Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Coloized JFK & Jackie as Newly Weds 1953

Here;s a colorized JFK and Jackie on their wedding day at the Kennedy estate in Newport, Rhode Island in Sept 12,1953 just a few months after John gifted Jackie with a 2.88ct diamond engagement ring from Van Cleef & Arpels.
Someone pointed out the month of the wedding was September when the leaves and the grass start to yellow. Did a slight modification on the JFK-Jackie wedding day colorization to make the grass a bit yellowed from the earlier colorization I made below.


Sunday, April 24, 2016

Colorized John F. Kennedy

Used some liberties to make the background more colorful with my colorized version of JFK.

Sunday, April 17, 2016

Colorized Joan Crawford 1945 Mildred Pierce

Here is a colorized Joan Crawford for a photo promoting her 1945 Mildred Pierce. Joan and her eyebrows left MGM for Warner Bros, home of Bette Davis, in 1943, desperately wanting to play the title role of a suffering mother in Mildred Pierce The movie was originally offered to Bette Davis who turned it down Joan got the role and won her first Oscar for best actress in that movie to the chagrin of Bette who already had two Oscars for Jezebel (1938) and Dangerous (1935).



Interesting to note that Joan Crawford feigned illness and absented herself from the 1946 Academy Award ceremony, fearing that she would lose to Ingrid Bergman for The Bells of St. Mary’s. After learning that she had won, Joan applied her makeup and invited the press into her bedroom as she accepted her Oscar in bed.

Thursday, April 14, 2016

Colorized Joan Crawford & Clark Gable in 1931 Possessed

Acclaimed as one of the most electrifying love teams of all time, here are Joan Crawford & Clark Gable (minus the moustache), colorized for their promotional stills in the 1931 film "Possessed" Joan would star opposite Clark in 8 movies between 1931 and 1940, the most of any actress, and fueled rumors that they were having extramarital affairs with each other, but they remained just good friends. (Never mind that Clark did screw every leading lady he appeared with.) After Clark's wife Carole Lombard died in a 1942 plane crash, Joan took her place in the move "They all Kissed The Bride" and Clark went on to serve the US Military throughout the rest of WWII justr to get his mind off his tragedy.

Colorized Joan Crawford in 1935 No MoreLadies


The early-mid 1930s saw Joan Crawfor at the height of her popularity as among the most sought after actresses along with Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer and Jean Harlow. This is a colorized promotional still of the screen legend for her 135 film "No More Ladies with Robert Montgomery. Based on a stage play, the movie was a modest success but was panned by many critics. At around this time, Joan had already appeared 6 times with Clark Gable, the most of any actress, creating what was the most electric couple in early movie history, eclipsing the tandem of Greta Garbo and John Gilbert in the late 20s.


Colorized Joan Crawford c1935

Colorized a portrait of the screen legend Joan Crawford in her early Hollywood career that competed directly with Greta Garbo and Jean Harlow.

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Colorized Joan Crawford 1964

Aggressive colors for a strong-willed fiery actress and a former CEO of PepsiCola - Joan Crawford (1905 - 1977). Her journey from dancer to Hollywood star was a class act from obscurity in depression USA to one of the highest paid actresses competing with Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, etc. of the 30s. Spanning a 4-decade career, she was declared at least twice as box-office poison and each time making a triumphant re-entry.

This is my colorized take of 59 or 60-year old Crawford taken in 1964, 2 years after her critically acclaimed tandem with long time arch-rival Bette Davies in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" her last career resurgence at a time when actresses her age were already consigned to history.


Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Colorized Young Montgomery Clift c1936


Some old Hollywood stuff. Here's the young Montgomery Clift (1920 - 1966), taken in his late teens. Considered one of the most handsome actors to grace the screen, he was often paired with Elizabeth Taylor (Raintree Country, A Place in the Sun & Suddenly Last Summer) to create the loveliest couple on earth in the late 50s. Critically acclaimed in nearly all the pictures he starred and nominated 4 times in the Oscars for best actor, he was regarded by critics as the only one who directly competed against Marlon Brando as the most sought after leading man in the 50s. With his highly praised method acting, and his meticulous choice of roles, Elizabeth Taylor once said that had he lived longer, Montgomery Clift could have been the greatest actor of all time.



Saturday, April 9, 2016

Colorized Vintage Cleo de Merode 1903

Here is another colorized vintage portrait of the famed French ballerina Celo de Merode (1875 - 1966) taken in 1903. A specimen of natural beauty with a rather pedestrian coiffure and unadorned by any piece of jewelry.

Colorized Senator Wetmore & Wife in a Horseless Carriage c1906

This is a colorized vintage photo of a US Senator and his wife riding a Krieger Electric Landaulet (referred to as a "horseless carriage") dated 1906.  Significant guesswork went into the colorization, covering the color of the vehicle, the time of the year, with autumn colors preferred, and the colors of the cloths of the people depicted.

Thursday, April 7, 2016

Colorized Native America Indian Chief Porcupine

The state of vintage photos of Philippine tribes is just deplorable. There is not much you can find online. And about the only ones worth colorizing are actually in the US Library of Congress. How about that? In trying to find one, I stumbled again on a large vintage scan (2200 pixels) of an American Indian who went by the name of Porcupine (ends not as pine as in pine cone, but peenee as in itsy bitsy teeny weenie) from the US Library of Congress.  Colorized in two flavours.


Colorized Young Bagobo Warrior of Southern Philippines c1920s

This is a vintage portrait of a young Bagobo warrior of Southern Philippines taken in early part of the 20th century.  Not much else is known.  There are just too few online vintage photos of Philippine ethnic groups good enough to colorize. Stumbled on this one from a foreign Pinterest page.


Friday, April 1, 2016

Colorized_Igorot at Papatayan, Malegoking, Bontoc, Phils, circa 1949

An ethnic scene of an Igorot overlooking the mountaina of the Cordilleras in the Bontoc Province of Northern Philippines. The is presumably a photograph of the Filipino-Spanish photographer Eduardo Masferre taken in 1949. Extesive creative liberties were made to use setting sun (or a rising sun) behind the mountain where the original hinted at a cloudy vista.