So glad I stumbled on this. I went to CJ and am now a filmmaker (who also teaches film). I'm amazed that they let you screen this on campus. I got in huge trouble just for having the "F" word written on my shoe - some of the graffiti and images you included are more extreme. It's really interesting that many of the projects I see from young filmmakers in Dayton have a lot of similarities in theme, tone and imagery. Thanks for sharing!
Gentlemen - this is awesome to see - I have been able to recognize almost all the clips - This is great context to compare the downtown of today with the downtown of 1970. It has taken decades to repair much of the damage and blight inflicted on the great place. Thank you for posting this - visit john17175 - may be using dome of the stills that you have in this for a future Dayton vid. John '71
Thank you for posting this. It has been noted and appreciated by the members of the "Dayton Memories Blog" at "Dayton History Books Online". By all means join us and share. Views of Dayton in that era are a tad rare, and we would like to have your memories become part of the semi-official history of dayton and the Miami Valley. Everyone at DHBO thinks your work is excellent (if a tad dark). CONGRATS!
Why the hell is each shot an average of .75 seconds long?? I've lived in Dayton always and because all the shots are so ridiculously short, I can't recognize a damn thing. Who thought that was a good idea?
I thought this was awesome! My Dad was from tge Dayton/Xenia area. We'd went through Dayton on vacation back in August, 1970. Thanks for sharing this!
Everyone is so ooh and ahh over you making Dayton in the 1970's look like 1940... Your isolation of shots gives it a feel of negativity and loneliness... But, having been there in that time, I seem to remember it in color and brightness with only a very limited amount of the negatives you (as a typical liberal "art" student) want to focus on.
i hatw daytonl such a dirty and ghetto city now, glad i moved but i still enjoy this video, i love looking at how things use to look like, i love old pictures and just seeing how different things were, great video :)
well,remember that area around Chaminade was really rough,I think it is an amazingly well done video by high schoolers,I bet you were in the independent study program,what was the name of it? something studies....
@666laika Is there a lot of blacks in Dayton? Are there some really bad ghettos and gang activity there? Too bad. I was hoping on relocating to Ohio. Maybe Tipp City.
I left this craphole in 1974 & never looked back. Can't believe my daughter asked me to watch this depressing video. Dayton sucks, and I spent most of my childhood years actually planning a way to escape this toilet.
Thank god for the U.S. AIR FORCE!! aND THANK GOD for Florida. lol
Wow, I grew up in Dayton in the 1970's, and had such tremendously fond memories. I go home now, and wonder "what happened to the sweet Dayton I once knew?" But, now....seeing this video of 1970 Dayton, I wonder what I found so lovely about it then? Gosh, this is depressing.
@kaisermom ...Although I appreciate the tremendous job that was done on this video & also the fact that its a truly wonderful historic resource...lets face it...its propaganda that Im willing to bet was an assignment during the "progressive" movement of the 1960s-70s from a left-minded teacher. I bet if you used black & white 8mm film, the right music, & sought out only negative scenery..you couldve shot a very similar film in any town or city in America. Nonetheless excellent vid..I enjoyed it.
@biped1of1pandemonium ....I agree with your comments. I have worked in the downtown area for the last 20 years. I can do a film that will make this one look tame or I could make one that makes Dayton look like the best town in the USA. I just depends on what you are looking for.
I grew up in Springfield in the 1950's and 60's. Would have graduated high school in 1970 but moved to California in 1969 my senior year. What a DRAG! My dad and I used to come down to Dayton Union Station on Friday nights to see the big model railroad inside the station. Pictures of the station I've seen show a large Romanesque building with a clock tower. Do you recall when you were shooting film of the railroad tracks seeing a building like that? I'm trying to determine when it was demolished
What a crock of shit! Do you hate Dayton,making it look like Harlem? Why don't you just leave? We would be better off without you. How long have you been here? Who is Raggs, Jean Barry, What was in the basement of Talbot tower? What was Dayton's first radio station?
I wish you wouldn't have tried so hard to synch the images up with a Spanish guitar jam and slowed them down so you could actually take in the video clips.
Excellent! Joe, I just learned about this since uploading "Try For The Sun" which Gus put together and I adapted to video. You should check it out since a lot of it consists of your photos. Hope you are doing well; I'm back in Dayton now. Peter
downtown dayton && dha city suck now... hear so many story about hw great dis city was... but dhat wat yu get wen yu give sumthng to a whole bunch of black ppl lol
this was nice to see. i will be 29 in a few months, it's neat to see some of the same things still there. the adult store in the oregon district, the bank buildings. and at the end of the video, they showed the Stage Door, which is a gay bar that's been there since the 50s believe it or not... fun place THANKS FOR POSTING THIS
I find this video fascinating. Just think.. a few high school kids made this almost 40 years ago with just a camera and rudimentary editing equipment. No Photoshop, no Vegas... or whatever. Nothing that kids can get their hands on today.
i cant get the video to load?...i grew up in riverside at the time...i was 5 in 1970...attended St. Helens and moved to tennessee in 77....not been back since...now things have changed so much....
