Surviving in 1930s Chicago - Real Color (Doc Series Part 1)
The Colors of Our History
40,521 views
Don’t miss PART 2: Inside a 1930s Chicago Home in Real Color ...
Welcome to Chicago in the 1930s.
In this five-part documentary series, we’ve meticulously restored and colorized rare archival footage to bring the real, unfiltered history back to life.
My name is Alex. I am a 65-year-old history teacher, and I create these documentaries alongside my 95-year-old father, who traveled across America in his youth as an engineer. While I base these videos on authentic documents and footage from the National Archives, my absolute biggest priority is something much more personal: my goal is to bring the world of my father's childhood back to life in true color while he is still here to see it, and to share his deeply personal memories with all of you.
Today in PART 1: SURVIVAL AT ANY COST, we walk the daytime streets with ordinary people doing whatever it took to survive — scraping by, and sometimes breaking under the crushing pressure of the Great Depression. You’ll see the raw reality of scavenging for food and firewood just to make it through the bitter Chicago winter.
At South Water Market, women, children, and entire families combed through piles of discarded produce and broken crates. What had once been commercial waste became the only source of food and fuel for thousands. Many of the men you see here had steady jobs just a few years earlier — until the banks collapsed and took their life savings with them.
The poet Carl Sandburg called Chicago the "City of Big Shoulders." In the 1930s, those shoulders had to carry an unimaginable weight.
👉 This is PART 1 of 5. The full series continues with childhood in the Depression, bread lines, street life, home interiors, and ends with the dangerous, electric night-time Chicago of Al Capone and swing joints.
If you love seeing American history in real color and hearing personal stories from the era — please SUBSCRIBE @the_colors_of_our_history and hit the bell so you don't miss the next chapters.
🎨 A Personal Note on My Colorization Process:
I have personally spent over 7 years developing and coding a custom software capable of bringing black-and-white footage into true, authentic color. The kind of breathtaking, studio-grade colors that used to be exclusive to big Hollywood productions are now available right here for my viewers.
My process is painstaking: it begins with frame-by-frame manual colorization of the main subjects in the video, and then I use my proprietary software to push the colors to absolute, cinematic realism. What you see on the screen is the culmination of years of my life's work. It is deeply important to me that you experience these historical moments not just with a tint of color, but in true color—exactly as it looked to the people living back then.
Because I dedicate so much time to perfecting this exact process and making sure every detail is right, my videos unfortunately might not come out as frequently as I’d like. But I truly hope you enjoy watching history unfold in its authentic, vibrant colors.
Thank you for watching!
Video Restoration Process:
• Resolution: Upscaled to 4K
• Fluidity: Frame rate interpolated to 30fps for lifelike motion
• Visuals: Denoised, stabilized, sharpened
• Color: Deep color grading to restore the vintage film to reality
• Audio: Immersive sound design and cinematic score added
Footage originally from: National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) & Prelinger Archives.
Restoration, Sound Design & Narration by: The Colors of Our History
#1930sChicago #GreatDepression #History #ColorizedHistory #GreatestGeneration #RestoredFootage #AmericanHistory #Documentary #VintageChicago #Americana
20 Comments
“There are A couple of things in my life i’ll never forget. I remember walking in the kitchen and seeing my mom and dad at the kitchen table. I can see the table, painted blue and white. Mom was standing there with her hand on the table and there was some pocket change and she was crying...and i’m not exaggerating. My dad was sitting there like this, with his head down just like had been beaten. My mother was crying and she said, ‘Walt...Walt..What are we going to do? We don’t have any food and that’s all the money we’ve got.’
Boy, that burned into me, just burned...and it’s as real to me right now as it ever was.”
You’ve indeed given me a wonderful afternoon!
I’m amazed at your series and thank you so very much!
Surviving in 1930s Chicago - Real Color (Doc Series Part 1)
The Colors of Our History
40,521 views
Don’t miss PART 2: Inside a 1930s Chicago Home in Real Color ...
Welcome to Chicago in the 1930s.
In this five-part documentary series, we’ve meticulously restored and colorized rare archival footage to bring the real, unfiltered history back to life.
My name is Alex. I am a 65-year-old history teacher, and I create these documentaries alongside my 95-year-old father, who traveled across America in his youth as an engineer. While I base these videos on authentic documents and footage from the National Archives, my absolute biggest priority is something much more personal: my goal is to bring the world of my father's childhood back to life in true color while he is still here to see it, and to share his deeply personal memories with all of you.
Today in PART 1: SURVIVAL AT ANY COST, we walk the daytime streets with ordinary people doing whatever it took to survive — scraping by, and sometimes breaking under the crushing pressure of the Great Depression. You’ll see the raw reality of scavenging for food and firewood just to make it through the bitter Chicago winter.
At South Water Market, women, children, and entire families combed through piles of discarded produce and broken crates. What had once been commercial waste became the only source of food and fuel for thousands. Many of the men you see here had steady jobs just a few years earlier — until the banks collapsed and took their life savings with them.
The poet Carl Sandburg called Chicago the "City of Big Shoulders." In the 1930s, those shoulders had to carry an unimaginable weight.
👉 This is PART 1 of 5. The full series continues with childhood in the Depression, bread lines, street life, home interiors, and ends with the dangerous, electric night-time Chicago of Al Capone and swing joints.
If you love seeing American history in real color and hearing personal stories from the era — please SUBSCRIBE @the_colors_of_our_history and hit the bell so you don't miss the next chapters.
🎨 A Personal Note on My Colorization Process:
I have personally spent over 7 years developing and coding a custom software capable of bringing black-and-white footage into true, authentic color. The kind of breathtaking, studio-grade colors that used to be exclusive to big Hollywood productions are now available right here for my viewers.
My process is painstaking: it begins with frame-by-frame manual colorization of the main subjects in the video, and then I use my proprietary software to push the colors to absolute, cinematic realism. What you see on the screen is the culmination of years of my life's work. It is deeply important to me that you experience these historical moments not just with a tint of color, but in true color—exactly as it looked to the people living back then.
Because I dedicate so much time to perfecting this exact process and making sure every detail is right, my videos unfortunately might not come out as frequently as I’d like. But I truly hope you enjoy watching history unfold in its authentic, vibrant colors.
Thank you for watching!
Video Restoration Process:
• Resolution: Upscaled to 4K
• Fluidity: Frame rate interpolated to 30fps for lifelike motion
• Visuals: Denoised, stabilized, sharpened
• Color: Deep color grading to restore the vintage film to reality
• Audio: Immersive sound design and cinematic score added
Footage originally from: National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) & Prelinger Archives.
Restoration, Sound Design & Narration by: The Colors of Our History
#1930sChicago #GreatDepression #History #ColorizedHistory #GreatestGeneration #RestoredFootage #AmericanHistory #Documentary #VintageChicago #Americana