1952 Vintage Film: Life in New Bedford, MA over 70 years ago!

This restored full color version film from the MLBaron Historic Archives / The West Island Weather Station. Life in New Bedford in 1952 shows a vibrant growing city after World War 2. People at work, a bustling downtown and busy fishing fleet are depicted with a city that was growing. Local plants in the city are depicted including Titleist, Revere Copper and Brass, Aerovox, Continental Screw,the Seafood Auction, Cornell-Dubilier,The Standard-Times, paperboys, Blue Bird Taxi, New Bedford Municipal Airport and the people of mutli-cultural ethnicity at play.

[@philmoreau6581]

My grandfather is in this movie. He is the worker from Morse twist drill at 8 min 45 secs, and today was his birthday. miss you Gramps RIP.

[@MLBaron]

Thanks for your recollection Phil!

[@gatheringleaves]

Was he born and raised in New Bedford?

[@philmoreau6581]

Yes he was, as was my father and all his brothers and sisters

[@sleeplessvirus]

Great callback!

[@PeaceLoveAndEmber]

I’ll keep an eye out for him ❤️❤️❤️

[@thepainter5728]

Morse Twist Drill....my very first job out of N.B. Voke as a Mechanical Draftsman. Great memories!

[@thepainter5728]

If only, we could go back to those glorious days!

[@cheryljoseph2376]

Those days were very rough.

[@karenhallman6342]

My Ma was born and raised there...and told me so many stories about growing up there...she would've been 11 when this film was shot in 1952

[@SuperPortagee]

My Hometown where I was Born and Raised!! ! New Bedford, Mass Known as Little Portugal!! I Loved the 50's!!

[@deniseandros7082]

Lived on Locust St. loved the waterfront, the cobbled stone streets in the historic district, Buttonwood Park, Antonio’ restaurant, The Band Club , and Lincoln Park. (Not in NB but close enough.)

[@elainesouza4906]

My father selling novelties at the the Portuguese feast Manuel Fernandes he put a lot of smiles on a lot of children faces

[@MLBaron]

Thanks for your nice recollections Elaine!

[@craftbunny]

My husband's relatives owned the Silmo syrup Co.They made chocolate and coffee syrup.

[@MLBaron]

Had many a milkshake with Silmo...all flavors !

[@sabodebol3836]

This video brought up a lot of memories of when I was a young man and most of those manufacturing jobs and companies I've worked for. My father was a fisherman and the boat would go out to sea and fish for 10 days and then come back and stay inland for 3days and leave for another 10 days. I was 12 years old and my father would bring me to the boat and unload the fish like you see the man swings the basket to the fish house for about 8 to 9 hours and after I was done doing that I would clean the boat the kitchen was first and the bathroom and bedrooms and after that we would go the fishermen's club the men would have their drinks food and the captain would give their men their money and pay me for that day.

[@MLBaron]

Wonderful story! Thanks for sharing.

[@MLBaron]

Thanks for adding your observation!

[@zenitsuagatsuma4973]

Is amazing seeing my home 6 decades ago.

[@RolyRhodes]

Born and raised there... First job out of school in 1966 was working at the Aerovox... Terrible job! I lasted about a month. Years later i got a notice from some health organization asking if i suffered from any illness. Turns out a lot of workers got sick and some died from exposure to the toxic fumes. Fortunately it hasn't affected me...YET, anyway! I do remember the old Union Street Railway buses! Loud and stinky, but fun to ride on... Been away since 1974. Nice movie. Brings back a lot of memories...

[@MLBaron]

Thanks for your recollections!

[@TracySenna]

Amazing how our parents were one of these workers, doing piece work. How times have changed, I'm glad you bring the then into the now. Tracy Wunschel

[@maureencardelle5048]

A great film... I was born in NB, around this time... It was a great time to grow up in this city.. Sad that NB went the way of so many other factory based cities... Outsourcing of work to foreign countries hurt cities like this all across the country.. We are fortunate to have known NB during this great time in our history.. Thank you so much for sparking so many great memories.

[@stevenquinn4641]

What a beautiful country Massachusetts was so beautiful My parents were married in New Bedford in 1944 My Father was being treated for battle fatigue I believe They were just kids and stayed at The Tabatha Inn They were just kids I still miss them every day I want to go up there someday Love the film

[@johndoe-wv3nu]

Where do you live? The area is pretty cheap to visit. It's also close to Plymouth , Providence, Newport, etc etc.

[@rjmenard]

21:28 my father willie menard playing standup bass. Love you, Ric

[@MLBaron]

Thanks for your great comment and input Ric!

[@danpacheco9034]

My uncle wilfred is in this movie around 20:50. He's playing the bass

[@wavykev5892]

I honestly wished i lived in this point of time.

