Just wanted to share one of a couple of rare videos that showcase our beloved City of Manila the way the city used to look back in the 1930s. Both videos are making the rounds of several blogs since they were "discovered" in YouTube's archives recently. What I'm going to do is present each video separately and add some bit of information I know on some of the topics discussed and/or presented.
This first video was part of the "Port O' Call" series produced by a William M. Pizor. Unfortunately, the introduction to the short film failed to show the year it was produced. But judging from the styling of the cars shown on the streets and the way the people dressed, the film must have been taken in the early 1930s at the latest. In addition, at the beginning of the video clip, it showed that the "Cinephone" sound system was used. This system was one of the early sound systems used at the dawn of the talking movies.
The clip showed Manila's then famous Pier 7 (part of Manila's South Harbor) and showed life in nearby Intramuros back in the day when businesses, government offices, and residents commingled within its thick walls. It showed how the Old Bilibid Prison looked and how it was run during those days and gave us a feel for the rather rustic character of the district of Tondo back in those days.
Pier 7 was part of Manila's South Harbor. Manila had, and still has two harbors namely, the Manila North Harbor and the Manila South Harbor. The North Harbor, with its even-numbered piers, is the domestic port that caters to coastwise cargo and passenger ships. The South Harbor with its odd-numbered piers, serves as the international gateway for shipping and trade. I'm not sure if Pier 7 is still in use or service because a review of South Harbor's current active piers do not include it on the list. Maybe the Pier has since been renamed but I can't vouch for that.
The clip also showed elements of the famous 31st Infantry Regiment performing some marching drills outside the walls of Intramuros. This regiment was part of the USAFFE's (United States Armed Forces in the Far East) Philippine Division. Troops of this regiment fought valiantly in the defense of Bataan and a majority of the men did not survive the Second World War.
The Bilibid Prison shown on the video referred to the Old Bilibid Prison on Oroquieta Street in Manila. This served as the country's national penitentiary until 1940 when the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa opened. After most of the prisoners were moved to the New Bilibid Prison, most of the Old Bilibid Prison complex was turned over to the city of Manila and subsequently became known as the Manila City Jail. The whole structure, now decrepit, badly in need of repair and surrounded by shanties, remains as the Capital's city jail.
Founded in 1778, the Hospicio de San Jose Orphanage's mission was to help the poor, disabled, and abandoned. This institution has occupied its current location at the Isla de Convalescencia right off of the Ayala Bridge in Quiapo, Manila since 1810.
My apologies but since I'm a non-smoker, I don't know a stitch about tobacco products. It was never a field of interest to me and thus, I could not share any information on the tobacco products presented on the video. To those of you who have any knowledge on the tobacco products shown, please do not hesitate to enlighten all of us.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed viewing this video. Although short, it succeeds in taking us back to a Manila lost forever to all of us.
24 responses:
Is this an entry to Manila, My Manila of the Philippine Blog Carnival? Good one!
'30s nga ito. Commonwealth era where Filipinos govern but with an American "advisors" and still controls the military.
What amuses me are the two mestizas. Yung isa nag tuturo using her nguso. Pinay na pinay ang traits.
nalala ko tuloy yung tv, namin nuon na black and white. sometimes its good to look back how we were before from today. just that am not good in history.;)
i loved watching that clip. grabe. ang ganda pala talaga noon.
my aunt used to tell us they had picnics along the banks of the don galo river in paranaque. my brain couldn't quite grasp the concept. i grew up knowing a drop of water from the river can be used to administer lethal injection kasi. :(
Again I cannot watch those clips, am still on dial-up... bummer. Unless of course, I sit still for an hour and wait for everything to upload.
But anyways, I have met some oldtimers from the city who used to tell us stories of how they would play and swim along the bank of the Pasig River.M alinis pa raw noon at may mga isda pa, best of all, di ka ma-tetetanus pag lumangoy ka dun. :-D
These days though, the only thing you'll see along the bank are colonies of squatters who are, next to the factories, the biggest contributors to the river's demise... hay nako.
nice vid bro, there was mention of the prohibition (in that scene with the baby and the milk bottle)so it means this film was made between 1920 to 1933.