Definitely the seedier side of Dayton but it was good to see some of the old things that are gone. Downtown used to be a busy place. Now its a ghost town. Good work...that was hard to do straight to film with no editing.
First off, Dayton was mostly White back in the late 60s and early 70s before I was born, which is one year later. So what's your point? There are still mainly White cities in the U.S. Is that a problem?
Not a very good representation of what Dayton was like in 1970. Looks like you walked down alleys and construction sites. Is that what you thought Dayton looked like. I was born & raised there and during the 70's Dayton was the place to be. Sorry you had such a dismal view of Dayton. You probably only came downtown to go to school.
I thought the same thing! I grew up in Cincy but people used to come to Dayton & have a great time at the various entertainment/show spots. I bet they only came downtown for school . . . sigh
I grew up in Dayton and was 13 in 1970. We lived just over the main street bridge. I remember the downtown area being my back yard. This video brought back a lot of memories. And yes Dayton was not a pretty city, but that was the times,
I was born in Dayton at Miami Valley Hospital in 1973. I'm fascinated to see footage of American culture of the 1970s especially of my hometown. My father was a salesman for Frigidaire and my mother worked in Budget Analysis for NCR. I graduated from Chaminade-Julienne in 1992.
I love about 90% of this footage. If you decided to make this a tighter cut, making it a 3 min film using only the best of the best cuts, this could be a powerful film. Think about it.
Looks as if you walked about 5 blocks to film most of this....in 1970 , Dayton was a VERY clean industial city (GM, Frigidare,NCR, Mead paper, Reynolds, the AFB, not depressed or dirty at all...must be the view of some high school kids whose parents brought them up in comfortable homes....the small amount of blight must have shocked them. Although the manufacturing is gone now Dayton still remains clean and moderatly safe
It looks like you picked the crappiest parts of Dayton to show in this. At that time there were probably 70,000 good automotive/tool and die jobs in Dayton which afforded people the ability to move to Centerville, Kettering, Fairborn etc... This is probably more reflective of Dayton's current state than in 1970.
Here's to Dear Old Chaminade...School of My Heart...This is an extremely provocative film and it is to me almost incomprehensible that this was made by 16-17 year olds...congratulations...it turns out this film was prophetic regarding Dayton, but then maybe we should have known all along...
i grew up in Dayton. left in 71 for the west coast. recognize a lot of images. but as i recall it, i believe you were very selective in your choices that made downtown look a lot more depressed than it was. your film also show the folly of the overuse of the quick cut. pretty impressive for kids with the constraints you had.
:o) I went to Huffelman school there in 67 for 3rd grade .We lived @ on third and fokerth st. Across the street Larry Flint had the Hustler club . I remember the Electric buses ...No Jaywalking signs ..and lots of flat roofs to play on.:o) Is that You @ the end?
at 4:10 you see a industrial building with a single smoke stack. that place has been abandoned for quite some time. me and friends have since been inside and met several homeless. used to be a old paper factory. its on the "list" to be tore down. the place was built around an actual house..where all the bums now reside. on june 5th 09' the house caught on fire.the police dont know who did it..i wouldnt doubt it had something to do with those bums. the building sits at 354 S. Edwin C. Moses Blvd
I lived there from 1977 to 1979. I returned this past summer to visit after almost 30 years. I don't recall ever seeing downtown Dayton looking that way in the late 70's or last year. Intersting video though.
Very moving - in a historical, environmental, and emotional sense. "America in Crisis" seems to be a timeless sentiment. Thank you for posting this wonderful piece of work.
That has brought back so many memories of growing up there. Though I was born in 1977, I know exactly where nearly every scene was. Thank you for posting this! Excellent work.
