Austin The Friendly City (1943)

This film was originally made in 1943 by the Austin Chamber of Commerce and all the rights transferred to the Austin History Center in 2006. The film was preserved and digitized in 2008 and made possible by a Partnership Grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation. Run time: 31minutes (color)
AR.2008.014.000034

[@lupe876]

Damn I see nothing but white kids white folks in them swimming pools

[@Catssonii]

Not me crying at the end because the housing market is so expensive now and I hope I’ll get to even buy a home and stay here where my family has been for generations. 😢

[@seandunn2062]

Crazy seeing all the hills around lake travis with no homes. Must have been nice

[@worthdoss8043]

The first time I came to Austin was in a 1957 DeSoto with a hemi engine in around 1963. I was 5 years old and born just north of Austin. I truly have seen this place change.

[@StreetUrchin4Life]

What was it like here in the 70s??

[@monabonejakon2797]

@@StreetUrchin4Life Amazing and affordable. Great small clubs and a Punk Rock scene that lasted through the 80's.

[@StreetUrchin4Life]

@@monabonejakon2797 really sounds & looks like a great time, especially in revolution

[@vivians9392]

I went to Austin from Houston on school field trips in the 50s. We traveled from Union Station by train early in the morning, visited the state capital for a tour, and returned home late afternoon. We also did the same tour to San Antonio to tour the Alamo...

[@angelaatwood46]

@@monabonejakon2797 I remember. Sigh.

[@gsfdallas3464]

18:44 East Avenue....Replaced by Interstate 35

[@bigdizave]

Thank you for pointing that out! Wow! An interesting thing is there may be more green space like that with the I-35 cap and stitch coming up in the next decade.

[@bmx_or_die]

It’s been 80 years since this film was made, wow.

[@vincentmondello2052]

So these are the forefathers of the people that got pushed out to Pflugerville? Im right here with ya'll! LOL

[@mcseire]

Vincent, lol I’m all the way in Jarrell now! Raised in Austin in the 70s. Sigh. Spent my childhood in Zilker Park. Tried to raise my daughter there too, but could no longer swing it. Sad 😢 But we love to visit when we can.

[@Nestor-512]

@@nomore1980dumb comment

[@Youluvimani]

@@nomore1980 How IGNORANT and RACSIT of you ur the reason why people are so culturally divided in the city with that ideology

[@nomore1980]

Youluvimani the black people are the real racists, I'm just saying something in response. Just pay attention to sometime what the results of a large white group vs a large black groups, interacting and how littered the area gets.

[@AnchorsAwayHey]

@@Youluvimani You are one to talk!! You post antisemitic and anti israel comments all over youtube. Hypocrisy.

[@usmc249]

Being born and raised in Austin it’s cool to see some of the buildings that are still around today.

[@jondstewart]

For those wanting to live in coastal California back then, that was for the soft! 55-80 degree temperatures most of the year. Austin was much more mean and cruel because there was no air conditioning. 70-100 degree temperatures from April to October 90% of the time. October to March temperatures unpredictable. Sometimes highs in the 80’s and lows in the 60’s and highs in the teens and lows in the single digits the same month$

[@Tristargodzilla]

Imagine if you bought property in Austin back then !$!

[@juanriff]

Rondie Rice and now

[@bigszula4]

Would’ve eventually been destroyed to put in an expressway or parking lot

[@rondierice4922]

@@Aaronhouston33 Well... my grandchildren would of been wealthy!🤠🤑

[@JJJ_JJ1]

Imagine buying property 3 years ago when you wrote that comment! A LOT has changed since then. 2017/18 was the death knell for anything affordable in Austin.

[@wadegarrett1892]

No drugged out hippies back then

[@nandersenaustin]

At about 2:20 you see the oak tree that is still near Matt's El rancho on lamar

[@rickloudermilk6351]

I know the tree but it looks too close to the capitol

[@mendoncaangelo]

Is it still there? Imagine talking to trees about how they have seen time pass

[@hudsonhousejournal7063]

The TREATY tree is there but mostly ignored because sprawl and big city buildings now block it's view of the river. It is surrounded by ugly shopping and a fence to keep you out. A sad old relic that lives but isn't remembered by today's youth.

