Los Angeles, The Early Days

[jaime58ify]

This is great!!!! Give me more!!!!

[kae4466]

and to imagine that we lost all that

[bettydaw1970]

am i a geek because i love stuff like this?

[AmazinglyAgnostic]

@bettydaw1970 no, welcome to the club.

[mariothepookster]

in the late forties, just after returning from WWII, many GI's wanted the freedom of a car, especially in LA, a vast, spread out city, not like eastern cities. There was a lot of pent up demand for things like refrigerators, tv's, housing and, yes, cars. So, it was easier for auto companies to sell them the freedom of an automobile.

[wendileona]

Interesting that this is not only great footage of old Los Angeles but also of 80's Los Angeles with the modern comparison pics being from the 80's.

[yourwifecalledagain]

@wendileona Some of the pictures might be from the 80s, but in the one at 1:28 there's a 1996-1998 Pontiac Grand Am at the back of that line of cars. I'm assuming that one at least is from the late 90s. Either way, still cool to see "then and now" comparisons drawn with pictures that are now fifteen to twenty years old.

[CliftonPhotographer]

@yourwifecalledagain This is a cool DVD. If you like this, check out the "WhatWasThere" website. They are layering old and new photos together from all over the world so you can see exactly what was there back in the day. It's still relatively new,so most places aren't done, but for the ones that are done it's really cool!

[JAFZX1207]

Very nice, back when LA was still a great American City. Unfortunately LA is not that kind of city anymore.  Thanks for posting.

[hellomikie92]

gang territory now????

[eddie100]

Roads are the start of the downfall. Look what happen to Rhodes. Electrified Trams powered by coal burning electricity producing power stations, keep all the pollution and carcigens within a smaller community. It is not you or I. Other people like those in countries other than ours.

[Patequi]

The film Roger Rabbit was on point....

[GeorgeVreelandHill]

Great video.

I wish I lived in L.A. back then.

George Vreeland Hill

[deepscan101]

It was already one of the best transportation systems in the world and LA had clean smog free days. Then the roads widened, became filled with autos / buses, then the clean transportation gave up to congestion, stress, smog filled days, and respiratory problems.

[Thelookoutslookout]

It is a shame that for a city that had the luxury of being more or less planned, it lacks a decent public transport system. Imagine if the subway in LA was more like London's?

[doomfreezzer61]

LA Noire

[gusneaker]

What a beautiful video!!

The images comparison and overlapping was great!

Congratulations plus!!

[bigretrorod]

Goodyear Tire and General Motors bought up all of the urban street car companies with the soul purpose of shutting them down so people would have to buy cars, also the few public transportation systems left were converted to diesel busses that G.M. built. Duh!

[emforty2]

we give the arabs a billion dollars a DAY every day for their oil so we can drive our car and get stuck in traffic

[sf415RudeDog]

@emforty2 wtf does that ahve to do with anything buy a fuck electic car then

[jacob7207]

Straight outa Compton.

[evxdaddy]

It would be cool to have street cars, but I'm glad we drive cars. I love driving my Chevy Nova.

[StellarBlue1]

Back in the day, old timers like me used to say: "What is good for General Motors is good for the United States"/ Phuck GM now!

[laverkfc4stitching]

Thats Show How Good The White American Are .... They Sacerfised Em own country to let starngers live in.....now every state has filled with gangs and mexicans.. so dangrous... Thats how strangers pay back ....

[SatansComment]

great pics



[WhiteCamry]

It gives post-war "progress" a bad name. And well-deserved, too.

[shaun3701]

the good old days, before it was taken over by mexicans and negros.

[oaklandlatinosunited]

@shaun3701 fuck you you racist Crackkker fuck .

[gajcatsb]

@oaklandlatinosunited Intelligent answer. How about trying to disprove his assertions using facts?

[TheJomogogo]

@shaun3701

Dude tell me about it, I grew up in Los Angeles in the 50's, it was beautiful, clean, safe, best city in the world. Now it's infested with niggers and mexicoons and is a dangerous dirty shit hole. It's the same anyplace else white people have been replaced with brown and black, they are like a plague on the white race and everything we build.

[MaIefic]

@TheJomogogo Fucking idiot, go back to Europe then, cunt.

[costernocht]

Love the music!

[colindominy]

This is a great post. Yes, a good point is made here - instead of extending & streamlining an existing GOOD mass-transit system, the stupid authorities demolish it & replace it with an inferior system. Here in Sydney Australia, our dumb-arsed state govt did extactly the same thing. We used to have a great streetcar network .. 'cept we called em 'trams'. Just like in L.A. And in 1958, our trams were taken away from us .. to be replaced by wider, car-clogged streets + tollways (NOT 'free'-ways).

[ihaveagunlol]

haha people go to los angeles now to get burritos and chimichangas lol.

too bad i dont like neither.

[septentrionale]

@spaceghostman it was more than Los Angeles. It was six major cities connected by 200 lines.

[mathewnedico]

EXCELLENT video project--thanks for posting it for us all to enjoy!

[flippyflyer]

LA is a 3rd world dump...thanks Mexico

[bumsdrums]

how many hills were excavated?

[maynardcat]

It's really a shame so many American cities opted to destroy their wonderful streetcar systems. I'm sure most of those cities wished they had them back today.

[travisbernardhunt]

@maynardcat I have done a lot of researching about the streetcars. Back in the 1950s especially, people preferred their cars. They (their cars) took them conveniently where they wanted to go. Streetcars (like city trains) still left people with one to three blocks still to walk. If consumers still had interest in the streetcars, they would not have disappeared.

