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Old Guy Nostalgia Stuff.
2 years ago
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A recent post by 
Comus got me remembering some really old stuff.
Back in the late 1950's and early 1960's (Yeah, I'm that old) the MacArthur Theater in Washington DC would run Saturday Morning matinees. I saw a lot of cartoons and B&W movies there, most I would see later on TV, when Saturday morning cartoons were still a thing. Some of those shorts are probably forgotten forever, certainly by me anyway.
There was usually an hour or so of cartoons, Disney shorts, Looney Toons, Fleischer Studio Popeyes, and then an old Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movie or something similar, the movie was always black and white, I don't remember a single color movie there, just the cartoons were in color. Parents would drop their kids off in the morning and pick them up around noon or so when the matinee was over. Imagine that, parents just dropping off kids, most of whom were between 6 and 12 or so. There were usually some adults there, but for the most part it was kids, all glued to their seats because TV's were pretty small back then and seeing cartoons in color was a novelty and the screen of the Old MacArthur was huge.
Heck it wasn't until sometime in the 1970's that I noticed that 'The Wizard of Oz' was in color.
Just old guy rambling, beats yelling at clouds all day. Move along, nothing more to see here.
Comus got me remembering some really old stuff.Back in the late 1950's and early 1960's (Yeah, I'm that old) the MacArthur Theater in Washington DC would run Saturday Morning matinees. I saw a lot of cartoons and B&W movies there, most I would see later on TV, when Saturday morning cartoons were still a thing. Some of those shorts are probably forgotten forever, certainly by me anyway.
There was usually an hour or so of cartoons, Disney shorts, Looney Toons, Fleischer Studio Popeyes, and then an old Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movie or something similar, the movie was always black and white, I don't remember a single color movie there, just the cartoons were in color. Parents would drop their kids off in the morning and pick them up around noon or so when the matinee was over. Imagine that, parents just dropping off kids, most of whom were between 6 and 12 or so. There were usually some adults there, but for the most part it was kids, all glued to their seats because TV's were pretty small back then and seeing cartoons in color was a novelty and the screen of the Old MacArthur was huge.
Heck it wasn't until sometime in the 1970's that I noticed that 'The Wizard of Oz' was in color.
Just old guy rambling, beats yelling at clouds all day. Move along, nothing more to see here.
Vix
Vix
It turns out she always thought it was originally filmed in black and white because she had always seen it on a B&W TV.
It wasn't until the late 60's when I saw my first color TV at my grandparents house. Big console thing sitting in the corner of the family room. I remember the screen had round sides and the cabinet had ornate woodwork and speaker grilles.
Not just changing channels, but also adjusting the volume!
Or maybe that was the toaster.
Neat bit of info I ran across is that a surprising number of old movies, going way back to the silent era, were actually viewed in color at the time:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_early_color_feature_films
(Obligatory mention of Prokudin-Gorskii, Kromogram, and Autochrome Lumière for the still photographers in the audience.)
Nice reference, thanks.
All good things may flow into cities, but cities breed strangers. It's good to remember the time when one could entrust something as precious as their own offspring to the community, and expect to have them back intact in a few hours.
And it is great to get a better grasp on the history of motion pictures.
We all bow down to rectangles of shimmering light.
There is nothing we are unwilling to part with for the sake of security and assurance for the future.
Seeking to ward our children from harm we have raised walls of fear and suspicion.
I agree, people tend to be good, or at least strive to be seen as good, but one single case of a child having been horribly abused or killed is enough for the entire nation to start escorting their kids to school, and wear tracker fobs around their necks. I can't blame the parents, especially since there have been a lot of such cases everywhere.
But losing trust in each other on such scale is still a tragedy.
Sorry for taking half a year to continue this exchange.
Just last month, we began watching episodes of Night Court. Husband was shocked to see it in color for the first time because he used to watch it on a small b/w TV back in the 80s. lol Similarly my dad had a Zenith NO52S that I'd watch The Flintstones and other shows in the basement.
https://assets.tcm.com/projects/WB100.pdf