WPTZ Motion Picture UnitMiracle on the Delaware (ca. 1955)
Mid-Fifties slices of life and landscape in Philadelphia and surrounding towns. With excellent color footage of downtown scenes, neighborhoods, the Mummers Parade, Levittown, factories in Camden, New Jersey, and many other subjects that can no longer be seen. Producer and Director: Cal Jones. Cinematographer: Ralph Lopatin. Writer and Narrator: Dick McCutchen.
This item is part of the collection: Prelinger Archives
Producer:
WPTZ Motion Picture Unit
Audio/Visual:
Sd,
C
Keywords: Philadelphia, Pa.; Cities: U.S., Northeast; Levittown, Pa.
Creative Commons license:
Public Domain
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Reviewer: Visual16 -
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April 18, 2005
Subject: One of the greats!!
A single toy from Allentown's Hess Bros...$5000
Costume for Mummer's Day parade..many thousands of dollars apiece
films from Prelinger Archives...priceless!
Whatever you do, don't miss the panoramas in the review below this one! When the frames are overlapped you can see the amazing detail that is in these films.
Something unique that I noticed about "Miracle on the Delaware" is a very gradual shift in the color gamma, so pink slowly turns magenta and then red and then orange,etc. The sea turns blue to aqua to deep green. I thought it might have been a transfer trick, but the credits at the end stay a steady blue, so it might have been a visual effect that was placed on the film originally, or maybe a consequence of film printing process. Anyway, it looks mesmerizing from on a large color TV from DVD . One of the great old color films, along with "To Market part II" and "Rochester-City of Quality"
I like when it zooms in on the marquee showing "The Starcoss Story" because at that point I realize I have no idea what I am watching..
Reviewer: neufer -
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March 16, 2004
Subject: The Baseball Scene
About 5.5 minutes into the film you'll find a scene from the old Connie Mack Stadium. After some sleuthing, I found out that the runner rounding first was Jimmy Piersall of the Boston Red Sox. They were playing the Philadelphia A's at the opening game of the 1954 season. I made a panoramic image construction of this clip. You can find it here:
<a href="http://dualmoments.com/prelinger/conniemack.htm" rel="nofollow">http://dualmoments.com/prelinger/conniemack.htm</a>
Other constructions from Prelinger films are here:
<a href="http://dualmoments.com/prelinger/time_sweeps_from_prelinger_archi.htm" rel="nofollow">http://dualmoments.com/prelinger/time_sweeps_from_prelinger_archi.htm</a>
Reviewer: Spuzz -
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November 10, 2003
Subject: A Miracle? No.. But still good.
This nice looking film, sponsored by a Philadelphia television station, showcases everything Philadelphia and the surronding area had at the time. Although the quality sometimes varies, the color on most of these shots are (I think) Kodachrome quality. From industry to sports and culture, it's all here, and lively narrated.
Reviewer: rsmith02 -
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July 8, 2003
Subject: 50 Turbulent Years
As a lifelong Philadelphia native, it is hard to watch this film and not be saddened. I have never once heard Philadelphia referred to as the "Miracle on the Delaware." Camden, New Jersey is certainly not Philadelphia's sister city, equal in prosperity, but a partially abandoned deindustrialized slum. The same goes for Chester, Bethlehem, and other cities shown in the film. The age of Philadelphia as a great shipping and industrial city is long gone, as are the coal mines and steel mills. In 1950 it must have seemed like the region's prosperity would continue forever, but much of the optimism was sadly unfounded. The movie's contention that Philadelphia was somehow spared the racketeering and corruption that plagued other port cities is doubtful, even in 1950, and mob influence continued until the trials of the 80s and 90s.
For any resident of Philadelphia, this film is an interesting look at what was and will never be again, a vibrant city at the height of its industrial power looking confidently into the future.
The TV station which produced this film, WPTZ, became KYW Channel 3 after being purchased by Westinghouse.