Time-lapse of 1990 LA mall

MALL MANIA 1990 time-lapse from Joel Fletcher on Vimeo.

Joel sez, "Just posted on Vimeo: A journey back in time to Los Angeles area shopping malls circa 1990."

MALL MANIA 1990 time-lapse (Thanks, Joel!)

[#1 posted by Anonymous, July 7, 2009 10:19 PM]

Wouldn't be quite as busy if that footage was taken today.

[#2 posted by Ian_McLoud, July 7, 2009 10:37 PM]

What year is the cutoff for the "OLD SCHOOL" tag?

[#3 posted by Anonymous, July 7, 2009 10:48 PM]

I think this be Glendale Galleria (in LA county). Just FYI.

[#4 posted by Godfree, July 7, 2009 10:55 PM]

I miss the days when men could wear pink.

[#5 posted by Ian_McLoud, July 7, 2009 10:57 PM]

Dude, pink is actually in these day. In fact, my pink shirts are some of my favorites...

[#6 posted by Anonymous, July 7, 2009 11:03 PM]

omg, thank you boing boing. you don't usually put stuff up that means anything to me. but this really got to me. i wonder what mall that was, it looked familiar... glendale? montebello? beverly?

gawd i miss those days. thank you.

[#7 posted by Secret_Life_of_Plants, July 7, 2009 11:09 PM]

What a waste of human life - time.

[#8 posted by fluentinsilence, July 7, 2009 11:26 PM]

Look at all of those era-changing hip fashions.

[#9 posted by pelrun, July 7, 2009 11:30 PM]

There's a distinct lack of Benny Hill music in that clip. :(

[#10 posted by jfrancis, July 7, 2009 11:36 PM]

I think they move fast because the cameras were slower then, so when we play the footage back with our modern cameras it all looks fast.

It's odd to think that all those people are probably dead now.

It's a strange window into an alien world, and yet their fundamental 'human-ness' still comes through. Amazing.

[#11 posted by jfrancis, July 7, 2009 11:38 PM]

Wait. I was looking at the wrong footage. Sorry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJdwzY1o7k8

:D

[#12 posted by Anonymous, July 7, 2009 11:55 PM]

Yep, that's the Westside Pavillion

[#13 posted by ackpht, July 7, 2009 11:56 PM]

How quaint and totally unlike the malls of today.

[#14 posted by Pantograph, July 8, 2009 12:17 AM]

Shopping is a feeling

[#15 posted by maxximoo, July 8, 2009 12:18 AM]

so weird seeing no one on the phone or texting.

[#16 posted by Anonymous, July 8, 2009 12:36 AM]

My God! Look how few overweight people there were. The contrast is striking.

[#17 posted by adamnvillani, July 8, 2009 12:59 AM]

I was pretty sure at first that it was the Westside Pavilion, but then there were some shots that I don't think fit it... the source page says "shopping malls," so it may have been multiple malls. I'm sure I was in all these places at some point within a few years of this, but they all kind of blur together and most have undergone remodeling of some sort.

Glendale Galleria has three levels, but not all on top of one another... that makes me think some of this was the South Bay Galleria in Redondo Beach... was the Sherman Oaks Galleria three stories at the time? I don't remember.

[#18 posted by Anonymous, July 8, 2009 1:27 AM]

I remember that even back then you'd hear complaints about how fat America was becoming, but every time I see footage of this era (I've seen lots of circa 1990 footage recently), more than anything else, I notice how much thinner people are on average.

[#19 posted by Marchhare, July 8, 2009 1:32 AM]

@ 16 ADAM

I find your knowledge of our local malls disturbing--how does one know malls in Glendale and Redondo and Sherman Oaks?

[#20 posted by Anonymous, July 8, 2009 1:36 AM]

Just needs the koyanisqattsi style Philip Glass music playing the in the background.

