Afternoon Obsession: Vintage Philadelphia Film Footage
Six years ago, the Internet was gifted with a Philly blast from the past thanks to YouTube user phillywebmarketing. The three-minute, three-second video called “Vintage Philadelphia Film Footage” appears to be an old promo for WPTZ, the city’s then channel 3 station between 1941 and early 1955. Today it is KYW-TV.
Although the video seems to be the first one uploaded to the account, it remains the user’s second most popular YouTube clip, despite having 18 other videos (two of which are also Philly-oriented).
The traditional commercial-y voiceover and shots of a younger Philadelphia inspired some nostalgia in viewers, one user commenting, “Glorious. Thanks for taking m[e] back to my boyhood for three minutes.”
The most wistful aspect of the clip may lie in all the things that have changed since the video first aired and today. User Bob Skiba writes: “It’s interesting that most of the sites promoted in this clip from the ’50s are now gone: Connie Mack Stadium, the 12th Street Friends’ Meetinghouse, Gimbel’s, Stouffer’s, Horn and Hardart’s, and both the Fox and Locust St. Theatres.”
Watch the video, below.
