Over the past month this has been one of our major film restoration projects. Most films about the 1906 earth quake are of extremely poor quality. We have let our restoration and colorization skills run free on that material in an attempt to bring it back to new life. Obviously miracles can not be expected, but by motion-stabilizing, speed-correcting, A.I. enhancing and A.I. colorizing these films, it has become more bareable to watch (at least we think so).
The 1906 earth quake occured along the infamous San Andreas vault and struck the San Francisco area early in the morning of the 18th of April 1906. The magnitude of the quake has been estimated to be 7.9 on the Richter scale. More than 3,000 people died and over 80% of the city of San Francisco was destroyed. This film shows the tragic aftermath whereby survivors are trying to simply survive among the rubble. A few days later the army brought in supplies. People can be seen waiting in queues for food and being temporarily housed in tent camps that were erected to house about 20.000 people. Many fled the city by ferry to cross the bay to (presumed) safer regions. One remarkable thing stands out while watching this footage and that is how dignified the San Franciscans appear to behave and how well-dressed many of them still are.
The film also shows early activities to start removing remains of buildings and rubble. One famous scene shows a journey by car through Market Street right up to the Ferry building at the harbour. This footage has often been compared with another film that was shot just days before the earth quake and can be found on dozens of channels on KZfaq, even in colorized 4K 60fps format.
Far more information is available on the web and especially on Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1906_Sa...
Source: Various, including Library of Congress and Prelinger Archives.
Music: Spectacles Wallet and Watch.