Em,
Actually, I wasn't aware of the Philippine Blog Carnival until you mentioned it. I just might submit an entry then. :)
Blogusvox,
Probably in the early part of that decade due to the car models and the hats the men wore. The style of the hats worn were reminiscent of the so-called Roaring Twenties.
Regarding the Pinay who used her "nguso" or upper lip to point presumably to the calesa, some things don't change, do they? Hehehe :D
Nyl,
It is great to look back on how things were. Doing so tends to make us prouder of ourselves because we've become aware of what we've accomplished as a people. :)
Atticus,
What your aunt said about the Don Galo river reminded me of what an uncle told me about an estero that runs through the district I grew up in in Manila.
As a child, I wouldn't go near that estero because the water was black and there were loads of trash and waste in it. I was surprised when my late uncle said that as a child back in the 1930s, he and his neighborhood friends used to swim in that estero. Hahaha So hard to imagine. :)
Rudy,
True. Even Ateneo's Fr. James Reuter once used the word "sweet" to describe the smell that emanated from the Pasig River when he first arrived in Manila back in the 1930s. Just goes to show how far we've come to destroying a river that had supported the beginnings and development of the City of Manila.
Don't worry. Once you have a DSL connection, you'll be able to watch these videos again. :)
Madbong,
I agree with you that since Prohibition was mentioned, that this video clip must have been done prior to 1933. However, due to the presence of sound in this video, the earliest that it could have been done was in the late 1920s (1926 or 1927) when "talkies" were introduced in cinemas.
Where do you find these videos?! More importantly, where do you find the time to find these videos?!?
Nice one Panaderos. Manila is still beautiful, but not in the same way. Of course, many things have gone the wrong direction too, sigh... But it is good to see what it was like and maybe hope some things can still be preserved.
i love watching the video. i felt a tinge of sadness when i watched it. how come manila was so beautiful then?
the old buildings in manila are either abandoned and left to decay or have little or bil maintenance. just so sad.
Impressive! I was amazed at the "window" where an abandoned baby was left for the nuns to take care of. I didn't know that Bilibid was once the largest penitentiary in the world, and that we used to export high-grade tobacco. Thanks for sharing.
MegaMom,
Hahaha I tend to log in each night before I go to bed. I find or chance upon these videos through YouTube and through other blogs.
Manila was beautiful, wasn't it? Too bad we lost a lot of those architectural gems during the war.
Mari,
It saddens me too whenever I see what our country lost during the war. The documentary described Manila as one of the most beautiful cities in Asia, if not the most beautiful. Everything seemed so nice and orderly then.
Among the kids shown on the video, I wonder how many of them are still around today? They're probably all in their 80s now.
Luna Miranda,
I, for one, didn't know that that's how the Hospicio accepted babies into their care. I hope all those kids went on to survive the war and had good lives.
As for the video, I surely hope that a lot more of these videos of Manila from the pre-war era surface on YouTube. It would certainly be a great learning experience for all of us. :)
I am amazed to watch this clip. Having been to Manila, only as a guest, a visitor, I am touched by thesed moving pictures of these areas in times loing gone... I have had pictures taken, standing next to statues of the water buffalo. Yet this clip shows the buffalo in a time when they were moved as beasts of burden freely in the streets. I saw the archives of Jose Rizal, Intramuros, Fort Santiago.
Indeed, even in my own home of San Jose (California), we have elements, archives, but this is a wonderful find.
Thank you for sharing.
Keith,
The water buffalo is still used in a number of areas out in the countryside but up to the late 1960s and early 1970s, they were still quite a common sight on Manila's streets.
Their milk is quite good too and is used as an ingredient in the manufacture of some of the country's major ice cream brands. :)
Beautiful Manila clip even in black and white... Oh well!
Aline,
It's really sad and a shame that our generation and the ones that will come after us will never get to see how beautiful Manila was back then.
Watch out for the next clip because it shows more sites around Manila during the 1930s. :) Stay tuned. Naks!
This is an amazing find, Panaderos. Manila was so much more beautiful then. Makes me sad to think what we have done to this city now.
Mon,
It is lamentable what we've done to the city. In fairness, we have a lot of nice new buildings because we still have a lot of very good architects and engineers. The challenge now is to maintain those structures so that they last for generations.
The other challenge too is to have a very clean city.
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