A remarkable 8mm video from 1939

Film Poster: Laddie McCabe
Location: YouTube
Date: July 2, 2015

The video is a captivating look at an early 8mm, and now vintage film, depicting the initial development of the Los Altos Community within the city of Long Beach.

According to the narrator of this film, Los Altos was our ‘nation’s first planned community’. Can you believe it? It is interesting to note that the area of Los Altos was developed first, and all other surrounding communities grew from there. The film talks about Lloyd Whaley’s plan and how the first homes, and surrounding community, were developed along Clark Avenue in 1946. By 1949, Whaley had already completed 880 homes between Bellflower Blvd. and Clark at the East and West, and between Stearns and Atherton at the North and South.

In a section of the film with no traces of smog present, the San Gabriel mountains, including Mt. Baldy, are clearly visible. That is a rare sight today in Southern California. As a real estate developer and visionary, Whaley sold more than 11,000 new homes in the city of Long Beach during the 1940s and ’50s. Personally, as a Los Altos resident since 1984, it was a real treat for me to view this early film.

Thank you for watching!