What sparked your fascination with the "Golden Era"?

[The King of Cool]

Thanks Doc

FF - Nice to hear. I started with the bowler suit style and after awhile it just looked to basic for me. Now I am getting my first Vintage sytel suit tailored for me. I t has taken 2 months , but it is now ready and I have appointment this weekend for the final fitting - I cant wait !

 

[reynoso16]

I was 14 and my aunt bought Funny Face and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes =-) After watching those two I fell in love with old movies

 

[Zombie_61]

My Dad and Mom were born in 1913 and 1915 respectively. As such, I gained an interest in vintage things simply by looking through their photo albums. Their clothing, cars and houses they posed in front of, etc., were all so different from what I saw every day growing up in the 60s, so they fascinated me.

 

[Fading Fast]

More than anything, it was old movies. First as a kid watching them on Saturday and Sunday afternoons and, then, really getting into them as a young adult on American Movie Classics (when it played old movies, commercial free) and TCM. The contrast to the late 60s / 70s when I grew up was striking to me. The clothes had a visual impact and was so counter to what was going on at the time when people were intentionally trying to dress down, not wear suits, dress like hippies etc.

But I think it was the values expressed through simple courtesies - addressing people one was unfamiliar with or even moderately familiar with by their surnames, men standing when a woman entered a room, respect for police and the clergy ("Going My Way") - that appealed to me amidst the chaos of the late 60s / 70s. Also, the visual - the aforementioned clothes, the architecture (today I live in an apartment building built in 1929), the cars - appealed to me immediately and to this day. And the trains (which are in so many old movies that it seems - once you are looking for them - that every old movie has at least one train scene) immediately appealed to me as an elegant way to travel versus the hateful family car trips I grew up with.

Also, like the King of Cool, my Dad was an older Dad (he was forty when I was born) and I grew up with his very Golden Era value system... and Big Band music.

 

[Hep Caterina]

Ive always felt out of place in this time, and consequently I was always drawn to the 30's and 40's B&W films, big band music, the fat fender cars, and the fashion was magnificent. Even poor people had better manners then than many celebrities do today. What passes for entertainment now is laughable- gruesome killing, explosions ever 6 seconds and blatant sex everywhere. I think more and more people are mentally saturated with this poor quality lifestyle, and I predict this return to the past is going to continue to grow...what say you?

 

[scottyrocks]

I I think more and more people are mentally saturated with this poor quality lifestyle, and I predict this return to the past is going to continue to grow...what say you?

I think society in general is only in the middle of its long downhill slide. People have no clue where they are headed, and it's gonna get worse before it gets better. Sorry for the negativity, but that's the way I feel based on what I see and read.

 

[Hep Caterina]

agreed Scotty. but the upside is, we dont have to slide downhill with it.

 

[dobroruka]

I feel very much the same as you mentioned. Never felt really good in these times (with the possible benefit of computers and antibiotics). Other than that, times seem to be absolutely vulgar, in every sense. That's what drew me to the glamourous Thirties, Forties and Fifties (strangely, I never felt the "Roaring Twenties" were for me)...

 

[Stormy]

Growing up in Southern California very close to Hollywood and experiencing all the wonderful things the time and place had to offer

 

[GHT]

I love all the posts in this thread. I read them all the way back to the beginning and found myself agreeing with just about everything.

You and me both. this thread is like a book that you just can't put down. I was born at the back end the era. This was taken at London's Portobello Market, it's a shot of my parents, and me. Look into the background of the picture, there's some amazing, almost forgotten, everyday sights.



Growing up in the 1950's was more about study, but going to a mixed school, I couldn't help but notice, whenever there was an end of term dance, that the girls all seemed to be able to jive. Like they were born with the knowledge. I took myself off to dance classes and heard this new fangled Rock & Roll for the first time. I can't remember what I enjoyed most, the music, or just about every girl in the school asking me to dance.

By the time the sixties came around, it was almost impossible not to be knocked over by the tidal wave of that decade, but by the end of it, my curiosity had found pre-war artists like Big Joe Turner, who had released songs like Shake, Rattle & Roll, way before Bill Haley was even heard of.

My wife and I had become competitive ballroom dancers by the 70's, but the music that we chose always harked back to what we now call: The Golden Era. Then one weekend, we went to a vintage dance, fashion, cars and everyday bric-a-bras weekender. There were couples dressed like my parents in that photo, the way they danced, their look, that weekend was the start of our love affair. Our life today, is still dominated by the look of the era.

 

[Stearmen]

That easy, the Gee Bee Z! Even well into the jet age, it captured my young imagination. That was the last time regular men could become the fastest man on earth!

 

[Stormy]

You and me both. this thread is like a book that you just can't put down. I was born at the back end the era. This was taken at London's Portobello Market, it's a shot of my parents, and me. Look into the background of the picture, there's some amazing, almost forgotten, everyday sights.



Growing up in the 1950's was more about study, but going to a mixed school, I couldn't help but notice, whenever there was an end of term dance, that the girls all seemed to be able to jive. Like they were born with the knowledge. I took myself off to dance classes and heard this new fangled Rock & Roll for the first time. I can't remember what I enjoyed most, the music, or just about every girl in the school asking me to dance.

By the time the sixties came around, it was almost impossible not to be knocked over by the tidal wave of that decade, but by the end of it, my curiosity had found pre-war artists like Big Joe Turner, who had released songs like Shake, Rattle & Roll, way before Bill Haley was even heard of.

