2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003From the cover of the tape, this film “explores the rapid social evolution and economic transformation of Kuwait from a small pearling and trading community in the 1940s, to a country now occupying a pivotal position in world affairs.”
Kuwait a Dream Suspended is a rare documentary film about Kuwait in the 80s. I haven’t had the chance to watch it all yet but from what I saw it looks interesting. [YouTube]
Thanks om3ali
Brett Jordan is still scanning and uploading pictures of Kuwait from the early 60s. So far he has uploaded over 100 pictures and he’s still uploading. What I like about his collection of photos other than the fact they’re being scanned in super high resolution revealing some amazing details but also the fact some of them show Kuwait in a way I hadn’t seen it before.
He’s got some really great stuff there, the three pictures here are just some of the new one’s he’s uploaded. Here is the link to his collection [Link]
A few days back I posted two pictures that were taken by this guys parents back in the 1960’s when they were in Kuwait. Well the guy (Brett Jordan) has uploaded more pictures including the one I’ve posted above which is of the Sheraton roundabout. I can’t believe it was that beautiful. I can see Fahad Al Salem street in the background and it looks so green with all the trees! The whole street looks very spacious and clean, I wish it still looked like that today. Check out the rest of the pictures by visiting his flickr page [Here]
Found these two picture on Flickr which were taken in Kuwait back in the early 60’s. They’re both by the same person (Brett Jordan) who I guess was working in Kuwait back then. The pictures were taken by the parents of Brett Jordan who digitized the shots and uploaded them to his Flickr account. I liked the car shot above because of the colors while the one below I liked because Kuwait looked so quiet and calm compared to today. Check out the originals [Here] and [Here]
This is definitely the coolest thing Kuwait Times have ever done. Today’s issue of their free Friday Times newspaper was wrapped with a copy of their first issue ever dating back to September 24, 1961. Their first issue was only 4 pages but there are enough gems in there to make it worth picking up. Here are the coolest things I found in the paper:
– An ad announcing a new 1962 model of an RCA TV arriving at Morad Yousuf Behbehani
– An ad from the then not yet opened Gulf Bank (pictured below)
– Kuwait Airport arrival and departure timings. The only destinations were Bahrain, Damascus, Beirut, Abadan, Doha and Cairo. No European or any other countries
– A classified ad for a car “Immediately available Austin 55 – 1969, roughly used by it’s careless owner, with one head lamp broken (by courtsey of a fellow motorist) dented all over it’s sleek frame, springs making noise only when driving on bad roads (bad roads non-existent at Kuwait), if you are still interested, send offers to K.T. Box, No. 524 Kuwait.” What I found funny is the honesty and the fact you need to send him a letter if you’re interested. The postal service must have been very reliable back then
– Kuwait Cinemas schedule, Psycho was playing at Al Andalus, Al-Hamra was closed due to repair, Al-Firdous was playing The Golden Horde, the open air cinema in Hawalli was playing Bayabit Al Ward and finally the open air cinema at Fahaheel was playing Tomb of Love.
I highly recommend you pass by a bakala or newspaper stand and pick up today’s free issue of the Friday Times. And if anyone from Kuwait Times is reading this, if you still have all your old issues, please convert them to PDF and upload them online!
Thanks Q
The Huntley Film Archives emailed me to tell me they’ve uploaded another video of Kuwait this time it’s a compilation of old commercials. The first commercial in the reel is actually of Al Muthana complex which I found really funny due to all the sci-fi sounds and digital effects. [YouTube]
The previous Kuwait video they had digitized and uploaded onto YouTube was Close Up on Kuwait – 1962.
A reader just pointed me towards this old Kuwaiti movie from the 70’s called the “Wolves Don’t Eat Meat”. Supposedly the movie is banned but I have no idea why. It looks like one weird and trippy movie! Where can I get it from? Does anyone know if it is banned and if yes why?
Thanks axed-gamer
Update: Found the full movie and embeded it above. It’s bad cuz there is sex and nudity.
[YouTube]
I contacted Chris, the guy who uploaded the original video of Kuwait 1984 – 1987 that included the old Salmiya and asked him if he could upload some more videos if he had any. He told me he would try his best and since then has uploaded 3 more videos. Sadly a lot of his videos were not readable but he’s sharing whatever he found working. I already posted the video of the car exhibition from the mid 80s the other day and the video above and below are two more new ones.
The video above features the Gulf Road (back when you could drive into the Green Island?), some of the old Salmiya, other residential areas and Kuwait City (including Muthana Complex during its prime). The video below features some National Day celebrations.
[YouTube]
Thank you Chris for sharing your personal family videos with us.
