When did major American studios (as opposed to maxed-out-credit-card operations like View Askew circa Clerks) abandon black and white in favor of color? Recall that the first color films were in the 1930s but black and white movies were apparently being made into the 1960s.
Color was more expensive than B&W, so studios only did a few color films a year (and the first color films dated back to the silent days). In the late 1950s, partly to counteract the influence of TV (still mostly B&W), most movies – especially “pretige films” – were made in color. B&W was still used by the studios (Hitchcock made a conscious decision to shoot Psycho in color) but was phased out in the 60s, with a few occasional deliberate execeptions (Woody Allen’s Manhattan, for instance).
Read Pictures at a Revolution by Mark Harris. It tells a great story about how Hollywood changed in the mid-to-late 1960s, getting away from black and white and into color. For example, in 1966, Mike Nichols filmed **Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolff ** in B&W, mainly because he wasn’t comforatble trying to film in color. The next year, he made **The Graduate ** in color and hasn’t made a B&W movie since.
How about black and white television shows? I’ve seen reruns of black and white shows from the late 1960s, and I remember into the 1970s TV Guide used to use a special marker to identify shows in color, as if they were still a novelty. (My parents got their first color television in 1973. Thewy paid $650 for it; adjusted for inflation that’s gotta’ be at least $2500 in today’s dollars.)
In short, it was a gradual shift, and even now of course major feature films are occasionally made in black and white.
I once saw a trivia question that read: Which came first, color film or black and white? The answer was color. Not commercially viable yet, I guess, if the answer was correct. But the first color movie was apparently a 1918 silent feature called Cupid Angling.
That should be quite a shock to Edison, who started making movies in 1888. I don’t think they were in color.
A few minutes into The Wizard of Oz. The change was quite sudden.
Major studios were still making movies in black and white into the first half of the 1960s – and not just for “artistic style”.
The Train (1964)
The Bedford Incident (1965)
King Rat (1965)
The Absent-Minded Professor(1961) and its sequel Son of Flubber (1963) Disney, fer cryin’ out loud! if anyone knew and appreciated the use of color in family entertainment it was Walt"Wonderful World of Color" Disney. They could certainly afford it. Yet they made these in black and white. I notice that the video re-issues are colorized. If they weren’t, the kids probably wouldn’t watch them.
…and plenty more
The trivia question I read, I don’t think it actually meant that short color movies were made first, just that the film was developed first. I’ve never seen independent verification of that claim, though. Has anyone else heard that color film came before B&W?
EDIT: Actually, now that I think about it, the question may have been referring to just regular film, as in photographs. Not sure. Would be good to know if anyone else has heard this.
Psycho was filmed in black and white
Jerry Lewis made Cinderfella in color, and while he was waiting for it to go through editing he shot, edited, and distributed the black and white The Bellhop.
Do you have a colour TV (okay- bad joke)?
NBC went full color in 1966. The last series to air in B&W was “I Dream of Jeannie’s” first season (there was a second show in B&W in the early 1965 season, but it didn’t last the season).
ABC and CBS took a little longer. NBC jumped into color big time because they were owned by RCA, which made color sets. CBS dragged its feet a bit (especially since their color TV system had been turned down by the FCC) and ABC didn’t have a lot of money.
And, yes, I knew Psycho was in B&W. My fingers didn’t follow what my brain was thinking.