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This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.

Arts & Entertainment

Video: See Los Angeles In The 1920s

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An old film of Los Angeles in the 1920s has surfaced again. Let's take a look at the Los Angeles of yore.

The nine-minute, Ford-branded silent film shows us flourishing retail districts, an operational Angels Flight, USC, and California Hospital. We also are shown scenes from Chinatown, the Old Plaza and captions that definitely would not be okay in modern day Los Angeles. The video also implies that the Broadway shopping district may hold the secret to eternal youth: "Ponce de Leon had nothing on the rejuvenating properties of this highway!"

You can also watch a very old car drive very slowly over a pipe, and see plenty of bungalows, which the film regards as the typical California home.

Editor's Note: There's been some confusion about the USC building. Though the video's caption is University of California, which may indicate UCLA, it appears the building actually did, at one time, belong to USC. UCLA did not move into its current location until 1929, and it hasn't always been called the University of California. The building in the video seems to be The College of Liberal Arts, built in 1908. However, that building was torn down in 1948 because it was not deemed stable enough to withstand an earthquake.

Here's a pic to compare:

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