[@Cacowninja]

Austin in 1943: 2:30 Population 87878+ Me in 2021: (Laughs in Austin Population 1,000,000+)

[@msKita43]

This was during segregation and they low key hint at in the video at 24:18 during the football game.

[@bloodocean07]

KitaKat Yikes!

[@nomore1980]

Instead of segregation, they should have been shipped back were they could be happy of no one suppressing them--West Africa.

[@bloodocean07]

No More wow, dude.

[@blackboxbs8642]

No More check liberia

[@jonathanxavier2026]

@@nomore1980 How else were you to lynch them or steal their labour if you shipped them back?

[@liliiahidalgo6886]

At that time there was a war in Russia. Hitler attacked civilians😢

[@glenglo]

Never heard it called Zilker Springs before....

[@passi4453]

glenglo same here

[@billprosser9034]

So now we get to see the remnants of a great city . Now homeless and poverty mix with milenials and excessive wealth . Austin is no longer the shinning city it once was .I have been here since the 70s .

[@josuevaldez2247]

Noticed when he talked about the segregated churches of black and white and not once did you see an African American in the film, because of the laws put in place in to separate people of color back then… so it wasn’t a shining city for everyone not for the people who’s life’s were harder just because of the color of their skin

[@jondstewart]

@@josuevaldez2247 yes, indeed. Until the civil rights era, blacks were only allowed to own properties on the east side. At the time of this filming, a man named Richard Overton was fighting in WW2 and just after the war was over, had a home built for him on Hamilton Ave. He lived in the same home another 70 plus years enjoying a simple life of a delivery driver and state employee, cigars, coffee, whiskey, and lived to be 112.

[@damonmelendez856]

@@josuevaldez2247 pls.. and what have they given to us by now? Crime, shootings downtown. What a great contribution!

[@jake7945]

Did he just say Buchanan lake is one of the largest freshwater lakes in the united states???

[@drewofearth6681]

All that ‘equal opportunity’ made it seem bigger than it is.

[@mendoncaangelo]

I love watching videos from the 40s and ups. Old days show you so much. Great to live back then. Also love reading the comments from people who were kids back then. Time changes so much. But your memories stay the same.

[@troynov1965]

I was born in Austin ( Bergstrom AFB ) in 1965 . I grew in Austin also lived in Round Rock, Cedar Park and Oak Hill. Also spent some time in Killeen and Fort Hood , I was a army brat til I was bout 11 years old. I moved away in 1988 as it was getting too crowded for me.

[@gregm6894]

You were born the year I moved here from San Antonio, after high school.

[@jvo8068]

5:25 “His sister knows what to do.” She drags him out and throws him to the floor🤣🤣🤣

[@StreetUrchin4Life]

No no "the wives assistant" smh

[@jvo8068]

DK Giante Oh. Still it’s funny

[@jonnyz69]

18:43 IH35

[@JeremyMcGuire-mq3ye]

HEBREW LORD of Lords King of Kings dwell in 1943 Austin as Jeremy Odin Scott Hammer Armstrong McGuire Senior Property Owner

[@ngaiterangiboy2874]

The Rolling Stone magazine in the 1940s, Oh Just Wow! Did they have hippies, rock bands,outlaw country and armdillillo world headquarters back. then??

[@road_king_dude]

No they did not.

[@waskerbasket9601]

These older buildings are so beautiful. Modern architecture, and construction have no character at all. Even mid century was nice. At least it was attempting to make modern fun to experience. Mostly anything made in 1990s, and after is cheap, bland, and boring. At least most of the cheap stuff from the 20th century is stylish.

[@1polonium210]

Not so friendly in 2019.

[@bigman1225]

Relative statement, coming from the east coast... people are way nicer here.

[@znhurston]

7:22: Breckenridge hospital

[@cindynimeskern7994]

Always loved the Texas Memorial museum and the Moonlit towers when I lived in Austin.

[@helenheil]

Quite a difference in Austin since this film was made! I think the influx of "hundreds" of folks has increased to thousands judging by the almost constant traffic, continuous building & urban sprawl out into the hill country.

[@jstar1000]

Swim suits look like diapers lol.

