Archive Watch

Ride the Last of the Big Red Cars (1961)

1961 · Short film · 14 min

Watch now On the Internet Archive

Synopsis

This film depicts the end of Pacific Electric trolley car service in Los Angeles. The "Big Red" streetcars were a beloved part of the fabric of Southern California. Pacific Electric was established in 1901 by Henry E. Huntington and it had become the world’s largest electric transit system linking communities throughout Southern California. Their final ride took place in 1961. Alan Fishel filmed one of it’s last rides through the area; this film was made using his footage. The location shown at the start of the film is the Pacific Electric Building (also known as the Huntington Building, after the railway's founder, Henry Huntington, or simply 6th & Main), which opened in 1905 in the core of Los Angeles as the main train station for the Pacific Electric Railway,The film opens with a shot of one of the Red Car’s (:09) and it was presented by Interurban Films (:30). Alan film’s one of the final rides on March 31st, 1961 on the Long Beach line from the front of one of the cars (:37). The train embarked from Pacific Electric’s main station in downtown LA (1:21) and began heading down the viaduct of San Pedro street (1:27). The train conductor is seen working the controls (1:32). The train was to be discontinued within the next upcoming ten days. The train is seen heading through the city as it approached 7th street (2:05). It then bends onto 9th street which would take it to North Long Beach (2:34). The Santa Monica Freeway is viewed under construction (3:41). The point in which…

Uploader's description on archive.org

Details

Running time
14 minutes
Collection
Ephemeral Films

Subjects on the Internet Archive

More like this