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Vintage photos....Awesome!

4M views 13K replies 603 participants last post by  gprace 
#1 ·
Vintage pics? Anyone? The more I see the more I get into the photos.

Feed me.

I'll kick this snowball rolling....

 
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#2,877 ·
Good Lord, it looks like it could be Detroit of today. Okay, not quite. I don't know Chicago very well. Like any large city, I know it has its ghettos and run down areas. This pic looks like a city in decline.
 
#2,871 ·
Camping back in 1927

Studebaker Roadster


 
#2,876 ·
The year of this photo is probably circa early 1950s. Restoration and collecting of antique cars was in its infancy then. The early-century primitive cars were the first to be appreciated and collected, such a this car, which dates from probably 1903-ish or so. The restorers then were not quite so concerned with absolute detail perfection, and these "old cars" frequently received pretty garish paint jobs, like here. It's interesting that the old gents in the picture probably had first-hand experience with such a machine when it was current, and were giving the younger guy underneath the car some valuable tips. 60 years later now, and those old gents are long gone, along with the experience they possessed. Tempus fugit. :)
 
#2,879 ·
if there was anyway i could post up the 3D photos from and old kodak camera i would, some have cars, some have construction photos of neighborhoods
 
#2,881 ·
they were actually 2 exact photos taken at 2 different angles, you have to use a special viewing tool to see the photos together in 3D

the camera looks like this



 
#2,895 ·


Detroit Michigan Davison Expressway around November 1942

When I look at pictures from the 1940's like this I can't help but think how America and the world was trying to move forward even in the time of a world war. The auto industry was pretty much stopped to help support the war effort by building tanks, trucks, jeeps, planes or anything else the military might need the next 3 to 4 years. An American Industry that helped win a war and we would never be the same after it was all over.
 
#2,897 ·


Detroit Area Davison Avenue Around 1941

This picture is so small town USA, but it's almost the heart of Detroit way back in 1941. Imagine the termoil going on in the world at this time and around the automotive industry with World War II on the Horizon. I have a feeling they had no idea how much the world was about to change, and many probably remember the last World War, which had no number it was just "the war to end all wars".
 
#2,939 ·


Detroit Area Davison Avenue Around 1941

This picture is so small town USA, but it's almost the heart of Detroit way back in 1941. Imagine the termoil going on in the world at this time and around the automotive industry with World War II on the Horizon. I have a feeling they had no idea how much the world was about to change, and many probably remember the last World War, which had no number it was just "the war to end all wars".
Not to be pedantic as I realize it is a US-centric photo and caption, but WWII was already underway and the world had already changed in 1941. The US just hadn't entered the war yet.
 
#2,899 ·
Virtually every one of the thousands of photographs I shot in my lifetime are Kodachrome slides. Paul Simon wrote his song out of sincere love for this film, as we who loved it listened to his ode to Kodachrome nodded and agreed. :) Nothing will ever replace the sheer pleasure of seeing one's Kodachrome pictures for the first time when they came back from the lab.

Nice Lincoln Zephyr in that shot, too, with metallic paint, no less. Metallic colors were just coming into vogue in the late thirties.
 
#2,904 ·
Balancing machinery like that has been around forever... they used to do it with steam traction engines to show the refinement and precision in control, as well as the skill of the operators. They still do them regularly at the "threshing reunions" and other vintage steam shows, and they're great to watch. It's supposedly quite difficult once the water in the boiler starts sloshing back and forth. The last one I went to had different classes for different sizes of "vehicles" (anything self-propelled, basically), and the fastest times would win prizes. :beer:


Having three vehicles balanced was probably just to add to the thrill for the marketing effect.


















 
#2,906 ·
Really? With everything in that picture, it is a post and a fence that you're focused on? :laugh:

It was probably done at a fairgrounds somewhere for publicity.


David recounted tales of the automotive gatherings his family hosted in New England. "We used to have over one-hundred fifty cars in our large backyard and have a party. They would bring a huge teeter-totter and try to get the cars balanced with no side touching the ground—least angle from flat in shortest time wins. Model Ts were good at that." Of course, it was the Oldsmobile Curved Dash Runabout that was famous for staging these sorts of exhibitions in period to advertise their maneuverability.
http://museostradale.com/radnor/piercegreatarrow_1906.htm
 
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