Philadelphia 1940s in color, Neighborhoods [60fps, Remastered] Sound Design #Video

I colorized, fully restored, and added sound design to this rare footage filmed in 1940s Philadelphia — a city shaped by industry, immigration, and wartime transformation. During this decade, Philadelphia stood as one of America’s most important manufacturing hubs, supplying ships, machinery, and materials during World War II. Its shipyards along the Delaware River worked relentlessly, while factories across the city fueled the Allied war effort, At the same time, daily life continued through the rhythm of neighborhood streets — from rowhouse-lined blocks to bustling commercial avenues. The 1940s marked a period of demographic change, as the Great Migration brought African American families from the South, reshaping the cultural and social fabric of the city. Old brick buildings stood beside emerging modern structures, reflecting a city balancing tradition and progress., reveals a living urban landscape, where trolley cars rattled past corner stores, children played beneath fire escapes, and communities thrived in tightly knit districts that defined Philadelphia’s identity for generations.

video Restoration Process:
FPS boosted to 60 frames per second
Image resolution boosted up to HD
Improved video sharpness and brightness with my own AviSynth scripts
Colorized only for the ambiance (not historically accurate)
sound design added only for the ambiance
restoration:(stabilisation,denoise,cleand,deblur) made with my own AviSynth and VapourSynth scripts

Please, be aware that colorization colors are not real and fake, colorization was made only for the ambiance and do not represent real historical data.

B&W Video Source from: Prelinger Archives

Many thanks to Mr. Rick Prelinger for his hard work and dedication to preserving archival sources. Please Support Them

Rick Prelinger is an American archivist, writer and filmmaker. A professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Prelinger is best known as the founder of the Prelinger Archive, a collection of 60,000 commercial, educational, industrial and amateur films, acquired by the Library of Congress in 2002 after 20 years of operation.
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