Travel with us back to Los Angeles in the late 1940s to check out all the neat vehicles on the streets.
This video comes to us courtesty of NASS, a YouTube channel in France that gathers old films from all over the world, mainly city street scenes, and then restores and transfers them to video for posting on the web. Many of the old movies are also colorized, like this one, and while the AI process isn’t entirely realistic, it brightens up the scenes. Here we travel back to Los Angeles in the late ’40s, which was already becoming the car capital of the USA. A few of the vehicles and scenes we spotted:
+ At 2:18, a small fleet of yellow, long-wheelbase DeSoto taxis. In those days, DeSoto held down a major piece of the taxi market, especially in the larger cities. Actually, we can see DeSoto taxis interspersed throughout the film.
+ At 4:23 and 5:25, great views of Los Angeles City Hall, an area landmark then and now. For decades it was the city’s tallest building. Folks who’ve never been to LA will recognize it as a backdrop in Dragnet and Perry Mason in old TV reruns.
+ At 3:08, a ’48-’49 Hudson step-down sedan stops at the curb and a succession of men and women climb out. Car pooling, we imagine.
+ At 7: 42 we saw the newest car in the footage, a 1949 Mercury Eight convertible cruising in the center lane. However, if you spotted a newer one, we’d be happy to hear about it. Since the ’49 Mercury was introduced on April 29, 1948, that gives us a date window for now.
A few other things we noticed: For downtown Los Angeles, the traffic was not congested at all. Also, while photochemical smog was already a thing in LA, here it’s a clear, beautiful day. Anyway, enjoy this trip back in time.
I huge thumbs up. Before Hemmings, um, changed, they had a car spotting feature, and just began to feature colorized videos from the past. It was a lot of fun, and drew a slew of comments. I hope MCG will continue this feature. My daughter lives in L.A. and would love to see this. Anyone that watched Dragnet knew that city hall photo, “This is the city”,,It appears the beginning may be at a L.A. airport? Did people walk slower then?
Naturally, I gravitate towards the trucks, and some are:
@ 3:23 IH K model stake bed
@3:25 GMC pulling a flatbed
@5:35 another GMC bobtail and surplus(?) army Jeep
@5:57 Dodge box truck ,,all from the 40s it seems.
I’m sure I’m not alone in asking for more vintage videos, thx, MCG
I preferred the old Hemmings, too.
At 3:23, we have a Kaiser, with a black fabric roof, no less.
Looks like these were shot from Union Station (today’s Union Passenger Terminal), no?
Yes, 6hat’s Union Station with the dome of the post office beside it. Across the street a block away is Phillipes French Dip Sandwiches, nom nom…
Yes, would definitely enjoy seeing more of these films of the past !!
’49 Ford Tudor
While I applaud the effort in producing the film, it has a disctintly Night of the Living Dead feel to it. Something is wrong with the speed, it’s just a bit too slow. Colors are ok-ish, and so is the sound.