Posted on 02/16/2020 2:18:08 PM PST by NRx
Old film of Paris, France taken by Burton Holmes in 1927 (maybe earlier). Set to a natural rate and added in sound for ambiance.
(Excerpt) Read more at youtu.be ...
Just as you can read Chaucer and Shakespeare and know they were all like us.
Those were my sentiments exactly...all the people depicted are now dead...or in a very advanced age.
Everyone was well dressed...not like today where slob casual is the mark of the day...(Myself included)...The women looked rather homely in these pictures...
A time gone by...between wars and before the world wide depression.
Burton Holmes...I have one of his books. A travelogue dated 1911 featuring Hawaii, the Philippines and some other points in the east. Again...the descriptions of the peoples and their cultures is vastly different than today’s writings...
There is a genre of movie types I once learned in Film School decades ago...I think this would be billed as a sort of City Symphony type film...
Or travelogue, if it was a Holmes production. If so, then this would be something that would run prior to the B film , followed by the A feature...
Give away dishes? A band in the pit to provide accompanying music?
Technology is grand, but sometimes I pine for the lost yesteryears. We didn’t know that we had it so bad back then... But then again, to have the entire world and its knowledge in the palm of one’s hand is pretty amazing...
FWIW: Perhaps the Avenue de Flandres, 19th Arrondissement, near the Stalingrad Metro Station in Paris. It was supposedly taken by an anonymous Frenchman in 2016.
So true. I was a big proponent of technology for the last thirty to forty years, always out in front, showing my friends and family what could be done. But I see some things that are decidedly not constructive. We clearly see the double edged sword that is technology. I have begun to wish there were no cell phones. I love having the world at my fingertips, but seeing a family of four at breakfast in a hotel I was staying at, all with their faces in their phones is a disconcerting sight to me.
And I think there is a destructive aspect to it, not just the cultural and societal, bu the governmental. You summed it up nicely.
One of our own, LS, is writing a book about technology and its effects on society both good and bad.
Hard to believe. I knew to avoid St Denis, but I think I was through there on my way to and from the airport and I really was looking for squalor. I didn’t see any.
Probably the closest I was to the 19th was the 11th which is closer to the Seine. No squalor there either. I still wonder about your picture.
ML/NJ
I’m currently trying to upgrade my wardrobe. This movie makes me feel inept.
Most interesting!
I had a great aunt (long since joined the Great Majority) who used to tell how when she was growing up not far from the train tracks, the family always had to hang their laundry in the parlor to dry because all of the coal dust from the locomotives would get into anything hung outside.
LOL I know how you feel. Between these kinds of videos and re-watching Boardwalk Empire I think I am falling back in love with the three piece suit.
We need an app for that! I was watching Shark tank the other night and the “Invention” was some sort of light gizmo to inform your partner in bed next to you that your are ready for some randy... hmmm if that wasn’t bad enough, the dude wanted the shark money to make an app...
Like why not roll over and ask...hey honey...wanna have some fun? No...gotta go to the phone app...might as well consult the magic eight ball...
Technology? Some things are cool like slide outs on an RV...Big Screen TV’s are pretty cool for watching sports and what not...
Other things? meh...
Preach on,Brother!
It's not mine. Your question just made me curious. I did not find a clear provenance for that photo, therefore the "FWIW." It is usually sourced to "an anonymous Frenchman." It supposedly shows the effects of Muslim immigration on Paris. Maybe it shows exactly that, maybe not. You are right to be skeptical.
Everyone talking about pollution is wrong. Democrats would have told us, and wouldn’t be so strident, if we had made great advances in controlling pollution, and these really are the Good Old Days.
What about those swinging-dick sailors out on the town? Why do sailors always hang out in threes? They were very lucky they were too young to serve in the Great War, and probably too old for the Second, at least in the front lines.
And speaking of that, the Great War is the big specter hanging over the 1920’s; in the attitudes, the women smoking, flappers, and fashion. A little over a decade before women were still wearing corsets and bustles.
And I think there is a destructive aspect to it, not just the cultural and societal, bu the governmental. You summed it up nicely.
One of our own, LS, is writing a book about technology and its effects on society both good and bad.
If a telephone rings I can let it ring all day if I don't want to answer it. Another person in the nearby vicinity is much more important than the cell phone connection that is disturbing others or is causing others to be slighted and ignored.
I have literally been on individual phone calls for ten hours straight coordinating restoration of service. The worst time was facilitating service restoration for American Express around its tragic losses on 9/11. I have been on conference calls with numerous locations around the world.
Phones, TV and data processing means nothing in the grand scheme. It isn't magic. We do not have to let technology make us slaves.
I will look for Larry's book when he completes it. I actually cannot wait to see his insights.
Funny, neither my wife nor I are big cell phone users. We tend not to call people or each other. Heh, we have never been phone talkers anyway.
But I love having music all the time, and what I want. I fully appreciate GPS, though I can follow a map. And having the Internet at your fingertips is prettttttttty cool.
Not one woman wearing pants! Times have sure changed.
“...but seeing a family of four at breakfast in a hotel I was staying at, all with their faces in their phones is a disconcerting sight to me.”
Yes, a very sad and common sight. Basically describes most of society nowadays — addicted to small screens. Some folks may try to deny it, yet it’s true.
Except for the people and the vehicles I do not see much change from what I saw in Paris. All the buildings are still the same.
My wife insisted that we have coffee at the Cafe de la Paix. Even in 1972 the coffee was $5 a cup. Yikes! “Hemingway used to sit here.” I bet he didn’t pay $5 a cup. ;D
When I started this, I thought it was a problem, but not a “big” problem.
After months of research, I am surprised and scared. Smartphones have changed the behavior (for much worse) of an entire generation called “iGen” born after 2000-—depression and suicides are skyrocketing; distracted driving via phones is a menace (despite seat belts, air bags, a reduction in drunk driving, fatality rates haven’t moved . . . due to cell phones/distracted driving). So far with two exceptions, every study I look at is a warning sign.
And just wait for the chapter on gaming and the Asian cultures and tech!
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