Jive-Bomber submitted a new blog post: San Fernando Road in 1950 Continue reading the Original Blog Post
I discovered this video yesterday on YouTube as well, I must have replayed it about 15 times a row! Simply amazing to look at all of the great cars and trucks and the various buildings and businesses in that video! So cool to see the Bathtub Nash, towing the Harley 3 wheeler Servi-Car.
Takes me back to my childhood and a simpler point in time. Although I grew up in the San Gabriel Valley, I made that trip, as a child, through the San Fernando Valley many, many times with my family. Up San Fernando Blvd, past the big aqua-duct, Gorman, the Grapevine and on into Bakersfield and the San Joaquin Valley. Thanks for posting...
Thanks, @Jive-Bomber. I've start-stopped the action many times trying to get closer detail. This is a great visual history of life at that time. Looking at the number of salvage yards and derelict automobiles in people's yards, I checked the price of scrap steel in 1950. There would have been an enormous amount of WWII surplus scrap getting re-cycled. It was $2.00 per ton at the end of 1949 and just starting to rise in 1950. I would imagine that a lot of those cars got scrapped shortly after this film clip was made.
What a great picture you posted. That picture is where my family was for over 50 years, Down the street about a quarter of a mile. I was looking for my DAD delivering papers to the locals. That is where he met Kong Jackson, Wes Cooper, Frank Curtis, Tom Medley Yam / Fum Oka and many, many more Hot Rodders. This was the Birth place of Hot Rodding. Truly sacred ground for those in the Vintage car scene! LOVE IT!!!
That video was taken about four miles from where I grew up during the fifties and sixties. Thanks Jive-Bomber
“Today we’ve got film shot on train tracks running parallel to San Fernando Road in Glendale/Burbank, Pacoima and the city of San Fernando around 1950, and there is plenty to see. The post-war San Fernando Valley (north of L.A.) was a hotbed for new jobs in the aircraft and entertainment industry. As a result, these suburbs were growing in leaps & bounds, and you’ll see the results of that in this fascinating clip. “ Hello, It is enjoyable to see the So Cal area in living color and so clear in the films. Nice find... Some of them seem unreal, but it was the time and space that is/was part of the So Cal attraction to many people. When we lived in Long Beach in the 50s, the slogan was Long Beach was the “Iowa of the USA.” Why? There were gobs of people from Iowa moving and living in the new developments that were built to accommodate the new workers and visitors to the state. The Eastern portion of Long Beach just had a lot of people from Iowa. It was so big that during the 50s and 60s the fun part was, who is going to the Iowa picnic at Recreation Park, just down the street from Hody’s Drive-In Restaurant. It was a big time event in Long Beach at the time. We chuckle now, but then it was a city wide event. The film highlights an interesting big city block long white building that says Mitchell Camera Company. They were in the forefront of cameras and supplies for a lot of Hollywood studios. The Mitchell Camera Company (at 2:22) was heavily involved in Hollywood movie making, with those giant Mickey Mouse ears on top of those huge cameras for film making. Note: The film colorization process is wonderful as it makes things as they were back in the “old” days. It is interesting that the process creates abalone color change in an old Dodge/Plymouth sedan into wonderful color spectrum. (At 2:59 to 3:05) The process from colorization reminds me of the modern day paint we sometimes see on off topic car designs as a giant rolling abalone shells. Jnaki Pacoima? Who lives in Pacoima? At the time, all we knew was being near the Long Beach-Los Angeles Harbors, Terminal Island and San Pedro. But, our world revolved around a simple small craftsman house on the outskirts of Long Beach, on the border of Wilmington, CA. just down the street from Lion's Dragstrip, later in 1955. My wife and her family were products of this particular time period as they moved to Pacoima in 1950. The dad was in the aerospace industry as one of his job searches as per his skill. So, we found a cool photograph of my wife and her mom in front of their Pacoima house. We labeled it “two girls going for a ride in the mom’s convertible.” Why just two girls? Well, my wife’s sister could have been back seat, but those old stop photo memories go by what is shown. (No little heads popping up in the back seat.) My wife in the passenger seat and her mom driving the 47 Buick Convertible was an instant memory. The odd thing was, there were two other cars in the driveway from another photo. A possible 35-36 Ford coupe and a 50 Chevy sedan. Possible, because of fleeting memories from her parents and blanked out time period for the family at the time. What they remember was not about cars, but how hot it was constantly. Why did the dad have two cars and not one was given to my wife’s mom? Well, it was the 50s and the dad usually ruled the roost. So, they were his play toys and one of them got driven to the work space in the aerospace industry. Memories from both were fleeting as to the reason, but we could assume, given the history. But, the 50’s ladies were becoming independent and my wife’s mom just went out and bought her own car for her own usage. Wow, sounds like today. So, in a few years, all of those cars and the PACOIMA house got sold to move to Manhattan Beach. More aerospace industry jobs in the L.A. Airport and South Bay areas made the transition easier for everyone. By 1955, they bought a 55 two door Chevy sedan for the trip back to OKC for a different job. Contract work in the aerospace industry necessitated many moves for my wife’s family.
