This video is taken in my hometown, on the Lebanon town square, in 1931. I could watch this video again, and again!! Also this car still exists and was restored by Ford back in 2003!!! She lives!!
***EDIT*** There is no sound with this video, after all, it is from 1931....so your computer isn't messed up!!!
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Thats very cool..The used car dealer I work for use to own the Ford dealer here and in the new show room is the first one they sold...I think it is a 1911????? model

 

That's awesome!! I love seeing history preserved!! Especially automotive history!

 

I would have loved to have been a hat salesman back then!

 

Neat stuff; also like the Fastest Model A video.

 

What I wanna know is how that guy with the conductors hat can stand to wear a coat in the Tennessee summer...

 

More than likely, the sound portion of this film has been lost. Either the sound portion on the nitrate film had disintigrated, or the disc was lost.

Warner Brothers invented the sound on disc system, calling it Vitaphone. Other studios used the Western Electric system, where the sound was recorded on the film itself.

The only US film studio that was still making silent films in 1931 was the Chaplin Studios. First "part talkie" film: The Jazz Singer (WB: 1927) / First all talking film: Broadway Melody (MGM: 1928).

 

* I looked it up!
Average mean temp for june, 1931 in Lebanon TN was 78.1 degrees, the average high temperature (throughout the month) was 93.1

Knowing that - it's no wonder the one guy has his shirt sleeves rolled up!

 

Like Glenn said earlier, a hat salesman would have done well back it those days!!

 

I saw videos where Henry Ford would enjoy getting in the specially marked cars and riding in them as they came off the line, back in the day where corporations were proud of their products, and cared about those who worked for them. Not all were that way, unions were necessary at the time, but Ford was one of the few who improved employee working conditions on his own.
The Rutherford County court house has a picture of a captured Japanese mini sub, it was on a flatbed truck, they took the picture on the Mufreesboro square, I love old black and white photos of towns in past times that are long forgotten.

 

No US automaker was unionized prior to 1936.*

FoMoCo didn't become a 'union shop' (UAW) until 1941. Henry Ford hated unions, wanted no part of them, it was his son Edsel that finally convinced him to sign on.

The in-famous "Battle of the Overpass" occurred at The Rouge in 1938.

UAW prez Walter Ruether (a former Ford assembly line worker) and a companion were passing out UAW leaflets past the overpass that led from The Rouge to the employee parking lots.

Members of the Service Department, FoMoCo's name for their in-house security force, known as the "goon squad" (most were ex-cons), greeted, then beat the hell out of both Ruether and his companion.

The entire incident was photograped by a local newspaper reporter, made headlines throughout the world the next day.

* General Motors, after a prolonged workers "sit-in" strike that occurred in 1936 at the Flint MI Chevrolet assembly plant, was the first to unionize. Chrysler Corporation unionized in 1938.

This Japanese midget sub ran aground on December 7, 1941 after its gyro compass failed. Was one of six midget subs launched from mother subs that were to enter Pearl Harbor, launch torpedoes.

Ensign Sakamaka was captured, became POW #1. The sub was later sent on a War Bond tour across the US.

The midget sub exists, is located at Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz' birthplace in Fredericksburg TX known as the National Museum of the Pacific War.

btw: Two hours PRIOR to the attack on Pearl Harbor, the destroyer USS Ward (DD139) sank a midget sub by gunfire that was attempting to enter Pearl Harbor, but...

The report of this incident didn't reach Admiral Kimmel (CINCPAC ~ Commander in Chief Pacific Fleet) until after the attack began.

btw, part II: Greywolf started a thread awhile back inre to FoMoCo history, was hoping it would become a regular feature. But it died PDQ, because there was next to no interest. Sad.

 

Look at unions today, using the pension fund and dues like their own piggy bank, money is power, BTW they push all members to vote democrat, hand out leaflets during every election endorsing their candidates. FYI since the gov bailouts, the union purchased enough shares of GM stock to become a serious broker of it now, doubt they'll have union contract arguments anymore. They were needed in the past, it made work safer, etc, but now it's causing more problems than preventing, states can't afford pensions on all it's employees, not when so many retire at the same time, can't cover their replacement and retirees at the same time.

 

I could really use a good union at my work now. I hope I still have my job a year from now. Most of my problem would be them trying to weed out us older workers. AARP isn't much help!

 

Yeah, that's what I meant by it being from 1931. A lot of film that old just gets brittle and begins flaking away or gets separated. After all, Gone With the Wind was released in 1939, so sound and even colored recording (Technicolor) were around in 1931. But that is some cool information!!
Well, maybe we could try it again. At the very least we can start one here in the Tennessee forum.....

 

3 strip technicolor intro'd in 1935. First film in 3 strip: Becky Sharp (RKO).