Monday, April 11, 2016

1939 color film of College Point


"These are, I believe, the earliest Kodachrome home movies that my grandfather Gustave Martens filmed with his 16mm camera. Naturally he chose to film friends, flowers, and family - - including my father who was 10 years old at the time. The sea plane that appears at the end is taking off from the East River. The little white-haired lady is my great-great grandmother who was born in the 1860s!"

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

America was such a beautiful country back then. Forced diversification ruined it.

Anonymous said...

Wow, really great video of a really great town. Were these taken on College Place? I recognize some of the houses that still exist today with similar exteriors, but I can't place it in my head.

Anonymous said...

Great pics! That seaplane is a Pan Am Boeing 314 Clipper taking off from LaGuardia. They had a ramp that may still be there near the old shuttle terminal. I have similar films from the 30s to 50s, and the coolest part is to see old folks who were born in the 1860s or 1870s.

Anonymous said...

Agreed. Multiculturalism is evil. It is akin to saying Snoop Dog's music is on the same level as Beethoven. Denial of objective reality in favor or relativism.

America has been raped.

THANKS LIBERALS !!!!!

Anonymous said...

"America was such a beautiful country back then. Forced diversification ruined it."

I'm sure the Native Americans felt the same way.

georgetheatheist said...

"I'm sure the Native Americans felt the same way."
______________________________________________________________

And I'm sure the forerunner European Solutreans felt the same way about the so-called "Native" Americans.

Anonymous said...

That's when College Point was College Point

Anonymous said...

Get real. Native Americans....stop dwelling on the past.

Anonymous said...


No more white people in College Point, not that was an excellent neighborhood (a bar in every corner back then).

Anonymous said...

What a nice artifact to leave to your family.

The shot of the plane showed the Hell's Gate bridge in the background.

In one of Dinesh D'Souza's films he is talking to a woman from an Indian Tribe talking about how Americans took their land. He points out how they took it from a different tribe ahead of that. It was very amusing.

Anonymous said...

"Get real. Native Americans....stop dwelling on the past."

Funny since we're looking at a film about the 1930s.

Change is the only constant. Embrace it or get run over.

LibertyBoyNYC said...

Great movie! Thanks, Crapper. Received in the light that you posted it in. We live in amazing times, truly.

JQ LLC said...

It looks like Life was so much better before the internet

Jackson Heights Johnny said...

What a beautiful (and historic) film!

I was born in 1948, so I couldn't possible know any of the people in this film, but I can SENSE the warmth they felt for each other and their pride in their family and their home and their neighborhood. This small piece of film brought tears to my eyes.

GOD BLESS THEM ALL!

Anonymous said...

He points out how they took it from a different tribe ahead of that. It was very amusing.
----------------------------------------

Unless your direct ancestors are the ones that crossed the land bridge from Russia and got to a spot of land first, then never relocated, it wasn't "your" land either. There is this fantasy that all the native tribes lived in peaceful harmony, but they fought and stole from each other as any groups of humans are prone to do. The landscape of native america in 1492 was not all it ever was and was ever to be. That would be like showing up to Poland in 1960 and assuming it was always Russias territory because thats how it was on the day you arrived.

Anonymous said...

So peaceful. So Clean. So white. Gone, gone, gone.

Anonymous said...

Anyone remember Flessels? Great wienerschnitzel!

georgetheatheist said...

Actually the Solutrean Europeans crossed to the Americas via the Atlantic ice pack 5 to 7000 years prior to the arrival of those via the Bering strait.

The North American continent was originally settled by white people. The "red man" was the interloper.

Anonymous said...

Left was simple back then. Families enjoying each other and kids playing outside. Now everyone is on their stupid phones texting or talking about stupid crap.
Great video thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...


Great movie!
All is great before the politicos and real estate vultures sold us down the river for paper and ink and before the cockroaches showed up.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the memories. Love the classy outfits, even on the kids, the rose gardens, the clean sidewalks, the awnings on the houses, I assume it was peaceful and quiet.

the kiddie pushcar and swing set was adorable. what a nice place to live and grow up. what the heck happened that Quality of Life is something you have to fight for?

I commute on the subway and more than half the time I am busy assessing my fellow passengers for potential violent psychos. I breathe a sigh of relief when they exit the train. I really wish they would put surveillance cameras on the subways like they do on the buses. People will think twice before they act out.

Anonymous said...

The American Indians got even,they gave us Tobacco next someone will complain we took land from gophers because we bury our dead in the ground