If you were a non-driver and attempted to learn to drive by watching old movies, you would be dead or at the very least severely injured from the get-go. In old movies, drivers turn to passengers while driving and deliver monologues to their face instead of watching the road. Or the driver rotates the steering wheel constantly while the background shows an unchanging vista. This is because driving scenes in pre-1960s movies were never shot in real cars really being driven. Actors sat in a mock-up of a car on the soundstage while a rear-projection screen behind them rolled film previously shot out of the backs of cars really driving around the streets of the city. For side angles of the actors a different side shot was used. And occasionally you get the back of the actors heads and see the view through the windshield while driving. All of these were ‘stock’ shots, footage accumulated by the studios and stored for use as need be. And somehow a good deal of that footage has surfaced and been lovingly restored and often colorized by enterprising YouTubers. I find this stuff mesmerizing–a lovely, hypnotic and meditative way to begin the day. Some people add music to the visuals but I prefer them dry, with added traffic noises sometimes heightening the verite of the experience. Above is one of my favorites–its ten or so minutes of gentle cruising around an L.A. very different from the one we know now, circa 1952. The first part is clearly shot in Santa Monica–the Ocean Park, municipal building are visible–and I’m quit sure the handsome, wide residential street with the island down the middle is San Vicente Blvd. At 3:49 we move to the San Fernando Valley–one of the YouTube commenters says we’re on Oxnard and Woodman. If so, then pretty much every one of those lovely, peaceful ranch abodes have since been replaced by muffler shops and Taco Bells. At five minutes, I think we’re in Burbank. Yes, Detroit Furniture was in Burbank. At 9:35 that’s Mike Lyman’s Flight Deck restaurant – the first restaurant in LAX . Advice while watching this: block out the world, expect nothing, focus only on the image and let your brain relax. You’ll be delighted with the final effect…