Subject: Somewhere In Time
Date: Fri Mar 18 22:45:11 2011
User: Songcutter
Message:An email I received...
<http://www.incredimail.com/app/?tag=display_picture_click_me_re&lang=9&version=6254831&setup_id=7&aff_id=102&addon=IncrediMail&upn=c831649e-4468-40ce-8f0d-2348b89a6cfe>
THIS IS REALLY UNBELIEVABLE! NO TRAFFIC LIGHTS, NO RULES.
This is a fascinating movie. A camera was mounted on the front of a street car in San Francisco 104 years ago (1906). Perhaps the oldest "home movie" that you will ever see! I watched it a couple of times. Look at the hats the ladies were wearing and the long dresses. Some of the cars had the steering wheels on the right side. I wonder when they standardized on the left? Sure were still a lot of horse drawn vehicles in use. Mass transit looked like the way to get around. Looks like everybody had the right of way.
Watch the beginning carefully. At the 33 second mark and immediately after an oncoming trolley clears the screen, a well dressed policeman walks across the street from left to right. Notice his right hand that he's carrying a truncheon (26 inch police baton) and although he appears walking his beat, he looks ready to use it. Imagine the police of today walking down the street carrying a 26 inch club in their hand...???
This film was "lost" for many years. It was the first 35mm film ever. It was taken by camera mounted on the front of a cable car. The number of automobiles is staggering for 1906. The clock tower at the end of Market Street at the Embarcadero wharf is still there.
How many "street cleaning" people were employed to pick up after the horses? Talk about going green!
This film was originally thought to be from 1905 until David Kiehn with the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum figured out exactly when it was shot. From New York trade papers announcing the film showing to the wet streets from recent heavy rainfall & shadows indicating time of year & actual weather and conditions on historical record, even when the cars were registered (he even knows who owned them and when the plates were issued!). It was filmed only four days before the Great California Earthquake of April 18th 1906 and shipped by train to NY for processing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=NINOxRxze9k
Enjoy!
Link: http://<http://www.incredimail.com/app/?tag=display_picture_click_me_re&lang=9&version=6254831&setup_id=7&aff_id=102&addon=IncrediMail&upn=c831649e-4468-40ce-8f0d-2348b89a6cfe>
Date: Fri Mar 18 23:33:09 2011
User: Snowguy
Message:Fascinating, Song. Thanks for posting it! I could hardly believe I would find a hundred-year old film clip that engrossing.
And not one accident, with all those drivers and pedestrians playing chicken. Excellent.
Date: Sat Mar 19 10:45:21 2011
User: firenze
Message:All those people are dead.
Date: Sat Mar 19 18:23:10 2011
User: dede
Message:LOL thats so funny Fir .....I haven't watched the video yet... But when I do i will be imagining them all dead...
Date: Sat Mar 19 19:28:54 2011
User: BuzzClik
Message:It was interesting how many people were attempting to get "face time" and were fixed on the front of that car. More than one person stopped what they were doing to look at the car, and some darted back and forth in front of the car. They must have been somehow aware that the filming was happening.
Date: Sat Mar 19 20:22:15 2011
User: dede
Message:Thangs Song, just watched it What amazed me among many things was hardly any women ... Seemed like a Mans world there... all the little wimmens must have been home baking for their man, while they drove around in their cars... ...
We still have the trams here in Melbourne...
Link: our trams
Date: Sat Mar 19 22:09:51 2011
User: TNmountainman
Message:Good on ya!
Date: Mon Mar 21 07:39:52 2011
User: roo
Message:They all seemed to walk like Groucho Marx!
"Some of the cars had the steering wheels on the right side."
And what's wrong with that!! lol
Date: Mon Mar 21 18:07:50 2011
User: TNmountainman
Message:Apparently, this was a story on "60 Minutes" (an American newsmagazine TV show of long duration). Here is a longer version (11+ minutes), with a bit more history of how it was figured out:
Link: full version
Date: Mon Mar 21 18:50:04 2011
User: !_--FAST-ISHAM--_
Message:I see lotsa women in this one. Though this appeared to be a backward society(no color),they mustve had some kind of system of mass communication to have all called each other and decided to wear the same outfits that day.
Date: Mon Mar 21 21:45:00 2011
User: TNmountainman
Message:No; that *decade*.
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