Burbank (CA) Residential Area Ride, prob. 1948 or 1949

Originally found at archive.org: "Process plate, daytime, moving, shot from automobile, reverse angle of partially built-up street receding behind camera. Verdugo Avenue in Burbank, California." I get the conjectural late 1940s date from the Ford panel truck that appears.
The video starts at Magnolia and California. The Food Mart store in the shot is now the "Do it Center" home improvement store. They follow California to W. Clark Ave. and take a right on Clark (0:30) then a left on N. Lima St. (0:44) straight to W. Verdugo Ave., then take a right (1:29) toward Whitnall Hwy and the video stops there, at 1:48.
That vacant lot at 0:36 is now where Verdugo Park is located.
The next segment is the same route, only the camera angle is different.
A map is here: wesclark.com/bu...

[@spiff8862]

Growing up in Burbank (1952 - 1975) I'm going to say the video was made late Spring (May Gray/June Gloom) 1949. I say 1949, because they pass a 1949 Chevy parked in a driveway. There was no place better, than Burbank to grow up in. I had such a wonderful childhood living on Keystone St. (between Oak St. and Alameda Ave. Alameda Ave was Hwy 134 back then). Great video!!!

[@rayramirez49]

Didn't grow up in Burbank but have been living there now for 6 yrs. Frequently workout at John Burroughs HS on Clark. I would take living in those days over today without hesitation.

[@-C.S.R]

I grew up in Burbank on Clark all the way up until I was just about to go into John Burroughs. I miss it! I wish I still lived there.

[@doubleueyett]

The driver starts out on N. California St close to Magnolia. The Food Mart is where the DIY center is currently located. They head south and make a right on W. Clark Ave, left on N. Lima and finally a right on W. Verdugo Ave. ending at N. Whitnall Hwy. Both clips are the exact same route, but the second one has a different view.

[@howellwong11]

Verduga Ave sounds so familiar. I used to work for Lockheed Burbank back in 1955. A railroad ran just next to it .

[@TM-em9ij]

Alex Wise. The reason Lima st. looks more lush is that the trees that lined the street up until the early 50s were cedars, which got some sort of blight during a drought year. They were heavy drinkers. Since most people used a hose pipe and a sprinkler to water back then, these trees didn't get watered very well. They were all removed and the street was replanted with Magnolia trees. I live on Clark and Sparks and saw the city remove a large old elm tree on the corner. I asked later why they didn't replace it. They told me they won't plant street trees on corners anymore because of blindspot safety issues. Plus they are replacing trees that are diseased and dying with low canopy ones. sad :( Little by little the neighborhood trees are becoming scarce and puny. Oh, and thank you for the share Wes.

[@BegoneJonah]

Thanks for the Burbank lore! I love that stuff...

[@omnidentalstudio]

Amazing ,moved to Burbank when I was 5 from Seattle November 1978 Still have my Business in Burbank love it!

[@BegoneJonah]

We moved into town in February 1965 from Silver Lake. I was eight.

[@dsands47]

Spent 3 hours trying to get the position of the video only to eventually read your post. Thank you so much. It's like a time machine.

[@bluecollarguy67]

Wow, I just love seeing archival film footage like this.

[@BegoneJonah]

Me, too - that's why I posted it!

[@rossheberly125]

Thanks for the journey through the past. I moved to Burbank at the age of two,and grew up there. Part of my paper route for the Burbank Daily Review is in there. This is a few years before my time...Looks like Robert Crumb Zap Comics to me!

[@jonjeffries3265]

Great Album, song n movie..

[@dmcannon99]

Oh my God...that house at Lima and Verdugo is the one I grew up in. It has since been torn down and replaced with an ugly condo/apartment building.

[@BegoneJonah]

Dwight C Glad you found this, then!

[@missmoskatow]

My first apt in Burbank was in the fourplex to the left of your house on Verdugo next to your old house. Your house was so nice. I wish they would have kept it.

[@dasbunker1]

Grew up on Spazier Ave ...just up the street from Bill's Ranch Market (late '50's). Brings back wonderful memories. My parents and grandparents all buried at Forest Lawn. Burbank , and the world , was a prettier , nicer place then than now.

[@ponyhorton4295]

I used to work the Ranch Market News Stand back in the late 70's. Afternoon/evening shift.

[@chetpomeroy1399]

I noticed the houses seemed to be very clean, with well-manicured lawns. There didn't seem to be any exceptions!

[@sharonthompson2333]

Look out neat and clean that whole neighborhood is, really enjoyed this little video. Thank you!