[#21 posted by PaulR, July 8, 2009 3:19 AM]

1) Koyaanisqatsi it ain't..

2) (And I've been wondering this for some time now, but I haven't found the opportunity for some time.) Why is, whenever some online video app is launched, that the volume control defaults to 100%? Your only option available is to turn the volume down, never up.

Every once in a while, I come across a file that's not loud enough, but I can't turn the volume up, so I have to dial all of my OS's settings and the pots on my speakers to max. Then I forget what I just did and then I find a different file somewhere recorded by someone who likes to sit in the front row seats at Disaster Area concerts and then...

[#22 posted by dequeued, July 8, 2009 4:01 AM]

@ #18 PAULR
Thank you!

I hate that!

It's not just flash players, it's also quicktime, and a bunch of other media players too.

When it starts out at 100%, it's no longer a volume control, but a damper.

Maybe they do that because they see users were always turning it up or something?

I find it highly annoying.

The only player I notice that doesn't do that is vlc, which seems to always start at 25%, and lets you boost the volume to 200%

[#23 posted by Anonymous, July 8, 2009 5:04 AM]

Nobody in the video is fat.

[#24 posted by Anonymous, July 8, 2009 5:05 AM]

The thing most stunning about this video footage is not their fashionstyle, i kinda expected their clothing the way you see it, but the shoppers bodysize. They seem to be missing 19 years of massive weightgaining. Dreadfull. Is there any 2009 mall mania footage to compare the average bodyweight? in the 1990 footage it seems not more than every thirtiest person is somewhat overweight. think about it.

[#25 posted by mellowknees, July 8, 2009 5:31 AM]

omg hilariousness.

I love the psuedo Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack for it, too.

And why is it that everyone still looked 80s in 1990? During 1990, I don't think I thought we all looked 80s, but looking back on it, we sort of do.

[#26 posted by Mojave, July 8, 2009 5:50 AM]

#12 thanks for that...that was awesome.

[#27 posted by Anonymous, July 8, 2009 6:05 AM]

Note the neon clothing and fanny packs.

[#28 posted by Joel Fletcher, July 8, 2009 6:16 AM]

As some have surmised here, the movie was shot at multiple malls in 1989 and 1990. Included are the Glendale Galleria, Westside Pavillion, South Bay Mall, Fox Hills Mall, Sherman Oaks Galleria (since demolished and re-done), and a few others. Typically I could only get a few shots before a security guard would come along and kick me out. I love guerilla filmmaking!

[#29 posted by Pantograph, July 8, 2009 6:59 AM]

Typically I could only get a few shots before a security guard would come along and kick me out.

Plus ca change...

[#30 posted by Guysmiley, July 8, 2009 7:03 AM]

#19:

I think it's a corollary to the Loudness Wars. God help us if someone figures out how to compress audio on the fly in those Flash players.

[#31 posted by Anonymous, July 8, 2009 7:09 AM]

No one texting, no one talking on cell phone, no one with ear buds in, no one playing hand-held video games.

[#32 posted by Anonymous, July 8, 2009 7:19 AM]

Look at how thin the people are.

[#33 posted by gpeare, July 8, 2009 7:28 AM]

Ah, the halcyon days before tattoos and cellphones.

[#34 posted by Viadd, July 8, 2009 7:44 AM]

@11 JFrancis, Hilarious.

@12 JFrancis, Oh.

[#35 posted by Charlie Lesoine, July 8, 2009 7:47 AM]

@mellowknees

the 1980s ended in 1992. Just as the 1990's ended on Sept 11 2001.

[#36 posted by CocoBeane, July 8, 2009 7:51 AM]

I wonder what aliens would make of this when studying human life.

[#37 posted by Anonymous, July 8, 2009 7:59 AM]

@11, 12:

Thanks for sharing that! Wonderful...

