
Yes, a terrible existence, but at least they could find a cheap room which does not exist today.
Even the bums looked better in the early days than to day today. The bums of the fifties look better than the average person today.
Sad that the word bum isn’t used much anymore
These people are better dressed and have more hope than our modern version. As a kid in 1950s San Francisco, I occasionally had to go down to the "Tenderloin", south of Market Street and close to the shipping docks on SF Bay. Sailors, stevedores, hookers, down-and-outers, and drug addicts found cheap housing and plenty of bars and strip joints to hang out in. These photos capture that world perfectly, and even the ragged dignity of people who never had, or lost, a good life. Nobody was allowed to sleep or stumble around on the sidewalks and streets. "Paddy wagons" manned by police scooped people up and took them to jail for "vagrancy", but once there they sobered up, bathed, and got fed for a week or so. The Salvation Army, Goodwill, and Charity Churches helped men and women try to get back to work and a decent life. In the 1970s San Francisco chose to ban shipping and focus on high finance, a la Wall Street, and cater to the rich. They tore down thousands of cheap hotels and apartments, replacing them with expensive skyscrapers and townhouses, but the financial renaissance moved to China. Now San Francisco is a post-Apocalyptic hellscape, and the big corporations have fled the downtown in waves. Outstanding compilation of photos and music. History comes alive here.
The very same thing happened in Chicago's Skid Row, which was an area west of the Loop and concentrated on west Madison, south to Canal Street. They also had one on north Clark Street, north of the Chicago River, in what is now known as River North, and other areas surrounding downtown.These areas had cheap hotels, flop houses, burlesque theaters, bars and taverns. The Urban renewal programs destroyed many of these city blocks, which left little alternatives for those in difficult circumstances. Chicago still has a few SRO's left on south Clark St n the Loop. In my opinion, the downtown area, was far more interesting then the antiseptic,boring, bland, streetscapes, one sees today.
Nothing has changed in San Francisco in the Tenderloin District since the 1970s when I was a kid. The Hippies got jobs and moved out but the same Bums stayed where they were. The Hobos almost disappeared with a few traveling around. They were respectable because they would do odd jobs to earn money.
Social services are more directed to support women and children, which they should be. But, that said, geez....you can really see the fall out, which puts legions of males at the very bottom.
Face it, places like this have to exist. Business needs seasonal workers. They have to live somewhere. City planners need to allow room for SROs. These would soak up a lot of the homeless that are working but cant afford apartments.
Not much has really changed. We all spend most, if not all of our lives focused on surviving. (edit) Great video, Thanks! :)
Lord I wish I had a Time Machine to go back and walk on those Chicago streets
Bum Lives Matter . . . and to celebrate that fact, the next round of bum wine is on me.
Funny how even the bums were comparatively well dressed back then. I'm glad I don't feel that pressure! 🤣
$hit those skid row rooms in LA NY SF are going for $8000+ a month now
If that's the case, somebody better have two, to three State jobs
Bums back then dress better than “regular” people do now
Exactly. The bums back then had more dignity than to go out and about in their pajama pants.
@@Dan-rn5js There were quite a few who did. They dont show you that.
True, but they all dressed in all gray, all the time.
Absolutely!
Still better dressed than today's affluent youth.
Wino 's is what they were called back in the day, White Port was very popular in my town where I grew up,
Wow, these guys look positively dressy and classy compared to the homeless of today. Even homelessness was better in years gone by.
It just dawned on me, what were the holidays like for these people?
Burlesque Houses...
The Bada Bing of their Day.
my city they had cheap rooms no more, or they could pay a few cents and hang out in an all-night movie house. westerns, or 20th run features no more. now its tents on the sidewalks
At last a video without rich people posing by their new car. These were the real "good old days."
boy the way glenn miller played....let's sing it together...🤣
The guy in the thumbnail pic looks like a real life Popeye.
💯👍Thank you, sir
Hot dogs with trimmings .15cents 🤔
I was wondering, what are the "trimmings"?
These bums looked better then than most people now .
Skid row comes from Seattle, the loggers would come out of the woods on the weekend and spend their loot on Yestler way. The logging companies would pick up their workers on skid row to go back and do it all over again. Booze, gambling and “seamstresses” would consume their pay.
They even wore hats!
Looking at these old pictures of the days when hobos lived a life without good housing, I'm reminded of the recent video stating that the "homeless population has been growing steadily at the rate of 6 percent since the mid-1970's.
And the coming worldwide recession/depression will cause homelessness to expand to ???
The coming bad times could dwarf anything the world has gone through in the past economic contractions.
To my knowledge...Homelesses expanded greatly under the Reagan administration
I was wondering,is there still drunk tanks, and flop houses?
