a late 1947 ad for Revere 8mm home movie technology
Toronto. … we had home movies. Originally 16mm, during the depression Kodak began selling 8mm versions and post war in a scramble to expand market size and improve image quality, Kodak moved to ‘Super 8’. In the late 1930s, Kodachrome first became available as home movie film, allowing all home movie buffs to shoot in colour.
The December, 1947 advertisement shows a colour 8mm home movie being enjoyed by all. From my point of view, few ‘amateurs’ took the time to script and edit home movies. Such movies became instead a valuable historical record of family life, primarily of scenes and people – of interest only to immediate family members. Today, some historians are beginning to see their value in tracking trends and changes to the way we live.
TV came along after WW2 – after 1952 up here in the great white north. And stills reigned supreme. Then videos became standard fare with the advent of digital technology, Youtube, and smartphones. Today most of us prefer video guides over text and stills as tools to learn new software, do it yourself repairs, gardening, crafts and anything else that needs learning before we succeed at hands on.
The ad used here is courtesy of our good friend (and retired professional videographer), George Dunbar.
