A lot of people are under the (mistaken) impression that the first colour movie was 1939's Wizard of Oz, but there have been colour films as early as the turn of the century. Oz wasn't even the first natural colour feature film, that title goes to The Toll of the Sea from 1922. 

Natural colour films date back to just a few years after the very beginning of motion picture history. But that doesn't mean they were common. Finding a colour film from the 1930s is quite rare. 

I have in my possession several colour films from 1939 that, as far as I know, haven't ever been digitized or seen by the internet. 

My grandfather gave me a few old 16mm film cans. He told me that they were travelogues, films made to show places visited and experiences encountered by a traveler. 

I'm going to release these 1939 Travelogues on Steemit

Beginning with this one: 

If you can't read the label, it says "Hawaii Part III". I don't know what happened to parts I and II. This is all I have. 

I can't be 100% certain that this film is from 1939. I date it so because the other three films I have are marked "1939". You'll see when you watch the footage that if it isn't 1939 exactly, it's within that ballpark, give or take a year or two.

For all you kids out there, I'm going to show you how this whole film thing works.

1. Open the can

Inside, you'll find a metal reel wrapped with celluloid. This is what we called a film. Can you believe it? No screens, no pixels, no megabytes. It's purely physical.

2. Hook it up to a projector

This is a projector:

What is that thing?? Well kids, this is how we used to play movies. Who the hell do I think I'm talking to? I'm 25. This thing is older than me...

I have to admit, I had a little bit of trouble with this part. It's been a few years since I've done this. But the projector had some very helpful arrows silk-screened onto its surface. 

Once everything was put together, it looked like this:

Beautiful. I love this stuff so much.

Sorry for the long preamble. I love film and it's a dying art. I just want to gush about it for a little bit before getting to the good stuff! Without further ado...

Hawaii Part III

If you're only here for the volcano footage, jump ahead to 1:55. The volcano footage continues until 4:37.

I would recommend watching the rest of the film.

It's amazing seeing people almost 80 years ago living their lives in full colour. The fashion, the cars, the buildings... everything is amazing. This is such a well preserved piece of history and I'm so excited to be able to share it with you!

~Seth

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