Los Angeles in the 1970s

Hollywood, Downtown, Venice Beach

[@boreal75]

Starsky and Hutch or Jon and Ponch could suddenly appear around the corner and I wouldn't be surprised ! I miss those years dreadfully...the cars, the clothes, the music, the iconic tv heroes.. Thank you so much for this video full of nostalgia..!

[@RogerWeese]

Don't forget Jim Rockford

[@boreal75]

@RogerWeese Yes indeed you're right, and we could cite others, like good old Frank Cannon in his Lincoln, the gorgeous Sgt"Pepper"Anderson (Angie Dickinson) in "Police Woman", Linc Evers (Robert Stack) in the underrated short-lived "Most Wanted" with Lalo Schifrin music, or even Charlie's Angels for the late seventies ! 🙂

[@boreal75]

@RogerWeese ...and Lieutenant Columbo of course, driving his Peugeot 403 in (very) poor condition, with his listless basset hound !

[@TheLaker85]

And don't forget Reed and Malloy patrolling in Adam 12, or Gage and Desoto, coming to the rescue in squad 51

[@michelkieffer7901]

🇨🇵🇺🇸... moi aussi !!! que de bons souvenirs à LA❤... j' ai reconnu the Sheraton town housses sur Wiltshire blvd...🇺🇸✝️☀️♥️✝️🇺🇸

[@pjesf]

My first trip to LA was in ‘73 (age 12) and this takes me back. I was so fascinated with the vastness of the city and the freeways - merging onto them felt kinda like a corpuscle moving through the giant organism that is the human body

[@sterlinsilver]

My lungs can taste this video...

[@Mercedes600SELfan]

😂Not some fucking ugly electro gay bullshit huh?😂

[@terencem8795]

😂😂😂

[@BillWoodillustrator]

Better than the walking dead you gave on the streets today- I’d rather the smog.

[@vincentgutierrez4471]

I remember not being able to see the skyline because of the smog!

[@ChatGPT1111]

Yep, growing up in the OC, we forgot we had mountains and then there was a heavy rain and it was like you were in a completely different city, like moving from Phoenix to Denver.

[@deniskirkbridekirkbride3194]

I remember going up into the mountains above the smog line it looked one big cloud covering the wholebasin

[@gjrosta]

Great video, excellent choice of music, too! 🎉

[@cylotron]

I don't remember the 70s since I was born in the late 70s, but I do remember Los Angeles still looking like that in the 80s. Hard to believe how much time has passed.

[@RobertDAvanzo-rk3ew]

The air was so dirty that my eyes would start burning the minute I landed at LAX

[@DeniseDDS]

My eyes never burned anywhere near LAX

[@RobertDAvanzo-rk3ew]

@DeniseDDS Good for you. Bye. And wrapping your mouth around a tailpipe doesn't dirty your cartoon icon either lol

[@thomashatcher836]

@@RobertDAvanzo-rk3ewGURLLLLL OMG 😂😂😂

[@thomashatcher836]

@@RobertDAvanzo-rk3ew😂 I need your comebacks

[@RobertDAvanzo-rk3ew]

@@thomashatcher836 Thanks. I am just tired of the creeps on KZbin who will read of someone 's experiences and write in that it never happened to them just to try to degrade them. For example, if someone relates they were robbed visiting Johannesburg, they will write " I went there and that never happened to me" And so what? Who knows if they even went there? Anyway, thank you for your kind remark

[@1986SSMONTECARLO]

I Miss the Old L.A.

[@MonsterPig007]

I miss the Old World.

[@_juan.joao_]

What a cool times to live in L.A...less violence, less homeless people, less expensiveness! The only bad thing I see was that thick smog and heavy traffic.

[@MyKeeP81]

serial killers up and down the freeways

[@pepsiq11965]

Less violence? Less homeless? Nah man, you don't know L.A. This is L.A. back in the 70s Hookers and pimps on Sunset Blvd, Drugs everywhere, high inflation, crime out of control along with serial killers on the loose, dirt and filth the city was

[@Piwork69]

I remember those RTD buses as a kid in the 70's--taking the bus home w/ my mom from Kaiser Hollywood to the SGV.

[@albear972]

0:05 Oh man! The old DASH busses! They looked like a rolling circus back in the day.

[@billschipper1718]

If you want to know why California pass smog control and emissions control and testing this video shows you why.

[@egmjag]

Early 70s was different from mid 70s in L.A. I remember going to downtown in the early 70s and my dad opened a car's door and then moved it to get more parking space. It was common to be able to do that in the early 70s. People didn't lock their car doors. I remember visiting Lincoln Heights a lot in the early 70s, vaguely remember visiting Huntington Park and Montebello, but you didn't feel threatened. There's always been gangs but drive bys and shooting innocent people began around the late 70s. Graffiti wasn't all over the place until the late 70s. After 1973, L.A. became more dangerous and by the late 70s it got worse. But if you speak to people who grew up there in the 30s, 40s and 50s, many say that L.A. began to change for the worse in the late 50s.

[@jody8526937]

Yeah… the old timers say the post war crowds signaled the end of a golden era.

