1947 LOS ANGELES RAILWAY TROLLEY MOTORMAN & BUS DRIVER RECRUITING FILM "IT'S A BIG JOB" MD17454
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- Опубликовано: 22 авг 2024
- Created in 1947 by Belmont Pictures Inc., this film for Los Angeles Transit Lines (the post-WWII moniker for the Los Angeles Railway and bus lines) is entitled "It’s a Big Job". It was created to recruit drivers, motormen and conductors. The film's script was written by Eric Strutt, produced by Dan Downer and photography by William Wooten. The film is narrated by actor Alexander Scourby, who also stars. It was directed by J. Richard Westen. The movie opens with text indicating it is "Dedicated to the thousands of men and women whose hands and minds and energies are devoted to the maintenance and operation of the Los Angeles Transit Lines." Streetcar is pictured with motorman in charge, 2:10. A man, Bill Weston, is interviewed for being a transit line conductor, 3:05. Applicant gets a job interview at 3:10. Man takes physical for transit job, 3:32. Man receives his cap for his new transit job, 4:10. Man receives on the job training, 4:34, aboard LARY H-4 model car 1369. Man practices at the controller, 4:45, door lever, reverse lever, gong, air gauge, sander, air brake (5:06), emergency brakes, deadman control, and more . Man learns about all the controls of the trolley car, air brakes and speed controller, 5:30. At 5:49 the motorman learns how to use the trolley catcher and put the trolley pole up on the line. Man dreams in his bed / has a nightmare about his new job, 6:40. At 7:14, the trainee tests a streamliner or PCC car -- President's Conference Car. Man test operates the PCC streetcar, 7:45. Man drives down the right of way at the throttle of his streetcar, 8:30, while speaking about dangers of operating among autos. Man learns about streetcar schedules, transfers (9:44), tokens, passes, safety and operation, 10;00. Man witnesses film of people trapping a motorman into an accident with a Model T Ford as part of his training. The conductor takes the names of his passengers with courtesy cards, 10:55. The maintenance workers who keep the cars running are are featured at 12:10 including track men, upholsterers, painters, supervisors, and more. The new man starts his on the street training. Fire trucks and other emergency vehicles on a route are shown as well as call boxes, 13:45. Trainee checks his new schedule, ready for work, 14:30. Motorman Bill Weston arrives for his first day of work, 15:00. Man operates the streetcar for the first time, 16:00. Passengers are featured on the streetcar, 16:20. Man finishes his first day, 17:35 and turns his farebox money into the cashier. At 17:51 busy Los Angeles downtown is shown. At 18:00 a trolley car operates at dawn. Man learns how to run a GM diesel bus, 18:40. At 19:50 a trolley bus is shown in operation. Bill Weston speaks about his training and his new job, 20:00. Man greets his family, 20:45. Weston talks about how much he loves his job as a transit worker, 21:30.
The Los Angeles Railway (also known as Yellow Cars, LARy and later Los Angeles Transit Lines) was a system of streetcars that operated in Central Los Angeles and surrounding neighborhoods between 1901 and 1963. It operated on 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) narrow gauge tracks.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit www.PeriscopeFi... to support this channel and help us preserve old films? Visit / periscopefilm
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We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example: "01:00:12:00 -- President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference."
This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit www.PeriscopeFi...
My grandfather told me he had this job in the 1950s and could actually support a stay at home wife with 2 kids and live in LA comfortably in a residential home with a pool. He even had a bad ass 8 track player that I would enjoy when we would go see him on the weekend. His wife was even loyal and proud of him and the kids had great childhoods. I just started laughing.
These transit jobs are worth 45 a hour to start
Times weren't perfect back then but it was before drug culture, slob culture, and mainly the war between men and women. People at one accepted and played specific male/female roles in a familial setting. Not anymore. That being said, I've had a number of women ask me to drive their car and do traditionally "manly" things for them.
My mother's father was a supervisor with Philadelphia Transportation Co. His father-in-law was a conductor with its predecessor, Philadelphia Rapid Transit.
My dad hired out for Denver Tramway in 1929 and worked there 42 years. He missed the streetcars. I know he is happy that streetcars are making a return.
Heard many stories from my Grandparents and parents about streetcars, but this film really brought them to life. Thanks for the peek into the history and operation of them.
Old Los Angeles.. women in hats.
men too
And most of the people wearing dresses were woman
no men in hats 1985
My grandpa and dad operated streetcars in St Louis. Uncle drove buses. I remember dad hated split shifts when he was starting out.
I probably would have remembered streetcars in L. A., had I grown up there. I was six when the five remaining lines were abandoned, and I do remember that far back.
8avexp And. Who do we have to think for not having rail type mass transit throughout Los Angeles? A fully functional mass transit system on rail, electric powered....What could have stopped this great efficient system? Can you say Edmund Brown? Firestone? Dirty filthy politicians.... Where are these trolleys now? The dropped each of them into the sea.... NEVER let a governor tell you something is for the greater good
Great film! Lots of cities still have street cars and trolleys. Boston and Philadelphia come to mind. Love the Green Line in Boston!
