The scenes of California in early 1960's - It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) Discussion

[–] casper82 13 years ago

cali looked nice then .. i never been so cant really compare

its just was new looking

...a clean land :)

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[–] turtletommy 13 years ago

You can tell a true Californian from the period depicted in the movie because back then and up until fairly recently nobody there referred to the state as "Cali". Ugh. It's like saying "Frisco" to a San Franciscan!

Lol I lived in Southern California in the 60s and never thought of it as a clean land, but I do miss the beaches!

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[–] nutsberryfarm 11 years ago

looks very...dry.

Season's Greetings!

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[–] crockett_john 10 years ago

Or people who say "the OC."

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I'm just expressing my opinion.

You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas.

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[–] Ghetto_Defendant 9 years ago

Thank you! As a native CA, I really hate "Cali" and "Frisco," although LA is perfectly fine. All I can say to those who continually use it: "Quit trying to make Cali ('fetch') happen!"

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[–] turtletommy 9 years ago

"SoCal or NorCal" as well. Yuck. I sure don't recall Californians calling Interstates 5 or 405 "the 5" or "the 405" but I guess they have for many years now. Having moved up "the 5" to the Seattle area in the early 70s, people here refer to all our interstates as I-5, or I-90, I-82 etc etc.

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[–] GraceFromSoCal 9 years ago

I sure don't recall Californians calling Interstates 5 or 405 "the 5" or "the 405" but I guess they have for many years now.

I'm a native Angeleno, but I lived out-of-state for many years before returning home in 2006. I remember when we referred to our freeways by their names, like "the Santa Monica freeway" or "the Hollywood freeway," and really don't recall when things changed to today's "the 10" or "the 101," but I'm so used to it now I really don't think about it.

Having moved up "the 5" to the Seattle area in the early 70s, people here refer to all our interstates as I-5, or I-90, I-82 etc etc.

That method always sounds so...I don't know, rural or country or something. To me.

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Holiday gift idea:
Playing cards featuring nature photography.
Great stocking stuffers!
http://www.zazzle.com/californiadreams/gifts?cg=196579146664103480

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[–] turtletommy 9 years ago

That method always sounds so...I don't know, rural or country or something. To me.

Maybe so but the Seattle area is in the top 5 of the worst traffic congestion in the country so it's far from rural or country. It's definitely something!!!

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[–] schwapj 12 years ago

I feel your pain. That was some amazing country they had there, especially what they showed in some of the shots from the air. But when you have amazing country, everyone wants a piece of it. I visited my aunt in Beverly Hills in 1984. She moved there from Syracuse NY in the 70's. She had very similar nostalgic feelings and memories. I love watching any movie that shows old California and often think I was born 25 years too late.

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[–] nodonjuan 12 years ago

Here is a coo link that shows some then & now pictures.

http://www.gchudleigh.com/madworld.htm

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[–] schwapj 12 years ago

What a great find, thanks for posting. For anyone with insomnia or a dvd recorder, "Glimpses of California" is on TCM at 4:44 AM (1/13/12). And after a blockbuster night of four awesome movies.

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[–] schwapj 12 years ago

You might be interested in this, tonight CNBC ran a documentary on Walt Disney and while they didn't spend as much time on the actual construction of Disneyland as I would have liked, there were some interesting overhead shots of Anaheim that might bring back some more memories of a more relatively traffic-free time.

Walt: The Man Behind the Myth

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[–] nodonjuan 12 years ago

I will watch for it. They run things over & over on CNBC. I saw a documentary about the oriental farmer who owned the strawberry field that California Adventure is on now. Those people endured Disney harassment for decades until the old guy was too old and his kids didn't want to be farmers. I think I saw it on the documentary channel. I was born in Inglewood CA. and the watts riots happened shortly before I was born. My family was part of the "white flight" that started shortly after. I remember OC when there was nothing in south county after the Fluor Corp.building in Irvine and Huntington Beach's population was just over 100,000. Where are you located?

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[–] schwapj 12 years ago

I live in New Jersey. I visited my aunt in Beverly Hills in college, loved the climate and the topography, and actually turned 21 in L.A. while I was there. I had a roommate about 8 years ago who ditched NJ and went to USC for his MBA, so now I go out about once a year to visit. He started in Glendale (blech) and now lives in Sacto (pretty good) and we make a point of going to Napa (awesome) at least every other visit. I'm also a huge Raymond Chandler fan, esp. how he paints the vivid picture of life in California. I think his detective Marlowe goes to the Fluor building in one of the novels. I applied to law school at Berkeley but didn't get accepted, probably a good thing as I'm a libertarian.

Coincidentally, I ended up going to law school at Florida State, where we learned how Disney set up a shell corporation to purchase the land in Orlando and Kissimmee without alerting any of the sellers what they were up to. Something between perfectly legal and bilking, as I understand it.

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[–] nodonjuan 12 years ago

I heard about Disney's shell company that bought the land, it was like Mullholland did with the Owens Valley. to get our water. Disney world in Florida is the most awesome place I've ever been. When I landed at the Orlando airport and heard the haunted mansion guy, I was surprised. I live in Port Hueneme with Ventura to the North & Malibu to the south. Great climate, less traffic than many other places and smaller than OC.

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[–] generalusgrant 12 years ago

Regarding the word "Cali." I'm a native California, also born in the 60's. NO ONE here in California has EVER used the word "Cali" in reference to the state. I've never even heard the word except from people who have never stepped foot here.

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[–] dakotasdad 12 years ago

I agree general. I was born the year this film was released and my family had been in SoCal far longer than most (1840 on my mom's Spanish side and 1873 on my dad's Anglo side) and nobody in my family would call California 'Cali'. There is Mexicali but that of course is in Mexico.

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[–] GraceFromSoCal 9 years ago

Here is a coo link that shows some then & now pictures.

http://www.gchudleigh.com/madworld.htm

Amazing link, nodonjuan! Thanks for posting it. (And, yes, I do realize your post is 2+ years old--but it's new to me! )

--

Holiday gift idea:
Playing cards featuring nature photography.
Great stocking stuffers!
http://www.zazzle.com/californiadreams/gifts?cg=196579146664103480

reply

[–] TopFlight 9 years ago

I saw about the last 45 minutes of this today, and thought the town scenes (is that Santa Barbara?) looked tacky and ugly. I lived in a small California desert town in the 60's as a child, but I thought that Santa Barbara would have looked better than that.

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[–] steely3000 9 years ago

I have the DVD set of this movie, and they include a map of where various scenes took place. So I compared their map with the Google street view, to compare the scenes. And the places in the movie that were mostly desert are now built up with malls, housing, etc. It was sad in one way that you can't see today how it was 50 years ago, but then again it was mostly desert in the scenes, so in another way it's good the areas got built up.

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[–] 9 years ago

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