I grew up on Rubgy Rd. just off Salem Av. I was 2 years old when you made this film. Thanks.
johninloveindaytona 2 months ago
1968 Biscayne @ 1:13 my first car was a 68 Impala. same but with 3 tail lights on each side instead of the 2.
ztwntyn8 2 months ago
Boy, I would love to see this in slow motion.
shawnscottp 2 months ago
So glad I stumbled on this. I went to CJ and am now a filmmaker (who also teaches film). I'm amazed that they let you screen this on campus. I got in huge trouble just for having the "F" word written on my shoe - some of the graffiti and images you included are more extreme. It's really interesting that many of the projects I see from young filmmakers in Dayton have a lot of similarities in theme, tone and imagery. Thanks for sharing!
nicms2 4 months ago
excellent job ..you can tell this took alot of work..and love love love the music..it was so the times
thelovelyrita65 7 months ago
Looks just as trashy today as it did back then
kalib09 7 months ago
Gentlemen - this is awesome to see - I have been able to recognize almost all the clips - This is great context to compare the downtown of today with the downtown of 1970. It has taken decades to repair much of the damage and blight inflicted on the great place. Thank you for posting this - visit john17175 - may be using dome of the stills that you have in this for a future Dayton vid. John '71
john17175 9 months ago
Epic!! That is all
killjoy75ful 9 months ago
Thank you for posting this. It has been noted and appreciated by the members of the "Dayton Memories Blog" at "Dayton History Books Online". By all means join us and share. Views of Dayton in that era are a tad rare, and we would like to have your memories become part of the semi-official history of dayton and the Miami Valley. Everyone at DHBO thinks your work is excellent (if a tad dark). CONGRATS!
badflamenco 10 months ago
Why the hell is each shot an average of .75 seconds long?? I've lived in Dayton always and because all the shots are so ridiculously short, I can't recognize a damn thing. Who thought that was a good idea?
Zeratul723 10 months ago
@Zeratul723 I'd say probably the kid's bank tellers on the poorer side of town? You can always pause a shot and take your time looking at it.
paulj0557 7 months ago
I thought this was awesome! My Dad was from tge Dayton/Xenia area. We'd went through Dayton on vacation back in August, 1970. Thanks for sharing this!
zasco1957 11 months ago
Everyone is so ooh and ahh over you making Dayton in the 1970's look like 1940... Your isolation of shots gives it a feel of negativity and loneliness... But, having been there in that time, I seem to remember it in color and brightness with only a very limited amount of the negatives you (as a typical liberal "art" student) want to focus on.
DannyDad208 11 months ago
i hatw daytonl such a dirty and ghetto city now, glad i moved but i still enjoy this video, i love looking at how things use to look like, i love old pictures and just seeing how different things were, great video :)
ashmedow 1 year ago
@ashmedow
Different? They look like that now! They used to not be as "ghetto" as this so-called artist portrays with selective pictures
DannyDad208 11 months ago
Nice video! Who made that version of Classical Gas?
wigalow 1 year ago
Looks like a nice place to raise a family!! Haha
Jimnva 1 year ago
I don't remember downtown being so run down back in 70' when I was a kid.
TheDollhousequeen 1 year ago
well,remember that area around Chaminade was really rough,I think it is an amazingly well done video by high schoolers,I bet you were in the independent study program,what was the name of it? something studies....
hellotheresanne 1 year ago
Is Kiser High School still around...or did the blacks finally take it over & destroy it also?
666laika 1 year ago
@666laika Is there a lot of blacks in Dayton? Are there some really bad ghettos and gang activity there? Too bad. I was hoping on relocating to Ohio. Maybe Tipp City.
OldMrMemories 1 year ago
I left this craphole in 1974 & never looked back. Can't believe my daughter asked me to watch this depressing video. Dayton sucks, and I spent most of my childhood years actually planning a way to escape this toilet.
Thank god for the U.S. AIR FORCE!! aND THANK GOD for Florida. lol
666laika 1 year ago
@666laika Well good. So we do not have to worry about you darkening our doorsteps anymore. Right?
SteveWard3928 1 year ago
Wow, I grew up in Dayton in the 1970's, and had such tremendously fond memories. I go home now, and wonder "what happened to the sweet Dayton I once knew?" But, now....seeing this video of 1970 Dayton, I wonder what I found so lovely about it then? Gosh, this is depressing.
kaisermom 1 year ago
@kaisermom ...Although I appreciate the tremendous job that was done on this video & also the fact that its a truly wonderful historic resource...lets face it...its propaganda that Im willing to bet was an assignment during the "progressive" movement of the 1960s-70s from a left-minded teacher. I bet if you used black & white 8mm film, the right music, & sought out only negative scenery..you couldve shot a very similar film in any town or city in America. Nonetheless excellent vid..I enjoyed it.
biped1of1pandemonium 1 year ago
@biped1of1pandemonium ....I agree with your comments. I have worked in the downtown area for the last 20 years. I can do a film that will make this one look tame or I could make one that makes Dayton look like the best town in the USA. I just depends on what you are looking for.
ronrstaats 1 year ago
I grew up in Springfield in the 1950's and 60's. Would have graduated high school in 1970 but moved to California in 1969 my senior year. What a DRAG! My dad and I used to come down to Dayton Union Station on Friday nights to see the big model railroad inside the station. Pictures of the station I've seen show a large Romanesque building with a clock tower. Do you recall when you were shooting film of the railroad tracks seeing a building like that? I'm trying to determine when it was demolished
TheCCCSTL 1 year ago
Love the headline in the newspaper at 0:30 . How the media has changed.
m8s4lif 1 year ago
Thank you! I have over 100 slides from my grandfather of the construction of the court house plaza. One day they will be up/
hells40acres 1 year ago
What a piece of history. This is awesome.
