Before it was Silicon Valley, it was “The Valley of Heart’s Delight” — at least, that’s what it’s called in a 1948 film extolling the virtues of Santa Clara County. You can watch the 18 minute film on the Internet Archive by clicking here.
What you’ll see on this film:
Busy downtown San Jose, suburban homes for industrial workers, grain grown for livestock, cows on Santa Clara ranches, orchards in bloom, spraying and pruning operations in the orchards, worker picking cherries, fruit arriving at Clapp’s Baby Food, the American Can Company, the Coast Daylight streamlined steam locomotive, lots of land available for industry on San Jose’s outskirts and you can work outdoors year round, Moffet Field, Ames research lab with the world’s largest wind tunnel, the control tower at Moffet and plane taking off, a dirigible, the University of Santa Clara where gentle Jesuit padres teach, Stanford University with beautiful architecture, San Jose State which attracts students from across the U.S. and pretty coeds who “coeds work hard and play hard” — picture of a woman smiling while the narrator says, “even studying has its advantages especially outdoors, don’t you agree?” — secondary a primary schools with boys and girls playing softball, older people playing golf, outdoor recreation including horseback riding and year-round outdoor pools, the beach at Santa Cruz, “primitive” park accessible by bus at Mount Madonna Forest with deer “nibbling at the grass,” Lick Observatory which “commands a sweeping view,” the Winchester Mystery House, San Jose’s municipal rose gardens, and backyard rose gardens, “for in this climate gardens really flourish — and job opportunities really flourish, too, attracting citizens who take pride in establishing a higher values of community life.”