1950's Los Angeles Noir at dusk

[xayraa33]

Tail finned American cars, burger joints, black and white film and Duane Eddyesque music, whats not to like?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDQPkdcQCAg

 

[charjohncarter]

Is that real?

 

[xayraa33]

Is that real?

It is as real as B&W cine film can be.

It looks like stock footage presumably to be partially used in a Hollywood film or TV series, typical of the 1950s.

I can imagine a DUI Broderick Crawford playing the part of Dan Mathews recklessly speeding on those streets in his chrome faced glitsy 1958 Buick Special with a Highway Patrol insignia on the doors.

BTW, there is one similar film clip of 1948 Los Angeles streets, also filmed for later Hollywood movie use as stock footage.

Both videos look like a long lost world.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-I2kLNwBak

 

[Timmyjoe]

Very cool, thanks for the links.

Best,
-Tim

 

[Bill Clark]

Thanks.

Looks like plenty of smog even back in the 1950’s!

 

[Huss]

Thanks.

Looks like plenty of smog even back in the 1950’s!

Smog was way worse in LA from the 1940s to the 1970s. So bad in fact that people thought there was a gas attack from the Japanese in WW2!
It's with modern emission standards that things have become much better (stil not great) even though the # of cars has more than doubled.


https://timeline.com/la-smog-pollution-4ca4bc0cc95d

 

[Bill Clark]

It's with modern emission standards that things have become much better (stil not great) even though the # of cars has more than doubled.

I agree.

After I returned from Viet Nam, early 1970’s, I had an apartment in Long Beach, many times I would look out and see a brown haze in the sky.

Today our daughter and her family live in La Canada, and I notice much better air quality. No brown haze any more like in the 1970’s.

 

[charjohncarter]

When I returned form overseas in 1972, I choose not to live in LA area because of the smog. It is much better now, if fact it is like a miracle. When I lived in LA in the early 60s there was nothing as beautiful as a smog sunset.

 

[citizen99]

Tail finned American cars, burger joints, black and white film and Duane Eddyesque music, whats not to like?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDQPkdcQCAg

Loved it 🙂

 

[Richard G]

Wonderful. Thanks. Can’t turn on that many wonderful cars and diners to make a faux historic clip, nor find thin men to walk the streets. Smog in Melbourne Australia is also better than in 1970.