First video from my new Antique Photographs YouTube Channel
Click here to subscribe to my new YouTube channel, which will be dedicated entirely to examining and discussing antique and vintage photographs and the history of photography.
This is the first video from my new Antique Photography video channel on YouTube.
In the video, we flip through the old photo album of a family who lived in Elmira, New York in the 1940s. This is the second of two videos based on two photo albums from the same family. (See the first video below.)
The second album (green cover) is completely filled with photographs taken in May 1946, during a terrible flood.
I was able to locate and date this flood because of one photograph in the album. The photograph below, shows the Regent Theatre on East Water Street in Elmira. The movies on the marquee, Abilene Town starring Randolph Scott, and They Made Me a Killer starring Robert Lowery, were both released in 1946.
The New York Times reported that the Chemung County flood hit Elmira the hardest with water levels at all time highs; with the airport and parts of Route 17 closed; and at least four lives lost. Farm and livestock losses were severe and the nearby Corning Glass factory was damaged.
The Erie bridge helped me place the location. While the bridge is still there, the theatre — in fact — the entire block of buildings is now gone.
The Regent Theatre was built in 1915. It stayed open after the flood but has since been demolished, along with the entire city block. Below is the same view in 2024, courtesy of Google Street View.
Watch Part One of this Two-Part Series
Above, you watched the second, or Green Album. Below, you can watch the first, or Red Album, which is filled with charming personal photographs of the family and their friends and relations. These photographs were made in the early 1940s, before the 1946 flood.