Early 1950s Los Angeles | 4k and Remastered

Remastered clips of Los Angeles, California, likely from the early 1950s. Most of the video shows driving on Wilshire Boulevard. We see the May company and the Prudential building. The later parts of the video are likely captured in the surrounding areas of Los Angeles.

Vivid History is dedicated to restoring old black and white footage and creating high-quality colorized versions to give you an authentic and vivid experience of the past.

The video has been restored and colorized using state-of-the-art machine learning methods.
The restoration steps included:
- motion stabilization
- noise reduction
- colorization
- frame interpolation for increased FPS
- upscaling to 4K
- adding ambient sound

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The source video is from the internet archive under the creative commons license.

[dianerichards]

Clean streets, no graffiti on the buildings, people dressed nice, it’s great to see it again thanks for sharing this.

[deadmansgulf]

Imagine telling the person filming this that in 70 years nearly a million people will be watching this on their phones and wish they lived during this time compared to now

[Sonia]

The feeling of cleanliness and calm, beauty out of times, priceless.

[zoshi_]

Does anyone know why watching these videos of the old days when I wasn't born makes me happy? I think it's just seeing how life was in different eras and how things have changed, I have always been fascinated by history.

[bprid]

These folks have no idea they were living at the pinnacle of civilization.

[TravellingxTales]

What fascinates me is the fact that somebody thought (from that time period) it would be cool to film a video like this from a car with I’m assuming a Very big camera at that time. In this day and age where this would not be common, I’m happy that somebody made this video for us people from the future to see how the world was like during our grandparents early days.

[John-kdef]

I grew up in the 1950s in Los Angeles and can tell you that back then drivers were more polite to each other, they yielded the right of way even when they didn't have to, they were not in a rush, did not run through yellow or red lights, did not cut off other drivers, did not tailgate drivers in front of them and treated driving as a privileged rather than as a right. The rules of the road were studied and put into practice and road rage was something completely unheard of back then.

[tomspirito]

The sidewalks and streets looked so clean

[seandidsomething]

Ill just say it man this was America before 10s of millions of immigrants came.

[tonnasullivan]

No one seemed to be in a rush. I love watching these videos. It gives me a sense of peace for a second.

[zaranski]

People's fashion and culture, the colorful cars, the peace. Everything was perfect

[Pappy]

Where's the poop, piss, needles, and gangs?

[khatokhato]

People look mostly peaceful, patient, mentally healthy. When I watched videos like this, I recollect my grandparents. They were steady moderate gentle people. I miss them. They died 2012, 2013, 2016. I still remember our last conversations.

[keithhyttinen]

They didn't buy a Snickers Bar and just toss the wrapper on the sidewalk.

[jean-pierrethibaudeau]

Everybody’s driving sooo slow! Seems they were enjoying the ride better than today’s.

[jppurves]

Must be very early 1950's. I didn't see a car much newer than 1951. Also fascinating to see empty lots in the Wilshire District. So much open land in the west valley as well: Hidden Hills, Canoga Park, Woodland Hills, now just endless miles of tract homes.

[ahknabi]

This is amazing to see. It is almost like time travel.

[davidvelazquez]

These videos are amazing. I can't imagine who drove around with a camera back then. Great job with restoring and colorizing.

[samquinn]

No homeless encampments or people getting robbed and shot. No Woke politicians back in those days. You did the crime, you did the time.

[ronmexico]

A better country. No internet, no cell phones, no Facebook, no Twitter but a MUCH better country.