The "Harris Grande" on fire. Bloomington IN. July 2, 1942

This is another photo out of 15 colorized photos that where featured in

my first full colorized exhibition "Living in Color" at the 

"Monroe County Historical society" museum.

It was taken on July 2, 1942 and it shows the burning "Harris Grande" Theatre on Walnut and seventh.

The big challenge in this photo was to make a realistic looking fire and the feeling of dawn on top of a not so well preserved old photo. 
Click to see the result.

This is the original black and white photo I worked off of.

I had to reconstruct some of it and get rid of damage and spots that appear on this print.

Note the civilians on the roof and on top of the fire trucks.

This would not be something you'd see today.

photo Courtesy of the Monroe county historical society.

catalog number: 2001.042.0001 

This is the same spot as it looks like today.

 The "Harris Grande" in early days.

These are the original movie posters for those three posters on the side of the burning theater.

All the films reflect escapism to wild and exotic places.

Typical of WW2 time movies.

"The Tuttles of Tahiti" (1942 about the Tuttle family from Tahiti) 

"Bahama Passage" from 1941.

"Frisco Lil" (1942)