Tuesday, April 09, 2013

What it was like to fly (and stay at the Shamrock Hotel) in 1957

Via the 1940 Air Terminal Museum's Facebook Page, some (silent) 16mm film taken from a traveler to Houston in 1957:

The cameraman is flying into Houston on an Eastern Airlines DC-7. Clearly visible are the Huey P. Long bridge across the Mississippi in Baton Rouge, refineries along the Port of Houston, the San Jacinto Monument, the swimming pool at the old Shamrock Hotel, and what is now known as Hobby Airport (which was then known as Houston International Airport; it would be another decade from the time this film was taken before Intercontinental would open).

The Houston footage ends around halfway through the film, but at the 3:40 mark there're some nice shots of Manhattan.

Notice that there is no door to the cockpit in any of the airplanes the cameraman is flying in. Air travel was much different back then.

Very cool!

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