[1947 HOME MOVIE: TIJUANA, MEXICO]

Genre: home movie

Year Published: 1947

Description: Dating to 1947, this silent 16mm home movie shows views of Tijuana, Mexico, San Diego and Carlsbad, New Mexico. It begins with shots from a moving passenger train including of San Diego's City Hall (1:21). At (1:38) passengers mill around at a railroad station. At (1:48) are shots of the U.S. Navy's fleet at San Diego. At (3:19), a tourist wearing a "loco" sombrero poses on a donkey in front of a Mobil gas station. Behind him is the El Sombrero curio shop, a Tijuana, Mexico attraction. At (4:51), another shot of the El Sombrero curio shop and the Rio Rita Curio shop and restaurant. At (5:06) a sign advertising cheap French perfume is seen. At (5:55) the American Book Shop is shown as well as the window of the perfume shop with Chanel No. 5 for sale, and Mexican silver jewelry at (6:17). At (7:06) more shots of a railway station, possibly at Carlsbad, New Mexico, followed by shots of Carlsbad Caverns. At (8:36) White's City Deluxe Court is shown. Built in the 1930′s, This motel, which was more recently known as the Pueblo Motel is in Whites City, New Mexico near the entrance to Carlsbad. (It is currently sitting vacant and abandoned.) At (9:27) the Carlsbad airport is seen from a moving car. At (9:55) a large grain elevator storage facility (most likely the Alva Roller Mills, an 8,000-bushel grain elevator built in 1920). Next, the railroad station at Alva, Oklahoma. This was an Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railway station, built in 1908. (It no longer exists.) The film ends with shots from aboard a moving train, with the steam locomotive seen at the head of the train (10:54) and moving through a tunnel. At (12:05) passengers stand outside of a streamline Santa Fe passenger train car.