RetroBayArea
@RetroBayArea • 8,937 subscribers
An indie project featuring 💯 all original video edits that document culture & everyday life in the SF Bay Area. 1950s - mid-2000s. - DM or email for business.
Shorts
Videos
The biggest Chuck E. Cheese in the United States. San Jose, 1989. The first-ever Chuck E. Cheese opened in San Jose on May 17, 1977. It was originally called Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre and was founded by Nolan Bushnell, who also co-founded Atari. Bushnell’s idea was to combine arcade games, food, and animatronic entertainment to create a fun place for families and kids. The original restaurant was located at 370 S Winchester Blvd and closed in February 1985. The location in this video, at 2445 Fontaine Rd, opened in December 1981 and is still open today. It's the largest Chuck E. Cheese in the United States and has a 30-foot statue of Chuck facing Tully Rd. Source footage 🎥: Artigas Verlag & Joe Martin
RetroBayArea87,138 Aufrufe • vor 4 Tagen
We used to have electric trains on the lower deck of the Bay Bridge. By 1958, they were gone, systematically eliminated by design. We had a cheap, efficient, practically pollution-free transit system, the nucleus of what could have been the best and most extensive in the world, until the automobile industry and its allies coldly orchestrated its complete destruction. Harre Demoro was a longtime Bay Area journalist and author of more than a dozen books on urban transportation. While at the Oakland Tribune, he covered BART’s design and engineering; that work is reported to have earned him a 1968 journalism medal from the National Society of Professional Engineers for “The Most Significant Writing on Engineering.” source footage 🎥: KTVU & Don McCauig
RetroBayArea705,138 Aufrufe • vor 1 Monat
In the 1980s Blackhawk was the East Bay’s loudest display of new wealth. Years ago, I took a shared Uber and ended up driving in circles in Blackhawk for over 45 minutes. I met a few other unique and interesting passengers during that time. One of them, an older guy, told me to make sure I enjoy spending time with my family because it’s the only thing that truly matters in life. He went on to tell me not to work so hard because life always works itself out. When the driver arrived at his place to drop him off, he got serious and looked me dead in the eye as he told me that if I focus too much on work and not enough on my family, one day I would be walking into an empty home like he does day after day, year after year. It was an empty mansion. The following Monday, I took the day off work and spent it with the family. Blackhawk is an affluent unincorporated master-planned community known for its luxurious homes, gated communities, and upscale amenities, including a country club, golf courses, and shopping centers. source footage 🎥: KRON, 1986.
RetroBayArea44,649 Aufrufe • vor 2 Tagen
The San Francisco dating scene in the 1990s. Before all the apps, people met at places like this. In 1994, Marcia Kimpton, KTVU’s San Francisco culture reporter, stopped by Noah’s to get a handle on what was going on in the Marina on the weekends. You probably don’t know most of the people in this video. But you also know everyone in this video. source footage 🎥: Marcia Kimpton & KTVU
RetroBayArea213,721 Aufrufe • vor 1 Monat
This is what Mission Bay looked like before it was developed. San Francisco, 2000. In 2000, Mission Bay was a mostly vacant, industrial area with old rail yards, warehouses, and empty lots. Redevelopment was just beginning, but it wasn't at all the neighborhood it is today. It was a gritty, underdeveloped space with little residential presence, perfect for off-the-books activities. Mission Bay would’ve been a prime spot for Tony Soprano: cash-only sandwich spots, a trucking or warehouse front, a no-questions-asked chop shop, or a low-key gambling operation. If you needed to move some goods, cook some books, or make a few inconvenient problems disappear, Mission Bay had you covered. 🎥: Michael M. Moore
RetroBayArea350,286 Aufrufe • vor 5 Monaten
This is what Malibu Grand Prix in Redwood City was like in the 1980s. It opened in 1979 and closed in August 2013. There were go-karts, video games, a photo booth, mini-golf, and probably countless first dates and birthday parties that took place there. It was so loved by the Bay! Malibu lasted for 34 years and is a core memory for so many generations of Bay Area families and locals who grew up going there. Sadly, the ghost of Malibu still haunts the side of Highway 101. I look at it every time I pass by. The palm trees are still there and they’re almost all dead. A part of me likes seeing the ruins. Another part of me wishes they would finally develop the lot so I wouldn’t have to see it anymore. I know that even when they do put a building there, I’ll still always think of Malibu whenever I drive by. source footage 🎥: Atari
RetroBayArea67,936 Aufrufe • vor 1 Monat
Seeing a BART car for the first time ever. Concord, 1965. “We’ve got to compete with the luxury of today’s autos,” the then-general manager told the press. “and I think we’ve got something that only, possibly, a jet can compare with.” This was the public’s first look at a BART car, seven years before the system started carrying passengers on September 11, 1972. Officials at the Diablo Testing Facility in Concord used the unveiling and tours to gather feedback and perfect the interiors for everyday riders. 🎥: Levene Productions
RetroBayArea70,095 Aufrufe • vor 1 Monat
If The Bay Team were around today, San Francisco’s problems would be gone overnight. Forget another task force. Bring back The Bay Team! I was way too young to understand The A-Team when I first watched it, but I loved it anyway. This video is a playful take on that classic intro, featuring Bay Area icons who left a lasting impression on anyone who grew up here.