[@zacharynoga]

Wow Lake Travis is so empty there. Imagine buying like 500 lake front properties lol

[@ghostrider2664]

The irony of the title is not lost on me. Austin is the rudest place I've ever been in Texas. Maybe the country. I wish it weren't so. I really do. I grew up in Fort Worth in the early 80s and always heard such great things about Austin. So, when I moved there in 2011....well....i....didnt find what I expected to find at all...

[@ghostrider2664]

@Enmanuel sort of. How quickly things change. Its the first time ive experienced such a rapid and radical one. Ive honestly found it difficult to adjust

[@jimbeam7160]

@Enmanuel Too true. It isn't Austin anymore. It is a suburb of Los Angeles. It is a wasteland now. There is nothing special about living in Austin. It's all gone now.

[@angelaatwood46]

I moved here in the 70s and yeah, people were easier to talk to, but I have had this feeling even back then that a lot of groups of people were too full of themselves. That attitude was already here long before now. I never felt like I got noticed, even hanging around a group, and I'm counterculture.

[@carlosvega885]

Should of never said is lovely place. Because Austins Traffic is really bad now!!! 😟 stay where you are!!!

[@kenbroadway6547]

Was the traffic horrible in 1943? lol..

[@jondstewart]

Probably. You didn’t have no I-35, Mopac, 360, or 183 to get around town. North and South Lamar were the only way in and out of town north snd south back then.

[@audreywilborn2018]

Yes , with a lot of horses and buggies .

[@cindynimeskern7994]

Miss Austin the way i remembered it as a kid.

[@tonylozina9545]

Wow, zero houses on Mt Bonnell

[@ChicoTheMan69]

The friendly segregated city.

[@jeremyjones5140]

Say it again! Not one shot of how the "colored" folk lived. But this is what how they did things back then and now...

[@ChicoTheMan69]

@@jeremyjones5140 Did you know west downtown used to be a brown neighborhood before being gentrified and pushed to the other side of the new 35 Highway? Until they decided they wanted that too, And it's all by design years in the making.

[@mariusfacktor3597]

Austin is still largely segregated. We need to get rid of I35 and bring the city back together.

[@damonmelendez856]

That means low crime!

[@JohnTheRevelator11]

Segregated? Or people stayed w the cultures they were happiest with?

[@noctilucent7396]

Oh that's why we don't have much public land. They sold 3 million PUBLIC acres for that government building.

[@TheDe1deonly]

Until 1980, maybe; then the Californication began!😢

[@indiosveritas]

You will never have a vibrant , safe downtown Dallas with incompatible cultures , racial hatred, and poor city council management.

[@barry6541]

At the very least, the natural beauty of the area hasn't changed much

[@bigdizave]

Update 2024: Betty and Billy Smith are now trans.

[@JohnTheRevelator11]

Born in Austin. Sad to say we were priced out of a place our grand parents built. Progressive agenda for the win.

[@CanoeDragging]

Nice shot of East Ave.

[@cindynimeskern7994]

I remember when those lights lit up on Mansfield Dam at night in the 1960s.

[@sveingeraldhansen7275]

The first thing you noticed was the slender figure to all.

[@mikecagle984]

It may have been back then, but now is the total embarassment of Texas!

[@abedawg94]

Anybody gonna mention why the statue of Stephen F Austin is saluting mighty suspiciously...?

[@tentwarmer9805]

This city is so woke, it needs to go back to sleep and wake up again!

[@vaforubov]

During these years, Austin was white.

[@WillWise]

Very different today mostly Mount Bonnel and Barton Springs Road

[@lethalrancher]

When I was young and even not so young when in High School, I never dreamed Mount Bonnell would one day be developed......who would wish to live on the side of a hill....I went up Mount Bonnell many times on my motorcycle and later an automobile when it looked just like it did here in this film.....

[@vivians9392]

I loved to visit Barton Springs when I was a kid in 1950s.

[@Beanmaster73]

Wow. Zero black Peeples

[@roberthensley7130]

It was interesting to see Austin in the past! Once it got to that confederacy stuff though, the video felt quite ...uncomfortable at times. And jeez there are so many racist sympathizers in the comments!

[@mjt2231]

No Hippie Hollow??

[@nomore1980]

1943 was too early for that.

[@vivians9392]

1943?!!!

[@MichaelCharles-u3n]

That's a view of Tom Hughes Park off the edge of now, hwy 620. At 29:40.