Toronto is still crawling with streetcars. Unfortunately, they often crawl when they don't have their own right of way. I'm saying that and I love them. But improvements are still needed. People refuse to leave their cars at home so the roads are packed.
@@argopunk Thanks for your response! I think they still use a lot of the old St. Louis style cars there also. A lot of times the issue with so many autos in an urban setting is the lack of convenient and cheap parking near key stops.
@@Modeltnick Thank you! Toronto streetcars are all Bombardiers now. They keep two Canadian Car & Foundry-built PCCs for tours and special events. And they sometimes borrow a Peter Witt from Halton Streetcar Museum, which is about one hour out of Toronto. Our city council is trying to make city driving as unappealing as possible and it sure is. But the drivers keep coming.
@@argopunk Thanks for that response! Never been to Toronto but always heard it was a nice town. Boston still runs a mix of trolleys on their surface routes.
@@Modeltnick I once went to Boston; nice place but I wasn't in any streetcar zone. I've seen them online. Toronto is mostly nice, at least the old neighbourhoods. The post-war areas are okay but often dull. Our main street in the downtown is also kind of boring as they moved most of the retail into a large downtown atrium mall in the late 70s.
Grandad drove trams in Liverpool, the cab was open to the weather in them days. Hard.
In London the Metropolitan Police prohibited London Transport from installing wind screens on the trams until 1940. They said it would have restricted the view of the driver. I heard a story about one driver who's wife used to bring him tea out on his run but he couldn't drink it right away because his jaw was frozen!
@@johncox2284 hip flask would stop the freeze.
@@John-mz8rj true story.
Fascinating ❗️ How times have changed.
Thanks for continuing the uploads! Great footage in this one.
Back when public transportation was considered an important and necessary service.
I wish him luck in his new career, I hope he gets residuals from this movie.
I like nearly all of the Periscope offerings... can you get rid of the time counter at the bottom!!! Other than that, great job of finding and preserving these old films..
Here's the issue: Tens of thousands of films similar to this one have been lost forever -- destroyed -- and many others are at risk. Our company preserves these precious bits of history one film at a time. How do we afford to do that? By selling them as stock footage to documentary filmmakers and broadcasters. If we did not have a counter, we could not afford to post films like these online, and no films would be preserved. It's that simple. So we ask you to bear with the watermark and timecodes.
In the past we tried many different systems including placing our timer at the bottom corner of our videos. What happened? Unscrupulous RUclips users downloaded our vids, blew them up so the timer was not visible, and re-posted them as their own content! We had to use content control to have the videos removed and shut down these channels. It's hard enough work preserving these films and posting them, without having to spend precious time dealing with policing thievery -- and not what we devoted ourselves to do.
Love our channel and want to support what we do? You can help us save and post more orphaned films! Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/PeriscopeFilm Even a really tiny contribution can make a difference.
Thanks Peri, another fabulous one from your library - please keep 'em coming just like this one!
That kind of job would take a toll on you.
MKR RKM - That’s a *fare* thing to say. 😃
The good times . thank you
Very interesting the time and expense a company took up front to properly train their employees before sending them out to deal with the public. Also very interesting to see that most of the equipment they used was made in the US, unlike today. I would love to see a film like this shown to a mass audience today, unfortunately instead of seeing the good they would just criticize it for its lack of diversity.
When he was filling out his application he answered the burning question I always had in elementary school. What were those holes at the top of the desk for? Then It hit me....damn Im old.
I so wish there was one of these for Pittsburgh Railways.
The good old days, before GM conspired to persuade municipalities to scrap street trolleys (zero emission at point of use) in order to sell more buses, but whose ultimate result (and probably aim) was to force people to buy cars.
AndreiTupolev tires , fuel new buses... the level of deceitfulness of the governing forces back then were horrible... AND their still at it generations later... Gil Garcetti and Gavin Greusome Boxer Finklestein and Pelousy line em up and hold them accountable
Why, yes the Yellow cars and the Red cars are some of my earliest and fondest memories. Skipping the nostalgia, in '60, the "conductors" kept order and were at least mostly complied with, if not respected. By '83 RTD drivers were almost in little cages in their seat and they had panic buttons to signal for help. My last bus ride had a card game, a fight and guy who slapped me upside the head because I wouldn't just "let" him take my backpack. The fare structure in the '60's and '70's was almost designed to be confrontational.
Anyway, in 2010 I was lucky to meet a lady who was a trolley driver for the Yellow cars about the same time as this film. Worked the north half of the #5 line.
Extremely well made film, it was fun to watch!
who'd of thought in 16 years LA Rwy would be defunct & replaced with buses
Someone recruited by this film would've trained under LARy/LATL, worked most of their career under MTA and (SC)RTD and retired from Metro.