SleepySpaceSpider 1 year ago
i used to go to huffman school with a girl named Tina Slonaker. any relation
strother1969 1 year ago
What a crock of shit! Do you hate Dayton,making it look like Harlem? Why don't you just leave? We would be better off without you. How long have you been here? Who is Raggs, Jean Barry, What was in the basement of Talbot tower? What was Dayton's first radio station?
fluffydanny 1 year ago
that was great
1500richie 1 year ago
I wish you wouldn't have tried so hard to synch the images up with a Spanish guitar jam and slowed them down so you could actually take in the video clips.
RetroColorClash 1 year ago
Thank you for posting this video, Awesome Piece of Art!
Msclassie1000 1 year ago
Nicely done!
johnnyjohnson 1 year ago
Excellent! Joe, I just learned about this since uploading "Try For The Sun" which Gus put together and I adapted to video. You should check it out since a lot of it consists of your photos. Hope you are doing well; I'm back in Dayton now. Peter
ocby2k 1 year ago
@ocby2k Thanks, Peter, good to hear from you.
pakojoe 1 year ago
Very good video there was a lot of things and places in the film that no longer
stand in downtown and i noticed they were tearing down a large ware house in
the video
SirFletcherRedoun1 1 year ago
You should do a sequal to this film if you can. Show where you showed before but today and comapare the sites
Vandalia1998 1 year ago
Very intriguing film! I too used to work at WHIO-TV so that was cool to see the old logo.
Videeoboy 1 year ago
I love this video. where did this music come from. It is beautiful!
gourmetcoffeee 1 year ago
Go Eagles
cjeagles2007 1 year ago
Times have changed - Enjoyed the video thanks
Raeb222 1 year ago
downtown dayton && dha city suck now... hear so many story about hw great dis city was... but dhat wat yu get wen yu give sumthng to a whole bunch of black ppl lol
RealMrsRainbow 1 year ago
Evocative! The bowing gentlemen silhouettes do stand out, eh? Well done.
literista 1 year ago
this was nice to see. i will be 29 in a few months, it's neat to see some of the same things still there. the adult store in the oregon district, the bank buildings. and at the end of the video, they showed the Stage Door, which is a gay bar that's been there since the 50s believe it or not... fun place THANKS FOR POSTING THIS
CraigOH1981 1 year ago
I find this video fascinating. Just think.. a few high school kids made this almost 40 years ago with just a camera and rudimentary editing equipment. No Photoshop, no Vegas... or whatever. Nothing that kids can get their hands on today.
Great job
Issicra 1 year ago 3
@Issicra Thanks for kind words.
pakojoe 1 year ago
great video!...thanks for posting
centervilletn 2 years ago
i cant get the video to load?...i grew up in riverside at the time...i was 5 in 1970...attended St. Helens and moved to tennessee in 77....not been back since...now things have changed so much....
centervilletn 2 years ago
Definitely the seedier side of Dayton but it was good to see some of the old things that are gone. Downtown used to be a busy place. Now its a ghost town. Good work...that was hard to do straight to film with no editing.
anothertominohio 2 years ago
Comment removed
anothertominohio 2 years ago
first off im not racist at all.. but holy shit look at the number of white people walkin around!
DJ4576 2 years ago
First off, Dayton was mostly White back in the late 60s and early 70s before I was born, which is one year later. So what's your point? There are still mainly White cities in the U.S. Is that a problem?
angylgyrl 1 year ago
what the hell was the point? i could barely make out anything because it switched pictures so fast......stupid CJ people
glad i went to carroll....although my mom went to julienne
UDflyer04 2 years ago
looks like dayton was a filthy hell hole back then too
themeaningoflife38 2 years ago 2
Not a very good representation of what Dayton was like in 1970. Looks like you walked down alleys and construction sites. Is that what you thought Dayton looked like. I was born & raised there and during the 70's Dayton was the place to be. Sorry you had such a dismal view of Dayton. You probably only came downtown to go to school.