[@derekchauvinistrockwellthe4917]

Dont we all. It seemed so much better, saner, more beautiful.

[@Kathayne636]

Everyone does. It was better.

[@orlandosimas9716]

No lol. It just showed you the good. During this time segregation was still a thing, women were making far less than a man, and hate crimes were a social norm. These were awful times just with prosperous circumstances for people who checked the boxes off.

[@pepitobenegas]

Me too. You just could work in a factory and you could afford a house, a car, and feed a whole family.

[@JamesRendek]

While honest work is hard it's no doubt a lot better than this backward, underhanded, thieving, twisted, Orwellian period.

[@petercyr3508]

Wow this is incredible. Born in the late 50s there and raised there. Got married at the Seamans Bethel. My ancestors came from Canada to work in the mills. Never saw this before.

[@jacobcote]

My parents got married there as well

[@russbonneau9152]

long live the fishing industry and Titleist!

[@chrisstevens3567]

Bring back this level of manufacturing for God’s sake.

[@seths1997]

1952 - my mother was 4. this is where i grew up. much of the city hasn't changed. the library and city hall look the same. some mills have been torn down while others gutted and converted to apartments. still strong in the fishing industry though

[@jlsc6847]

Wow! My family and I can trace our roots to this town as far as the 1600s believe it or not. I myself was born in the early 1960s and can recognize almost every building in this video. My mom’s family home was next to the old vocational high school and years later, my parents bought a house on Chancery Street down the street from that same school. I didn’t go back much after I graduated from college and raised my own family elsewhere, but most of my family is still there so I’m there often enough to recognize so many of these buildings.

[@virtualnewengland]

Thanks for posting this!!!

[@philhewett1601]

As a boy I lived in New Bedford from 1957 til 1962. I have many fond memories of the city. The old Parker Street School I attended is long gone as are other places that were important to me but, the memories remain. 248 Chestnt St. is still there and looks wonderful but, different than it did 60+ years ago. The memories of that old neighbourhood!

[@seths1997]

i went to phillips ave school in the 80s. building still there but has been closed for some time. but yeah, the memories remain. my kindergarten teacher just passed away last year. so many memories...

[@tomwea7086]

Corporate America abandoned cities like NB in the 60s-70s. My dad was a fisherman from Newfoundland. My brother worked at Morse.

[@19580822]

My grandparents lived there and my mother was born there in 1933. She went to nursing school at St. Luke's hospital and became a RN, where she met my dad who was in the Coast Guard and stationed in NB. They married in 1956 in Westport where my grandparents then lived. Many of our ancestors were whalers. My GG grandfather Jonathan Chace sailed out of NB, as did his son Capt. Charles A. Chace, who made the last voyage for the whaling firm J. & W.R. Wing Company.

[@MLBaron]

Thanks for your wonderful recollection!

[@NickJThibault]

loved this video, but it did make me sad wishing as 22 year i could live in this time period

[@sophiesgrumble8522]

Years later the Acushnet river laid dying from the pollution from the dumping of PBC's from the Aerovox, others like Fiber leather, Acushnet company, Revere Copper and Brass also posioned the river, The New Bedford dump became the highest point in the city, years later other landfills had to be dug up due to the poison they were leeching into the ground water, I was born and raised in this city it was never the picnic they portrayed in this film, and let's not forget the curfews during the times of civil unrest.!!!!!!

[@MLBaron]

Interesting perspective.

[@sophiesgrumble8522]

@@MLBaron I always called New Bedford the city of what was, was the whaling capital, was the textile capital, was the fishing capital, now the drug capital, the city is loaded with drugs, herion, cocaine, fentanyl, gangs like the Latin kings and ms13, they have been dredging the Acushnet river for years and capping PCB hotspots, it is alot cleaner now, I remember smelling it from my house which was a mile away because it smell so bad, at one time the fishermen were the biggest drug addicts of all, they would blow all their money within days of getting paid, water front bars were the most dangerous places in the city, people couldn't wait for the Portuguese feast then every year somebody would get stabbed, then people were afraid to go, in the following years the feast shrank till it was a shadow of what it was, after all the unemployment, drugs, the rape of a woman at big Dan's tavern, the highway murders of known prostitutes the city being put on a list of most dangerous cities in Mass its hard to see it in a positive light, all that I have said can be fact checked, it's all true and very sad, there were some good times but not that many.!!!!!!!!

[@cardphins68]

This is a story that has been repeated over and over again in the "Rust Belt" type of Cities. They were once great when the factories and Mills were running. Once these jobs left, many of these places were never the same or really slow to recover. New Bedford has a bunch of potential imo. I guess Pittsburgh could be looked at as a City that reinvented itself. I know that Pittsburgh is larger than New Bedford but maybe Cities like New Bedford, Lawrence, MA, etc. could learn from Pittsburgh. @@sophiesgrumble8522

[@zoso4rune504]

From a great thriving city to a sanctuary city.