By the time this film was made it had already been taken over - hence the name change to 'Los Angeles Transit Lines' with a National City Lines look logo.
How to make a turn without taking along a few cars. That has my vote. :)
Sort of ironic. "Bill Weston" was just starting out at a time in the "smoke filled rooms" the trolleys and electric buses were doomed by big oil, big rubber and a certain big vehicle manufacturer who will remain nameless. Of course, they would need to hire lots of bus drivers to make up for the change to more flexible routes. Still, very interesting to see Los Angeles in 1947. Wish we had more "Bill Westons" now days, too many operators' faces might fall off if they smiled.
Bill's not young. I wonder why he's unemployed and what he did before.
Probably just moved in, or got laid off. There was a minor recession following WW2
NICE LIPSTICK
Man, many of those guys looked kinda old. In '47, many GIs transitioning to civvie life would mostly be in their 20s, or 30-ish. Many of these codgers appeared to be in their late 40s at least. I guess the Big Jobs still went to the vets from the First War. Of course, people tended to 'weather' faster back then, with widespread smoking helping that along.
I stayed at a BnB with my wife recently and the house was filled with many old books, including a year book from 1953 from the University of Providence. What struck me was that so many of the graduates looked to be ten years older than they really were. The eye wear, the hair styles, the dress, the seriousness each displayed in the photos. Also as you point out the life they lived, as well.
3:02 hey look, ballpoint's aren't common yet
This film is dedicated to the many workers who will soon be fired after General Motors and the tire and oil companies have their way and completely rid the city of streetcars and trolleys.
What happened to men wearing service hats like that?
*L.A Noire*
The suburban redevelopment fund is probably behind this.
Soviet Chad You know too much friend :)
You know what....it's uncanny how much similarity this has to modern CDL training.... 20:33 really uncanny
You can wait 3 months to get a uniform, but here's yer stupid cap now...LOL
Part of me wishes that a lot of these cities still had streetcars. I understand why they died out. Not as much flexibility as you would get with a bus line.
Lurker1979 San Francisco still has electric street cars. Vintage ones in fact. It’s really neat seeing them in action.
@@drunkmike6364 - Many of which were originally bought by the Philadelphia Transportation Co. and sold to MUNI by SEPTA. They had to be regauged from 5' 2-1/4" PA trolley gauge to 4' 8-1/2" standard gauge.
What was taken from us....
stolen by the conglomerated oil, auto, and tire companies, and scrapped as planned.
20:38 to the end--sadly, you may want to think that bit over.
The company would last another 13 years.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Railway
I would tell a guy with a tie that short that we just ran out of applications.
And then the special interest car companies moved in and screwed it all up.
That would have been a cool job LOL
That isnt Alexander Scourby doing the acting
Grand Theft Trolley
Sign me up
I think this is a re-roll. I've seen this before.
Yes, we are re-posting about 100 films this month -- for technical reasons we had to renumber them. Please bear with as there will also be 2-3 genuinely new films added each day.
LA changed a touch just 20 year plus later?
Was L.A. really THAT white?
I don't think so.
LA invested heavily in public transit again with congestion clogging the city the corona virus crisis brief respite notwithstanding
@02:03 Bill gets all the hot babes, and that's exactly why he drives a trolley....clang, clang, clang!
Jesus, as if having the timer and website address in the middle of the picture isn't bad enough, now you had to add your logo bug. Why don't you guys do SOMETHING like making it just barely visible but visible enough to protect your film. Lighten it up. Transparent instead of black. Or better yet, make a matte and put all your info in the matte and leave the content visible.
Here's the issue: Tens of thousands of films similar to this one have been lost forever -- destroyed -- and many others are at risk. Our company preserves these precious bits of history one film at a time. How do we afford to do that? By selling them as stock footage to documentary filmmakers and broadcasters. If we did not have a counter, we could not afford to post films like these online, and no films would be preserved. It's that simple. So we ask you to bear with the watermark and timecodes.
In the past we tried many different systems including placing our timer at the bottom corner of our videos. What happened? Unscrupulous RUclips users downloaded our vids, blew them up so the timer was not visible, and re-posted them as their own content! We had to use content control to have the videos removed and shut down these channels. It's hard enough work preserving these films and posting them, without having to spend precious time dealing with policing thievery -- and not what we devoted ourselves to do.
Love our channel and want to support what we do? You can help us save and post more orphaned films! Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/PeriscopeFilm Even a really tiny contribution can make a difference.
It's like seeing the British Pathé rooster. ;o)
They wearing make up! All the people wearing make up O_o
Love that dude wearing lipstick,heading for North Hollywood during work hours.
Ah yes...back in the good ol' days...before the invention of African American citizens.
"Invention of african american citizens???"🤔🤔🤔
You mean second class citizens
Car # 1369
I believe that in my previous incarnation I was a streetcar conductor.