motbow 2 years ago 2
I thought the same thing! I grew up in Cincy but people used to come to Dayton & have a great time at the various entertainment/show spots. I bet they only came downtown for school . . . sigh
bigmama45405 2 years ago
@motbow Right on. I have been since 1958. I love this place
fluffydanny 1 year ago
I grew up in Dayton and was 13 in 1970. We lived just over the main street bridge. I remember the downtown area being my back yard. This video brought back a lot of memories. And yes Dayton was not a pretty city, but that was the times,
alcornele 2 years ago
I was born in Dayton at Miami Valley Hospital in 1973. I'm fascinated to see footage of American culture of the 1970s especially of my hometown. My father was a salesman for Frigidaire and my mother worked in Budget Analysis for NCR. I graduated from Chaminade-Julienne in 1992.
SCRYER1973 2 years ago
Great footage. I've lived in Dayton all my life since I was born in '67.
Married my wife in 2001 and we live close to Centerville.
larajillmillerfan 2 years ago
I love about 90% of this footage. If you decided to make this a tighter cut, making it a 3 min film using only the best of the best cuts, this could be a powerful film. Think about it.
Jwhit5 2 years ago
Comment removed
markintimeindayton 2 years ago
Looks as if you walked about 5 blocks to film most of this....in 1970 , Dayton was a VERY clean industial city (GM, Frigidare,NCR, Mead paper, Reynolds, the AFB, not depressed or dirty at all...must be the view of some high school kids whose parents brought them up in comfortable homes....the small amount of blight must have shocked them. Although the manufacturing is gone now Dayton still remains clean and moderatly safe
leedytom 2 years ago
It is a good snapshot of what those kids were focusing on at the time. They probably were cruious about the poverty they filmed.
I only wished it was a little slower..:)
MrAMERICAFOREVER 2 years ago
It looks like you picked the crappiest parts of Dayton to show in this. At that time there were probably 70,000 good automotive/tool and die jobs in Dayton which afforded people the ability to move to Centerville, Kettering, Fairborn etc... This is probably more reflective of Dayton's current state than in 1970.
canoemadriver 2 years ago
Truely 'groovy, man'! Much appreciation for posting this :)
LizBizToo 2 years ago
@LizBizToo Thanks!
pakojoe 1 year ago
Here's to Dear Old Chaminade...School of My Heart...This is an extremely provocative film and it is to me almost incomprehensible that this was made by 16-17 year olds...congratulations...it turns out this film was prophetic regarding Dayton, but then maybe we should have known all along...
silvrzyzzx 2 years ago
i grew up in Dayton. left in 71 for the west coast. recognize a lot of images. but as i recall it, i believe you were very selective in your choices that made downtown look a lot more depressed than it was. your film also show the folly of the overuse of the quick cut. pretty impressive for kids with the constraints you had.
emptyrealo 2 years ago
:o) I went to Huffelman school there in 67 for 3rd grade .We lived @ on third and fokerth st. Across the street Larry Flint had the Hustler club . I remember the Electric buses ...No Jaywalking signs ..and lots of flat roofs to play on.:o) Is that You @ the end?
avery7001 2 years ago
@avery7001 No, not me, a high school friend a few years older.
pakojoe 1 year ago
at 4:10 you see a industrial building with a single smoke stack. that place has been abandoned for quite some time. me and friends have since been inside and met several homeless. used to be a old paper factory. its on the "list" to be tore down. the place was built around an actual house..where all the bums now reside. on june 5th 09' the house caught on fire.the police dont know who did it..i wouldnt doubt it had something to do with those bums. the building sits at 354 S. Edwin C. Moses Blvd
JustinMcK117 2 years ago
Thanks for your comments.
pakojoe 3 years ago
I lived there from 1977 to 1979. I returned this past summer to visit after almost 30 years. I don't recall ever seeing downtown Dayton looking that way in the late 70's or last year. Intersting video though.
zaidrim 3 years ago
Indeed. My pleasure.
pakojoe 3 years ago
Very moving - in a historical, environmental, and emotional sense. "America in Crisis" seems to be a timeless sentiment. Thank you for posting this wonderful piece of work.
mandmritzert 3 years ago
Very cool!! I really enjoyed that!
Cool to see the WHIO-TV vehicle.. I work there now!
GP1138 3 years ago
Hey, that IS neat! Glad you enjoyed it.
pakojoe 3 years ago
That has brought back so many memories of growing up there. Though I was born in 1977, I know exactly where nearly every scene was. Thank you for posting this! Excellent work.
beausoleilracing 3 years ago
Thank you for your kind words.
pakojoe 3 years ago