[#38 posted by Anonymous, July 8, 2009 8:20 AM]

This is begging to be tilt-shifted

[#39 posted by Anonymous, July 8, 2009 8:21 AM]

Mid-thigh shorts. Shirts worn tucked in. Shoes and socks. People sure dressed funny back then.

[#40 posted by Anonymous, July 8, 2009 8:25 AM]

Anyone else notice how much thinner people (even the kids) were only 19 years ago?

I know, it's image conscious L.A., but still - there's a marked difference that doesn't bode well for us.

[#41 posted by Anonymous, July 8, 2009 8:28 AM]

People didn't dress any better in 1990 but there are less morbidly obese upright manatees waddling around than you'd see today.

Going the mall seems like a quaint activity. Wonder what they're going to do with all the empty ones.

Contemporary music would be nice until you remember it would be Poison or the like.

[#42 posted by angrypaladin, July 8, 2009 8:43 AM]

Wow, the malls on the east coast are usually pretty busy, though not as much as that. Usually this level of activity is reserved for the holidays.

I wonder what the contributing factors are to such a social change. Are people just shopping less or simply different (online shopping)? Are people getting what they need from big box stores at a lower price? It'd be interesting to do a more in depth survey of how people are using malls.

For our part, my spouse and I used to go to the mall simply to walk around and kill time. However, no more arcades, the local Waldenbooks closed, we make our own coffee/tea for a lot less than Starbucks and buy our clothes online. That, and we have so many tchotchkes around the house, we've no place to put anything else.

...also we're both in a WoW raiding guild, we don't get out much.

[#43 posted by Anonymous, July 8, 2009 9:01 AM]

Terminator 2, right?

[#44 posted by failix, July 8, 2009 9:13 AM]

AArrrgh, gaawwd! Horrible! The colors they wear, ahhrgh... my eyes!

[#45 posted by Anonymous, July 8, 2009 9:41 AM]

There are plenty of reasons for the decline of the suburban mall from the heydays of the 80s and 90s, be it the return of the trendy urban-core on one end of the spectrum to the Target or Costco colonization on the other end. If you remember, in this same time period, it was not cool to go to Target. Today the opposite is true. (Depending on the socioeconomic pressures of "cool" in your area).

But a major reason of decline I find no one will speak about is good old fashioned "white flight". Just look at the majority of the people in this video. As opposed to a geographic white-flight, this is a cultural white-flight, akin to the abandoning of myspace for facebook. When confronted with today's ethnically diverse youth culture, most (white) people choose to retreat to the safety of their covenances - housing associaction inforced rules surrounding everything from manicured lawns to approved color palattes. Like the mall of yore, Facebook is kept clean and manicured for the most part, with no loud music or colors assaulting you. Like myspace, today's mall is surf/rock t-shirt shops, hip hop shoes and "lids", and whatever else affrontery not wanted at the country club. The mall is dead because the sense of privelage is gone - plain and simple.

[#46 posted by darren, July 8, 2009 11:07 AM]

This is 1990 LA and I didn't see a single head banger. What gives?

I'm also disappointed they didn't include any shots of the mall rats hanging out at the video arcade.

[#47 posted by Mitch Wagner, July 8, 2009 12:28 PM]

This is around the time I stopped paying attention to fashion, so everybody in this video looks normal to me.

[#48 posted by Anonymous, July 8, 2009 12:35 PM]

"This is begging to be tilt-shifted"

You'll need a time-machine.

[#49 posted by homestarrunrun, July 8, 2009 12:37 PM]

God, 19 years can do a lot.

Just think back to 1990. The World Wide Web wasn't up yet, people weren't afraid of every little bump and jostle like they are after 9/11, the Reagan era had just ended, people in this video were surprisingly in good shape, the LP was about to go into its sale coma that lasted until 2007, we hadn't heard of iPods, Twitter, Facebook, Seinfeld, the Simpsons was just starting.

Wonder where we'll be in 2030?

