1929 - Early Sound Footage of Cleveland

Early sound footage of Downtown Cleveland in the late 1920s. The city was the sixth largest in the US at the time, with a population of over 900,000 and a foreign born population of 25%. The film shows the large parade held on Euclid Avenue in honor of the first National Air Race held in Cleveland, August 24, 1929. In this clip, you can see shots of the large arch of the Williamson Building, which has since been demolished (the 200 Public Square skyscraper now stands in its place). The Chamber of Commerce Building (demolished in 1955) is also visible from Public Square. The newly-completed Terminal Tower, which would be officially dedicated one year later, is not shown in this film, but it loomed large to all those present. This footage is from the Moving Image Research Collections at the University of South Carolina (https://mirc.sc.edu/).