This is from the official youtube account of the LBJ Library. I found it a while ago and thought this place might need an old fashioned Austin historypost to liven things up. I hope it isn’t against the rules.

There are many mysteries about this video. I’m not sure when Lady Bird did the narration track. I’m guessing sometime in the late 70s or 80s? She refers to John Connally as “the governor” so maybe before that, but on the other hand her voice sounds aged to me quite a bit so maybe the 90s.

Some parts in the middle of the video were taken at various lakes northwest of here, but the first and last parts were shot in Austin. The real meat of the video for me is Col. Aldrich’s pasture full of bluebonnet fields at what is now the Mueller development.

Lady Bird Johnson Home Movies, Home Movie 9, Footage of Austin in 1943. This is a silent film with retrospective narration by Mrs. Johnson. The first part of the movie features various views of the campus at the University of Texas. We see the Main Building and U.T. Tower, B Hall, and the old Home Economics Building (now Mary E. Gearing Hall). Cut to the statues of Jefferson Davis, Albert Sidney Johnston, Governor Hogg and details of the Littlefield Fountain. The Texas Flag waves in the breeze, as does the United States Flag. The camera lingers for a moment on the UT Tower glowing orange in the night.

Cut to the Texas State Capitol building, then the Chisolm Trail plaque and the Texas Memorial Museum.

Cut to various Austin scenes: Mr. E.H. Perry and the Austin Housing Authority houses and office (Perry helped start the AHA). We see a sunset over Mount Bonnell.

Cut to the Hogg Memorial Auditorium then the old library building at UT (now Battle Hall) and UT Student Union and Tower. View of the Treaty Oak and Barton Springs in Zilker Park 1943.

Cut to Nelly Connally, Sugar Pickle on the UT campus. View of Lake Austin and then Mansfield Dam under construction. We see Marietta Brooks, who was LBJ’s campaign manager for women.

View of the Governor’s Mansion, Buchanan Dam and signs for the LCRA (Lower Colorado River Authority).

The next scenes feature a young LBJ, George Brown, A.J Wirtz, Jesse Kellam, and Sam Rayburn swimming, relaxing and riding in a boat on Lake Buchanan. Lyndon Johnson seems happy and playful.

Cut to NYA (National Youth Administration), REA (Rural Electricity Administration) and Inks Dam, all still in the early 1940s.

Mrs. Johnson, Gene Lasseter, and Emily Crow (now Mrs. Sam Sheldon (?)), and Colonel Aldrich sitting and laying in bluebonnet fields on Col. Aldrich’s ranch near Austin Airport.

If you recognize any of the people in this film that we have not yet identified, please let us know by leaving a comment. We’d love to hear from you.