[#50 posted by fuzzyblue, July 8, 2009 2:09 PM]

To me this just looks very close to what it would look like today. The color palate is a little more pastel. The shirts are a little more baggy. I wouldn't have noticed the lack of cell phones or the general thinness if other comments hadn't pointed it out. I doesn't seem like as big a change as from, say, 1970-1990 would've been. Or 1960-1980. Is it just me, or are fashion changes slowing down lately? To me it seems like we're amalgamating all of the previous fashions into something more post-modern, and it started around 1990. But maybe I'm just not seeing it because I'm old.

[#51 posted by ethancoop, July 8, 2009 2:13 PM]

"Wonder where we'll be in 2030?"

Dead, the world ends in 2012 according to the History channel.

[#52 posted by neurolux, July 8, 2009 3:55 PM]

Awww. That poor puppy in the pet store is dead by now.

I don't know why I depress myself.

[#53 posted by Anonymous, July 8, 2009 4:02 PM]

"today's mall is surf/rock t-shirt shops, hip hop shoes and "lids"..."

...I don't know what malls you visit, but the one near me is about 50% womens'-clothing boutiques, with the rest filled by both-sexes clothing boutiques.(*) There's also one Sharper Image, one GameStop, one Border Express, and a food court. I'm just not seeing that "scary black guys" vibe that you seem to be finding. Also, if the ethnic mix is not vast-majority white, then it's only because it's representative of the fact that Silicon Valley is itself not vast-majority white.

(*) An archaeologist from the year 3240 looking back on this scene would probably conclude that the ancient "Americans" wore disposable clothing, as a reflection of their "disposable society", and therefore needed to frequently return to the local clothing storehouse to acquire a new series of outfits for the week. Class and sex distinctions were rigidly enforced, with a single area for working men, a single area for noble women, and so on...

[#54 posted by Anonymous, July 8, 2009 4:06 PM]

What is that piece of Bjorn Lynne music?

[#55 posted by Anonymous, July 8, 2009 4:47 PM]

Just before the 3-minute mark, a guy sits down on a bench and lights up a cigarette. Indoors!! In public!! Such barbarism!!

[#56 posted by GaryG, July 8, 2009 4:50 PM]

I think Fuzzyblue has nailed it; the similarities with today overwhelm the differences. I thought too just how different a clip from twenty years before this would look, we're stagnating people...

[#57 posted by Anonymous, July 8, 2009 5:08 PM]

I was thinking that people do look a lot thinner in that video, as others have said, but then I was also thinking that this was California, where people tend to be thinner anyway (from what I hear). Are Californians fat now (compared to people in the video)? The people in the video are a lot thinner than people here in Texas (sad to admit).

[#58 posted by Anonymous, July 8, 2009 5:15 PM]

I also agree with Fuzzyblue, and I thought the same thing - that the difference between 1970 and 1990 would be a lot more dramatic. There have been major changes in technology and culture since then, but almost entirely in communications and information management.

[#59 posted by Antinous / Moderator, July 8, 2009 5:16 PM]

Anyone else notice how much thinner people (even the kids) were only 19 years ago? I know, it's image conscious L.A.

More shockingly, they still have facial expressions.

[#60 posted by Anonymous, July 8, 2009 5:22 PM]

I found this enormously pleasing in a sort of detached, semi-depressing kind of way. The same feeling I get whenever I remember deadmalls exists, and I go get lost in all the old pictures for a few hours. really great.

[#61 posted by Anonymous, July 8, 2009 5:40 PM]

Well sure we were thin back then... Look how fast we walked...

[#62 posted by Anonymous, July 8, 2009 8:12 PM]

There is not a single person talking on a cell phone or with ear buds. How strange to see all those people with their arms straight at their sides unless they are carrying a bag or pushing a stroller. How focused they look without being distracted by also talking on the phone.

That is what jumped out at me anyway.

