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When the Force was with Boston City Hall
By adamg on Thu, 05/04/2017 - 12:47pm
![Mayor White with Luke and C3-PO in Boston City Hall](https://www.universalhub.com/files/styles/main_image/public/images/2017/whitefourth.jpg?itok=y97xJp9v)
On Star Wars Day, the Boston City Archives posted some photos of C3-PO, Luke and R2-D2 visiting with Mayor White at City Hall back in 1980.
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Black and white?
Were city hall photographers really still using black and white film in 1980?
While we do have some color
While we do have some color photos from this period, almost all of our negatives from the Mayor's Photographer in 1980 are black and white negatives.
Hmmmph
Interesting.
Color Photos
You have to understand that printing color photos took special equipment. I took photography in the mid-80s and we did black and white because you could print those immediately in a small darkroom.
Color took special processing, and those machines were HUGE and expensive. Not useful or feasible to work with, particularly if you needed immediate results.
Ditto for the Boston Globe
The Globe was really one of the last US newspapers to switch to color photos.
Not surprising
Remember that copies of these photos were often given to the press for use in their reporting. In the early 1980s, use of color photos in newspapers was barely heard of, let alone being a common practice.
Youth are adorable
Replying to the person incredulous about newspapers using black and white photos - you're adorable! It's amazing the things that we've accomplished since you've been alive.
If anyone can find the first front-page of the Boston Globe when they had a color photo, please post. If memory serves, it was a huge photo of a bright and scary fire - orange and red and white, etc. A great way to begin its next chapter.
The sad part was, from what I know, doing the paper (and, others) in full color required an earlier deadline, meaning the newspaper(s) missed late breaking news (including, of course, extra-inning ball games ...).
Gen X here....
And I remember that papers in the 1990s were rarely printed fully in color. The front pages of each section and perhaps a few other pages were in color, but most of the innards were black and white.
Read more: https://www.quora.com/When-and-why-did-newspapers-start-printing-in-color
A great local resource for learning even more: http://www.museumofprinting.org/
Yikes, it must have been a
Yikes, it must have been a political bombshell to welcome violent extremist rebels to a meeting at city hall. Also, I thought the sweater I donated to Planet Aid was going to an Alderaanian refugee camp, so I am shocked to see it worn by a rebel soldier.
Seriously?
They had to have this much press the flesh for Empire? It played for months at The Charles, in 70 MM.
Too bad they didn't go to a City Council meeting back then. It was The Cantina scene with uglier people (the wonderful Larry DiCara excepted). R2D2 was more comprehensible than Freddy Langone at times.
Oh, you forget the Empire hype
I remember seeing it at the Charles. It was a zoo, or at least it seemed that way to a 9/10 year old.
The presales for the last 7 films made the whole waiting thing a bit cute.
Jabba the Dapper?
Jabba the Dapper?
Even for 1980
Even for 1980, Mark Hamill's sweater is ugly.
Was this around the time they
Was this around the time they did this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhhHMJeFeO0