Color from Black-and-White: colorized photos

[Little Caesar]

LC,

This is the only Chaplin that I've worked on, from a 4x5 work negative.

Looks good. I could have sworn that you worked on a press image of Chaplin doing a radio broadcast. I guess my memory is playing tricks on me.

[Gagman 66]

Here is the one from THE GOLD RUSH. Boy, this was done awhile ago. Probably 4 or 5 years. Does anyone have a better resolution un-cropped version in Black and White? I'll see if I can find the Lobby-cards. I don't have very many Keaton's either. Lots of Harold Lloyd's. Not a single Arbuckle. Just one Langdon.

[Gagman 66]

Wow! That last one was a short lived page. Only lasted a week or two.

First pic is unidentified, but I think it's Virginia Valli? Anyone know? Meanwhile, Hot Lips Nissen appears to be necking with Jack Muhaul. Even though he sure looks like Bing Crosby here?




"On The Vase Of It"




Blanche Sweet- "Downhearted"




Olive Borden- "Just Slightly Off The Hip"




Greta Nissen- "Wonderful Wizard of Smooches"




Raquel Torres- "That's For Gam Sure!"

[bobfells]

LC,

I revised my earlier post but it got left back on the previous page:

LC,

These are the only Chaplins that I've worked on. The first is directly from a 4x5 work negative.



This is Chaplin's first radio broadcast, apublic service message circa 1933 urging the public to start buying things again:


I can't take credit for these two. Somebody posted them saying these were early experiments in color photography. All I did was try to freshen them up a little:

[Gagman 66]

Here are those Billie Dove lobby's that I mentioned. From THE HEART OF A FOLLIES GIRL (1928).

[bobfells]

Speaking of lobby cards, here's some I noticed around the web. This first one is really a slide:

[Gagman 66]

Bob,

Haven't sen any of these Lobby's. To bad HER WILD OAT is all splashed with stains. Swanson's green eyes look good.

Here are some of the vintage THE CIRCUS Lobby-cards that I mentioned earlier.

[Little Caesar]

Ronald Reagan, Robert Cummings, and Ann Sheridan in "Kings Row" (1942)

1942 seems to have been a good year for Warner Bros. As much as I like Casablanca and Yankee Doodle Dandy though, I must admit that I like "Kings Row" the most.

[bobfells]

LC,

Great job on KING'S ROW. As for the film itself, the story is a little too dark for me, what with Claude Rains, Charles Coburn and poor Ronnie's legs.

[Little Caesar]

LC,

Great job on KING'S ROW. As for the film itself, the story is a little too dark for me, what with Claude Rains, Charles Coburn and poor Ronnie's legs.

If you think the film is dark, you should read the original novel (let's just say that Ronnie's character didn't fare nearly as well in the book, and the Claude Rains character was flat-out twisted)! I can understand why the Breen Office had a cow when Warner Bros. bought the film rights to the novel!

[Little Caesar]

Laura La Plante, circa 1928

[bobfells]

LC,

Honestly, you've hit a new high with your latest Laura L photo. I'm guessing you didn't add color to the eyes, so it's either very subtle or they don't need it.

Here's an unused one from the BobfellsColor shop. Joan Crawford looks like she's in costume for THE GORGEOUS HUSSY (1936) and the chic looking lady on the right is world famous opera star Rosa Ponselle. She got her start singing in vaudeville. The original caption says that Ponselle is in Hollywood to coach Joanie for her operatic debut, but I don't think that ever happened. My guess is that Rosa stopped by to talk her out of it!

[Little Caesar]

LC,

Honestly, you've hit a new high with your latest Laura L photo. I'm guessing you didn't add color to the eyes, so it's either very subtle or they don't need it.

Thanks, Bob! You are correct in saying that I didn't add any color to Laura's eyes. For my more recent works, I normally do not bother doing anything with the eyes. Part of the reason is that I simply do not pay much attention to eye color unless it is brought to my attention somehow. Second, I think that the eye color application can be a distraction in the color transfer if not done properly. That said, I would have added eye color in this case since it is a head shot, but the online sources I consulted said that Laura had grey eyes.
Good work on the Joan Crawford photo. I have heard before that she did have some grand opera aspirations. Having heard her sing before (and I think that she recorded a few records in the mid 30s), I think we're probably better off from her not following that particular dream!

[Gagman 66]

LC, Bob,

Good work guys. Wow, the King's Row still is terrific. I love the texture of Miss La Plante's hair. Here's a Laura I did recently. Or more properly revised from an older effort.




"Ah, Those Magic Dimples!"




Colleen-"Short Wavy Bob"




Charles Farrell and Esther Ralston- "On The High Seas Of Love"




Ralph Forbes and Dolores Del Rio- "Could Romance Be In The Cards?"

Miss Bow is to young to Smoke like a factory in DANCING MOTHERS, but that doesn't stop her. Papa Norman Trevor objects to her tawdry behavior.



"The Obstinate Daughter"

[valleebil]

These are great good job!

LC, Bob,

Good work guys. Wow, the King's Row still is terrific. I love the texture of Miss La Plante's hair. Here's a Laura I did recently. Or more properly revised from an older effort.




"Ah, Those Magic Dimples!"




Colleen-"Short Wavy Bob"




Charles Farrell and Esther Ralston- "On The High Seas Of Love"




Ralph Forbes and Dolores Del Rio- "Could Romance Be In The Cards?"

Miss Bow is to young to Smoke like a factory in DANCING MOTHERS, but that doesn't stop her. Papa Norman Trevor objects to her tawdry behavior.



"The Obstinate Daughter"

[valleebil]

Buster Keaton in It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World

$T2eC16JHJF0E9nmFQgm5BQ(Q4(jTvw~~60_57[1] - Copy by valleebil, on Flickr

[bobfells]

We just seem to get better and better! A while ago I saw the silent version of John Barrymore's first Talkie, GENERAL CRACK (1930). Even in its truncated and far from ideal condition, it is the last of JB's glorious swashbucklers that graced the 1920s. We will probably never see a restored version (although the Vitaphone discs exist) but I've been collecting some original stills that suggest the glory of what was once a fine film. I've run one or two of these before but some people may have missed them.

JB with Armida:


Marian Nixon:




Poster Art:

[Little Caesar]

We just seem to get better and better! A while ago I saw the silent version of John Barrymore's first Talkie, GENERAL CRACK (1930). Even in its truncated and far from ideal condition, it is the last of JB's glorious swashbucklers that graced the 1920s. We will probably never see a restored version (although the Vitaphone discs exist) but I've been collecting some original stills that suggest the glory of what was once a fine film. I've run one or two of these before but some people may have missed them.

Bob, with the exception of one of the Marian Nixon stills, I'm not able to see any of the images you posted. All I am seeing is a small icon saying the user has removed the image. That said, I once watched about a five minute clip of the silent version "General Crack" that someone posted on youtube, and it did look like a good movie from the little I saw of it. I remember reading once that the surviving Vitaphone discs won't sync with the surviving silent version because that version was made up of second takes. I wonder if with today's computer technology if the discs could be made to sync with the surviving footage. Criterion was able to do that recently with the last reel of "Broadway," and the results seem seamless to me. If I hadn't been alerted to Criterion's computer manipulations prior to watching the movie, I never would have guessed that they had done that.
Here's a vintage color transfer from the Bob Hope film "They Got Me Covered" (1943):

[bobfells]

Gagman,

I think I know what happened. Can you see them all now?

We just seem to get better and better! A while ago I saw the silent version of John Barrymore's first Talkie, GENERAL CRACK (1930). Even in its truncated and far from ideal condition, it is the last of JB's glorious swashbucklers that graced the 1920s. We will probably never see a restored version (although the Vitaphone discs exist) but I've been collecting some original stills that suggest the glory of what was once a fine film. I've run one or two of these before but some people may have missed them.

JB with Armida:


Marian Nixon:




Poster Art:

[Little Caesar]

Gagman,

I think I know what happened. Can you see them all now?

The first two poster images are not showing.

[bobfells]

Gagman,

I think I know what happened. Can you see them all now?

The first two poster images are not showing.

They should all be visible now. After posting, I moved the photos to a new file in Photobucket not realizing that by moving them they couldn't be seen. I think I fixed them all now.

[Gagman 66]

Bob,

Great stuff! Does any of the Technicolor footage of GENERAL CRACK survive? Alas, Marian Nixon was probably my first great Silent crush when I was 12 years old back in 1978. Rather than trying to sync the audio, I would hope they would record a score for the Silent version. Although in my mind THE SEA BEAST takes priority. These are the only two Silent Warner Brothers Barrymore's that TCM has not shown. Wow! who is Miss Hot Girdle? Oh, OK, Armida. Not sure I have seen her in much of anything. I knew it wasn't Jackie Logan.

I still have not had any success uploading to Photobucket since they changed there format in November.


Another still from The Trail of '98. I wasn't real happy with this because it is to grainy. Wasn't happy with the Colleen either as the face is white and washed out. Really disappointed with all three of these and put off posting them for a few weeks as it is.



"Klondike Couple"




"Takes Allot Moore Stamps"




"Clara Though The Curtains"




"Plastic Age Of Dance"

[Bucketfoot-Al]

Hello folks. Just a die-hard Jolie fan here. Recently I acquired Jolson's autograph and started looking for a photo to display it under. I found a shot taken during the publicity shoot for the Singing Kid in 1936. There are so few photos of Jolie when he's not clowning around, and for my money this is the best I have seen so far. He is 50 in this photo.

The photo was in B & W so I downloaded the Recolor program and took a crack at colorizing it. After a few attempts, I came up with this version. Keep in mind I have never colorized any photos before this one (and am not likely to do any in the future.) Now I have it matted and mounted in a frame above the autograph. An eye-popping shot.

Let me know what y'all think of this novice attempt...

[bobfells]

Gagman wrote: Great stuff! Does any of the Technicolor footage of GENERAL CRACK survive?

Alas, I have never heard of any existing color footage from GENERAL CRACK. Considering it was such a major film at the time and a box office hit to the tune of $1.2 mill, I'm surprised it was never reissued by WB through the years. But then the same could be said for THE SEA BEAST.

[Gagman 66]

Bucketfoot-Al.

Welcome to the boards. Very good for a first effort. The color is a little pronounced on the hair and brows, but other than that very impressive work for a first timer. Hope you will be posting allot more in the future.

So Is Bucketfoot and relation of Bigfoot I wonder?

[Little Caesar]

Hello folks. Just a die-hard Jolie fan here. Recently I acquired Jolson's autograph and started looking for a photo to display it under. I found a shot taken during the publicity shoot for the Singing Kid in 1936. There are so few photos of Jolie when he's not clowning around, and for my money this is the best I have seen so far. He is 50 in this photo.

The photo was in B & W so I downloaded the Recolor program and took a crack at colorizing it. After a few attempts, I came up with this version. Keep in mind I have never colorized any photos before this one (and am not likely to do any in the future.) Now I have it matted and mounted in a frame above the autograph. An eye-popping shot.

Let me know what y'all think of this novice attempt...

Welcome to Nitrateville, Bucketfoot-Al! I'm a big Jolie fan as well and am always happy to see another fan posting here! Your color work on Jolie looks very good. In case you haven't done much searching around here, there have been a few a Jolson color transfers posted. I know that Bob has posted a few on his Old Hollywood in Color blog. I've only completed work on one Jolson still as of yet, and it's from "The Singing Kid" too. I'll just repost here for your convenience. Let me know what you think.

[bobfells]

Welcome aboard Bucketfoot-Al! Your fledgling effort at color tranfer is quite good. One tip: I think all of us in the beginning think we should color everything but in time we learn that less is more. In your photo of Mr. Jolson, I would leave the hair and eyebrows alone, I think he had black hair anyway. To me at least, the skin tone doesn't seem quite right, maybe a little too much red?

Given the buildup up for my color Jolsons and the fact that they are scattered around, here's a bit of a roundup. These were my earliest efforts and if I redid them today they would look a little different, So FWIW:

From MAMMY (1930):


With Eddie Cantor - Frenemies:


With Don Ameche, Andrea Leeds in SWANEE RIVER (1939):


With Irving Berlin circa 1929:


With Ruby Keeler, Joe E. Brown at Eddie Cantor Testimonial Dinner Oct 1937:


Circa 1933:


On the Lifebouy Show with Parkyrkarkus and Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan in 1938:


There's more......

[Bucketfoot-Al]

Thank you gentlemen. Yes, I realize that I should have colored the hair black instead of brown, I tried to compensate by making the entire photo a bit darker. Oh well, its dry mounted and framed with Jolie's autograph on my wall and it looks good none-the-less. Thanks for the above photos, I found them and saved them already in the past month, when I was hunting for the 'right photo' to go with the autograph.

BTW 'bucketfoot-al' was the nickname of my favorite old-time baseball player, also named 'Al', and also not his real name:

"Al Simmons" (Aloysius Szymanski) of the Philadelphia Athletics.

Just so there's no confusion.

[Goldedstar]

Lots of Harold Lloyd's. Not a single Arbuckle. Just one Langdon.

Oooooooooooo I would love to see what you have of Harry Langdon and Harold Lloyd if you can.

Thanks a million!!!

[bobfells]

Lots of Harold Lloyd's. Not a single Arbuckle. Just one Langdon.

Oooooooooooo I would love to see what you have of Harry Langdon and Harold Lloyd if you can.

Thanks a million!!!

The colorists here are glad to honor requests if possible. Here is a Langdon I did on request about a year ago:



Here is at least a single Arbuckle that I scanned directly from an 8x10 work negative:


Did someone say Buster Keaton? Here's one that I later found copied on Google Images. No problem had it been copied from N'ville but it was copied from somebody else's site who didn't bother to give credit. For shame!