6 throwback videos of Philly
For a little heart-warming nostalgia, here are six short videos with old footage of Philly neighborhoods from the 1940s to the 1990s. Some are early tourist promotionals, some are old VHS home recordings, but they all shed a little light on how the city’s changed over the decades — and how it hasn’t.
Olde City, 1983
There’s so much to love about Memorial Day, 1983. Young and old Philadelphians mixing it up. Street musicians. Choreographed roller-dancing. As a bonus, it's a forceful reminder that warm weather is right around the corner.
Best line: The entire “hamburger music” exchange about The Clash vs. Eddie Van Halen (3:00)
Center City and beyond, 1960s
Narrated by Dick Clark, this is one of the earliest “Visit Philly” promotional pieces. It’s worth watching if only to compare the city’s selling points then and now. There are also some cool shots of Rittenhouse Square’s annual clothesline show.
Best line: “You see, Bill, Philadelphia doesn’t just sit back on her laurels. It’s the kind of place you’d like — alive, growing, and exciting.”
Kensington, 1982
A panoramic time capsule of Kensington in the early 80s—the streets north and south of Lehigh Avenue, the El, the blue cop cars, horseplaying, breakdancing, stoop-chilling, joke-telling, lots of swearing and the occasional racist remark. It’s also museum of 80s fashion and hairstyle. Slightly NSFW.
Best line: “Do you know how herpes checked out of the hospital? On crotches.”
South Philly, early 1980s
I’m not sure what this is actually. It’s definately an amatuer home movie. And with a mere 113 views, it definitely belongs deep in the YouTube annals. Nicky Plumicon, a wannabe actor, walks around early 1980s South Philly talking to people in grocery stores. He asks people if they remember the microphones in McDonald’s. Where is this guy now?
Best line: “So anyway, a whole lot of famous actors have come out of places like Pathmark...K-Mart...McDonald’s.”
Badlands, 1998
A great short documentary about Philly’s worst drug zone by reporter Ted Koppel. There’s also a cameo by Steve Lopez, a former Inquirer columnist who ended up writing a (quite good) novel about the Badlands (even though AL DÍA doesn't agree with the pejorative naming of said neighborhood).
Best line: “Hiring more cops to cure crime is like hiring more ambulance drivers to cure cancer.”
Greater Philadelphia, 1940s
This is a little docudrama about Philadelphia in the 1940s, told from the perspective of a mother and her boy. Worth watching to see the row homes we live in today when they were first built.
Best line: “All I know is I live here. These streets, they’re what we know. Somebody always playing in the streets, somebody always sick at home. They can talk big and proud like the lessons in the school books about the city, but they let fall the pieces just the same. We’re live people and the place is half dead.”
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