Warning: the above video contains a very violent race car crash. It also contains some truly bitchin’ footage shot from inside one of the cars that collided–you get to see and feel what it’s actually like to be in one of these formula racers. Two nights ago (Sunday the 16th–which
In 1971 at the Indy 500 a ‘Pace car’ (or safety car) went off the track as soon as the race began and crashed into a stand holding the photographers. Somehow there were no fatalities. The whole event is covered in nice, blurry old color footage in the above video
Of al the dopey sports that I don’t get, car racing tops the list (or takes the cake, if you prefer). Cars zooming around a track at dangerous speeds. Is this really any fun? Not unless somebody crashes. And then you feel like a heel for enjoying the disaster, for
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmD7jeIEkfg (NOTE: HIT ABOVE ‘PLAY ON YOUTUBE’ BUTTON TO WATCH VIDEO. THE GUY WHO POSTED IT APPARENTLY THINKS HE OWNS IT). When I was a kid in the early 70s getting into jazz and old movies, two great revivals were taking place. One was The Marx Brothers revival, which began
With the introduction of Safety Film in 1925, the home movie craze began. Safety was a non-flammable alternative to the highly inflammatory nitrate stock which all movies previously were shot on. Smaller gauge cameras–16mm arrived two years prior in 1923–were easier to use and didn’t require much in the way
The above short (eight minute) film was made to be shown at General Motors 1956 Motorama show. it purports to show how the future of driving will look twenty years hence and, while it makes the usual inaccurate assumptions about a future that never comes (a la H.G. Welles ‘Things
Here’s some outstanding colorized footage of New York City in 1948-49. (The dates are approximate based on the cars of the period). The YouTube artist known as NASS posted this a few days ago and as always I’m sharing it with you. It’s a remarkable moment of time travel, thanks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7l-09_fAUSk (NOTE: CLICK ABOVE TO WATCH TODAY’S LINK ON YOUTUBE). Yesterday’s clip featured the lovely 1934 recording of ‘The Very Thought Of You’ by the Ray Noble orchestra with vocal by Al Bowly. I gave you a little info on Bowly but didn’t expect to find any actual film of
I’m not usually one for YouTube music/film mash-ups but I stumbled across this one and found it so evocative and lovely that I’ve decided to share it with you. It consists of clips from the 1934 version of W. Somerset Maugham’s “Of Human Bondage”, starring Leslie Howard and Bette Davis,
We tend to think of the evolution of the title sequence as moving from a simple series of cards with actors names on them (sometimes splashed up a little with caricaturist representations of the actors), gradually becoming more dramatic, exotic or even story-heavy as the years progressed. But back in