Back to the Future

If you're like me, you sometimes have a "black & white" view of history; I blame this on the invention of photography. Your memories of day to day life may be in color, but your "hard copy" was recorded in black & white.  Living in our modern, Kodachrome color-filled days we tend to forget that the people of the past, themselves, really did see in color.  Though color photography has, in essence, been around since the 1860's, it's black & white that has prevailed and captured most of modern mans significant history to date.  I, being born in the early 1960's see my baby pictures in black & white; my first Kodak camera was a black & white model; my memories seem to be in black & white.  [Most] kids today have no idea what a "wringer" washing machine is, nor do they remember having to get off the couch to change the TV channel or adjust the rabbit ears, scratch their 45 or LP records on a phonograph, listen to AM only radio in a car, reel to reel, 8 track or cassette audio tapes and maybe some don't even know what a VHS tape is.  Do I dare say that today, with our "modern" entertainment technologies of Cd's, DVDs, MP3, MP4, E Mail, text messaging and smart phones, that even the wonder of  "color photography" may someday lose its significance? Imagine if the 1939 movie "The Wizard of Oz" were in black & white only.  Color production in its early days was an expensive endeavor; it [color photography] was used for items of high importance, things of significance. 

We've all seen the recent films and photographs of "WWII in color" on TV documentaries; these are a rarity indeed; if they were an item in abundance they wouldn't be marketed as "WWII in color"!  As you can imagine, while doing this study into the history of the Pistol Pakin Mamma, I've viewed thousands of photographs and videos of air planes in black & white only.  To me, it's of great wonder then, why?; of the thousand of photo's of B-24 bombers, that I know of only one offering in color photography; not colorized, but color.  It just so happens that the only color photo I've ever seen of a B-24 just so happens to be of Our B-24 ( I do know others exist).  The photo at the top banner on this blog is the one.  I found it on the web site B-24 best web from contributor: Robert Livingstone , author of at least 2 books pertaining to WWII aircraft.  I can't say who, where or why this particular photograph was shot in color, but I assume it was of/for some significance.  We must appreciate the fact that this is one of the few color photo's of a WWII plane. In my mind I'll believe, it was because she was a plane of significance with a crew of importance; one memory I'll always see in color.



An additional note: I now believe this photograph was likely taken at Wheeler Field, Hawaii as it had a modern concrete runway.