Lost film from 1906...this is awesome..

Just found this by accident and am so loving this...

San Fransisco circa 1906..

just look at the roads and everything around the camera..

Turn up the volume and travel back in time! This film was "lost" for many years. It was the first 35mm film ever. It was taken by camera mounted on the front of a cable car. The number of automobiles is staggering for 1906. Notice that all the cars apparently have their steering wheels on the right side. The clock tower at the end of Market Street at the Embarcadero wharf is still there. (I'm also wondering ... how many "street cleaning" people were employed to pick up after the horses? (Talk about going green!) And no traffic lights, no cross walks, no painted lanes, no road signs, no cell phones - yet folks seemed to survive okay..........& obviously no pedestrian or driving rules or laws. Notice how much better dressed they were in 1906.This film, originally thought to be from 1905, until David Kiehn, with the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, figured out exactly when it was shot. From New York trade papers announcing the film showing to the wet streets from recent heavy rainfall & shadows indicating time of year & actual weather and conditions on historical record, even when the cars were registered (he even knows who owned them and when the plates were issued!). It was filmed only four days before the quake and shipped by train to NY for processing. Amazing but true!

so awesome to see what it was like back in the day...please enjoy!

Also just a side note... this was 3 years before the big quake hit and destroyed most of what we are seeing in this video...
even the cop walking by looks like he wants to bust you up...

Thanks for that that was cool.

Though, I swear I have seen it somewhere before.....

reply to post by magma


I thought the same thing 'til i realized it was not the one I had seen..

but still way cool..

reply to post by baddmove


That is so unsafe. I am so glad we addressed all of that. Did you see that ? Cars , pedestrians and bikes all over the place with no order ?

That was cool, the picture was really clear with no static or choppyness like you see in the old movies. did you notice how slow the streetcar was going, even kids were running faster than the streetcar was moving

i`m surprised at how wide that street is, it looks like an airport runway you could probably land a modern airplane on a street that wide.

reply to post by Tardacus


I know huh..

this old film is so cool.

I love old stuff like this..

What a cool clip!!

Was highly amused by the stereotypical fat policeman walking by in the early part of the video!

Very impressive to see a lost time, and a lost culture.
Gone are the days of simple lives and simple minds.
People today wouldn't know how to travel that slow.

What is truly amazing is the fact that it was from 4 days before the big quake of 1906.
4 days before utter destruction of an entire city.
Those people had no idea what was coming their way.


Excellent find!

*S&F*

reply to post by baddmove


Probably thinking of this one. SanFrancisco

Shot just days before the earthquake of 1906.
I have it bookmarked because I enjoy watching it and listening to the music sometimes. Something very surreal about it.

reply to post by baddmove


could just be me,, BUT- did anyone notice how LONG the strides of the men were, as they walked??


i found THAT the oddest part..

look again..

we as humans dont need to Walk very much anymore..

Hmmm i wonder..



could something have changed?
shoeware--? pants?

pavement?

Is that a guy on a cellphone at 0:49???

reply to post by darrman


I did notice that. Seems almost unnatural by today's standards. It is a more efficient way of moving about. The bodies of the horses almost seemed unusually long.

Thank you for this OP. Simply amazing, and somehow humbling, IDK. Thanks again.

reply to post by BABYBULL24


Looks like he's just hanging on to his cap to me.

Originally posted by Tardacus
i`m surprised at how wide that street is, it looks like an airport runway you could probably land a modern airplane on a street that wide.

edit on 9-9-2012 by Tardacus because: (no reason given)

This really jumped out at me, too.

And the chaos.

I think the long strides are due to the video's stretched aspect ratio.

What I find amazing is the amount of tolerance, or lack of agression exhibited by the people. If you put 2012 people in that scene, you would get people flipping the bird, honking horns, shaking fists...etc. Road rage or worse.

what is that song..? yadadaa yadadaaa ... i like it..

Amazing I am shcoked that they had that many cars in the middle of the great depression

"nobody seems to know a thing, la da da, la da da"..

aint that true ?

I know our leaders of today go by that standard.

Cool video- I see a TRULY free nation. A bit unsafe, but truly free.

If there was a policeman of today timewarped into that situation- He probably would have sharded himself.

The Great Depression began about 25 years after this film was produced.

So calm and soothing... almost brings a tear to my eye.

Pretty much even the babies are gone from when that was filmed.

Scary to realize we are now in a time where it is litterally a completely differnt planet, that world has ended in a sense, since none of them are left really...