[@ronmaatita8845]

1:49, Detroit Furniture is now "It's A Wrap"!!!!

[@archie34734]

The houses in the video at that time were valued at about $8K.

[@BegoneJonah]

$8,000 in 1948 money today is about $88,000.

[@JackF99]

Biggest change to the neighborhood is bumper-to-bumper cars parked on every street.

[@-C.S.R]

Grew up in Burbank on Clark Avenue. Looks pretty much the same just with more trees.

[@wowfactorphotography8448]

Most of these homes sell for close to (if not at) a million bucks these days in that area.

[@rsyungul]

Incredible. My current neighborhood. Has anyone made a current movie of the same route? I might just do that myself.

[@JackF99]

Well?

[@BegoneJonah]

Great idea! Then and now. If you do, report back with a link!

[@andreaavila4219]

I love this video. I love it. Thank you.

[@BegoneJonah]

You are welcome!

[@icecreamforcrowhurst]

Looks like a very nice place to live!

[@user-nh5wz6es9o]

There is a 1949 Pontiac in one of the driveways to your right. New cars hit the showrooms in September. This video can be no sooner than September 1948 and could have sold sometime through most of 1949.

[@WanderlustWonderscape]

No stop signs... must have been a great time to be driving.

[@1royalpalm]

At the :05 and 1:59 mark (same locations) you can see a Ford panel truck (and a jeep up the street) that is no earlier than a 1948 model ('48-'50 Ford trucks looked about the same. pre '48 was totally different, has were the '51s). So, that would place the earliest date to at least 1948 (possibly late '47 since new models usually came out in the fall of the previous year). I enjoy looking at street scenes of yesteryear.

[@BegoneJonah]

Very good - thanks!

[@ffcorona]

This was way before President Reagan signed his Amnesty Act into law back in the '80's.

[@BegoneJonah]

It wasn't his. Congress creates laws.

[@springinfialta106]

Interesting to see there were already Tudor style and a couple of modern style homes. Also, the streets were already cracking up and in need of repair. So the government wasn't much better back then.

[@BegoneJonah]

Oh, I'd take a late 1940s government - city, state or federal - in a heartbeat over what we have now!

[@DerBingle1]

at 0:21 there's a house with a TV antenna with a really elaborate support on the roof. right side of frame

[@JENDALL714]

That's from a radio station nearby. I remember a radio station in Burbank, I can't remember which one, maybe KMPC?

[@BegoneJonah]

Well, KELW was the first, in 1927. It changed hands and call signs over the years. www.radioheritage.net/Story36.asp

[@authorpetebauer]

Such clean footage.

[@BegoneJonah]

It was professionally shot by one of the studios in Burbank, probably for use in a movie. Columbia, perhaps.

[@juniormint3136]

Alot of those houses were built in '41. So the trees had been growing for 7 years.

[@Anyone553]

nice homes!

[@musicom67]

0:20 - On the right - Guess who's house everyone on this block went over to. THEY HAD TELEVISION!

[@jaminova_1969]

"Say good-nite, Gracie!"

[@seanlacey6651]

I would rather live in that California than the current California and it doesn’t matter that the older version didn’t have iPhones or the internet. It was still better than what California has become.

[@BegoneJonah]

Oh, yes, I think so, too.

[@BegoneJonah]

I remember that Jack Webb comment. I have seen all the dragnet episodes...

[@peterhogan9537]

these homes look like they were build yesterday.

[@eddiebolt5781]

Every house different. I saw one with a 3 car garage. Expensive neighborhood then

[@jklr2811]

AWSOME! My Grandparents lived on Beachwood Dr.

[@MrDICKHEAD28]

THIS VIDEO IS EITHER 1948 OR 1949 I CHECKED SOME OF THESE HOUSES WERE BUILT 1948 ALSO I SAW EMPTY LOT ON THE VIDEO WERE A HOUSE WAS BUILT IN 1950

[@flyinggordonproductions4875]

Wow

[@luisllorens70]

I remember Burbankers saying "Those that are born in Burbank, die in Burbank." I wonder if it's still true. I grew up in Sun Valley to the north and always loved Burbank. I wish I had lived there.

[@brendensuslow92]

I’m from burbank and I’m moving to nevada in 3 months, I’ve lived here for 15 years

[@BegoneJonah]

My pal Mike, who was born at the Burbank Community Hospital, just moved to Idaho Falls this year. So there's an exception.

[@hamiltoncano3171]

Beautiful

[@JakeysMom07]

Nice video. Had to slow it down to .5 to really enjoy it, tho. Take the old style cars out and replace them and it could be any street USA today.

