MACY’S PARADE – SANTA CLAUS (1966)

Welcome to American Photo Colorizing .com’s photo blog. We colorize black & white photos for museums, media, multi-media, and families like yours. A visit to our website gets you started: http://www.americanphotocolorizing.com

The year is 1966 – and this is definitely Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Macy’s began holding what was then Macy’s Christmas Parade in 1924. Originally, the balloons were released to the heavens at the parade’s end. This short tradition ended in 1932 as a safety measure to protect aviators. Television spread the acclaim of the Macy’s Parade, shortly after World War II ended. By the time this 1966 photo of Santa Claus, the Macy’s Parade was as much a part of our modern Thanksgiving celebration as turkey, pumpkin pie, and football.

Christmas will sneak up on you before you know it. It isn’t too early to start looking through your family photo collection. A beautifully-colorized image of your ancestors (suitable for enlarging and framing) makes a wonderful keepsake for the entire family. This year, “Give the Christmas Present of Christmas Past!”

MACY’S PARADE – BULLWINKLE (1963)

Welcome to American Photo Colorizing .com’s photo blog. We colorize black & white photos for museums, television, print media, multi-media, and families like yours. A visit to our website gets you started: http://www.americanphotocolorizing.com

The year is 1963. From his debut in 1961 through 1983, Bullwinkle J. Moose was everyone’s favorite balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Here he is floating above the streets of New York City just a week after the JFK tragedy. America needed a reason to smile, and Bullwinkle, trouper that he is, gave them plenty to smile about.

Little did we imagine on Thanksgiving Day 1963, that in 9 short weeks, a quartet of mop-topped singers from Liverpool, England, who called themselves The Beatles, would win the hearts of America, on CBS-TV’s Ed Sullivan Show. But, for now, lifting the spirit of an America in mourning, fell on the t-shirted shoulders of our Bullwinkle. And so it was on an unforgettable Thanksgiving 52 years ago.

Christmas will sneak up on you before you know it. It isn’t too early to start looking through your family photo collection. A beautifully-colorized image of your ancestors (suitable for enlarging and framing) makes a wonderful keepsake for the entire family. This year, “Give the Christmas Present of Christmas Past!”

MACY’S PARADE – PINK PANTHER (1964)

Welcome to American Photo Colorizing .com’s photo blog. The year is 1964. It was a year that began somberly in January, as America continued to mourn the loss of a president. Five weeks from New Years Day, mourning gave way to unbridled euphoria – at least among teens and pre-teens, as Beatlemania and the British Invasion swept across America. A young man by the name of Cassius Clay defeated Sonny Liston for the world heavyweight title. Ford Motors unveiled their sporty mid-size car, the Ford Mustang.

And as it has done for over 100 years, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade wound its way through New York City streets. A million spectators line the parade route. From 77th Street at Central Park West to Columbus Circle at 6th Avenue, past 42nd Street, all the way to Macy’s Department Store at 34th Street in Herald Square come the marching bands, floats, oversized character balloons, singers, dancers . . . and of course, Santa Claus. You really haven’t seen a parade until you’ve seen Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

In New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut we called it The Macy’s Day Parade. And in the 1960s there were certain balloons and floats we always awaited. Some attractions, like the Giant Turkey and the Pilgrim Couple date back to at least the 1940s – and are still part of the parade today. There were three balloons that defined the 1960s Macy’s parade for us kids: Underdog, Bullwinkle Moose, and this fellow here, the Pink Panther. Can anyone look upon ‘His Royal Pinkness’ – and not start humming the Henry Mancini-crafted theme song? We’ll be featuring a number of colorized photos of the parade from now through Thanksgiving Day. So . . . who wants some eggnog?

We colorize black & white photos for museums, media, multi-media, and families like yours. Our online Photo Gallery features 100s of colorized vintage images available for purchase. A visit to our website gets you started: http://www.americanphotocolorizing.com

Christmas will sneak up on you before you know it. It isn’t too early to start looking through your family photo collection. A beautifully-colorized image of your ancestors (suitable for enlarging and framing) makes a wonderful keepsake for the entire family. This year, “Give the Christmas Present of Christmas Past!”

A visit to our website gets you started: http://www.americanphotocolorizing.com

JFK & JON JON (1962)

Welcome to American Photo Colorizing .com’s photo blog. We colorize black & white photos for museums, television, multi-media, and families like yours.

A visit to our website gets you started: http://www.americanphotocolorizing.com

The year is 1962. If you were alive then, and old enough to understand, you remember where you were when the news flashed its way into our TVs and radios on that November 22rd afternoon. I was in 4th grade at Mendham Township Elementary School in New Jersey. We were in Mrs. Roscoe’s class, when an announcement came over the loud speaker. We were in stunned disbelief. The teachers pointed us in the general directions of our neighborhood – and sent us home. I remember, Louie Sharp’s teenage sister telling us what was going to happen next. Ten minutes later, I burst through the kitchen door, yelling “Mom – President Kennedy’s dead! The Commies are gonna get us!!” That was over half a century ago. It just doesn’t seem possible.

On today’s American Photo Colorizing blog we have President Kennedy and Jon Jon sharing a light-hearted moment in the Oval Office. This is how I choose to remember the president, in this month where we remember the 52nd anniversary of that infamous day.

Christmas will sneak up on you before you know it. It isn’t too early to start looking through your family photo collection. A beautifully-colorized image of your ancestors (suitable for enlarging and framing) makes a wonderful keepsake for the entire family. This year, “Give the Christmas Present of Christmas Past!”

