Check out this old film of the streets of San Pedro Ca. with not one but two (2) Willys spotting's in the first five minutes of the film.. First is a yellowish '37-'38 Willys 2dr sedan with a bunch of pedestrians walking along the side of the road, next we see a few shots of a red '33-'34 Willys 4dr sedan as well as a Mack truck tanker truck, a panel truck and other various makes of the early and late 30's
I fixed the title and upon watching it a few more times it looks like Three Willys, one of the red ones is a 4dr but I also see a coupe as well.
Looks like there was a high school nearby judging from all the kids. No sidewalks. Wonder what that place looks like today.
The most obvious visual is all the kids are walking from school and I didn't see any overweight, this was prior to fast food and lack of exercise. It certainly was a simpler time. Both my parents were LA natives and were in high school in the '30s. This is an amazing film and very well restored and colorized. Thanks for the early SO Cal film.
Assuming it was a...guy, with the camera, he'd be tossed in jail nowadays for filming all of the kids ! How times change. Mike
I always wish when I watch these videos that they would do a then on the left and they now on the right type of thing... I would imagine San Pedro is almost unrecognizable from the 30s to now. That area was pretty rural back then I believe.
There were heavy people around back then (for instance just look at presidents Taft and Hoover) but remember we were just coming out of the Depression when this film was made, so food wasn't necessarily in great supply for the average person. A lot of the kids on bikes were riding two up, I remember it wasn't very comfortable sitting sideways on the bike's top tube. I wonder if the film was in the morning or afternoon, and if they were going to or coming home from school. There was a lot of demolition going on, it would be interesting to know what was happening with the structures that had been torn down and the one that was being moved.
Just think........................ probably most of those kids would be fighting in WW II in just over a decade. My dad graduated high school in 1931 and in 1941 he was drafted. Makes one ponder the future.
That whole area north and south of Long Beach ,up towards Lakewood got hammered in 1933 earthquake, could explain empty lots with rubble, figure the film is a circa 1934/5 ?
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