SIXTY!! COLOR!! photos of The USA in the 1940s.

Nice cars

I love this one of NYC.

Beautiful car.

I wish car design was still so inspired.

The era before cheap crappy suburban buildings with no sense of proportion or style cluttered up the roads.

It looks lovely.

No POCcers. It looks nice.

No words needed.

"it's Hood's Milk Cream"

wonder who came up with that little piece of inspiration

Because you usually see this era in black and white, it's surprising to see how colorful it was.

I love whitewall tires.

40s fashion was boring.

Yay, color.

R10's exciting fashion sense >

This thread was fun. The best way to time travel.

One thing I do like about being born in the early 70s is that scene like this still feel somewhat familiar.

What amazes me when looking back at pictures of the past is even poorer neighborhoods and towns, regardless of race, had pride in their surroundings and tried to keep them clean and kept up as best they could, but by the late 1960s that seems to have been lost.

It looks pretty prosperous in comparison to anywhere in war torn Europe.

London late 40s >

It’s weird to think that they probably saw the world in color back then too.

there is a pic taken in Reno with a gorgeous man at the center. the one wearing a Red tie-thing. So hot.

He looks a bit intense for me.

he's movie star beautiful!

that's what Ted Cruz would look like if he got off his fat, greasy ass and got on a treadmill.

Here he is again.

I prefer this guy

The shops all seem so little!

[quote] but finished his career as a 1 slam wonder

Is he an International Tennis Hall of Fame member?

A crime against Nature!

R28, good nutrition gave their children length of bone.

I think it was the '60s when the look of things really changed.

R19, how do we know if the tie was really red? Don’t they just color it any color they want when restoring these photos, like a kid coloring in his coloring book.

The 21st century is when everything changes.

Great photographs! Like most others, I love the cars. They would get even more amazing in the 50s and 60s, so unlike today's look-alike jellybean designs. Of course, they're a lot safer and more reliable nowadays, but they're boring. Style over safety!

What's striking to me how almost everywhere looks shabby compared to today but has vastly more character. Downtown streets were a chaos of uncoordinated signs and marquees. No modern shopping center designer would tolerate such jarring mismatch, but it gave the streets a look that was unique to each place. The gas stations look run-down but cared for with pride by their owner, who was not a corporation. Things didn't just look different from today, they looked different from other places. We've lost that for the most part.

And - almost too obvious to mention, but I'll say it anyway - people are much, much better dressed. Except for Donald O'Connor and Dorothy Lamour, these are ordinary Americans, dressed up a bit for the occasion perhaps but not rich or trying to be high-fashion. They made an effort to dress differently for different occasions, something that has been lost in modern times.

I bought about 900 slides for $12 at an estate sale. They document four decades (mid-40s through the 80s) of one family's picnics, cookouts, proms, dinners, weddings, dances, camping and fishing trips, cocktail hours, vacations, vehicles, pets, weekends at the lake house, and more. Because the images are not paper prints, they are largely intact from the era they were produced. I built a wall-mounted lightbox to display about 300 of the best ones, and keep a photographer's loupe for guests to examine them. It's fascinating.

If you want to see how dramatic moving from b/w to color can be, take a look at Peter Jackson's They Shall Not Grow Old, WWI movie.

I wonder how many of those guys in r19 stole away to cruise for dick from time to time?

Probably, based on statistics, one.

Thanks, OP, great find!

R35, I’m one that would truly enjoy and probably spend hours looking at those slides.

I would love to look at those slides. I'm a HUGE fan of vintage photos. I've tried to start a few threads about it here but they never go very far. They just seem to spark my imagination. I'm sure it's the film of the time that allows more richness and the black and white covering up flaws easier, but the men always seem so much hotter. Sorry to diverge from the color specification...same era though.

Love. As awkward as I admit it sounds, I'm fascinated when I look at all my parents' huge collection of black-and-white photo memories they took and saved, or when my mom tells me stories from this era, and I realize that all those photos' and her captured and recalled memories were, naturally, in color in their lives--but just black-and-white to me always. I love the intimacy and contemporary quality that viewing old photos like these, in the color in which they were lived and taken naturally, provides.

R11 that’s a bittersweet photo. The sad part is obvious, but at least it’s nice to see the father treating his daughters to ice ream and they are apparently being served without any b.s. glad this is preserved. We shouldn’t try to erase history.