JOHN LENNON – WHEN I’M 75

Welcome to the American Photo Colorizing.com photo blog. We colorize black & white photos for museums, television, print media . . . and families like yours.

A visit to our website gets you started: http://www.americanphotocolorizing.com

It was 75 years ago today . . . October 9, 1940 when “Chief Beatle”, John Winston Lennon was born in Liverpool, England. To many of us, it seems like yesterday when the leader of The Fab Four was just 23 years old, and The Beatles invaded “The Colonies”. It was February 7, 1964. Two days later, The Beatles made their legendary first appearance on TV’s “Ed Sullivan Show”.

Sgt. Pepper may have taught the band to play . . . but, it took Ed Sullivan to deliver them an audience of 73 million viewers. It was a cold New York afternoon when The Beatles touched down at Kennedy International Airport. They were greeted by the roar of 5,000 screaming teenagers, clamoring to get their first look at the four lads from Liverpool. Two evenings later – 73 million Americans tuned into the Ed Sullivan Show – for their first look. Our photo for today features the faces of Beatlemania – The Fans.

A year and a half ago, I was pleasantly surprised to get a phone call from a woman who in 1964 was the brunette teenage girl on the far left of the photo. She had spotted it online, when we posted our colorized image for the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. She shared the backstory with me – of the original black and white photo, taken by a news photographer. We never know who’s going to call our studio!

QUEEN OF SURF GUITAR (1963)

Welcome to the American Photo Colorizing.com photo blog. We colorize black & white photos for television, museums, print media, multi-media . . . and families like yours.

A visit to our website gets you started: http://www.americanphotocolorizing.com

The year is 1963. Kathy Marshall was only 13 or 14 years-old – but she was jamming onstage with such surf music luminaries as Dick Dale & His Del-Tones, The Crossfires, and Eddie & The Showmen (shown here). Dick Dale claims to have bestowed on her the title “Queen of Surf Guitar”. Surprisingly, Kathy never formed her own group – nor did she ever record professionally. But, those who remember seeing her perform with top local surf bands, say she held her own on stage with the best surf guitarists of the mid-1960s.

As you can see, the original photo was shot in color. However, the color had degraded so much that I had to not only restore the image presence, but it was necessary to add fresh color to it, in order to get the image back to 1963. Now, HERE’S an image befitting a Queen!

THE BEACH BOYS (1962)

Welcome to the American Photo Colorizing.com photo blog! We colorize black & white photos for museums, educators, media . . . and families like yours.

A visit to our website gets you started: http://www.americanphotocolorizing.com

Summer is here, and we’re on a Surfin’ Safari back to the year 1962. Here’s a brand new Rock & Roll band from Hawthorne, California in Los Angeles’ South Bay. They call themselves The Beach Boys, and they range in age from 13 to 21.

This photo is from the teen documentary “One Man’s Challenge”, produced by Dale Smallin, and featuring the young Beach Boys performing their song, “Surfin’ Safari” at the Azusa Teen Club.

Due to the nature of the original film we captured the image from – the clarity isn’t pristine. But, what a cool piece of Rock & Roll history!

At American Photo Colorizing, our goal is to shred the black & white veil that separates us from the exciting, vibrant lives of those who came before us. It’s time to “Go Color” with your vintage and antique family photos. Your ancestors are counting on you!

We just can’t stop there . . . and so, we’re making the original video footage available for you – right here . . . right now!

And since American Photo Colorizing’s “Redwood Studio” is just a few blocks from the blue Pacific in the heart of Southern California – we send out a mighty COWABUNGA to all our local Hodads!

THE REAL DON STEELE (1964)

Welcome to the American Photo Colorizing.com photo blog! We colorize black & white photos for museums, media, multi-media, and families like yours. A visit to our website gets you started: http://www.americanphotocolorizing.com

The year is 1964. It’s a time of sweeping changes in America. The 1950s are now officially over, and the Swingin’ Sixties have arrived with the invasion of many, many mop-topped bands from Britain. At radio station KISN in Portland, Oregon – disc jockey, The Real Don Steele is holding court. This was one year before Don moved to 93-KHJ in Los Angeles, where he became one of the top disc jockeys in Southern California. Somehow, black & white just doesn’t fit The Real Don Steele’s zany personality. So we added color. Now the Real Don Steele really looks REAL! “Let’s spin that stack of black shellac!”.

HERE’S 64 SECONDS OF “THE REAL DON STEELE” IN ACTION ON KRLA, LOS ANGELES

AUDREY HEPBURN – COLORIZED (1967)

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The year is 1967. Audrey Hepburn is the epitome of “mod” in this shot from her from “Two for the Road”. One of these is the Original Color Photograph. The other is our Colorization from a Black & White version of the original. Can you tell which is the Original and which is Colorized? You’ll find the answer at the bottom of the page.

HERE’S A LOBBY CARD OF “TWO FOR THE ROAD (1967)

ANSWER: Our Colorization is on the Left.

WEDDING IN FRANCE (1965)

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The year is 1965. Cathy D. of Antibe, French Riviera is a very special friend to us at American Photo Colorizing – and one of our most loyal clients. Cathy suggested that we post this 1965 photo of her parents’ wedding day on “Trending History”. When we start with a beautiful black and white like this one, it makes for a beautiful colorized version. Cathy was thrilled with the results – and has commissioned us to create other images from her family photo collection.

We colorize historical photos for museums, media, multimedia producers, educators . . . and for families like yours. Visit our website at: http://www.americanphotocolorizing.com
Remember: Your ancestors are counting on you!