[@MrLovert]

As a native Angeleno born in 1978, I love this video.😎😎

[@ashleyg8633]

Reminds me of those smog alert days when we couldn’t go out for recess… if you did run around your lungs would hurt… 😅 it really was a special city to grow up in back then! Miss those days! 🙋‍♀️💕🌻

[@Piwork69]

I remember that neon Coke sign on Hollywood Blvd. There was a movie theater down the street, opposite side of the street. I forgot the name but I remember standing in line as a kid with my family to see the movie DC Cab and seeing that neon Coke sign shimmering down the street.

[@sandiegotrafficlightstrain354]

I miss those walk don't walk pedestrian signals.

[@juniormint3136]

Created for the illiterate of course

[@admiralsemmes6939]

😊 I so dig the 70s vibe that this music is giving off

[@marinellacascone1181]

I love this music seventeen years

[@The_Dudester]

2:05 Look at that smog. I was stationed at Camp Pendleton in the early 80's and about 1 or 2 in the afternoon, the smog would make it's way down the coastline and then dissipate by dawn.

[@dennythomas8887]

That was the marine layer (fog) not smog 🤣

[@OuFen52919]

Very immersive video. I already want to wear a mask.

[@ChatGPT1111]

Keep in mind that this is only one of 50 downtowns that the metro has. There are other large downtowns within 30 miles in Long Beach, Anaheim, Santa Ana, Irvine, Hollywood, Century City, etc.

[@MDavisAllstate]

Brings me back to a time when the 110 freeway was the 11 (seen in the video), and the 710 freeway was the 7 (not in the video, but true).

[@MM91001]

I just took the drive up Lankershim (0:19) to the same Arco at Riverside Dr. (0:49) to get gas last night. Crazy seeing this when it's still fresh in my memory. So much is the same. Ernie's Restaurant, St. Charles Church, the buidling on Riverside and Lankershim that's now Chase.

[@terencem8795]

Born in 1960 and raised in Toluca Lake. Gosh, I miss the simpler times. Oh, btw, I was also an altar boy at St. Charles.✌️

[@DarrellE78]

I was in Hollywood today!

[@1986SSMONTECARLO]

What Corner?

[@JimD-jr3xe]

That zoom-in opening shot of Parker Center was used in many Police Story episodes.

[@WhitneyCarrollCarroll]

I luv these videos. Their so dope

[@oldfriend327]

I absolutely love 🏁🏁🏁❣💯 videos like this. These are historical documents that can never be replaced. So in the 1970's my parents were both working in Hollywood and living in the west San Fernando Valley with their families living in North Hollywood and Studio City. I was born in 1974. Do we by any chance have an exact date or at least year for this particular video? My parents have told me over and over again how different Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley was in the 60's and 70's. My mom's dad who born in the early 1920's in what is now the Skid Row area. He said the area where he was born and grew up (Skid Row area) was like paradise. Nobody locked their cars, houses, no trash, no graffiti, no violence. YES,... for the liberal woke trolls out there who want to remind me that no one has a right to take notice of the urban blight and miseries and "changes" that happen because we perpetuate tsunami after tsunami of folk from south of the b>oa>rr,der. So my mom's dad said something though that has stuck in my head for years about downtown Los Angeles, "The conditions are so bad there now, so vastly different from the 1930's through the early 1960's that poverty alone could not have destroyed that place the way it is destroyed now. Something else did it and from different angles." Even my dad who grew up in the MacArthur Park, Hollywood, and a brief time in the South Los Angeles area in the late 40's through the late 50's used to ride around MacArthur Park and the Coliseum with his friends on bikes with no care in the world. He said the Coliseum was also open a lot of the time and people would just go in and out to take a peak and walk out... no concerns for vandalism, theft, or squatting. People with only High School Diplomas could get a job and afford a small house up until the early 1980's. Sorry for the ramble people, but I was born and have lived in Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley all 50 years of my life and am deeply broken hearted with how this entire not just city, county has become.

[@dedddie]

Quit complaining. People have been saying "nobody locked there houses" for 100s of years. go watch 1920s interviews to see them talking about how great the 1800s were. Ww2 happened cause they wanted the world to return back to the good old days.

[@kendoman3150]

I was also born in 1974 and grew up in the greater LA area and we didn’t lock our homes, cars, etc. until about the 90s. We rode our bikes around, climbed trees, and hung out at arcades. My parents probably didn’t know where we were at all day after school but we all returned home safe every evening. We were truly independent from an early age and we ended up just fine.

[@freds.9407]

Your mother bore you at 50 years old?

[@Brindlebrendaadventures]

The height of the smog era!

[@JohnWilson-wg4gk]

"Engine 51. Squad 51. Truck 111. Reported brush fire, area of Pacific Palisades. Time out, fifteen thirty seven. " "Station 51. KMG365. " "This won't be much, Roy. " "I hope you're right, Johhny. "

[@Castillohometv]

Liked the video for the music alone😁

[@athos1974]

Smog alerts. Stage 1, 2, and 3. 3 was "everybody stay inside" Lol. As if that would stop the smog from getting to you inside the house. I can still remember the smell, the taste and how it looked.

