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Unknown[Amateur film: Parade of Krewe of Rex, New Orleans, February 25, 1941] (1941)

New Orleans festivities as they looked just before World War II.


This movie is part of the collection: Prelinger Archives

Producer: Unknown
Sponsor: N/A
Audio/Visual: Si, C
Keywords: New Orleans; Mardi Gras; Celebrations

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: Rick Prelinger - - January 4, 2009
Subject: It's actually just Kodachrome...
It's just 16mm amateur Koda stock. However, I've read that Technicolor's monopack experiments in the late 1940s-early 1950s did in fact use 35mm stock that was quite similar to Kodachrome.

[Note added 3 January 2009]

In case anyone's still wondering, this is Kodachrome. Kodachrome film was introduced in 1935 but the first several years' output tended to fade to magenta and then to almost monochrome. After about 1938 Kodachrome's dyes were stabilized. This film has maintained its color like literally millions of other Kodachrome films shot on stock manufactured after 1938. Nothing unusual.

Reviewer: falcofalco - - November 25, 2007
Subject: Roy Rogers: does he appear in this New Orleans parade?
My search of the Internet Archive for the key phrases "Roy Rogers" + "moving images" brought up this Feb 1941 amateur film.

I've examined it several times but cannot see Roy Rogers in the parade. If he does appear in the film, has anyone noticed in which frames/time in the film he appears?

Is he riding Trigger? Is he on a float? Is it just a very brief glimpse of him?

Or is the Internet Archive search engine in error and Roy Rogers does not appear in this film at all?

Thank you.

Reviewer: Bill T. - - December 3, 2005
Subject: Cute costumed kiddy alert!!
Mind boggingly colorful film that shows us what went on during celebrations of Mardi Gras innew Orleans in 1941. All of this is relatively tame compared to the ¡°SHOW US YOUR TITS!¡± mentality that¡¯s prevailant (I think) in the present rendition of the carnival. I really liked the amazing floats going on in this parade, some real loving work went into them. And the costumes! Oh! Even the young uns¡¯ get into the act, by showing us the CUTEST outfits ever, I was all over it.

This comes highly recommended by me!

Reviewer: berb - - October 9, 2005
Subject: Great time to remember New Orleans
ADDED BY EDIT: My last review appeared in the edit window when I clicked the 'Write a Review' link, so I gather that I'm simply editing it rather than submitting a new one. If not, sorry for the double-post of that part.

Rick, what you say may be true, but if this is Kodachrome then it must have been a dye-transfer print. Either that or this is the absolute best preserved chemical-only color film in history. 35mm color films made 40 years later are nowhere near as well preserved as this.

I suppose there's one other possibility: a digital restoration of the original color values. Do you have any information about that?

Monopack was tested and perfected in the early 40s. Technicolor's website had information posted about it a few months ago, but that's been taken down with only a promotion for a soon-to-be-released book in its place.

It may well be that this isn't a true Technicolor film, but I find it very difficult to believe that this is just a home movie that sat around in somebody's attic or sock drawer for decades. There's just no way that the color could be so vibrant if that were the case. Something else MUST have happened.

END OF EDIT.

---------------------------------------------

...with priceless films like this one and its companion 'Amateur film: New Orleans Carnival Week, February 22, 1941':

http://www.archive.org/details/NewOrlea1941

I chose to bump this one for a number of reasons. For one thing, I've already written a review of the other (under the name berberry, which I can't seem to recover since I no longer use the same email address). This film hasn't been downloaded nearly as often as the other and I think that's a shame, particularly since it's from Fat Tuesday (the other is from several days earlier). The crowds are larger and the celebration is more raucous. This one also features quite a few more children in close-up.

This is truly a remarkable full-color record of the 1941 New Orleans Mardi Gras. Both of these films bear the marks of being experiments by the Technicolor Corporation, which was at that time developing its Monopack system, whereby 3-strip Technicolor films could be made using ordinary black-and-white cameras. I suspect that the jerkiness in parts of the film owes to the not-yet-perfected Monopack.

Reviewer: ProfessorCarlNivale - - August 18, 2004
Subject: Carnival Gone By...
Once again, the home movies of one lovely Mardi Gras fan has yielded a time encapsulated gem of a kinder, more civilized Carnival. Aside from the intrinsic deficiencies, notice how well-dressed and civil are the revelers, even those in costumes are having a wonderful time. What more innocent a time in Carnival's history that the time between the Great Depression and World War II. It is a time that is celebrated in these short, disjointed scenes of what must have been a memorable Mardi Gras for the photographer.
The costume choices really tell a great deal about what was to be expected from the celebrations. Everyone in these shots is an active participant, rather than a disconnectd observer. In the crowd, you can see dozens of examples of costuming of some kind, form, or fashion. Another poster mentioned the large number of gypsies. This was a popular theme in the 30's and 40's, as were the Southern belles, still hot from the "Gone With The Wind" fad. Cowboys and indians, a popular theme from the Tom Mix westerns and Roy Rogers' radio programs. There is also a kind of palpable joy in these shots; the joy of a people celebrating an era when all was seemingly correct in the universe. A kind of sweet abandonment that can only be enjoyed by those whose lives are safe and secure. The best example of this are the impromptu shots of a dance contest whose participants are the definition of reckless.
One other reason for treasuring this footage is for the rememberance of Canal St. in those days before the war. Though it remains the exact same distance, in these images the world's widest street seems smaller, and more intimate.
Perhaps it is just the feeling of the day showing through some 6 decades later.

Reviewer: jamescbarnett - - October 28, 2003
Subject: 1941 mardi gras parade
good images of floats, and costumes. Many little girls dressed as Southern Belles. Surprising amount of Gypsy costumes. Interesting home made clown costumes

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