The talk about first color movie....I have no memory of what movie was the first I ever saw in a theater, hence whether it was b/w or color is a bit moot.
I do, however, have memories of the first three movies I remember seeing in a theater: "Anastasia" (1956), "The Ten Commandments" (1956) and "War and Peace" (1956). All were in color. And I was 7 years old. (the first film was my first memory of CinemaScope and the latter two were both VistaVision. My first roadshow for which I reserved a ticket/seat in advance was "The Sound of Music" in 1965).
My mother has told me she used to take me with her to the movies all the time when I was a baby...and I know I went to the movies in the small town where we lived prior to my reaching age 7, but I don't remember what the movies were.
We had a TV back in those olden days, and black-and-white was the norm. I don't believe I ever questioned it, although I used to wonder what some of the programs would be like in color...especially in those years of the early 1960s. It was 1966 when my father bought a color TV. I had seen color TV as early as 1964 when my grandfather bought one.
We would go to my grandfather's for Sunday dinner and then watch "Bonanza."
What I really wanted was to see was the NBC peacock and the opening to the Walt Disney TV show...it always looked as if it would be spectacular in color...and I remember seeing color images in magazines of what they looked like...and the real thing was as wonderful as I'd imagined.
I've never had a problem with b/w vs. color. I guess there was a time when I wondered why studios made decisions to film in b/w rather than color, but then I'd research and find some comment about WWII austerity, etc. It always made sense to me...at that time and for that time. Today, in retrospect, it seems insane that MGM didn't film "Ziegfeld Girl" in color...or that Fox didn't film "Prince of Foxes" in color. But..what's done is done.
I had a young friend in Naples, Italy, during my tour there 1987-92, who came to my house one Saturday wanting to watch some movies on VHS. He named one he wanted to see, and I had it. So, we watched. And then I took a turn and put on "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane."
He nearly freaked. "I don't watch black-and-white" movies, he stated. "They're not realistic."
I reminded him that they were MOVIES and that the movie he had chosen was no more realistic because it was in color than if it had been in b/w. I implored him to give this movie a chance.
He grudgingly -- and very silently -- watched the movie through to its conclusion.
Afterward, he said, "That was GREAT! I got so involved in the story that I forgot it wasn't in color!"
And THAT's what it's all about. Sometimes, the lack of color forces you to think and give it emotional color on your own!
