Retro Video - "In the Suburbs"

In the Suburbs (1957)

Great, cheesy old 1957 public domain promotional short from Redbook Magazine, In the Suburbs. For me, the study of Suburbia is directly related to (and parallels) my interest in vintage malls and shopping centers. Which is why I'm sharing this kitschy old documentary about the Suburbs, and the young families who live, work and shop there (circa the late '50s).

Video quality isn't that great (original is crystal-clear, of course), as this one is pretty long (almost 20 minutes), so Google really compressed it. But you'll get the drift. Anyway, if you've never seen this before (like at The Internet Archive, for instance), then grab a nice cup of coffee, sit back, relax and ride with the young adults!

Btw, there's some terrific shopping footage in this piece, a few minutes in. So if you're not interested in all the suburbia living stuff and want to skip right to the actual shopping and retail scenes, scroll to about the 8 minute mark and watch from there. But if you've never seen this before, I'd sincerely suggest you watch the whole thing. It's the kind of stuff that's right up our collective alley's here, I think! Might not be entirely focused on shopping malls, per se, but it's still great stuff--like the Shopping Can Be Fun video I shared a while back! :)

Note: Video is Flash format. If you don't see it, you must temporarily disable your ad-blocking programs.