Ok guys that's a great film , I'm only 60 but in 2012 to 2017 I lived in East Hollywood (off Fountain just west of Vermont ) after my big accident I was chair bound for 2 1/2 years and hoped to drive again so after alot of hard Physical Therapy and alot of pills in 2015 built a car to drive and relearned to drive and found San Fernando Rd and found it likable due to it's long straight stretch was good for my neck and found it to be airy , likable and traffic friendly so San Fernando Rd became my healer and escape road till October 2017 when I moved from the area . I was away from car folks at the time due to my condition but I can tell from looking around it must have been the Queen Road of The Valley in earlier times . In your film , about 2 minutes into it I see a two story rectangular plain building with about 6-8 Windows upstairs spaced evenly well it looks just like the building near what is now Golden Road Brewery . That means in that segment of the film the train must be southbound . Possibly of course is the developer could have built more of same type . Alot of older architecture still makes San Fernando Rd an attractable and happy driving road and I dealt with immense physical pain then and once I got down that road aways I felt calm and all my troubles gone aside . San Fernando Rd was my magic healer and my testbed for my being able to drive again and I hope it stays with it's magic it's perfectly placed like no other road . Thanks for the film I sharing it and yes do have a good day
We lived on Mercer Street in Pacoima off San Fernando Rd. in 1950. The house ended up right under the 5 freeway after it was built. One of the reasons we moved to Denver about 1952. Anyway, my favorite memory is the snowstorm of January 6, 1949, when we got 6 inches of snow. I still have a picture of myself and my little sister making snowballs and our old Essex parked in front of the house. It was a great time to live there then, with citrus groves and dairy farms all around.
Anyone know what the big mechanical monster is in the distance, upper center of the screen around 6:30?
Hello, At the end of the 6:49 frame, the camera is starting to go by the Martin Camera Company. The tall structure can be seen in frame 6:51. The frame looks like a 4 telephone poles holding up several grey metal boxes. At the end of an open field and the starting of the industrial buildings or complex, the boxes are full of electrical connections. The next frames are a lumber company and other buildings. I am pretty sure those are the source of the electrical power for the rest of the area homes, industrial buildings and stores. In some areas of So Cal, there were telephone poles and lines running along the back fenceline and those poles had small silver boxes attached. It was the way early tract homes were built in the late 40s early 50s. the later tract homes had gone to some underground services. When we lived in the Westside of Long Beach, we were on the last row of homes all of the wires were above ground and led into those silver boxes attached to telephone poles. They were targets for lightning and would explode on impact, scaring the whole neighborhood. They have been replaced by new wiring and less silver boxes on poles. (The old portion of the city still does not have underground wiring to homes and businesses… in this day and age.) Jnaki Despite the cost and appearance of underground utilities, there is a benefit to having those wires and connections underground. But, back then, the technology was not like we have it today in the outskirts of cities and small towns. The wires did have an advantage, it was the roosting place for tons of birds. These days, without overhead wires, (which is a good thing) the birds have to find someplace to land and it is usually the rooftop peaks or the fireplace chimneys. YRMV
From about 2.50 to 2.55 you can see the ice house, and the first street past the ice house was KONG Jacksons house/ shop from that time frame, it has a huge oak tree next to it. I sat with my DAD last night watching it, and he sat there mesmerized that someone took a movie in that location at that time. He talked for a couple hours after seeing it, opened the flood gate of memories from his younger days. Thanks for posting!!!!!
Check out how cool and modern the American Standard building is at 3:04. Way ahead of its time when you consider how all of the other buildings look in that neighborhood!
That's a really goofy-looking 'thing', isn't it? Your description of it being a "mechanical monster" is spot-on. It appears to be about two or three times the height of the nearby trees, and much taller than the rooftops, too. I wish I knew the answer. Looks like unpainted and unprimed 'patina' colored iron or steel by the color of it. Beats the shit outta me, man.
This has been driving me nuts. How about an abandoned or obsolete concrete ready-mix facility? Something like this, perhaps? It would make sense in that area, too ...
That's a good suggestion, Ed. But the picture clearly (well actually blurrily) shows one of its eyes, and two chopped off arms.
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