1920s footage of New Orleans

[Buco]

Cool video, how many of us would love to travel back in time and experience this...

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Looks pretty boring back then.....& a little too 'white'
It's a more exciting & culturally vibrant place today & so much better in color......

 

[Buco]

Yes but we can all experience the New Orleans of today. If you wouldn't want to experience the sights and sounds of 1920s New Orleans you really are in 'Cloud-cuckoo-land'

 

[Lean'n'mean]

If you wouldn't want to experience the sights and sounds of 1920s New Orleans you really are in 'Cloud-cuckoo-land'

I guess that depends on what you mean by 'experiencing'. As a wealthy white male, strolling under the arcades with a beauty on each arm then prehaps but as a tanned person or a laborer then no thanks.
Good job time machines don't exist, there would be a lot of disappointed people out there.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Only if I could go during January or February. Without air conditioning, the place would have been (and was, during my childhood) a sweltering pesthole.

The Twenties, I believe, was the heyday of the Italians -- the French Quarter was referred to as the "Italian" Quarter. That was the decade, too, when the city reclaimed a large part of the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain, and the neighborhoods of Lakeshore, Lake Vista, and Lake Terrace were created. They're still some of the most expensive and exclusive parts of the city proper. I wonder how many residents know their area is built on landfill . . .?

The black nuns you see at about 1:01 were probably members of a Catholic order, Sisters of the Holy Family, that existed in the Quarter until 1964 at Bourbon and Orleans Streets. I used to walk past the nunnery on the way to school every day and watched Mardi Gras parades right next to it, until it was torn down and revamped into a hotel. (Which is pretty much the way the whole city is going.)

 

[Absinthe_1900]

I kind of like this clip of Old New Orleans:

http://library.sc.edu/newsfilm/flash/NewsfilmFLASH6.html

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

Watch the Elvis film "King Creole" (1958) especially the opening "Crawfish" number. It's prized among N.O. aficianados because it was filmed in the French Quarter back when poor people actually lived there. Very different from the Quarter now.