1911 - A Trip Through New York City

a reply to: gortex

That was interesting.

Maybe the first photo/camera bombing ever @ 0:50? The lady that keeps walking straight towards the camera when she sees it. Notice the cameraman having a hard time keeping her outside of the frame

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: gortex
ETA - One thing I want to know is, why could people walk all the way down the street back then while reading the newspaper, and people today look at their cell phone for 5 seconds and stumble into someone???? What changed???

Look at any old photos of even the busiest cities. Look at shorpy.com. There are these huge spaces, wide streets, tall buildings, but very few people walking around. Lots of elbow room. What happened was that the population skyrocketed, turning these grand cities of the future into ant hills.

Shorpy.com

Really enjoyed seeing this video, Life appeared so different then. As someone else mentioned all the suits and people with hats. I also noticed the absence of obese people, both men and women. Did you notice? Very difference than today.

originally posted by: park4008nv
Really enjoyed seeing this video, Life appeared so different then. As someone else mentioned all the suits and people with hats. I also noticed the absence of obese people, both men and women. Did you notice? Very difference than today.

What I thought was interesting in some of these old city videos was how whole wealthy families would get dressed to the nines, hop in their open carriages or cars, and basically just parade around the streets like, "Yeah, we're rich! Check us out! We wear the best clothes and have drivers and everything!" People never change, I guess. We're all just monkeys proud of standing at the top of the pile of poop.

originally posted by: Tekaran
Crazy to think that EVERYONE in that video is dead. Or at least more than likely they are. Everyone is dressed so nicely also.

"Hey honey, where's my tie? I'm gonna go out and get the newspaper"!

The conundrum of living, hey.. We all shall meet the same fate. Our struggles, worries, cares, hopes, wants, needs... perish in an instant. Left behind are the memories of us, which in time, also fade. Eventually, perhaps, random footage appears and we are there, wearing our ear buds, beanies and boots.. not to be remembered, but reminisced.. not for our life, but where in time our life happened.

But the shadow is cast upon us all, that one dismal thing..

I will take this opportunity to post a video of someone so incoherently wonderful, that it takes it all and says this - You will not do anything remarkable.. (this guy is brilliant.. if not mad)

-- be warned, LANGUAGE..

a reply to: gortex

I've always liked the time period prior to ww1 before the world went crazy. When travel between the US and Europe was by ship, most of rural America still rode horses it was a simpler time. Nest stop willabe......

originally posted by: PhilbertDezineck
a reply to: gortex

I've always liked the time period prior to ww1 before the world went crazy. When travel between the US and Europe was by ship, most of rural America still rode horses it was a simpler time. Nest stop willabe......

Yeah, nostalgia is a funny curse. It was apparently such a wonderful time (for white people), that they kept reminiscing about it through half of the last century. Kind of the way old people and politicians reminisce about a sanitized version of the 1950s. Make America Great Again, just like the 1900s!

a reply to: gortex
Checked out "Electric Edwardians"?

One thing very noticeable, is that people were very trim back then. Very few overweight. Must be that most had to walk a lot to get back and forth. Interesting contrast from pics today of people milling around downtown Manhattan.

I'm surprised no one brought up the guy "talking on his cell phone" around the 3:50 mark. Funny how the lens of 2019 influences how this is seen.

a reply to: Blue Shift

Why must you make it about race? there has been racial injustices through out history so no time is ever going to be a memorable time for you. How freakin sad.

The frames that appear to be part of Chinatown at 2:20 are so interesting. I wish I could read the writing on the sides of the buildings. Looks like a restaurant next to a pawn shop. Anyone here that can translate it?

a reply to: gortex

Great footage Gortex - here's another one taken from a trolley ride just before the 1906 San Francisco earthquake (good chill out music as well).

1900 House, which immerses a modern family completely into 1900 middle class life, is a great show that puts some things from this era into perspective.

originally posted by: PhilbertDezineck
a reply to: Blue Shift

Why must you make it about race? there has been racial injustices through out history so no time is ever going to be a memorable time for you. How freakin sad.

If you meant "happy" when you wrote "memorable," then that was my point, and I'm glad to see you got it. The past can seem quaint and charming, and there's a tendency for people to be sentimental and think that it was somehow a better time. But all of the people in these images eventually died in some way, probably suffering horribly, and there were also people were living at the time who were essentially in pure hell. So I look at the past as a miserable, terrible time to exist, filled with cold ghosts and events that would eventually be twisted into "history."

And with that said, I also recognize that the present will someday be the past, and future people will laugh at the filth and ignorance we're living in right now. Am I missing something?

a reply to: gortex

That video is nice. I personally thank you for bringing that up. 1911 from that time a lot of people passed away by now and I'm thinking one day we will pass away as well.