Added: 4 years ago
From: Meadowlawn
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  • 0:58 Clifton's!

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  • i was born exactly one month before this vide was shot and still live in the los angeles area, now im 23 how time flies.

  • this is just so fascinating to me !!

  • wowwww....LA in the 80s ! the people look so different, the way they dress their hair and the cars ! omg i love it, it's amazing...and to think michael jackson was somewhere near there and how cool he looked back then omg :) thank you for posting !

  • but the youtube it is not already on 1988 but where are you recording in youtube

  • Downtown Los Angeles is so beautiful<3

  • At :20 you video taped my childhood favorite go-to Toy store! Loved that place, so crowded and narrow filled to the ceiling with toys, and it was a tall interior! Downtown by then had become a total mess, lots of junkie stores, dirty, terrible. I dont miss those days but I have a scant few favorite memories. Now its not too much different other than gentrifiers coming in thinking its a great place. Not for me.

    - Gary

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  • Good times man, i miss those days...

  • @shadow0106 amazing :) i wasnt alive in those days but it reminds me of when i was really little in the late 90s so i kinda know how you feel...somewhat..idk it just gave me a weird deja vu

  • Wow! I always wondered what it looked like back then. Makes the Downtown of today look like a ghost-town.

  • WOW !!!!!!!! I have no words , I used to live in South Gate California back in the 1980's and moved to Arizona now . Here is what is very strange , or I should say a true moment of amazing surprise - So I go looking here on you tube for a video of what Downtown LA was like back in the 80's Because I used to work at this store called GQ Style . I used to have the closing shift - So I find that you video taped the store and wow that was a moment I called my wife to show her

  • Nobody knows about the background music? Pleeaaaseee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!­!!!!

  • year i was b0rn!

  • What time (clock) was this shot on? These days, at night, it's a freaking ghostown.

  • PLEASE SOMEONE NAME THE MUSIC ITS SO FAMILIAR!!!...this footage is a gem by the way! Thnx Indeed

  • Cliftons on 7th and Broadway. I used to go there so much as a kid, good grub! Still open aswell

  • Times Square is better! 42nd street! NY.

  • I wholely agree with "djerniepearl" that it was shot in late fall/early winter when it's dark by 5pm as the whole of Broadway and the adjoining areas are shut down and most everyone is gone before 7pm.

  • I think the reason it looks busy was because it was probably filmed in Nov-Jan when it would get dark round 5 pm. I lived in downtown and know for a fact it becomes a ghost town when the sun sets

  • 2:22 click here <--- I used to live there on the 8th floor. 424 Broadway. Next to it used to be a parking lot where we used to play. I'm talking 1981 here

  • I wish I could go back to that time!! Back then they would show two movies!!

  • I wish I could go back to that time!! Back then they would show two movies!!

  • I never thought i'd see this scene again!Theres california toys where I got beast man from masters of the universe.I would always beg my mother to take me there.Is it just me, but it seems like things were harder to get then?Maybe they were more expensive at that time , because even Mcdonalds was a luxury it seems.

  • Nice footage circa 1988. One thing to note is the Orpheum Theatre shows a move with subtitles in Espanol. Back then there were still quite a few spanish langauge movie theaters. Used to be the RULE in the 1960's when MOST of the Broadway theaters showed Spanish language movies or American movies with spanish soundtrack or subtitles.

    Slowly but SURELY the old theaters are being brought back to LIFE. I say another 3 to 5 years and things will start to look a lot different.

  • @mikescircus I hope so. I just went to the Last Remaining Seats at the Million Dollar Theater. Great way to bring some attention to Broadway. It really is a shame, that they largely go unnoticed.

  • wow its still kinda like this

  • :30  TOLD YOU TOLD YOU

  • Nice footage! I never thought that I would ever be nostalgic for that part of Downtown Los Angeles, but compared to what it looks like today, I'd take that any day.

  • @Sox575 @primitivebushskills I am looking for a mechanical engineer and a doctor to join our "Colony" for only $5,000 you get to be part of the colony and 1/2 acre with water to live on. In Santa Barbara CA> close to town, with water on 100 acres surrounded by BLM land on all three sides. Mechanic, architect, nurse, builder, handyman, beautiful women(plural, computer engineer, scientist, horticulturists, farmers, musicians, people w resources, welder, solar engineer, natural healer,  NO BANKERS!

  • Haha catching a spot at :36 ?

    It looks like it

  • Very cool!!! I just moved to Downtown. Thanks for sharing

  • awesome 

  • did the camera past CLIFTON'S? my eye's probably were fooling me...