[joevar00]

I'm Mexican-American, what makes you think that eveyone you suspect are mexican immigrants, you racist! Know the difference, not everyone you see are from Mexico.

[Bryan90260]

I had no ideal they moved that much earth to put those new building in. Look like they took out an entire mountain.

[libertylove7]

This was once a gem of a place. A state with no borders have really destroyed that place.

[libertylove7]

I feel like Im visiting literally Mexico when in Los Anges, ESPECIALLY Downtown!!!!!!!!!! Go to Orange County !!! LA is NOW A REAL DUMP!

[illtakepoint]

not all los angeles you butthole......theres a huge part of l.a. thats very american.

[libertylove7]

I was born in California, I live in the burbs of Los Angeles, I know what I'm talking about. Illtakepoint you must have grown up elsewhere because this place is not the place I grew up in!!! You must be from somewhere else!!!

[illtakepoint]

no "libertylove7", i was born and raised in torrance, california in 1959....we were raised in downtown los angeles.....my family has been in los angeles since 1879........i have references if you want.

[libertylove7]

Okay so you family was raised in LA?? What is that supposed to mean??? LA is still a dump from the immigrants. If you don't think so tell me who made look that way???

[MizzPrettyPrettyGyal]

i lived n LA my whole life, u sound retarded. IM BLACK, it seems important for u 2 know. LA IS A HUGE METROPOLITAN AREA, so go bitch to ur councilwoman bout the shape of ur city, go change minds, vote, but STOP WHINING,that "MEXICAN " shit is way over the top, ur blaming a people whn u can drive 10mins n ne direction, find a county line n move! wut race r u? JUS FIND A FUCKIN COZY HOLE W/ A MIRROR & LIVE N IT. U SAY U LOVE LIBERTY!! id like 2 c u find a niche!

[libertylove7]

I'm Black

[libertylove7]

Well, Veryone has left California even the black population. They have been driven out of south central because of the illegal immirants. Anyway LA SUCKS!!! THE PLACE IS NOW OFFICIALLY A THRID WORLD CITY!!! Don't kid yourself!!! California dreamin??? NOT! California is GONE!!!!!!!! DEAD!

[lukebccb]

Sorry libertyidiot7 the black population didn't leave CA, they were displaced from their inner city areas by latinos and have dispersed into outer city/suburban areas.

This has happened in all areas of CA: north, south, east.

[JOKAWILD26]

@libertylove7 L.A. is not a 3rd world dump. L.A. is a nice ass city. one thing is L.A. is way nicer then new york is today. L.A. is way cleaner and looks nicer then new york. and the street car got shut down, cuz everyone out here has CARS. no one uses that shit. they just got converted into regular busses. and cali has allways had large hispanic population., and about south central, probly just made that shit better with less riots like it use to get befor

[mediaxpuppet]

DO YOU REALIZE.... that downtown LA was abandoned in the 1950's because of white flight and the compuslion for people to flea to the suburbs because people of minority were moving into their city? rather than integrate they ran like a bunch of bitches. do you blame the minority for moving in or the whites for moving out?

[lukebccb]

No not so much white flight but in classical form, as the area of Downtown LA got old and shabby it was cheaper to just find another location and build and that's exactly what happened with Wilshire Blvd taking away the businesses and office workers from Downtown. And in turn West LA has taken away from Wilshire what Wilshire did to Downtown.

[libertylove7]

Los Angels NOW looks like a third world city!!! There are hardly any real Americans there now. In the last 8 years really there has been an influx of mexican immigrants that are everywhere. There hasn't been an amnesty so I wonder how they are here??? Los Angeles SUCKS!!!

[gardenalien]

As an outsider and not from the U.S, Im from Europe. What exactly do you mean by  !!Real American!! ??

[awong1975]

i wish i had the opportunity to live that era of downtown los angeles...so much more charm back then....of course without he bigotry and racism...i'm talking about the atmosphere the past city created. progress is good but sometimes people forget the value of charm which makes a city unique, quaint and beautiful.

[reluctantpopstar]

Yes, funny, the only thing we refer to in the USA as trams are aerial trams, usually found at ski resorts, but the most famous one is probably the Roosevelt Island Tramway, right in the middle of New York City. Seen in the movie Spiderman (the first one). Also an aerial tram.

[grovestreetthug]

isn't it true there was a conspiracy to get the red cars out of la by he car companies like in "who framed roger rabbit"?

[spaceghostman]

It is true. Blame it on GM Motor. They bought the street cars and then eliminated so everyone have to buy a car to drive in order to get anywhere. I'm glad they are failing today.

[unrooolie]

Dumb GM. We can blame for a crappy downtown transit. We could have been like sanfransisco

[sptrain98]

@spaceghostman This is, of course, an assertion not support by any reasonable historic study, but rather the result of the mindless rantings of one Bradford Snell having captured the attention of a public not given to taking the time to learn for itself.

[wildbell]

Looks like @spaceghostman is another graduate of Roger Rabbit University.

[ripperduck]

@spaceghostman Yup. "Taken For A Ride" is a documentary which focuses on exactly on what you're posting. Very shameful how they destroyed one of the finest light railway systems in the world only to bring it back nearly 40 years later at a cost of billions of dollars.

[Fbarra2020]

@spaceghostman How can a private company buy the public transportation system and take it down? Is it allowed?

[dave98503]

Wow, I heard John Mccain talk about those good old days. I wonder if he traveled in that direction during his way to school. It sure brings back good memories.

[TheDepotCat]

Fascinating looking video. And that's from someone who lives in the UK..!!

Well I always remember the old LA streetcars {trams to us}, and scenes of old LA in the Laurel & Hardy shorts.