Narrated by then-Mayor Jerome Cavanaugh, a 1965 video touting the virtues of Detroit (both parts, below) is fascinating, not only for how dated and problematic it is.
Yes, it misses large parts of a story everyone knows; one about a city in steep decline, wracked by economic loss and racial strife. It predates the riots that tore the city apart two years later, and makes little mention of how the city's dependence on its automobile industry has and will continue to shape it, for better and worse. I am greatly simplifying here--you have to turn to the pages of Middlesex or Them to get a more qualitative, experiential sense of Detroit's modern rise and fall; and to sites like Detroitblog to understand the city's unreal physical fabric. You have to look to things like the Michigan Land Use Institute, Cool Cities, and Model D to get some hope for the area's future.
But, regardless of all that--regardless of the utterly ridiculous scene with the urban planners and their creepy yearning for greater "urban efficiency"--the film is an interesting historical relic, and provides a good jumping-off point to a discussion of urbanism, marketing, and urban planning. (Note that this was a video produced to lure the 1968 Summer Olympics to the city.)
Cavanaugh's dull monologue about the 1960s being Detroit's "finest hour" touches on cultural amenities more than you'd expect, covering fine dining, architecture, music, parks, libraries, and theatre, thereby obliquely implying the construction of a sophisticated lifestyle. In this way, minus the obviously deficient production values and uninspired delivery, the video is not so different from many videos, animations and renderings that cities, neighborhoods and development projects rely on nowadays to promote themselves and to transmit a sense of place. (Related: here, here, and here)
Naturally, one of the flip sides of comparing marketing materials of yore to those of the present is that some of today's will look naively ominous and even silly in hindsight just like the 1965 film does. Another pertinent lesson comes from Elizabeth Currid's recent, and excellent, book The Warhol Economy: How Fashion, Art and Music Drive New York City: that the things usually left unmentioned in the conventional story of place (in this case, jazz, the Motown sound and electronic music immediately come to mind) are just as central to a city's sense of itself and its economic vitality as the large corporations and traditional cultural institutions. A strong, interwoven set of narratives is centrally important to capture and express, for any planner, designer, or developer trying to market an idea. Cavanaugh's triumphant, simplistic presentation of the city's amenities strikes the viewer as ignorant and outdated, but that's because it is.
Returning to the excellent Model D--who, in my estimation, inherently understand Currid's argument--check out their trove of videos, all of which explore Detroit, its people, businesses, places, and other uniquenesses in fresh ways.
Comments