Flickr Find | Pre-1962 America in Color

posted by Michael Williams

Flickr Find is a weekly column of interesting things found on the amazing and inspiring photo sharing website Flickr.

Is America going to hell in a handbasket? Credit crisis, financial disaster, risky derivatives, bail out, Wall Street sticking it to Main Street? Take solace in good old pre-1962 America in color. Back when George Bailey was saving Bedford Falls and the Bailey Bros. Building and Loan Association. The entire photo pool can be seen here, which should keep you from checking your 401K balance.

More Flickr Find posts can be seen here.

Comments on “Flickr Find | Pre-1962 America in Color”

    Paul Pincus on September 30, 2008 1:55 PM:

    ACL’s America! These are beautiful. I love it.

    mho119 on September 30, 2008 2:27 PM:

    …and the clothes haven’t changed a bit.

    matthew on September 30, 2008 3:42 PM:

    In case we get too nostalgic, here is pre-1962 American in black and white.

    Michael Williams on September 30, 2008 4:06 PM:

    A good point Matthew, obviously this Flickr Find is not biased, just working with what we have in the pool.

    ACL

    Ms. P&C on September 30, 2008 4:25 PM:

    All are beautiful – reminiscent of the Kodak Colorama pictures from Grand Central Station…

    The one of the guy with the drinkie on the trolley is clearly from San Francisco. How do I know? Because the trolley could only be a Cable Car, and the drinkie is clearly an Irish coffee.

    Irish coffee was invented (er…maybe re-invented outside of Ireland?) at the Buena Vista Cafe at Hyde and Beach Streets. A Cable Car turn-around just *happens* to be right across the street from the bar.

    A little west coast fun fact for today…

    http://www.thebuenavista.com/index2.html

    Ms. P&C on September 30, 2008 4:29 PM:

    Ah – and the Flickr feed even labels it…shoulda looked first.

    matthew on September 30, 2008 7:13 PM:

    I didn’t mean to suggest any bias on ACL’s part, and I apologize if it came off like that. The pictures just reminded me of how I cringe when people of my parents’ generation talk about ‘simpler times.’

    Simpler times called for simpler people, I suppose.

    Michael Daddino on September 30, 2008 7:55 PM:

    Possibly even better (if you can imagine that): pre-Revolutionary Russia in Color

    Laura on September 30, 2008 11:24 PM:

    Fantastic Flickr finds! I featured ACL on my blog today. I’m an ACL fan ;)

    giuseppe on September 30, 2008 11:42 PM:

    i bet the kid in the last photos Mom washed his jeans the minute he got home in the washing machine with extremely harsh soap…repeatedly.

    porter hovey on October 1, 2008 9:14 AM:

    It’s always shocking the things you can find on Flickr. And these are truly great examples!

    TINTIN on October 1, 2008 9:42 AM:

    I’m sure many of these are Kodachrome 25. A mother to shoot but when you hit it you nailed it. Fujichrome 100 came along and lazy bastards like me embraced it for it’s forgiving nature. A shame. Great post…old man.

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