I have followed NASS’ work for some time. I’m captivated by the glimpses these videos provide into daily life “back in the day.” Even though the colors are guesses, having them adds extra life to the b&w originals. It’s fun trying to pinpoint in which year a video was made by examining ads, theater marquees, license plates, and the like. So far the biggest surprise was to discover that even in the late 1930s Los Angeles streets didn’t have lines to mark traffic lanes. On some of the wider streets people seemed comfortable making up their own lanes.
The bummer is that comments on NASS’ videos inevitably are full of people whining about how much cleaner things were, and crime-free and homeless-free and whiter…oops, they weren’t supposed to say that part out loud.
