Video: 1911 NYC

[Procrustus]

@Ashtura

It’s kind of a shame that everybody dresses like slobs now. I’d love to take a visit.

I don’t know about that. It’s interesting to see a different era, but I’m not sure I want to dress that way every day.

[filmore]

@commasense

But just slow down the playback to its proper speed, and all of a sudden these are real people, this is real life, not some alien world, and we are there. Astounding!

I agree that it seems quite normal. I would like to see a colorized version so that it becomes even more relatable. I notice that with colorized versions of Civil War photos. When I see the people in B&W, they seem like majestic characters from history. But when they are in color, they seem like regular people.

It’s striking how beautiful the architecture was considering that they had to build it without modern machinery. Seeing horse-drawn carriages going down streets with tall buildings gives you a sense of how much man-effort it must have taken to build them.

[carnivorousplant]

@SanVito

Straw boaters were obviously all the rage in 1911!

I thought I saw Buster Keaton 35 times.

[JKellyMap]

@Max_Torque

A podcast I listen to, The Dollop, had a really interesting and entertaining episode about this era, #193 - “When the Cars Came”. It’s a fascinating bit of forgotten history.

As the podcast tells it, before there were cars, people were used to just stepping into the street and walking wherever they wanted. The fastest thing in the street was a horse, and you could hear them coming a long way off. But, once people started buying cars, there was a mighty struggle between the factions of, “The streets are for cars!” and, “The streets are for pedestrians!” It was also something of a class war, because car owners were mostly rich folks.

Also, it was extremely normal for kids to play in the street (having parks for kids to play in wasn’t a thing yet). That, coupled with the facts that there were few traffic laws, signals, or road markings, next to no enforcement, and wildly untrained drivers (if you got any training at all, it was from the guy who sold you the car), meant that people (and kids specifically) were getting run over in unheard-of numbers. The PR move that turned the tide will surprise you.

Really, give it a listen, it’s a heck of a story.

Thanks. I’ve shared this with my neighbor, who wrote what many consider the definitive book on the “Lincoln Highway” project of that period.

[DrCube]

@carnivorousplant

I thought I saw Buster Keaton 35 times.

Nitpick: Buster wore a porkpie hat. Similar to a boater, but soft felt instead of hard straw.

[carnivorousplant]

@DrCube

Nitpick: Buster wore a porkpie hat. Similar to a boater, but soft felt instead of hard straw.

Thanks.

[jkirkman]

@carnivorousplant

Thanks.

Just swap in Harold Lloyd and you’ll be golden.

[Max_Torque]

Oh, The Dollop did an episode about them, too: #129 - Straw Hat Riot. Apparently straw hats were just for summer, and at one time it was accepted behavior to just grab and crush the straw hat of anyone who wore one past a certain date. Then things got out of hand…