Give Yourself the Green Light - 1950s General Motors Propaganda Film [1080p]

Not Just Bikes
Not Just Bikes
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Published 2023-01-08
This is a 1954 propaganda film created by General Motors to generate public support for federal funding of the interstate highway system. It's a fascinating look at what the automobile industry wanted in the 1950s.

There are lots of versions of this floating around the Internet, but the quality is quite poor. Most versions are missing the last few seconds of video, and every version I could find was converted from 24p to 30p using frame doubling, which looks terrible:

archive.org/details/0542_Give_Yourself_the_Green_L…

I've taken some time to clean up this film, remove duplicate frames, and upscale it using an AI upscaler to 1080p. There's still lots of wobbly frames and film damage, but this should be highest quality version of this film available online.

Still, there's lots of room to clean this up some more, so if you're technically capable of doing that, let me know, and I can provide the original ProRes file of this version for you to work from, provided you share the final results with me.
All Comments (21)
  • @Henk14789
    I don't think the national highway system is actually too bad for interstate travel. It's just really dumb they didn't put train lines next to it.
  • @Spearit578
    The "aroused public" term changed connotation over the year I think. I had to google it to find it's non-sexual meaning.
  • @charliebozzo9948
    Great job Jason. You and Chuck are going to my local Supervisor's meeting!
  • @stephenconnolly1830
    @14:46 isn't that the 4 storey street which is now (2023) in a shocking state of disrepair and urgently needs a solution to replace it before it crumbles away and which did little to solve traffic problems other than create more of it?
  • @LeeHawkinsPhoto
    I love how the end sounds like we’re getting the eyes from the Hypnotoad 😂
  • @MikevanMeer
    I'm going to use some of this for my music account this is amazing!!
  • @PostMortar
    Looks considerably better than other versions I've found. Cool to see Neisner Bros at 6:40 Can I use this in my own videos?
  • @sethbingo
    It's crazy how many of the problems you've described I've experienced but haven't been able to put into words. I remember struggling to get to school on a bicycle. Cars are something I love but public infrastructure in the USA is a joke. I'll never forget the time I had to ride our public bus, it took nearly three times longer for me to get to work because of the infrequent rotations. Towards the end of the route I had to walk about half a mile down a stroad without a sidewalk. Is there anywhere in the USA that isn't like this? I'm currently in Japan and it's a huge change comparatively. Trains, sidewalks, and mixed use housing are fantastic here.
  • @mosca3
    I saw James Gregory and Peter Falk stuck in traffic.
  • @aterer
    These cars are just so beautiful, I could watch this video for hours
  • @PostMortar
    At this point, I'm convinced Getty and Prelinger will own us all at some point.
  • @bcshelby4926
    ...I've ridden on that highway (I-290 also known as the Eisenhower Expressway) through the old post office in Chicago.
  • @daimahou3951
    I feel this should get reuploaded to the archive.
  • @pjanke2
    No wonder my Boomer parents agreed to pay for everything through endless taxation. Get the potential client to pay for the infrastructure and then sell a vehicle to them to use it....brilliant.
  • @yukko_parra
    and i thought for a second that youtube was fluking when i saw the channel