Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site spp2.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!ittvax!dcdwest!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!trwrb!trwspp!spp2!urban
From: urban@spp2.UUCP (Mike Urban)
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: Re: First Color Films
Message-ID: <539@spp2.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 15-Apr-85 11:21:51 EST
Article-I.D.: spp2.539
Posted: Mon Apr 15 11:21:51 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 18-Apr-85 04:42:37 EST
References: <556@cornell.UUCP> <1315@yale.ARPA> <4651@ucla-cs.ARPA> <1814@zehntel.UUCP>
Reply-To: urban@spp2.UUCP (Mike Urban)
Distribution: net
Organization: TRW, Redondo Beach  CA
Lines: 33
Summary: 


It seems to me that I've heard that films that were actually
shot in black and white were sometimes released in color,
by hiring an artist to hand-tint the film.  I'm talking
silent movies circa 1915 (The Patchwork Girl of Oz was supposed
to have been presented this way, if the studio publicity
was to be believed).  Can someone confirm or explain this?  How
could they possibly release more than one or two prints this way?

As long as I'm mentioning the "Oz" film (and it seems appropriate,
what with the upcoming Disney Oz film), I should explain that
one of L. Frank Baum's many unsuccessful business ventures
during the early 1900s was a film studio in Hollywood (Santa
Monica Boulevard between Lodi and Gower, says the stationary)
called the Oz Film Company.  They produced three Oz-related
films that represent interesting early experiments in stop-action
animation, double exposure, miniature model work, and other
effects that we now take for granted.  Baum was a lousy businessman,
and watching "The Magic Cloak" you can see that he must have
blown a fairly big budget just for costumes.  The studio soon
went bust and the facility became part of Paramount.

Baum would have *loved* the MGM film just for the technical
gimmicks.  I haven't seen more than a couple of clips for the
new Oz film, but suspect that the same remark applies.

	Mike
-- 

   Mike Urban
	{ucbvax|decvax}!trwrb!trwspp!spp2!urban 

"You're in a maze of twisty UUCP connections, all alike"