1940s New Jersey promotional film shows a very different state

The internet is loaded with old promotional films about every state in the country. If you can tolerate the cadence and sound of the announcer, it's hilarious to watch, but also very revealing.

You can find a number of promo films about our state. Lots of the places we know and love (or don't think much of today) are featured with great clips of life in New Jersey from days gone by.

This particular film shows life in the 1940s and talks about our transportation, agriculture, and lakefront and oceanside resorts.

Needless to say, Atlantic City, Asbury Park, and Trenton were very different places back then. The film shows clips of towns like Deal, which amazingly still looks the same in some ways.

At around the 14-minute mark of the reel, the announcer talks about "gay beach clubs" in Asbury Park. Even the language has changed over the years. A gay beach club in Asbury Park today has an entirely different meaning than it did in 1947.

New Jersey was apparently way ahead of its time as the film shows a farmer talking on a "radio telephone" from his pickup truck. They even show speedboat races in Red Bank along the Navesink River, they were a big thing in town from the 1930s up until 1996.

To see a guy fly fishing in a suit and tie is not something you'd see today.

So much of it looks funny through the lens of modern life, but despite what many people like to say about the past in this country and especially New Jersey. It was pretty damn nice.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Dennis Malloy only.

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