Speed Graphic Film and Video | Hollywood Outtakes: Around Manhattan in Twenty Minutes @SpeedGraphicFilmVideo | Uploaded December 2022 | Updated October 2024, 3 hours ago.
This is the regular version of this video. To see the short, sped-up version, go here: youtube.com/watch?v=jAzodrl_8Ok
One day in the 1930's, somebody from Columbia Pictures put a camera on a boat and took this film as they circumnavigated New York's Manhattan Island. Starting from a pier in New Jersey, they sailed across the Hudson River, around lower Manhattan, up the East River and the Harlem River, then down the Hudson again. The whole trip would have taken two or three hours. Who knows how much film they shot, but this 20-odd minutes of film is all that I can find in the archive.
00:00 The film starts from one of the big piers on the New Jersey side of the Hudson. I haven't been able to identify the small ocean liner tied up at the next pier over. A lighter goes by and, as the boat turns south, the skyscrapers of lower Manhattan swing into view.
04:49 South of the Battery now, with a view of Castle Garden and the ferry terminals. At 5:36 you can just see a Ninth Avenue Elevated train headed north, which indicates that this film was shot before 1940.
07:22 Now headed north on the East River, looking back towards lower Manhattan.
08:36 The shore is lined with coal-fired plants to serve the city's voracious appetite for power.
09:39 Still headed north on the East River, this time looking ahead towards the 59th Street Bridge and what was then known as either Blackwell's Island or Welfare Island.
11:04 This shot of a tugboat and barge on the Harlem River was taken about the same time, but was shot by Pere Lorenz and Floyd Crosby for a never-completed feature film.
11:17 On the Harlem River, looking at what was then known as the Harlem River Speedway.
14:15 Skipping well ahead, we're now on the Hudson River, passing under the new George Washington Bridge.
17:02 Looking at the Manhattan side of the Hudson again, we see Grant's tomb and Riverside Church in its original configuration.
18:20 In the final shot, we see the old piers of lower Manhattan.
The music is large excerpts from Aaron Copland's Third Symphony. I wish I could have fitted it all in.
This is the regular version of this video. To see the short, sped-up version, go here: youtube.com/watch?v=jAzodrl_8Ok
One day in the 1930's, somebody from Columbia Pictures put a camera on a boat and took this film as they circumnavigated New York's Manhattan Island. Starting from a pier in New Jersey, they sailed across the Hudson River, around lower Manhattan, up the East River and the Harlem River, then down the Hudson again. The whole trip would have taken two or three hours. Who knows how much film they shot, but this 20-odd minutes of film is all that I can find in the archive.
00:00 The film starts from one of the big piers on the New Jersey side of the Hudson. I haven't been able to identify the small ocean liner tied up at the next pier over. A lighter goes by and, as the boat turns south, the skyscrapers of lower Manhattan swing into view.
04:49 South of the Battery now, with a view of Castle Garden and the ferry terminals. At 5:36 you can just see a Ninth Avenue Elevated train headed north, which indicates that this film was shot before 1940.
07:22 Now headed north on the East River, looking back towards lower Manhattan.
08:36 The shore is lined with coal-fired plants to serve the city's voracious appetite for power.
09:39 Still headed north on the East River, this time looking ahead towards the 59th Street Bridge and what was then known as either Blackwell's Island or Welfare Island.
11:04 This shot of a tugboat and barge on the Harlem River was taken about the same time, but was shot by Pere Lorenz and Floyd Crosby for a never-completed feature film.
11:17 On the Harlem River, looking at what was then known as the Harlem River Speedway.
14:15 Skipping well ahead, we're now on the Hudson River, passing under the new George Washington Bridge.
17:02 Looking at the Manhattan side of the Hudson again, we see Grant's tomb and Riverside Church in its original configuration.
18:20 In the final shot, we see the old piers of lower Manhattan.
The music is large excerpts from Aaron Copland's Third Symphony. I wish I could have fitted it all in.
![Old Home Movies, Vol. I: Southern Pacific Steam Power [Silent]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/CULbB-p_sJU/hqdefault.jpg "Old Home Movies, Vol. I: Southern Pacific Steam Power [Silent]
This short video brings together three pieces of film from the Prelinger Collection, all taken by non-professional, non-railfan filmmakers.
0:06 : On a beautiful California day, a Southern Pacific Coast Daylight consist arrives at a station. Location and date unknown, though not before 1941, when the GS-4 and the two-unit articulated chair cars seen here debuted. Taken by E. B. Foltz.
0:28 : This anonymous photographers primary job was to take a time-lapse film of a building being constructed. But from time to time, he would turn the camera on the passing trains. Location unknown. The Internet Archive says this was taken in 1947.
0:57 : The Coast Daylight arriving in San Francisco (?) in 1941. Another great shot of a GS-4 and its beautiful consist. Taken by John H. Summers.")
![Reading Iron Horse Ramble, 1960 [Silent]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/D1T2c54KBls/hqdefault.jpg "Reading Iron Horse Ramble, 1960 [Silent]
An unknown railfan, probably from the Philadelphia area, took this and a number of other films that ended up in the Prelinger Collection and the Internet Archive. This film shows an Iron Horse Ramble on the Reading Railroad in 1959 or 1960. There is no location information with the film, so thanks to Youtubers rdg2124 and Oren Helbok for help with the following:
0:00 The title shot appears to be taken out the back of an electric on what is now known as the Norristown High-Speed Line.
0:11 At the Readings Norristown Station. The HSL runs overhead.
0:40 T1 4-8-4 No. 2124 backs down onto the excursion train, while the diesels that brought the train out from Philadelphia idle down the line.
1:34 on the move at last, leaning out a window on the right-hand side of the train.
1:41 Approaching Port Kennedy, going under the old bridge there.
1:54 Perkiomen Junction.
1:59 Possibly Phoenixville.
2:08 Mingo area.
2:14 Douglassville station.
2:22 Passing Colorado Fuel & Iron at Birdsboro. CF&I 0-4-0 Camelback No. 4, formerly RDG No. 1187, is trackside. In a few years, No. 4 would go to the Strasburg Railroad.
2:26 Coming into Port Clinton.
3:54 Zehners
4:33 Tamaqua.
5:26 Helpers to head west on the RDG Schuylkill Valley Branch to Pottsville
5:38 Four F-units at the head of a long freight train ease their way slowly through the crowd.
6:12 Fairbanks-Morse Trainmaster H-24-66 No. 867 slides on by the excursion train.
6:33 Photo runby.
7:28 Pike Street in Reading on the return leg
7:44 Laurel Street underpass
7:49 Back in Norristown as the 2124 comes off the train.
8:34 Headed back home again on the Norristown HSL.
I am still working to identify other locations on this film, so please let me know if you recognize something. I cant even pin down the date of this Ramble there were over a dozen that year. Trains Magazine for November 1960 says that No. 4 was trackside for the April 30 Ramble, but this film looks to have been taken in midsummer.")