[@asabovesobelow8680]

Waterloo

[@allthingshiphop1151]

it was like this up until mid 2010's.

[@MichelineNguyen]

Austin the Friendly City ,thanks you for shraing Like#sub full

[@latintribe4411]

real good

[@davidherringgo]

Her mother looks like mine. They loved it so much they moved back to spend their retirement days here.

[@jesusindie]

Beautiful girl 2:46

[@clockwork2662]

I know lol. Now in Austin you see those girls covered in make up dressed like sluts

[@FlowtnWitWalden]

My opinion too! That's Betty.

@For Truth they are either in the nursing homes or dead as of 2020. 1943 if they're let's say 16 then by 2020 they should be 93 years old.

[@AyanAli-eq4lo]

I would be born 58 years later...so weird. I can only see trees in the northern area where I currently live.

[@bvedant]

I lived in Austin briefly last year and it was quite nice.

[@westtexas7]

Got a lot friendlier in 66 when the Hippies came.

[@bootchop88]

but tonight Austin is sheltering in place.

[@snowy_fox659]

"Oops, well" Haha, it was so cute!

[@austinitesince1979]

wow what a trip!

[@texasTbone100]

use to be

[@michelevalykeo8968]

I don't know this Austin. Where are the Austinites? Who are these people? Try to find a post office box in Austin. These are old world lies lol

[@tKoQ]

michele valykeo hi 👋🏼 I’m here. I was born here and still live here. 🤙🏼🤘🏼good day 😘

[@chalocolina3554]

Grim to reflect on what a harshly racist place my city was in those days.

[@anon2143]

WAS?

[@damonmelendez856]

Boo-hoo

[@cheetopuff99_]

​@@anon2143right I have been here for about 5 miserable months and CANT WAIT to be away from the disgusting racist people who reside in this weird bland shithole

[@cheetopuff99_]

​@@anon2143right I have been here for about 5 miserable months and CANT WAIT to be away from the disgusting racist people who reside in this weird bland shithole

[@BruceAkaBRUISERCanady]

We say howdy but please kindly keep mostly on the pathway to anywhere else but Austin or the surrounding areas......thank you!! We are currently at capacity

[@latintribe4411]

nice

[@Cyan3031]

Amazing all white people living in Austin? No Mexicans, Blacks, Indians, no Californicators or Bums? I wish I had been born during that period!

[@Cyan3031]

I did not have those feelings until I was discriminated for being white by Blacks and all the rest of the mutations

[@jime3281]

J em60 Mphy Mutations? The first human was black you idiot.

[@Cyan3031]

You don't know that? there is no proof the first human was black - that's just a theory.

[@jime3281]

J em60 Mphy We'll have to disagree on that as DNA evidence has found it to be so but no matter. And then to your same logic, the first humans weren't white as there isn't proof.

[@jime3281]

J em60 Mphy Number one: the Africans were lied to by the settlers- sure slavery existed in the world. The white Romans practiced it, Mesoamericans, and yes the Africans. This is not a defense but a fact in case you are oblivious to this. In regard to the settlers, the conquered Africans, debtors, criminals, and "disgraced peasants" were sold for weaponry to become INDENTURED SERVANTS like as they were in Africa. They were ignorant to the matter that the whites did not see them as human. Number two, yes the earliest human we have record of being the "first" was found in Africa and after advanced DNA and forensic evidence, was in fact black. You racists can't seem to wrap your heads around this but it's scientific fact. Number 3, where in my comments was I talking about slavery? Black slavery in America was a deplorable part if history but nonetheless a part of it that cannot be forgotten. Forgiven, yes, but forgotten no. Racism is evil; whites aren't the only people who practice it, but for those who defend it deserve the same punishment inflicted onto its victims. Number 4, I'm white you idiotic bum.

[@FlowtnWitWalden]

I'd heard Austin has become a lefty liberal hippie heaven, so I came here to relish in the past. I'd rather draw my shutters and dream of years gone bye than venture out and be disappointed by the harsh reality. It's a fine way to hole up in for quarantine. I plum fancy Betty Smith too with her frock of red locks and her petty plaid dress. My kind of girl for dreams of another world.

[@aaronrodriguez3251]

It’s been like that since the 60s. Where have you been?