RetroBayArea18,605 Aufrufe • vor 12 Tagen
Malls used to have arcades full of video games, and in the early 1990s they were always super busy and jam packed. This is the TILT arcade at Fashion Island Mall in San Mateo in 1991. In ninth grade my friend Jason, who I used to skate with, bragged in class that he could drive a stick and that he could teach me too. It wasn’t in a real car, but on a sit-down racing game with a clutch at a place called TILT, which was at Fashion Island Mall in San Mateo. I begged my parents to let me go on a Friday night and they finally said yes, as long as I was home by ten. We skated there from El Camino in San Mateo and it felt like the longest ride of my life. That whole night was spent on the game, taking turns shifting through the gears like it meant something. I still remember it clearly, because it was the first time my parents let me stay out late, and at the time it felt like the best night I had ever had.
RetroBayArea40,637 Aufrufe • vor 1 Monat
This is San Francisco in 1985. I miss my grandparents. I miss all of my family who are no longer here. When my grandparents came to visit, we would go to SFO to pick them up, and no one was ever happier to see me than they were. This was back when you could walk right up to the gate. I was always excited to see if this would be the year I was finally taller than my grandma. Having them in town was the best. The meals my grandma cooked for us were amazing, and their stories were always just as great. We would take them to San Francisco and do all the touristy stuff like North Beach and Fisherman’s Wharf, but none of that really mattered. What mattered was that we were all together. They’ve been gone for years now, but I think of them often. I wonder what it would have been like to talk to them as an adult, to connect in a different way than I could as a kid. I guess life isn't really designed that way for everyone, to grow up and have those deeper conversations, to understand who they were beyond being your grandparents. But I have gotten to know them in new ways, through old photos, home movies, and the stories other family members have shared with me. It amazes me to think of the full lives they both lived long before I was ever born. If you still have your grandparents, give them a call. Say hello. Learn as much as you can from them while you still can.
RetroBayArea28,539 Aufrufe • vor 25 Tagen
In 1982, this 63-year-old San Francisco native described a version of North Beach he grew up in that doesn’t exist anymore. His name was Dante Benedetti, and he was born and raised in North Beach. He owned a restaurant there called New Pisa, which existed from 1927 to 2003.
RetroBayArea115,075 Aufrufe • vor 4 Monaten
No, you can’t go back to 1992. This is what a day at Marine World looked like back in the early 1990s. The park started out in Redwood City back in 1968 as Marine World Africa USA. It moved to Vallejo in 1986, and when Six Flags bought it in 1999 they renamed it Six Flags Marine World. Then in 2007 it got its current name, Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, to showcase the perfect mix of marine animals, wildlife, and amusement park rides all in one place. source footage 🎥: Ken Peterson
RetroBayArea36,915 Aufrufe • vor 1 Monat
The San Francisco smoking ban. San Francisco, 1998. California banned smoking in bars and restaurants on January 1, 1998. I was working in a restaurant at the time. Management still let the regulars smoke after closing until things cooled down. Twenty-eight years later, Supervisor Myrna Melgar introduced a bill to extend the ban to open-air patios and parklets at bars. Health advocates say it will protect workers and patrons from secondhand smoke. Bar owners at places like O'Reilly's Pub, Zeitgeist, and El Rio say it will hurt their business. The question being raised is why cigarettes on a patio are the priority when fentanyl overdoses in the city topped 700 last year and open drug use is still a common sight around downtown. Cannabis retailers are exempt from the bill. source footage 🎥: KGO-TV
RetroBayArea78,950 Aufrufe • vor 3 Monaten
Scenes from Palo Alto in 1989. This footage captures Palo Alto during a time of transition. The city was already starting to change, but not at the scale or pace seen today. Tech companies were present, and venture capital was part of the picture, but the footprint was smaller, and the transformation was not yet complete. Some of the places shown are still recognizable. A few streets, storefronts, and buildings remain much the same. Others have been replaced, rebuilt, or removed entirely. It’s a mix of the familiar and the forgotten. What comes through is a version of Palo Alto that feels more grounded in everyday life. Before it became a global center for innovation, it was still just a town, with all the ordinary details that come with that. The song is by a now-defunct Redwood City band called Nord Mariner. It felt like a fitting soundtrack. Its lyrics about change, memory, and the things we take for granted echo the feeling of watching a place change so much that it becomes something else entirely.
RetroBayArea98,189 Aufrufe • vor 4 Monaten
The demolition of the Dumbarton Bridge in 1984. The center span of the Dumbarton Bridge, which connects Menlo Park on the west side and Fremont on the east, was demolished in September 1984. It had become obsolete, unsafe, and a navigation hazard. The original Dumbarton Bridge had a swing-span drawbridge in the middle so ships could pass through. By the 1980s, the design was outdated and unreliable. In 1982, a modern high-rise bridge opened just north of the old one. It was taller, stronger, and high enough for ships to pass underneath without needing a moving span. The old center span was mechanically complex and expensive to maintain, had deteriorated after decades of use, and was no longer safe. Bottom line, they demolished the center span because it was outdated infrastructure, was costly to maintain, and was getting in the way. source footage 🎥: KRON
RetroBayArea31,375 Aufrufe • vor 1 Monat