[#63 posted by markpryor, July 8, 2009 9:26 PM]

I've also noticed the phenomenon of "cultural stagnation". In terms of fashions, hairstyles, pop culture/music and even automobiles, 2009 has more similarities to 1989/90 than differences. And forget about going all the way back to 1970. Just compare 1990 with, say 1978-81. Much starker contrasts. Look at the fashions/hairstyles worn in the original Halloween (1978) and Airplane! (1980) and then picture Misery or Home Alone (both 1990). The cultural milieu of the latter two could easily fit into "our" society twenty years later without so much as the bat of an eye while the former two appear so much more dated.

[#64 posted by markpryor, July 8, 2009 10:22 PM]

A previous poster mentioned "white-flight". It's important to note that in the 1990 census California's population was still 58% non-Hispanic white (in 1980 it was two-thirds white). Today, less than twenty years later, the white share is down to 42-43% (maybe less now). That's a HUGE transformation over such a relatively short period of time. And the flight continues unabated. Millions of native-born Californians (including Hispanics) have abandoned the state for a variety of reasons since 2000.

[#65 posted by Anonymous, July 8, 2009 10:28 PM]

It looks like the lady a 2:32 stole a towel!!

[#66 posted by Anonymous, July 8, 2009 11:04 PM]

Shorts were short.

[#67 posted by Anonymous, July 9, 2009 12:11 AM]

"It looks like the lady a 2:32 stole a towel!!"

Yes, I think you are right.

[#68 posted by Anonymous, July 9, 2009 5:09 AM]

I hope John got appearance releases from everyone in the shot.

[#69 posted by Anonymous, July 9, 2009 9:28 AM]

She doesn't steal a towel. If you look at the stack before and after she passes, it is the same, she has merely touched the top one and moved on.

[#70 posted by Anonymous, July 9, 2009 10:18 AM]

That is the mall from both "Commando" and Terminator 2."

Seriously.

[#71 posted by jbijcc, July 10, 2009 10:48 PM]

Asides from the people and the way they dressed, this could look like 2009. Amazing how little has changed in the last 20 years or so. I guess this is because malls were relatively new in the 60's and 70's but reached their prime in the 80's and haven't evolved much since. Thus a mall in 1990 would look much the same as it would look now. Fashion-wise, however, there probably has been as much change from 1989/90 to today as there was from 1969/70 to 1989/90. Certainly, people are wearing less pastel these days and the shorts are now much longer. From the shorts alone, you can date this film to circa 1990 since 1989-91 was the brief period during which some people were still wearing 1980's style short shorts and some were wearing the knee-length shorts that became universal for men soon afterwards.

[#72 posted by adamnvillani, July 11, 2009 1:19 PM]

Wow... I'm pretty amazed that I was able to correctly guess what a good number of these malls were. I never went to Fox Hills, so no wonder I didn't identify it.

#20 -- At the time I lived in Long Beach; in 1991 I moved to Pasadena for college (Caltech). I was (still am) fascinated by local geography and would often entertain myself at the time by driving around Southern California seeing what the different cities were like, even if they weren't inherently interesting, tourist-draw type of places. Stopping at malls and walking around was a good way to stretch my legs, see a movie, do Christmas shopping, get a bite to eat, etc. I would walk around in parks, too, but you would see a lot more people in the malls.

Nowadays I rarely go to a mall. There's less variety in the shops; they're mostly just clothing, and most of that is women's clothing, which I don't wear. I do most of my clothes shopping at outlet centers and other things I'll buy online or at a larger store, not a small mall shop.

Exploration-wise, I've pretty much covered the urban parts of Southern California and have to go farther out to find places I haven't explored. Oh yeah, also I work as a city planner for the City of L.A. now!

[#73 posted by thehoundoflove, July 12, 2009 2:29 AM]

@ Darren #48:

A shame about the headbangers, but at least there is a kid at the 1:38 mark wearing a sweet Metallica shirt.

And this was pre-Black Album.