No - not for a long time. Years ago a "bum" could get a super cheap room for very little money, but you know that already. As real estate, and the land it was built on, became more and more valuable they started tearing down the old buildings.
Anybody know the name of the tune playing during the video? Kind of a nice laid back jazz piece, but I couldn't find it.
I like all your videos
I'm old my father was born in 1915 , in his youth he was a bit of a rounder , so he spent some time on skid rows all through the Nation during the depression , one time he caused a uproar at my parents church here in the deep south when he said , if he was hungry and broke he would be more likely to get a handout on skid row than from any church. Needless to say the God fearing church folks were shocked by such a comment
The good ole southern Baptist. They're famous for giving you the left foot of fellowship.
Because it was true,and still is.
Very sad, lost lives
Agreed..personally I witnessed those years late 40s and early fifties.there were plenty of good stories that came out of those Hobo camps..kinda like the old movie..meet John Doe ..starting Gary Cooper, and Barbra Stanwyck ….
Always liquor stores on the slum parts of town even to this very day. Liquor, cigs, and adult bookstores to was those blues away.
You also had people that lived in other parts of town that came into these areas for this things..trust me
They just didnt want it where they lived
Amazing!!!
How are you doing sir thank you for your wonderful cultural documentary channel. Iam Arabic lady subscriber to several British and American UA-cam channels. I sent comments to you from very long time. I learned there are slums special places for poor people where lived there and spread of crimes and outlaws and serial killers as famous jack ripper . I looked up for meaning of skid row is poor district of city , town where there are inexpensive hotel , bars , etc . People who are drink too much often go there synonyms red light distract. Skid row originated from skid road which was forest track over which logs were dragged to get either water or transport or mill by 1915 skid road had come to be used to indicate street or area cheap shops or resorts relatively distributable street . Thank you for your giving us chance to read learn new information improve our English as well. Good luck to you your dearest ones . Happy Halloween in advance.
😊I'm Korean
Your English is good. Keep it up. Read Dickens and Voltaire. You are smart.
No tents etc...because one must have , well in '68 it was 7 dollars on your person or you were a vagrant and taken away in the 'Paddy Wagon' to jail.
The legal definition of person is a corporation
@@JerShaffer ..
Okay.....
It's kind of like growing up an American boy and knowing that you must sign up for the draft at age 18. Like in the Viet Nam era. We'd have a more appreciative public and a closed border.
As a teenager, my father always told me to have some money in my wallet so as to not be picked up for vagrancy.
I turned the sound off. It made it easier to imagine how bad the odors were.
Like a whore house at low tide
People today want to be spoon fed. They want everything given to them on a silver platter.
Such as, WELFARE?
No trash and litter all over skid row!!! Why is there so much trash all over the streets today?
there was no blacks down there in these photos!?
@@benburndred2226 Segregation...
Because, hardly anybody cares 😞😞😞
Ciao from Bagheria Sicily. Minneapolis goes from a beautiful well kept and reasonably safe and clean majority White City to a majority black all GHETTO City. Sad but true.
Poor Italia. The migrants from across the Mediterranean are changing your beautiful culture and trashing your cities and picturesque sea and country towns as well.
WRONG!..You know exactly what he"s Talking about!...lol...So does everybody else..@@LesterMoore
LOL..thats not what I saw in these pictures...especially with all the " bums" sleeping outside
@@abef.9085. Ciao once again, and good evening from Bagheria. Now the blacks are talking more SHIT about their so called great history. Now they are saying that the Lone Ranger is based on a black Deputy US Marshal. In truth the Lone Ranger is based on a White Texas Ranger. Oh, and now the you people are claiming that a black really invented the Automobile, but Henry Ford stole the plans. And here is a better one. Now they air claiming that some black guy invented the gas mask and the Scott air pack system, that's the mask connected to the oxygen tank used by the Fire Departments World wide. And all of these inventions were in truth all invented by White People. Now here's a really laughable one. Now they claim the first Flag raising at Iwo Jima was actually done by a small group of black Marines. In reality they are just a group of insecure cultureless People who are afraid of the truth.
I wonder how happy, some of the people were, back then, compared to today people who live in tents?
There were many more cheap hotels back then. The police would not tolerate sleeping outside at night you would get arrested and treated roughly to teach you a lesson. Here in LA the police told vagrants to keep going and not come back. When a known vagrant returned he was picked up by the police and driven to the desert and dropped by the side of the road.
Those same cheqp rooms are now micro lofts thqt cost a small fortune.
The bums back then look and dressed better than current Gen Z job applicants. The ones who actually apply for jobs that is.