Thank you OP for posting this. I love historical photos.

[quote]40s fashion was boring.

Yeah , I'm sure in 60-70 years Youtubers are going to be making hundreds of "vintage finds" and hair and makeup tutorial videos of the early 21st century "look"

"Oh my God! I was going through my Grandma's attic you guys and I found a huge box of skinny jeans, hoodies and black knit beanies! Total HAUL!"

No fatties!

R13 it really is like looking through a time machine.

R32, are you trolling, or are you really that stupid?

I shot that guy in R19 -- just to watch him die.

[R18] and [R19]: That man in the red tie is John Russell, supporting player in multiple 40’s and 50’s movies, mostly westerns. I remember him on TV in the 50’s, in Soldiers of Fortune, and later starring in his own series, Lawman.

Hot man, deep voice, often with a clipped mustache.

Women's fashion is boring now. In fact men's hairstyles etc change faster than women's nowadays. Women's hairstyles have been in that quasi 60s look for years now. At least decades ago you can see the fashions change from decade to decade. Not so much now it's more a mish mash of previous styles.

[quote]I realize that all those photos' and her captured and recalled memories were, naturally, in color in their lives--but just black-and-white to me always.

Yeah, it blew my mind too to realize they might have seen everything in color instead of black and white.

Looking at these photos, you realize how trashy so many people look today.

Having been born in 1944, I remember a lot of those cars and rode in several. What I don't remember from that era was any fat people and these stunning photos reflect that. We were just recovering from World War II and all of the new cars being produced were just a taste how the country transformed. How little did we know that TV was just on the horizon.

R32, were you trolling or joking? OP's link states explicitly that these are original Kodachromes (google it), not recently colorized black and white photos.

And yeah, John Russell was hot as Hell. I remember Lawman and have since seen his earlier films. Be still my beating heart.

[quote]And yeah, John Russell was hot as Hell.

He was a fug and creepy looking.

Was that real wood on the side of cars? I guess it must have been.

I don't think he'd have been a barrel of laughs somehow.

Sandy Hook! - looks more or less the same.

Maybe a little more twee now with those nasty black street lamps.

I'm English and don't know America very well. Can 7 just say what a joy these pictures are. It's amazing to see clear images from a time gone by. I love old Hollywood movies from the 40s and 50s and love threads about them on here. I find it very moving to actually see that time in America as it really was i.e unfiltered through a movies glossy lens. But America back then looked so beautiful and leisurely I love it. It has made my day to see these. I really enjoy seeing tje clothes and cars. Tganks OP.

R56, probably real wood, but only a decorative panel on top of a regular steel-bodied vehicle, as opposed to the solid wooden sides that prewar station wagons had. The presence of any wood at all was on its last legs. By the early '50s, as station wagon popularity took off, the wood was completely replaced with steel painted to look like wood. That was the case with the most famous station wagons - the Ford Country Squires that tooled around American suburbs in the '50s and '60.

So in love with these pictures ! The streets looked so clean and the cars are amazing . People did an effort back then to look nice even when they didn’t have much money, thank you OP .

What I don't understand about modern cars is why, even if they are all the same boring shape, they can't decorate them with nice colors , maybe contrasting roofs, wood or mock wood panelings...anything to cheer them the fuck up.

This is why I like my Mini Cooper Clubman, at least it's a little bit quirky in looks and design.

I was born in the 1950s. The world of my childhood was not so different from these photos. The buildings at any rate. I can recollect the smell of cooking, and probably cleaning materials, in those wooden houses when I see those.photos.

[quote]What I don't understand about modern cars is why, even if they are all the same boring shape, they can't decorate them with nice colors , maybe contrasting roofs, wood or mock wood panelings...anything to cheer them the fuck up.

What I learned is that it is always cheaper to produce a car with fewer curves, and I guess they want the basic colors so they will move off the lot.

[quote] No POCcers. It looks nice.

Say what?

I just know Red tie man was an actor. too handsome.

R8 I suspect that the color in these interesting photographs have been intensified up 5% over the natural original.

Even more, R68 - the sky in that pic is almost PURPLE.

Great pictures OP an era gone but not lost.

A lot of those sceneries (minus the people) can be seen in small towns in the south even the vending machines.

[quite] People did an effort back then to look nice even when they didn’t have much money

On the other hand, people didn't bathe as thoroughly or frequently as they do today, went a long time between hair washings, and smoked like chimneys.