  • Is this the ghetto areas?

  • please whats the name of the song? i love it with the whole video! bless the 80s!

  • What's the song playing in this video, and by whom was it made?

    Also, could someone living in LA maybe go and redo this video exactly the same way showing the street at night in 2010? I would do it but I live in Philadelphia. You know, cue up the same song, go downtown around say 6.30pm and see what happens as you film it from a car.

  • The 80's was a great decade. I went to high school in that era. I loved the music, the TV shows, the people, and the way things were back then. It was awesome to experiance the 80's!!!

  • @jeff1969z I wish I was in school in the 80s,

  • @jeff1969z took the words right outta my mouth. Generation of today is comprised of unfriendly, annoying, agitated little bitches... an entire generation of soulless brats. I thank God I was born just in time to catch the tail end of good music and a better population. People are supposed to enjoy life and make "real" lasting friendships. I've observed over the past couple of decades, people becoming unfriendly, seclusive, generally unhealthy and even more materialistic than the 80's.

  • tripped out i wasnt even born now i roam these streets day and night

  • 1988! wow... i was like 12 back then, its a trip to see how it looked 20 years ago.

  • Change all the signs into Spanish, change the eateries to outlets for cheap Chinese shirts, close some of the theaters and arcades, and we have the LA of today.

  • very well fuckin said.

  • @InsideLosAngeles

    Also, close all those stores down, invite a bunch of hipster trendy fags in and dumb bitches with dogs in their purses, open a bunch of vegan ass stores and we have the LA of today

  • And its playng a brazilian son!

    Congratulations for your video!

    from Brazil

  • thank you for this video! it´s great =)

  • What a year to be a sports fan in LA. The Lakers win back-to-back NBA titles, the Dodgers win the World Series and the Kings acquire the greatest hockey player of all time in Wayne Gretzky in a trade.

  • some of this stuff is still around, 20 years later (i live in the downtown l.a. area so i see it all the time).

  • "2 LIVE N DIE IN LA" foreal man cliftons restaurant is still there and going good to good food la is still and always be the place to be man foreal forever and ever !...

  • is cliftons is white owned still? it used to be.

  • @TheNewMusicNetwork: Who cares?

  • people with braincells.

  • It's a shame most of the theaters have closed down. Luckily, they are starting a beautification project of Downtown.

  • oh ya, this is the L.A. i see everynight, Funny, this was nine years ago and it still looks the same. thanx for posting

  • *20 years ago

  • I went in March 2009 and it wasn't even as nice as this!

  • The dawn of the Golden Age of Hip Hop, sad it had to end around the mid late 90s. Thanks for posting.

  • Love this video man !!brings back memories i remember eating at that cliftons restaurant waaay back... and going to that arcade between 7th & 8th. and the wolwrths across the street from there. there were still some theatres open back then.... in 88 i saw a dude get stabbed in the face right on broadyway lol i miss the 80s! great video man!!!

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  • Love It...thanks...

  • me too i swear i almost started crying ...

  • This is classic. I used to work for Fayva Shoes right on Broadway back in 1987. Downtown was still doing allright.

  • I passed by that arcade earlier. I was surprised it was still there.

  • Any idea what this was shot on? What was the iso/asa? Just curious how bright it is.

  • Certainly. It was shot on VHS-C tape running through a Zenith camcorder that I was running while my brother drove the car. Hope this helps!

  • @Meadowlawn WOW !!!!!!!! I have no words , I used to live in South Gate California back in the 1980's and moved to Arizona now . Here is what is very strange , or I should say a true moment of amazing surprise - So I go looking here on you tube for a video of what Downtown LA was like back in the 80's Because I used to work at this store called GQ Style . I used to have the closing shift - So I find that you video taped the store and wow that was a moment I called my wife to show her the store

  • looks dirtier back then

  • 20 yrs ago awsome

  • The Dodgers r about to win the World Series. 88 Gibson HR

  • i like going to LA and HallyWood and the ally good places

  • dude what a masterpiece of film. I live in L.A.

    and believe me it looks like garbage now. I seen Gameplace... man it was an arcade with the tinted windows. Now you can't find an arcade within 100 miles!

  • The Good Old Days!80's Rules

  • i don't understand downtown and uptown?please,s/b explain me?

  • All you need is Robert De Niro in a Checker cab and you got "Taxi Driver."

  • i was born in that year!! lol

  • 88!!!!!!

