Flying around olde Boston

Interesting to see how much has changed - and hasn't - since the 1920s:

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Submitted by adamg on Sat, 07/11/2009 - 11:29am.

Nice film

You will be tested on it.

Was this film dated most by:

A) Technical quality
B) Automobiles
C) Everyone on street wearing suits and hats
D) The proud, optimistic, industrious spirit
E) Harvard's endowment being "over 100 million dollars"

neilv | Sat, 07/11/2009 - 12:55pm

F) The automobiles pictured

F) The automobiles pictured downtown were actually moving. In neat, orderly rows, no less.

BikerGeek | Sat, 07/11/2009 - 2:04pm

And the pedestrians

were jaywalking all over the place.

bph | Sat, 07/11/2009 - 6:53pm

F and G...

F) The now-ironic "contrast" between the colonial-era Old State House and the modern, slender Customs House "skyscraper"

G) The narrator's accent, somewhere between WWII-era radio announcer, Bostonian, and Kermit the Frog, which reveals the film's true surprise:

This narrator was the historical basis for Art Carney's Ed Norton.

Oh, Chef of the Future, can it core a apple?

Jay Levitt | Sat, 07/11/2009 - 6:39pm

Very cool first thing I

Very cool

first thing I noticed. Not one t-shirt or pair of jeans in sight.

Second, no traffic.

Third, no Spare change guy?

my_left_foot (not verified) | Sat, 07/11/2009 - 7:48pm

"who fifty years ago,

"who fifty years ago, founded a religion in *conservative* Boston."

anon (not verified) | Mon, 07/27/2009 - 1:48pm

very cool

I was struck more by what hasn't changed.

The classic touristy vistas are largely the same!

david_yamada | Sat, 07/11/2009 - 2:34pm

Really enjoyed that

What a great film. Amazing how much is still the same. Funny that it should stop at the Wayside Inn.
It was the cars that finally clinched the era for me!!

just-wondering | Sat, 07/11/2009 - 5:22pm

When I first saw the Old State House in the 1970's, there was no lion and unicorn. In recent years, the lion and unicorn were restored. At that time, I read somewhere that those two beasts were torn down by angry colonists and were not restored until that recent restoration. Based on this short movie, I was obviously misinformed. Can anybody tell me where I went astray, on this matter only? Thanks.

anon (not verified) | Sat, 07/11/2009 - 5:24pm

Google it

I don't know what was there in the 1970s but they were torn down in 1776 & replaced in an 1882 restoration.

bph | Sat, 07/11/2009 - 6:35pm