'Merrily We Roll Along: The Early Days of the Automobile'

[berberry]

I almost put this in off-topic, and if a moderator believes that's where it belongs then please move it.  On my own second thought, I'm putting it here because it really isn't off-topic to this forum at all.  If you don't love old cars and/or old highways this movie will bore you to tears.  If you do love these things, then you might enjoy it.

This is an old documentary that popped up on a Netflix search.  I don't know if it's been available for long, but I don't think so.  It has some of the most beautiful motion pictures of cars and roads at the time of conversion from horse-drawn carriages that I've ever seen, much of it but not all of it staged for this film.  The staged bits are interesting in themselves, as the staging was done by people who were remembering events first hand.  

Among the actualities is some great footage of the 1911 Indy 500, the 1915(?) opening of the Lincoln Highway and clips of driving on other early highways.  There's an extended clip at the end of what I'm guessing is an LA freeway in about 1960.

The narrator is Groucho Marx and his jokes are painfully bad, for the most part.  Once in a while, the humor survives the many decades and you get a chuckle.  What's interesting is the real footage of these old events, and there's even a few close-ups of the earliest automotive engines.  If you'll listen to him, Groucho does have some good bits to talk about such as the changes that needed to made to streets and highways when America made this conversion.

Toward the end, there's a sequence of silent film comedy clips involving early autos that really is kinda funny.

If you're a member of Netflix you should check this out; it's less than an hour long:  Merrily We Roll Along: The Early Days of the Automobile.

[Alps]

I fail to see how motoring in the beginning part of the century has anything to do with Off Topic.

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

I fail to see how motoring in the beginning part of the century has anything to do with Off Topic.

Then don't move the thread to the 'Off Topic' board.

[Alps]

I didn't.