A Day at the Beach - c.1921 | AI Enhanced Film (Version 1)

Time travel back a full century for a day out at the beach c. 1921 in Holland. AI colorized and upscaled with sound for an immersive experience.

We love this 100 year old film, where we see normal working class people having fun.
When it came to swimming at the beach, social attitudes were still quite conservative in the early 1920's.
As in the two previous decades, women used mobile beach huts to change into their bathing suits in privacy. The hut would then be rolled down to the waters edge for a secluded dip in the water.

The film begins with holiday makers arriving by train and ferry to the famous Hook of Holland. It's fascinating to see how some folks literally set up 'camp' on the beaches, digging trenches and hoisting tents! The two girls rinsing the sand from their feet is particularly charming.

By the end of the 'roaring twenties', the bathing suit had evolved into more shapely body hugging swimsuits for women and swimming trunks for the men.

Filmed on the strands near the Hoek van Holland purportedly in January 1923 according to a publish date. However based on the styles, we think this was more likely made in 1921 or 1922 at the latest.

AI Restoration:

1. Cleaned noise artifacts
2. Increased frame interpolation from 15 fps to 60 fps using Rife app.
3. Increased resolution from 240p to 4000p.
4. Applied color using Deoldify ( notebook available on Google Colab)
5. Created ambient soundtrack.

Public domain licensed footage provided from the Beelden voor de Toekomst project.
Title: Strandleven Hoek van Holland

[denisem]

My mother was born in September 1921 and died in 1995. Celebrating what would have been her 100th on the 13th. So happy to see what the world looked like in her day. Thank you for these videos. Some should be in the Library of Congress or the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.

[GR-bozt]

What makes it special is that they didn’t film every moment of every day of their life. Not every meal was a photo. Most families probably had a handful of portraits, at best. That makes each capture so much more precious!!

[Joi_Robb]

I can only hope there’s endless footage from the past that is still intact. That way the past will be able to be relived and enjoyed hundreds of years later.

[msyana]

I love these videos. People genuinely gave their complete undivided attention to everyday life. Before television's and phones. When a camera came by, people's eyes lit up. Today you point a camera at a kid, they won't strike a pose or intentionally do something cute because cameras are second nature now. Everyone's got one on their phone. So this was truly a golden era we'll never get back. Golden moments. Thank God someone preserved these moments

[robertaevans]

You can almost feel their joy & the sea breeze! X

[Tawny]

Seeing this old footage in scratchy black and white gives a disconnected feel to the past, but when they are enhanced like this, it brings these people almost into our world, but moreover it teaches us on how to take so much pleasure in the simple things in life!

[bluedragon]

Words can’t describe how happy this made me! I am OBSESSED with 20th century history and all I want is to time travel to every decade! This is the closest I’ve felt to that!!!

[hoosierladyus]

This is beautiful! I am 65 (just turned 65 yesterday) and what I have seen change in my years is amazing. I think about when I was little and we had no cell phones, a TV with 3 channels and so on. These people didn't even have phones, electricity, you name it. Yet they were so happy. Growing up in the 50's and 60's was wonderful also. I look at this World now and think, OMG, what have we done.

[celestenova]

Everyone looks so beautifully dressed and how delightful to see those two ladies laughing whilst cleaning their feet from sand before entering that lovely beach hut on wheels!🐚🌞.

[kelsowins]

One hundred years gone, but not so different from us today. We could have been friends! I greatly appreciate this restoration.

[Widdershins.]

Watching this did something to my heart, but I can't identify exactly what it is. Somehow, I want to weep. I think that's a testament to how well done this restoration is.

[manbtm]

People just seem to be so much more connected to each other in simplistic form than they are today. They valued their relationships with each other more you could see, whether they were close or just friends. We have too much technology interfering between ourselves today and we become disconnected to each other‘s thoughts and needs. You can see people just liked to touch each other, which was wonderful.The innocence of this time is so overwhelming to see. Frankly, I think in many respects we have messed up so badly today. We need to learn to reconnect with each other on a human scale.

[michaelhawthorne]

The shaky B/W silent and unatural pace of the original footage always looks disconected from reality because of its faults, This enhanced footage corrects all that and suddenly looks so upto date and modern, looking like it was filmed yesterday, only the fashions giving the game away.
It brings the 19th and very early 20th century back to life.

Great work !!

[korokekorosuke]

The way the sound is put in is exquisite. It looks quite realistic with the dubbing and sound effects. Bravo!

[Robert_Manners]

I love how their world looks like ours, yet is not ours in many ways now lost in time ⌚

[fo]

Your work on these ancient film clips blows me away! It’s unbelievable! I love the attention to audio insertion when needed! The end result is so gripping. All of a sudden these individuals become real! Amazing.

[DiscoverHudsonValley]

This is so awesome! It literally looks like this could have been shot yesterday with your top notch restoration. Epic. Keep up the amazing work and have an amazing weekend!

[Leries]

Everyone seems so nice and friendly. They are expressing how they feel on the inside. they are wearing their hearts on their sleeves. I don't see that at the beach nowadays Nor in public anywhere

[zachymilly]

I really love how these people were just living in the simplicity of their time, and it’s a beautiful thing to watch. They seemed so much happier than people now. No one is worrying about getting a selfie in, posting up a video of their beach body, etc…they’re just having fun together! It really makes the anemoia kick in 😔

[pixelguru]

This is really amazing work. It's usually impossible to feel connected to the people in old footage like this, but these people are all suddenly real. Beautiful.