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Blast From The Past: Griffith Park, Malibu and Santa Monica, Mad Men Style
Has the absence of Mad Men and its regular mid-century goodness (though technically, it was 1964 in season four) been getting you down? Lucky for you, today's video lunch menu is going vintage. In case you didn't know, YouTube isn't only for videos of silly cats, funny babies or taxidermy-ready toddler pets. YouTube user Gerlock11’s treasure trove of vintage video footage gives a glimpse into the past with 1950s home movies of trips to Griffith Park & Observatory, Malibu (with sea lions!), Santa Monica's Ocean Park Pier, Knott's Berry Farm and Disneyland, among other popular L.A. tourist spots.
The clips, which are credited as part of the Elmer Gerlock Film Project, range from the early 1950s to the late 1980s and contain footage of sights across the U.S., including Florida, Nevada and Ohio, where the cameraman is presumably from -- the uploader, Shawn, lists his hometown as Maple Heights, OH, and we can only assume he's a relative of the original cameraman.
At times, the camera is unsteady as it pans from one point of interest to another. And while this might be the vintage equivalent of a shoddy, out-of-focus cell phone video clip, there's a charm to the old film's dust & scratches and amateur quality that makes it seem like we're seeing the '50s through our own eyes.
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A version of this post originally appeared here (Full disclosure -- it's this contributor's blog).
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