Along time ago, I would have loved to live in San Francisco, but now, I don't turn my back in Sacramento.
And it only got worse..😢
The term Skid Row was wrong. The proper term is Skid Road. And was started in the 20th century in Portland, Oregon. Because when they were felling tall trees they used Burnside street to let the logs skid down the street to the nearby Willamette river. The loggers called it skid road and the term stuck. It was a rough area and attracted hobos because of the saloons, brothels and gambling.
And Portland is still the King/queen/theys/ thems
I've always heard the first Skid Road and later Skid Row was in Seattle on Yesler way. Same idea with the logging origin.
Skid Row is perfectly OK.
@@lucianomezzetta4332 ..sure it's okay but merely pointing out the historical facts. I prefer using the original term but it's obviously not a big deal.
Language changes. And if this was a story about logging, then I could see using SKID ROAD
This as way before drugs come about.
Morphine was the thing 100 years ago. Hell, cocaine was still in Coca Cola.
Bums dressed better than most Westerners do today. They were in better shape, with fewer tattoos and no body piercings.
So you're saying back then was the golden age of being homeless and decrepit?🤔
@@gilactico I think being homeless and decrepit had an entirely different meaning in those days. Just look how things are in most skid rows these days. Full of haggard junkies high on fentanyl or crack sitting on the sidewalks between trash, abandoned furniture and tents.
I’m suspecting that *real* help, and *real* opportunities, might have been somewhat more common back then, also - as long as you fit the “desirable” mold, of course.
They were a whole lot scarcer than now if you did *NOT* fit that mold - Jim Crow, *The Ugly Laws,* (what I would have been subjected to; like Jim Crow for disabled/disfigured people, only worse in some ways), and various other laws regarding deviance made certain of that.
Help was reserved for the *DESERVING.*
You had to fit that mold fairly well to be seen as *worthy,* and it was a narrow mold in most places. (That *might* explain the relatively higher standard of dress..?)
Deviation from the “strait/straight and narrow” - regardless as to why, also - meant you’d be in a lot worse shape than most people shown in the film clip.
@@dennisyoung4631 I suspect the vangracy laws of the time made the homeless easy pray for for rough treatment from the cops as well.
@@dennisyoung4631Your idea of what life was back then, is distorted and warped.
Hobo Confernce July 28, 31 erroneously subtitled “Hobo College…1923”
Being a hobo is a life style I believe or I could be completely rong
Love the music ! Who is this ?
Here we go again.
At least back then one could get a cheap room or a warm bed out of the elements. Today it's tents on the sidewalk. In the '70s I missed the last bus back to suburbia after seeing a rock concert in Manhattan. I had little money so someone suggested a flop house. I was very impressed how clean and quiet my very small room was. It had a strong smell of disinfectant. I got a good night's sleep and caught a bus home the next day. I doubt there are such establishments left in NYC or anywhere else for that matter. There should be cheap housing for the poor, the elderly, or those that just had a run of bad luck. Housing of any kind is just too darn expensive in the US. Since money is created out of thin air when someone gets a home loan, why is interest attached to it? The major price of a mortgage is interest. The loans should be given interest free so everyone could afford housing. Do you ever wonder why a bank can just write a check without money to back it up? If you or I operated like a bank the authorities would lock us up.
Fractional reserve banking is just a legal Ponzi scheme, immoral and unethical, but legal.
Do you realize who funds the politicians in this country? We are a plutocracy.
What concert did you go to that you could not get home cause it was late?
@@MrEdkern Nitty Gritty Dirt Band at the Village Gate.
The term "skid row" came from Seattle. In 1852, "skid road" was first applied to a slum area at the loggers' part of town in Seattle, Washington, USA, and before 1900 it had come into common usage in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The name was shortened at some point in time to skid row, referring to Yesler Way, where lumber was skidded downhill to Henry Yesler's mill on the waterfront. In the early years of the community, people went there when they needed work or hit hard times.
Thanks!
I was born in the wrong generation. 10 cent shot of gin and a cheap room for the night. Why work?
@@LesterF-wl8gk and if you panhandled on the street and 50 people gave you a penny, think of the possibilities
@@danielorlando8172you could do five shots of gin?
Because of the 'Vagrancy Law', you'd be jailed in the '60s if you didn't have at least 7 dollars on your person.
@@Defiant420 unlike today where you can smoke meth right in front of the police station and defecate in public without consequences
@@danielorlando8172not if you’re white
Just like they sell Fetanayl on the streets today. Back in the 30s they sold poisonous alcohol. So hateful what people do to eachother.
It is called MOONSHINE.
Bet the crime rate was lower.will have to look into it. Most of the men to be in their early 40's
Looks a lot like the old larimer street in Denver.