Yep, that's COLOUR movies from 1922. The next time you grab some digital video on your iPhone and send it straight to YouTube, consider what a monumental accomplishment colour moving pictures were 88 years ago.
According to Kodak's blog, 1000 Words:
Shot with a dual-lens camera, the process recorded filtered images on black/white negative stock, then made black/white separation positives. The final prints were actually produced by bleaching and tanning a double-coated duplicate negative (made from the positive separations), then dyeing the emulsion green/blue on one side and red on the other. Combined they created a rather ethereal palette of hues.
Yeah, so it's not quite lifelike. But still a haunting set of visuals. Particularly when you consider that — with the possible exception of the little girl — all of these women are dead.
The identities of these women were almost lost to history — like the 1972 Playboy model whose face was used for early JPEG research* — until a film geek from a silent film fan site wrote Kodak with the following cast list: Mae Murray, Hope Hampton, and Mary Eaton (of the Ziegfeld Follies). The last woman, and the little girl (or is it a boy?) remain anonymous.
* This is another cool new thing I learned from Sex, Bombs and Burgers by Peter Nowak. If you're a pop culture anecdote junkie like me, I really can't recommend this book enough.
Really cool footage. Absolutely gorgeous music as well
ReplyDeleteAnyone know if that music is available?
ReplyDelete