Here is a British Pathe newsreel excursion to the exotic (to the British anyway) New York City neighborhood called Harlem. I leave it to you to have your own reaction to this footage–it seems to evoke strong responses from YouTube commenters many of whom are conflicted about how beautiful everything and everyone looks and yet how isolated and essentially racist the very existence of the blacks-only neighborhood was. I find it fascinating–truly a lost planet and one featuring some of the best-dressed people you’ll ever see. (I particularly like the name of a barbershop–‘Hung Far Low’. Har.) I’ve looked up the credits of the filmmakers and the only one I can find a trace of is one of the producers, Nicholas Cavalieri who was, in fact, the cameraman. He was a noted ‘outdoor cameraman’ who actually journeyed to southeast Asia with adventurer, hunter and animal collector Frank Buck and shot Buck’s jungle adventure doc ‘Bring ‘Em Back Alive’, as well as several other docs. His short list of credits ends in the early 40s but he lived until 1995. What was he doing all that time? I can’t imagine. I wonder how odd he would find it that thirty years after his death we’re watching some splendid footage he shot ninety years ago…and on a computer no less.