MORE 1939 People, Clothes IN COLOR

[Marc Chevalier]

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Below are MORE screen captures from a series of color home movies filmed at the New York World's Fair in 1939 and 1940.

These images show ordinary people of that time. It's a rare chance to see, in blazing color, what our ancestors looked and dressed like.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

 

[Marc Chevalier]

 

[Marc Chevalier]

 

[Marc Chevalier]

 

[Marc Chevalier]

That’s all, folks! What do you think of them?






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[Curt Chiarelli]

This is gorgeous stuff. :eusa_clap Thank you for posting more of it!

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Always a pleasure

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[Tony in Tarzana]

Great stuff! I notice, among other things, many more grey hats than brown ones. My collection runs about 50/50 greyish versus brown-tan.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Yup. I myself was awed by the sight of a parking lot filled with hundreds, if not thousands, of 1930s cars.


Does anyone else notice anything of interest?

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[Brad Bowers]

Does anyone else notice anything of interest?
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Quite a few hatless fellows. Must have been a warm day, as some had even removed their coats.

Brad

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Some of the images are from the summer of '39, others are from October, and a few are from the spring of '40.

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[Sefton]

I was amazed by the parking lot also. Parking spaces aren't even big enough now. I also noticed one fellow with a very bright white DB jacket paired with what seems like grey or tan trousers. That was interesting to me. A number of interesting sweater vests,too. Even the most casual dressers in the crowd seem so much better attired then. Great photos Marc. Thanks for the hard work!

 

[CasaBlancaChuck]

Thanks for the great pictures and keep'em coming...I'm working on restoring a 1939 Chevrolet Master Deluxe...That period of history is especially interesting to me...I wonder how coming events affected those people you see pictured. You look at some of the teens pictured and wondered if they did or didn't survive the coming war.

 

[Blackjack]

50,000 black cars... man I hope folks remembered what row they parked in!:eusa_doh:

 

[Rosie]

At the WWII Army reunion I attended last month, some of the oldsters had that cane/seat contraption the gal in the first picture is carrying. Is that called a shooting stick?
Farther down...What is that guy pedaling those people in, some kinda rickshaw?! That is so cool.
Some of the pairs of people are dressed in matching outfits. I have heard freinds and siblings used to like to do this for laughs.
Thanks for posting these.

I've seen older people with the cane/seat. My dad had one and some of his friends carry one. Those bike richshaws are called a pedicab or trishaw. We have them here in NYC and I've seen them in Atlantic City. http://www.ajnfineart.com/mpedicab.html

I would think the matching outfits would be Mom going to the Woolworth and buying 10 yards of fabric X and making outfits for everyone. My mom had three sisters and two brothers and her mom did this often. In their childhood pictures, they often have matching outfits or at least dresses and short sets made of the same fabric.

Thanks for taking the time to post Marc.

 

[BegintheBeguine]

It's a shooting stick.
I've seen those pedicabs but like in the link the t-shirted operators are in front pulling everyone, and in the Marc pic the pith-helmeted white shirted tie-wearing gentleman is somehow maneuvering it from the back? Ok, I'm trying not to think too much on it. Love those ladies' hats!

 

[BigSleep]

Wait. I'm confused.

There isn't one adult wearing an Artie Shaw concert T-shirt.
And where are all the ball caps?

Can't beleive no one was forward thinking enough to bare a mid-drift.

They were so primative.

Can you believe they had to buy their clothes and wear them long enough for them to fray naturally. Ha. Losers.

We are sooo advanced now. Oh thank goodness.

 

[The Wingnut]

50,000 black cars... man I hope folks remembered what row they parked in!:eusa_doh:

Today, it would be 50,000 silver or champagne cars...

 

[J. M. Stovall]

Everyone seems pretty thin too. No partially hydrogenated oils back then.