[@MrFrankrizzo5150]

Heh. My old stomping grounds. My parents bought a Pontiac at Bob Rhueman's in 1968. (0:19). Mayberry Lincoln was (0:41) a big Pantera dealer, as a kid I would want my mom to slow down when driving by so I could oogle. Last time I drove by, Ernie's taco house was still there.

[@thepodbaydoorshal]

Great soundtrack - the one and only Donald Byrd (“Change”)

[@PalmBeachDog]

Back when everyone was a size 4. I guess that what they mean by progress.

[@Leonchuckmoutsoulas]

I can feel it ❤

[@scottchambers7087]

I saw a G. I've seen it all. Dope describes my rhymes, making all you emcees cold drop like dimes. You know MCSC is back again, and battling me on the microphone is like committing a sin. MCSC the California Seer Much love to Los Angeles. Much love to Megatron.

[@morganmadison366]

Home, sweet home.

[@timbrown8038]

This is the city. I carry a badge. My names Friday my partners name is Bill Gannon. It was a cool day in Los Angeles that morning...

[@Marcellodasilvarego]

tinha muito nos eua dessa epoca os carros peruas cim laterais de madeira . acho ser madeira .

[@UrbaNSpiel]

Cool

[@juniormint3136]

Today we got 3x the cars and you can see the mountains almost everyday yet Sacramento is banning gas cars.

[@Isabella-mp3gq]

Can you hear the music?? Those were the times!!❤❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉🎉😮😂

[@johngrant3661]

WAY less people! WAY less traffic.

[@markpommett5712]

awesome

[@gridley]

Old vids of other cities like NYC also make the past seem both better but also worse than today's era. Mixed bag. Crime & homelessness are worse in today's LA, but smog was much worse in 1970's LA. Downtown LA's Skid Row is much worse in the 2020s, but DTLA in the 1970s was more rundown or underdeveloped. Traffic is worse nowadays, but public transit (ironically?) of trains & subways is better today. LA's entertainment industry in 2025 is moving elsewhere (eg Britain, Georgia, Canada), but LA's cultural scene in the 1970s was more limited. One thing, however, that's obviously way worse in today's times is Malibu, Pacific Palisades & Altadena

[@JohnTaylor-fh4et]

Who saw 37 cent gas? Ah the 70s, one of the last great decades.

[@navigator487]

Thanks. I saw the price flashed, and was going to rewind the video b/c I couldn't believe the price was so low.

[@ChadBest-ug8uo]

Like today, people bustling about. Many filled with the concerns and worries. Sadly, a large portion of those people have passed on. I guess the moral is enjoy life as much as possible.

[@shootfirst2097]

I was stationed in Long Beach in '77. I would take the bus to L.A and see so many great concerts at clubs, Santa Monica Civic Center, and other venues. It was so much fun in those days. After the service, I lived in Hollywood for a year, but moved back East. Returned 9 years later and spent 25 years in Hollywood, N. Hollywood and mostly Burbank Had to leave in 2015. Couldn't stand the taxes, gridlock, graffiti, crime, bums-homeless-gangbangers-fruits-nuts-flakes-freaks-weirdos.

[@terencem8795]

You forgot dimwits, kooks, and morons.😂

[@shootfirst2097]

@@terencem8795 Yes, thank you for correcting my oversight. I was also remiss in not mentioning deranged depraved, deviant, degenerate derelicts

[@massimilianomoretti1067]

The glamorous 70s !!! Great images...The cigarettes adverts...Other times. Bye!

[@mmmail1969]

The air would have killed you, but the sidewalks looked way more sane.... 😁

[@kitcatz8348]

Watched lots of kung fu movies on Broadway.

[@lavenberry]

I remember the smog very well. I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. But laws were changed so now we can see again. It's was less crowded back then. Now it's filthy, dirty and streets need to be paved.

[@davidwesley2525]

Back When it was Healthier to Smoke Cigarettes than to Breathe L. A. 's Air . 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@LisaMaligaCreates]

Gulf gas for only 0.37c a gallon!

[@master-kq3nw]

Super no to many cars traffic

[@cyclops9125]

Where’s big mike

[@mauriziopetta2019]

I would change immediately if i could go back to the 70s!!! Better breath that smog from the 70s Whit good people than live in this stupid days Whit a lot of stupid people and the cleaner air.

[@kryptism]

When Los Angeles start becoming Trash Angeles !😮

[@kitcatz8348]

The big ugly job corps bldg I lived in for some time 🤣

[@roachtoasties]

Smog.

[@Mariomasio]

Hey man don't be a jive turkey lol

[@OGFrylock]

Before it became Mexico

[@Craiglaca1]

@@OGFrylock you do realize that Southern California was actually a part of Mexico right?

[@OGFrylock]

@Craiglaca1 Treaty of Guadalupe❤

[@Thattgirl6789]

I prefer 70s new york

[@MyKeeP81]

both are cool

[@blueberry9696ify]

UGLY CITY