So many wonderful photographs were taken by Hollywood studio photographers, but so often in Black and White.
With modern technology, many colour enhanced images can be found online , with wonderful colorisation.
Victor Mascaro (victormas@aol.com) has been colorising photos since 1994, and you will see below how successful Victor is.
In a 2008 interview, Victor said, ‘as a Jean Harlow and Judy Garland fan, MGM was the dream factory. I now have my own little dream factory, turning out color photos of my favorite stars of the past.”
Victor spends time researching the actual colors as they appeared in real life.
Victor’s photos are available for purchase . He is also on Instagram at Hollywood-Stars-In- Color and he often shows the original B&W photo next to his colorised image.
I think his photos are tremendous. Just makes you wish color film had come to movies sooner.
Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow. DINNER AT EIGHT.
Garbo
Edna May Oliver
Jean Harlow
Judy Garland.
And here’s an example of the ‘before’ and ‘after.
Victor Mascaro
Vienna's Classic Hollywood 
I’m probably in the minority but I actually prefer the black & white photos of the stars.
Not at all. I expect many folk prefer the original black and white. I just love the vibrancy of the colour.
This beautiful work feels fully authentic, unlike the “colorized” films of twenty and more years ago. Before reading the entry I felt they were color photos taken at that time; a shock for me, to see how light Garbo’s hair was! And always a treat to see Edna May Oliver, one of my favorites.
Thanks Vienna for your reply on the Roxy site which, again, brings forth a flood of anecdotes perhaps more interesting than my previously shared memories. Dealing with computer problems/delays of late but I’ll indeed reply to your comments there which I appreciate very much!
I’ve added two more photos of Deanna Durbin to illustrate the difference.
Look forward to your further Roxy comments.
A pity film colorisation wasn’t so successful.
Thanks Vienna and please excuse my delay on the Roxy entry; your adding Deanna’s photos below Judy reminds me of an anecdote in Gore Vidal’s memoir “Palimpsest”. On TV’s “Studio One” he worked with producer Felix Jackson, “a refugee from Nazi Germany who had been married to Deanna Durbin, a child soprano and competitor of Judy Garland, whose imitations of her rival were marvelously cruel, involving a crooked arm and a radiant mad smile to match luminous crossed eyes. But Garland could be equally mordant about herself. When she had made her triumphant comeback at the London Palladium, inspired by merry schadenfreude, she rang her now-forgotten rival. After many delays and false starts, Garland got the sleepy, ill-tempered Durbin at home in the French countryside. ‘Tonight I had the greatest audience of my life!’ At length, Judy recounted her triumph. Finally, out of breath, she stopped. There was a long silence. Then a pitying voice said: ‘Are you STILL in that as***le business?'”
I do hope I censored sufficiently but without that word, there is no point of course to the story.
These are cool! I saw a colorized version of Bringing Up Baby probably…20 or so years ago and it was awful. Colorization has come a long way!
It has indeed.
Greg, can’t say I ever think of Judy and Deanna being rivals – both so different in voice and style. It’s a good story but I’m sure just that, a funny anecdote.
They were placed in direct competition in the short “Every Sunday”, devised as a screen test to decide which performer’s contract would be renewed, before Durbin became a Universal Studios star. They were also purportedly close friends, and this is exactly the kind of thing Garland often told “on herself”. Despite (or rather, because of?) her extraordinary but also unique talents, like many genuine originals she was privately insecure though outwardly self-mocking of these very insecurities while “taking off” others with a mimicry surely not actually cruel, or it would have caused offense. Others took it in fun as they knew she was as mordant about herself, as Vidal states.
I once heard Judy belittle Dietrich’s singing on national tv, and would have been shocked had she not done so in such a light way that it did not seem to bely admiration! Her early envy of Lana Turner, so very different than Judy, was openly known yet the two were good friends. I’m sure these friends forgave her not only due to her wit and sensitivity to them, but also her talents which in my view were tantamount to genius.
I agree it’s doubtful Judy and Deanna ever truly competed; yet artists are put into rivalry by business. And whether true or not, it’s a convincing example of how Judy did deal with what at other times vexed her – through humor.
Amazing to think MGM could have had Deanna under contract too.
Yes, and evidently Mayer decided to keep both of them – despite the controversy of his having insisted on pitting them against each other in said film, in order to choose only one – but Deanna’s “option had expired”, whatever that’s supposed to mean!
There are so many different stories about this story. Some say Deanna already had a Universal contract by the time “Every Sunday ” was filmed and that her MGM 6 month contract had already expired.
Yes – I’ve definitely read that both contracts were about to expire, and that the Universal contract was likely at least in the offing; otherwise Mayer could and would have done what he wanted. So perhaps Durbin chose or was advised to leave. To be that young, and friends placed into such competition must have been scary for both, to put it mildly…
You do the best colorization I have ever seen. Keep going.