  • This looks more like a big city in 1978! There was a lot of retail still left down there for the late 80's! Sad to see less foot traffic there now than back then. But on the whole, Downtown LA is poised better now than back then. It's easy to forget that when this film was made, there was at least on department store (though on the opposite side of Broadway from this film) still open - but in its last year.

  • beautiful

  • NICE

  • ah yes, Down town, its smelly, scary, sticky, full of beggars, theives and bumbs.... but i love every single block of it!! I am glad they are bringing back the movie theaters, there are none like this block of old theaters in the world.

  • u didnt say anything about the street whores.

  • i've been living in downntown for 4 years. i loove la.

  • I love it!

  • Amazing how much foot traffic there was then, and how many of the marquee's were lit up.

    (as I just got back from shopping on Braodway)

    :)

  • ahh the 80's

  • Love all that retro neon. 1989 or 88? (i refer to the info text)

  • Thanks for pointing that out. I was actually rather vague about the date (either 1988 or 1989 seemed plausible) but insofar as the Orpheum marquee says "The Land Before Time," I am going to say this is 1988. Cheers.

  • Los Angeles :)

  • nice video...

    They are trying to bring Broadway back like it was back then 20 years ago wow..I love L.A

  • ok i know this might be off topic. but is there a place where you can drive in the La hills or hollywood hills to over see DOwntown los angeles??

  • Damn it's a trip

    To think this was almost 20 years ago!

    I love LA<33

  • great background music!

  • HOME SWEET HOME

  • AND PPL THINK LA SMALL

  • Who thinks LA is small? I think its gigantic, and i havent even been there!

  • lmfao no cuz people think its small but when they get here their like WHOA!

  • Uh yeah, but i said the opposite. I THINK its gigantic but, ill problary be like WHOA when i get there anyway :)

  • Los Angeles's Broadway was a lively place back then and Broadway is even more lively today thanks to all those residential units in the upper floors of all those buildings either being rented or sold. Many of the old movie palaces have either reopened after restorations or are in the process of being restored. Broadway is still the busiest street in Los Angeles.

  • Some of the places I know are in this video. Back then looked okay and this was even before I was born. Thanks for this "virtual" time portal.

  • Great video!!!!!!!!!!!!

    I love the weather in Los Angeles.

    Brings back great memories!

  • Why back them people cleaned they store windows?, i have recently went to downtown LA and all the downtown stores where dirty, whit dirt windows, and lots of crazy people on the streets.

  • ahhh the 80's, i was a teen in the wrong decade

  • perhaps you'd have enjoyed the 60's?

  • yeah weed:-)

  • 1988 Los Angeles Dodgers World Series Champions.

  • 19 yrs old. year i was born wow! looks the same..

  • in the 80's!!! god this vid is old koool!thanks for sharring... i still pass by those streets now and then..

  • thats really a great video, i love cities by night anyway. before i watched a video from LA during day and from nowadays and i was really disappointed but this video shows really the character of the city, it was fun watching it

  • Great video. I spent a lot of time on Broadway during the mid to late 80's. Watching this was a real stroll down memory lane.

  • fuck me dead this video is a old as me

  • your an idiot

  • That's a good vid.  Check out "The Burrito Project" in my profile. Good nighttime shots of LA as well.

  • This "Strip," (Broadway), at one time was frequened by middle, upper income sectors of the community. It had fashionable shops, retailers, theater houses, and first class restaurants. That has gone due to the Bunker Hill project durning the reign of Mayor Tom Bradly. The Broadway Strip has gone by way of cheap foregin goods, and more seedy elements of a big city.

  • wow! L.A in the late 80's.

  • This reminds me a LOT of downtown Seattle at night. Looks very similar, to me.

  • Probably because the lighting is dim and the car never slows down!

  • I've seen the Seattle night-life, and you'd run out of brightly lit establishments to photograph on any one street in well less than three minutes, even if the car were going half as fast.

  • Well yeah it's a small town compared to LA so whaddya expect? :-) LOL

  • Surprising there were still some national chain stores down there as late as 1988. I spotted some stores that are still there like the optometrist next to the Orpheum Theater and the Video Arcade. Still looks lively at night with theaters still showing movies. Nowadays it looks Blade Runnery, but it's slowly coming back. Whatever, let's get some of those movie theaters open again.

  • Ah, the good old days when you could get a rental downtown for under $4000.

    Sigh.

  • Holy crap!!!!! Are you kidding? That's worse than Seattle where I'm from! LOL That's just inconceivable.

  • I wish all of the Theatres were still opern as they were in 1988.  Broadway in Downtown LA has the largest Historical Theatres district in the USA

  • Nice relaxing vid, nice music too.

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