My wife and I had become competitive ballroom dancers by the 70's, but the music that we chose always harked back to what we now call: The Golden Era. Then one weekend, we went to a vintage dance, fashion, cars and everyday bric-a-bras weekender. There were couples dressed like my parents in that photo, the way they danced, their look, that weekend was the start of our love affair. Our life today, is still dominated by the look of the era.

That is a beautiful, simply mezmerizing, photo of you and your parents! You are as cute as it gets! Your old man was quite a looker too! And ma ain't bad either. Part of the reason I love the Golden Era so much is because of the way I feel when I see a photo like that. It's just something that can't be explained.

 

[GHT]

Part of the reason I love the Golden Era so much is because of the way I feel when I see a photo like that. It's just something that can't be explained.

Thank you for your kind remarks. What you say is so true, I know it might sound a tad conceited because it's my family in the photo, but everybody back then had far less consumer goods but never felt bereft of anything. There was also that feeling of just coming through the worst conflict the world had ever known. People felt a wave of optimism, maybe that's why the whole world, both victors and vanquished, went on a baby boom.

By the way, there's a couple of wartime military pics on this thread:
WW2 Photos, etcetera

 

[Fed in a Fedora]

I was raised in New Orleans, so architecture was important to me. We lived in raised houses with fan light windows, French doors, high ceilings and interior archways. As has so often been mentioned, my grandparents were interesting people and important to me. Their stories and values were and are treasured. I remember hearing that, "If you are cold, put on a hat." Some were bootleggers and police. Others mechanics and farmers. Anything to survive the earlier hard times. All mentioned items from earlier and somewhat happier days in spite of the hardships.

Food and drink are also major interests there with timeless presentation and style.

Beyond these, New Orleans is a Mecca for antiques and our house was a museum - as were the houses of many relatives. An uncle was an inventor and pack rat. His warehouse was amazing.

On a personal level, I never felt that I fit into the days in which I have lived. Rather, I identified with earlier periods. Particularly early to mid 1900s or the American Revolution - for different reasons.

The single greatest impact on my choices was The Untouchable TV series. Loved the game (cops and gangsters work), the cars and clothes. Still do. Was particularly interesting to later work in the areas where Dillinger ran about and escaped.

Fed

 

[Streetcar Noir]

I've always been into vintage architecture and enjoy getting out and hoofing it through pre-war neighborhoods that were built during the street car era, seeing the architecture and the attention to . I've bought and restored two houses one built in 1904 and my most recent built in '27. I have started decorating our house in period furnishings mostly from the 30's and 40's. Working on the old houses I learned that an entire specialized industry flourished, brick masons, plasterers, plumbers, window glazers, and electricians, painters all of it was done by hand. I look at post war construction in my town and see that the stick built prefab lowest price dreck isn't working out very well in the longevity department. I have learned (for me) its better to repair than to replace and have tried to learn how the GE builders did things. I just seems like things were built better and there was pride and skill in all trades and an attention to detail that just isn't found any more.

One other thing is that dressing in GE clothing I'm able to protest what America has become, I try as much as I can to find clothing manufactured in the United States or even better with a union label. I reject the trend to build a lifestyle or wardrobe on the backs of slave wages in China. I long for the times of the progressive era when there was community and people felt invested and responsible for the plight of others not just the latest "where's mine?" mentality.

 

[Gray Ghost]

My Father was born in 1922 and served in the Army Air Corps with the 13th "Jungle" Air Force in the South Pacific. My Mother was born in 1931 and was a farm girl. I was also brought up on stories from that era. My Father also worked for the Atlantic Coastline Railroad and then with the Seaboard Coast Line and retired in 1979. I was born in 1969. I love that era. My father would come home from the Railroad and take a bath and put on a suit to go to the bank or the drug store. You would never catch him out in dirty work clothes in public. He was a sharp dresser. My paternal Grandfather was a very sharp dresser and always wore gray pinstripe suits and his fedoras. My dad was not much of a hat guy and a lot of his WWII photos show him not wearing one. I have only two photos of him wearing his service cap and that was at gunnery school in Harlingen Texas.

 

[hatguy1]

That's a very good question. I guess maybe the clothing, the cars and WW2.

 

[Shangas]

I honestly don't know. From as far back as I can remember I was always fascinated in older things. It started with the cars, I think.

Granny being born in 1914 probably had something to do with it, too.

 

[Fading Fast]

A combination of having a Dad who was 40 when I was born in '64, hence, he was firmly from the Era and my early discovery of movies from that Era.

My Dad did not change his values or style from his youth and I grew up in two worlds - the traditional Golden Era value and style world in my house and the late '60s / '70s world that was dismissive of those values and styles outside my house. I had too much respect for my Father - who was not an easy man at all, but he had a value system that I intuitively respected as a kid and now, as an adult, understand was worthy of that respect - to dismiss that Era despite the peer and societal pressure around me.

Also, as silly as it sounds, I loved the old movies I watched from that Era on TV and it gave me a great appreciation of the period - its style and its values.

Hence, despite living in a Hippie, Disco, etc. world - I was always pulled to the Era.

 

[Bushman]

I've always been a huge History buff, with a fascination for the 40's. The War, the culture, the fashion, I've always loved it all. Add in Indiana Jones as a kid, and you have a young man with a fascination for the Golden Era.