[quote]On the other hand, people didn't bathe as thoroughly or frequently as they do today

Baths were reserved for Saturday unless it was a special occasion and you needed to look & smell your best.

The scent of cigarette smoke trapped in hair pomade.

That “truck” or whatever it is in r66’s pic is hideous and scary looking. Look how the windshield comes out.

When everyone smoked you had a tolerance to it - some people though, were especially smelly smokers.

To those discussing the wood paneling on the side of the cars, just a quick little aside.

Whenever my grandmother saw one of those she’d say, “Oooh, look at that! They didn’t even take it out of the box yet!” I still get a kick out of that.

My mother had a Mini in the '60s with real wood

Things had a lot more character when all the stores were independently owned. Everywhere in the US looks the same today with all the chain stores. It all looks like a generic strip mall.

Thanks, op, these pictures are great :)

R76 I would imagine the worst were smokers in movie theaters during the movie.

You had smoking sections, R81

[quote]Was that real wood on the side of cars? I guess it must have been.

Yes, back then a "woody" was something completely different.

A few things stick out to me.

1) Everybody pretty much was in a suit or dress back then. I thank a non-existent deity I can wear jeans and a t-shirt these days.

2) The auto industry now that they're going bonkers moving toward electric vehicles - why not bring the old body styles back with all the creature comforts and electric instead of IC engines. I'd buy say a 1960's Cadillac if it had that.

I would have loved living in a time when no one said "I thank a non-existent deity".

R68 These photos were taken with Kodachrome film. The color was not enhanced digitally.

"The color rendering of Kodachrome films was unique in color photography for several decades after its introduction in the 1930s.[31] Even after the introduction of other successful professional color films, such as Fuji Velvia, some professionals continued to prefer Kodachrome, and maintain that it still has certain advantages over digital. Steve McCurry told Vanity Fair magazine:[32]

"If you have good light and you're at a fairly high shutter speed, it's going to be a brilliant color photograph. It had a great color palette. It wasn't too garish. Some films are like you're on a drug or something. Velvia made everything so saturated and wildly over-the-top, too electric. Kodachrome had more poetry in it, a softness, an elegance. With digital photography, you gain many benefits [but] you have to put in post-production. [With Kodachrome,] you take it out of the box and the pictures are already brilliant.[32] " Kodachrome

Kodachrome They give us those nice bright colors They give us the greens of summers Makes you think all the world's a sunny day

Were they taken with a Nikon camera?

Why r88? Do you like to take phoooooootographs?

You really want to see what a difference the quality in color early color film had then watch Leave Her to Heaven. The effect was lost as cheaper color film became available.

The type of lens used made a difference, not all lenses were coated. I have a friend who collects cameras the pictures he takes with uncoated lenses are different to newer cameras which have coated lenses.

R86 That long spiel from Wiki makes me even more suspicious that the colours have been "enhanced".

I was at art college in the 80s and the professional photographer teacher warned us then that Brand X film exaggerated the colours with an apricot/orange tinge to get nice skin tones while Brand Y exaggerated them with an peachy/rosy tinge.

R90 Half the scenes in "Leave Her to Heaven' were photographed by Leon Shamroy at sunset with a rosy tinge flooding the image.

[quote][R86] That long spiel from Wiki makes me even more suspicious that the colours have been "enhanced".

I tried correcting one of these pics which is easy to do when they've been "enhanced", in effect, reversing the treatment & I couldn't.

They have clearly NOT been enhanced.

R93 One has merely to take these images into Photoshop and dial back the color saturation 8%.

Photoshop has a black and white mode which removes all the color.

These 60 photos look better and the subjects more interesting than any of the 200 billion digital photos taken every day now. Same as how the color films of Powell & Pressburger are more beautiful and interesting than any of the mundane high-def 4k shite that passes for cinema these days.

R96 I believe that the Technicolor photography-at-sunset in Powell & Pressburger's fabulous 'Black Narcissus' and their not-so-successful 'The Wild Heart' were very much influenced by Leon Shamroy's photography in 'Leave Her to Heaven' from 1945, R92.

Those 1940s films were sensational after the years of black and white and 'noir'.

Unfortunately color photography is of no interest now that almost everything is 'dark' again and photographed in an ominously, dingy dark blue color.

I see what you did there, r95!

Lolz