[@zoso4rune504]

Agree! Hail the Communist Wealth of Massachusetts.

[@deaniacoponi2139]

It certainly is a sanctuary and welfare city for all the illegals,yet City officials don't have the guts to admit it !!!!

[@zoso4rune504]

@@deaniacoponi2139 You can thank Montigny for that. I think Mark is a great guy, but he has been a senator for over 30 years. What has he done for the south coast besides turning it into what it is today. This transition happened on his watch. When I grew up in the North End back in the early 70's, at 8 years old I could walk to the stores on the Ave, by myself, without my mother worrying about anything bad happening to me. Could you imagine letting a kid that young walking alone in New Bedford in todays day and age. I can remember walking 7 blocks up to Bettencourt's Pharmacy for the best coffee freeze. It's a shame what this city has turned into over the last 30 years.

[@deaniacoponi2139]

@@zoso4rune504 You are 100 per cent correct my friend. I am in my mid-50's and remember how different it was growing up in NB back in the 70's compared to now. It was a great city back then. Sadly to say it's far from it now. I moved out of NB years ago.

[@captaing9458]

@@deaniacoponi2139 same with Fitchburg. It was a great place to grow up, now it has very little to offer other than the college. It’s pretty sad!

[@newenglandhoodstv4643]

I filmed this area recently on my channel. The vintage film is cool

[@bobmac59]

Our Beautiful City I was Born and raised in.....What the Hell happened ?

[@kevinc1001]

I tell you what happened hookers, druggies and panhandlers

[@meichong8278]

@@josechapin3813 why dont you stfu , your part of the problem

[@stansmith9293]

Do something instead of crying like a bitch

[@joshb4334]

It's called democrats, that's what happened. Glad I moved away.

[@petercyr3508]

Me too. Very saddened. Never really lived there again after I went away to college 1975. Visit often. Started to really go down in the 70s

[@sandrasoares9262]

I love my hometown ❤ Sandra s.🦪🦑🦐🦞🦀🍺

[@billkinnane7132]

this is an excellent video. thanks for sharing!

[@marklinehan5971]

I’m pretty sure that’s my grandfather John Linehan writing on the chalkboard in the fishing auction.

[@MLBaron]

It is indeed.

[@americanpatriot3667]

Wish New Bedford was like this

[@nightfangs2910]

ahhh life in new bedford who would have known then that this city would be so economically depressed today sadly 90 % of the people in this city goes north or west to work each day 30 minutes or more commute

[@tabitharogers160]

A wonderful film, life in the 50's was a fun time.

[@tabitharogers160]

This is Tabitha's grandma, lol, she wasn't even thought of back then.

[@cheryljoseph2376]

Very hard times for city ppl.

[@johnnypaycheck6853]

Looks like they had better public transportation and it looks clean it looks nothing like that now

[@LunaLovely.]

@Beverly Huttinger okay you racist fuck

[@rickroderick6385]

My grandmother worked there. I was born in 57. Left in 75 for the Marines grad of holy family

[@rickroderick6385]

My first job. SOUZAS pharmacy. County st and smith

And today's day Latin Americans are the engine in this town, it's amazing how time changes everything!

[@donniebrasco4114]

And it’s a horrible place to live. Unless you enjoy crime and drugs.

[@pt59live]

Some history about South Coast, Massachusetts well liked!

[@knightrider3292]

this is very informational

[@roseg.4354]

No drugs in those days family value mattered, good times.

[@karenroy9045]

Now NB is loaded with drugs. So different now!

[@jase4270]

Oh yes there were a shitload of drugs back then.

[@darlaball9005]

My mom is in here at 11:50, holding the blown glass vase.

[@MLBaron]

Thanks for the observation Darla!

[@karenroy9045]

She’s pretty.

[@tracytavares1365]

2021 is very far away from what this flick shows . When we lost our fishing fleet it hurt to this day . Between fishing limits an fuel its not worth the trip , as other countries get to rape the sea . I love it here , we have the best food on the planet . The off shore sportsman fishing around here is real good but there spanking us too . You could find Scrimshaw and Pairpoint glass here not so long ago

[@knowtheunknown2.0og60]

Man 67 years ago and today are 2 totally different worlds 😂 i currently live here

[@akitainumato9458]

👍😄😍. Cool 😎

[@pduff666]

acushnet ave here!!!!