I love how all these random videos of Kuwait from the 80s are starting to pop up. This one is of a car exhibition that was held sometime in the mid 80s. [YouTube]
This is a home video shot by an Eastern European family back in the mid 80’s. There are a lot of scenes around Kuwait, I spotted Fahad Al Salem Street in Kuwait City in one scene. There are also some scenes taken during the National Day celebration (no foam!). Not only that but at around 7:15 into the video they have a drive by video of old Salmiya, specifically Salem Mubarek Street where Waleed Toys is! I completely forgot about the Electronic Appliances Corp shop!! Then you get to see the Alamiah store with the MSX being advertised in the display. I wished they had filmed more of Salmiya, it looks really clean and alive in the video, not the like ugly shape it’s in now. [YouTube]
Warning: The video contains scenes of women in bikinis
This has to be the greatest find yet, a documentary on Kuwait filmed in 1962. Embedding of the video has been disabled so to watch it you need to click [Here]
The Oil industry in Arab country of Kuwait, Middle East. Film made in 1962, directed by Rodney Giesler.
A young Kuwaiti man visits a typical idyllic English village. The village is Shere in Surrey. Shots of old timber framed houses. He speaks to camera. Another man outside the rear entrance of the Royal Festival Hall on London’s South Bank. Another Kuwaiti man talks seated at an outdoor café in London. They both speak to camera.
Film then switches to Kuwait. Point of view from car of busy Kuwait streets. Construction site and builders. The desert. Gas or oil terminal. Oil tankers. Docks. Arab man with headdress rides in the back of a lorry. Travelling shot of crowded street with American cars. Arab businessman in his office, talks on telephone. Various shops, selling electrical goods, chairs. Shopper plays an accordion. Some stylish modernist buildings. Two men drink from cola bottles. Large American car with fins pulls out and nearly crashes with another (seen from the rear). The ruler of Kuwait at a military parade. Various scenes of doctors, dentists, opticians at work. Small children rushing into school, mainly local but some white children as well. Bottle delivery man helps two schoolboys climb a wall. Children have lessons. School meal. Bakery. Deaf children have lessons at a special school. Little girl learns to speak. Young man writes with a special Braille typewriter. He also reads Braille. The airport, foreign skilled workers arrive, get off Kuwaiti Airlines aircraft. Oil well. Christian church for westerners. Woman in horn rimmed spectacles sits under a hair dryer. Lives of foreigners. Locals learn skills from foreign workers. Pilot lesson. University scenes with students.
Oil industry. Arab men have discussion in a boardroom. Cars drive through a sandstorm. Natural gas. Fresh water plant and delivery lorries being loaded. Delivery to Bedouins. Government experimental farm on land reclaimed from desert. Growing crops, dairy cows. Mosque, man calls to prayer. Grievance settling – men meet with the ruler in an office. Law court. Aerial view of Kuwait city and docks. Busy street scenes. Shots of various people walking in the street. Children play in a school playground.
The documentary is 26 minutes long but really worth it. I love the voice over and music, reminds me of the old Tex Avery cartoons.
Once again, to watch this documentary click [Here]
Thanks Hamad!
Back in May I linked to a PDF taken from a 1969 issue of National Geographic and spoke about the Villa pictured above because I loved the design of it. Well a reader just landed across my post and commented the following:
Hi, this is our house, it used to belongs to my father and 2 brothers, Mohamed, Nasser (my late father) and Faisal Al-Duaijani. It was built and finished in 1968 and we moved into it when I was 5 years old after previously living in Do3′a (Farwaniya now).
The house is located at the intersection of the 4th ring road with Damascus street in Al-Rodah and it was sold to Mr. Al-Mokeazeam (cant recall his first name.. sorry) back in 1985. There was some modifications done to it, they completed the 3rd floor and closed the balconies which really made it lose its futuristic (at that time) looks. The villa was also shown in (Tarbiya Wataniya) elementary school book back in 1979 as one of the landmarks of Kuwait with my uncle Faisal shown standing in the first floor balcony. The villa just next to it was built and owned by my aunt and her husband the late Mr. Jasem Al-3otaiby. It had the same features and it still exists (also with some modifications) but it was sold directly to Al-Banwan family which i guess they’re still living in it.
I’m sorry I can’t recall the name of the architect and I’ll try to ask about it and give tell you if I find out. From what I recall we had big disputes with him about the mocked copies of the villa, the one in 3deliya and the one in Khaldiya about the exclusivity of design and rights to it which believe it or not was stronger back in the 60′s & 70′s than today!!
Aaahh, I’m 45 years old now, where did the good old days go??!!
Thanks,
Abdulla
A reader emailed me to tell me that while collecting newspapers and magazines from the late 50’s he found an article about schools in Kuwait in the 1960’s. He managed to scan and email me the article (it’s a few pages long) and I put them together in a single PDF to make it easier to download and view. The article is in Arabic and here is the [Link]
Does anyone recognize the school in the picture above on the right side?
Thanks Camil
A reader just sent me a link to a section of the Al-Diwan Al-Amiri website which contains really old photos of Kuwait, like the one above which was taken in 1911 or the one below that was taken in 1919 when Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmed with Prince Faisal bin AbdulAziz visited London to mark the end of the First World War.
A lot of gems on the website and each photo has a description underneath. Check them all out by clicking [Here]
Thanks Avay!