[@ponyhorton4295]

Having traveled and driven in, and through, almost every one of the lower 48, and having grown up on those very streets in Burbank, NOPE. No other place in the USA looks like Southern California, and Burbank/Glendale have specific looks to their residential areas, lots, and homes, found almost nowhere else.

[@BegoneJonah]

@@ponyhorton4295 I have to agree. Whenever I see a Burbank residential street in a TV show or movie it really stands out.

[@nannerz1994]

I wonder when those trees were planted because it's probably when the homes were built because they don't look like babies in this video they look about 15 years old

[@jec1ny]

A few observations. People took care of their homes and yards back then. Not a lot of traffic. In fact I don't think I saw a single stop or yield sign at any intersection.

[@TM-em9ij]

check out the little trash cans in front of the curbs. We sure consumed a lot less back then. lol

[@JakeysMom07]

Even when I was a kid. People cooked at home and eating out was a treat..a rare one, so less garbage. Lots of people still canned some, dishes were washed instead of disposable, bars of soap instead of bottles of bodywash.... Different times - more stay at home moms and kids were expected to help cook, etc.

[@BegoneJonah]

Go to a restaurant and the portions will be a lot smaller, too.

[@bobby-jackbrewer7395]

I noticed some TV antennas on the houses, was TV availabe in Burbank in the late 40's?

[@BegoneJonah]

Bobby-Jack Brewer Yep!

[@ranhar1]

KTLA was the first TV station west of the Mississippi, it signed on January 22, 1947. It was then owned by Paramount Pictures, who had it until 1963. Network stations followed in 1948.

[@Fattboy59]

Wonder if that is a Helms Bakery Truck at :48?

[@TM-em9ij]

Good eye.

[@kbobdonahue1966]

1:30 That 1946 Ford 1/2 ton was cut off and had to slow down and pull to the side. I can't imagine the driver was happy about that.

[@BegoneJonah]

Darn theater people, ravis, fravis, etc.

[@carloslopez1582]

Plenty of street parking. Try that today.😞

[@hobamasucs]

Doe's it look like this NOW ?

[@BegoneJonah]

It appears so!

[@Melinanoel2006]

So is that empty lot on the corner what is now Verdugo Park?

[@nancyrode9781]

👌😎 cool

[@alexyomero76]

please tell me, is that my imagination or are there fewer trees today?

[@jzila9900]

It's your imagination

[@arturomarin9039]

So around the time the black dahila was murdered

[@BegoneJonah]

More or less, yes. Interesting case, huh? Fortunately it didn't happen in Burbank!

[@arturomarin9039]

@@BegoneJonah Well i know that but it was all around the la county

[@BegoneJonah]

@@arturomarin9039 What was?

[@theophilusthistle1988]

Anyone know how much these homes were selling for at this time? I'm guessing between 20 to 30 grand. I think homes in Beverly Hills were selling for probably between 80 to 100 grand.

[@BegoneJonah]

Less than this, I think. My parents bought a typical Burbank home on Lincoln Street (2 bedroom, 1 bath, 1 car garage - perhaps 1,100 square feet) in 1965 for $18,950! Monthly payments were $85, annual tax was $242! When I was a teen I used to walk home from school in 1972 and think, "Someday - someday - I'll own a home that's worth $100,000!" Hahahahaha!

[@theophilusthistle1988]

Wes Clark God, those were the days, weren't they? I grew up in San Jose and home prices there were about the same as what you mentioned. Before half the people on this planet came to California. I remember an episode of Dragnet where Jack Webb states in the beginning "This is Beverly Hills...homes costing in excess of $100,000 are NOT uncommon!"

[@chetpomeroy1399]

In those days, people's hard-earned money had a lot more purchasing power, too!

[@jklr2811]

Wes Clark My Grandparents bought their house in the 1940's on Beachwood Dr. I believe for $5,000. My parents bought our house in Montrose in 1968 for $30,000.

[@spiff8862]

My Mom and Dad bought a home (2 bdrm, 1 bath a detached 2 car garage) on Keystone St. (between Alameda and Olive) in June of 1941. They paid $4975.00. In 1955 they thought of moving over to the Rancho Riverside area of Burbank (just East of Disney Studios). The homes were going for $15,000.00 then. They instead added a 1/2 bath, den and bdrm for approx $5000.00. Kept the house til 1999 when my Mom passed away (my Dad passed away in 1998). Today, that 78 year old home is worth approx $850,000! GEEEZ!