[@DesireProspers]

idk if I'm crazy but I'm pretty sure that building at 24:40 is still there

[@myrajuju02]

The Portuguese kids are here to watch the vid :)

[@aramo4832]

Can't understand why and how it became so bad

[@Tecc27]

Aramo same

[@daviddaniel2198]

Corrupt politicians that brought drugs into neighborhoods to destroy black families in which it did but then young white men and women also started to buy drugs. It’s well documented all throughout the USA. Sadly we are all paying for the crimes of corrupt politicians

[@stansmith9293]

it's not that bad ya'll are some bitches fr

[@chrisdigiorgi2915]

@@daviddaniel2198 wrong! It was the portuguese and puerto ricans that destoryed the city not “white man” were the minority..

[@captaing9458]

@@daviddaniel2198 Wrong! That’s not what happened.

[@machiashoulton4049]

Moby Dick and the Accused were based there.

[@cardphins68]

"It was a thriving Industrial City"....and then De-indistrialization and Public Housing became the new reality!

[@mkelsho]

ive never seen so many white people in New Bedford, and ive lived there for 30 years

[@tc-fl7ok]

shat the fuck do yeam mean “never seen so many white people”

[@mkelsho]

serialkilled shat is the past tense of shit, and yeam isn’t a word in English. I think you are trying to say “shit the fuck do you mean”, if that is the case then my original comment is exactly what I mean

[@philhewett1601]

It wasn't all white then either...what you saw was the chosen perspective of the folks who made this film. Prejudice and bigotry are not new, nor is white privilige.

[@saudade2100]

@@philhewett1601 Grey's Raid, 1778, the British raided New Bedford, then called Bedford Village. Major Grey's assistant, then-captain John Andre, drew a map of British action in Bedford Village. Raiding armies had to document what they took and what they destroyed. You had to be gentlemanly about this. Take military stores, weapons, things of use to the British military. Leave churches alone, don't make people homeless for no reason. See John Andre's map, prepared in the report on the raid. www.whalingcity.net/map_1778_new_bedford_new_guinea_area.html Eighteenth-century slang for a black neighborhood was "New Guinea". Notice the neighborhood was marked in Andre's map. The British left it alone. I'd say the neighborhood John Andre marked as a black neighborhood in 1778, has about the same demographic today. John Andre became a major and went on to conspire with Benedict Arnold over West Point. The plot was found out, Benedict Arnold escaped, John Andre was captured and executed.

[@captaing9458]

@@philhewett1601 No? Maybe look in a high school yearbook of the same era!

[@massrunner]

Where are all the NY bumperstickers and Puerto Rican flags on rear view mirrors??? Oh, wait.

[@massachusettssouthshore2560]

Beverly Huttinger try again the elite. Brought those drugs into our country and infiltrated it into our nation woe unto America for their wickedness and forgetting the God of the Holy Bible and setting us up for destruction

[@Jskrillaa]

@Beverly Huttinger wow, this is a wild take.

[@adriana9796]

Beverly Huttinger oh well if that’s how you feel, let’s just go back the cotton picking days, shall we? i mean since we apparently bring all the “crime and drugs” as if other races don’t, but sure it’s okay to blame the minorities.

[@markbarbosa9098]

Facts

[@amandajean7738]

NB is nothing like this now.

[@chrisstevens3567]

Thank the democrats

[@jayeddleston9486]

Newbedford is only good as it once was. Most of the mills are gone,fishing industry is dying to bad because downtown where the cobble stone roads are is nice history of buildings

[@lilzay5814]

Damn shits crazy💯it ain't like it use to be no Jobs more gangs less people nonpop ppl dying wtf going on UFPGANG

[@pfernandes8982]

Now it's a geto city

[@tysondepina2241]

This film needs to be updated and corrected with respect to who the true whalers were. As well as the contributions of Cape Verdean people in this city rather then an all European stand point of the history in this ever diverse community. The role in the underground railroad and Fredrick Douglas and the Abolitionist movement. Just saying.. Great historical piece..

[@donniebrasco4114]

Diversity didn’t bring anything good to New Bedford. It’s riddled with gangs and drugs now. A horrible place to live.

[@wearelosingit5835]

I live in Acushnet in the mid 50’s. Best time of my life. Still live in Massachusetts. New Bedford is now another toilet of the state. Thank you Democrats

[@chrisstevens3567]

It’s funny because I’m from the area and moved to Boston for work. Boston is 100x worse in what you consider to be democrat run. It’s a different world up in Boston.

[@michaelremillard2215]

NO IT'S NOT THE SAME ANYMORE NIETHER IS ANYTHING ELSE 😕

[@richarcher499]

No mention of strong unions. nafta took this from you.

[@thomasmorano17]

Now filled with drug addicts

[@larryellis7750]

I. Left. There. It's. A. Rat. Hole. Now

[@cheryljoseph787]

Yes it is.