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Flying around olde Boston

By adamg on Sat, 07/11/2009 - 12:29pm

Interesting to see how much has changed - and hasn't - since the 1920s:

Via ArchBoston.org.

Neighborhoods: 
Boston
Downtown
Topics: 
History


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Comments

By neilv on Sat, 07/11/2009 - 1:55pm.

You will be tested on it.

Was this film dated most by:

A) Technical quality
B) Automobiles
C) Everyone on street wearing suits and hats
D) The proud, optimistic, industrious spirit
E) Harvard's endowment being "over 100 million dollars"

By BikerGeek on Sat, 07/11/2009 - 3:04pm.

F) The automobiles pictured downtown were actually moving. In neat, orderly rows, no less.

By bph on Sat, 07/11/2009 - 7:53pm.

were jaywalking all over the place.

By Jay Levitt on Sat, 07/11/2009 - 7:39pm.

F) The now-ironic "contrast" between the colonial-era Old State House and the modern, slender Customs House "skyscraper"

G) The narrator's accent, somewhere between WWII-era radio announcer, Bostonian, and Kermit the Frog, which reveals the film's true surprise:

This narrator was the historical basis for Art Carney's Ed Norton.

Oh, Chef of the Future, can it core a apple?

By my_left_foot on Sat, 07/11/2009 - 8:48pm.

Very cool

first thing I noticed. Not one t-shirt or pair of jeans in sight.

Second, no traffic.

Third, no Spare change guy?

By anon on Mon, 07/27/2009 - 2:48pm.

"who fifty years ago, founded a religion in *conservative* Boston."

By david_yamada on Sat, 07/11/2009 - 3:34pm.

I was struck more by what hasn't changed.

The classic touristy vistas are largely the same!

By just-wondering on Sat, 07/11/2009 - 6:22pm.

What a great film. Amazing how much is still the same. Funny that it should stop at the Wayside Inn.
It was the cars that finally clinched the era for me!!

By anon on Sat, 07/11/2009 - 6:24pm.

Somebody please help me out.

When I first saw the Old State House in the 1970's, there was no lion and unicorn. In recent years, the lion and unicorn were restored. At that time, I read somewhere that those two beasts were torn down by angry colonists and were not restored until that recent restoration. Based on this short movie, I was obviously misinformed. Can anybody tell me where I went astray, on this matter only? Thanks.

By bph on Sat, 07/11/2009 - 7:35pm.

I don't know what was there in the 1970s but they were torn down in 1776 & replaced in an 1882 restoration.