AI brings 1920s footage of New Yorkers strolling down 5th Ave to life

AI brings 100-year-old footage of New Yorkers strolling down Fifth Avenue on Easter Sunday to life

  • Stunning footage of glamorous 1920s New Yorkers given a burst of color by AI 
  • Ladies wear elegant hats and gloves while gentlemen accessorize with  canes and pocket watches 
  • Grand motorcars and open-top buses roll down unrecognizably clean and uncongested Fifth Avenue 

Stunning footage of 1920s New York has been given a new lease on life as artificial intelligence (AI) brings back the films original color. 

The clips, provided by MIRC University of South Carolina and colorized by the vintage fashion and beauty archive Glamour Daze, show New Yorkers strolling down Fifth Avenue on Easter Sunday 1929.

The University of South Carolina holds one of the nation’s largest film and video archives, with more than 8,000 hours of moving image material. 

Glamour Daze used AI to colorize the original black and white film using deep exemplar-based video colorization.

Glamorously dressed ladies can be seen linking arms and strolling leisurely down the clean pavement of Fifth Avenue for the Easter Sunday Parade.

On their right they are accompanied by an older gentleman in a smart morning coat and top hat. 

Footage of 1920s New York has been given a new lease on life as artificial intelligence (AI) brings back the films original color

Gentlemen are seen in smart mourning coats and top hats accessorized with canes 

https://youtube.com/watch?v=iaKEkvInhIU%3Frel%3D0%26showinfo%3D1%26hl%3Den-US

All the ladies are wearing high heels and cloche hats, and most are wearing gloves.

Their clean-cut knee length coats come in an array of colors, some with floral patters, make for an elegant scene.  

The annual parade, which dates back to the 1870s, was a chance for New Yorkers to don their latest fashion and jewelry, as well as a social occasion in which friends and family would meet up and stop at cafes and restaurants along the avenue. 

The event was enjoyed by all social classes in the 1920s and was seen as a chance for all to mingle together and celebrate the arrival of spring in the city. 

More than one hundred years later the parade is still taking place, with a focus on bonnets and hats, on a somewhat grimier Fifth Avenue.  

Another clip shows a queue of people outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral, ready to begin their walk down Fifth Avenue. 

Some ladies in the queue sport fur trimmed coats while the gentlemen accessorize with canes and pocket watches.

People queuing outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral, ready to begin their walk down Fifth Avenue

All the ladies are wearing high heels and cloche hats, and most are wearing gloves

The annual parade, which dates back to the 1870s, was a chance for New Yorkers to don their latest fashion and jewelry

New Yorkers would meet up and stop at cafes and restaurants along the avenue

A couple of well behaved dogs on leashes can be spotted throughout, and have also been brought back to their original glory by the colorization. 

In the background grand motorcars and open-top buses roll down a less congested street, a far cry from today’s New York. 

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