1938 Floods Film Footage
March 20, 2012 § 5 Comments
Click on image to view flooding video at archive.com
Thanks to Will Campbell for bringing this to my attention. Newly released film footage of the 1938 floods is online at archive.org. A lot of the neighborhoods are difficult for me to identify, but, at about 2:36 there’s footage of the downed railroad bridge at the confluence of the L.A. River and the Arroyo Seco. It looks like the shot is from the now-110 Freeway bridge looking upstream toward what’s now the Riverside-Figueroa Bridge. Check it out!
My grandfather made a super 8 movie in Sanat Monica, showing the ’38 flood in Chautaqua and Channel road. That hillside footage looks simiiar to Chautaqua…?
Ok.
I recognized Windward Circle median in Venice @ :50 – 1:20.
Then I saw the hotel sign Antler Hotel, which indeed was located
@ Windward Circle.
Also, @ 1:55 the leaning street sign says L. Rustic Road.
There are a lot of sycamores being shown, so my guess is, that it is
Rustic Canyon
Yeah, the view of the Hotel Antler on Windward Circle at 1:17 is approximately the same this Google Maps Street View.
The hotel has been torn down and replaced by the 3-story building to the left of the Big Blue Bus in the street view, but the small house just to the left of the hotel is still there.
I believe the shot with the “E. Rustic Rd.” street sign is the corner of E.Rustic and W. Channel Rd in Rustic Canyon.
The opening aerial shot is Paramount Studios in Hollywood.
Gotta run now, but I’ll see if I can identify any more locations when I get back.
Also, ‘Venetian Square’, seen at 2:21, was at the west end of Long Beach, on the beach next to the LA River. The shot appears to be looking across the LA River channel just above its mouth, where it flows out into the harbor.
The structure at the left of frame seems to be the stub of the bridge that carried Ocean Ave and the Union Pacific San Pedro Branch Line across the river channel – presumably washed away by the flooding.
Thanks for the info, I researched Venetian Sq, but, I could not find anything…it is unrecognizable today.