The reason I believe these were all done later is in the film stock. It's a later version of the Cinecolor, with a different (spectral) soundtrack as opposed to the earlier density tracks I've seen on the 30s Cinecolor materials I've had and seen.

T
Steve, the end title says "RCA High Fidelity Sound System", which to my knowledge produced variable-area tracks like what we see here. (Western Electric's recording system produced variable-density tracks.) Wouldn't Cinecolor have simply optically printed whatever track negative they were supplied?

Also, if you look at the second photo in the auction, on the left you'll see the edge marking "KODAK" in red followed by what looks like a plus sign and a square, which according to various charts available online would be the date code for 1935. These markings are crisp and set against the plain clear color of the film stock, indicating they weren't printed-through from a negative (I'm guessing the red color is because the Cinecolor process involves dying the emulsion on each side of the print stock).

On this:

The stock has *2* edge code dates, 1935 and 1944, with the 1935 being the print through from *both* of the negs. In the process of going from original neg to a master positive to a dupe neg in black and white, in theory you end up with a black print-through, but that isn't always the case depending on how the material was made. In this case, it appears to be a 1944 print.

The variable area track here appears to be the later (improved) version of that technology; the early RCA tracks (before 36) that I've seen are not variable area but rather density tracks.

Hi Steve, will my package arrive? I ordered several titles many months ago.

I wonder how many other shorts used this particular variation of the Rainbow Parade opening and end titles seen on "Parrotville Fire Department"?
So I would like to know how each original Rainbow Parade titles variation went and evolved, in terms of on how many cartoons were each used.

I wonder how many other shorts used this particular variation of the Rainbow Parade opening and end titles seen on "Parrotville Fire Department"?
So I would like to know how each original Rainbow Parade titles variation went and evolved, in terms of on how many cartoons were each used.

The basic answer is we don't know just yet, but getting closer to figuring it out. The five in the middle remain a mystery!

I've done evaluations on 35mm prints of many of the films so far, but also *haven't* seen a few yet (I didn't pull all of them on my last visit and there's a few new ones as well).

So far, it looks like this:

Pastry Town Wedding (unknown original title- only prints available have Cushman's (35mm), Official (16mm b/w) or Gutlohn (16mm Cinecolor) titles.)

Parrotville Fire Department, Sunshine Makers, Japanese Lanterns and Spinning Mice all seem to have pretty similar titles (all 35mm Cinecolor) (see original Sunshine Makers title here:)
http://cartoonresearch.c...and-happy-new-year-1952/ 

A Picnic Panic has a similar title too as you know. Better material now available.

Parrotville Post Office has a 35mm print with original titles. Will be looking at this soon.

Merry Kittens- Unknown orig title design-(only available in 16mm Gutlohn Cinecolor print so far)
Rag Dog-Unknown orig title design-(only available in 16mm Gutlohn Cinecolor print so far)
The Hunting Season-Unknown orig title design-(only available in 16mm Gutlohn Cinecolor print so far)
Scotty Finds a Home-Unknown orig title design-(only available in 16mm Gutlohn Cinecolor print so far)
Bird Scouts-Unknown orig title design-(only available in 16mm Gutlohn Cinecolor print so far)

Molly Moo and the Butterflies to end of the series- the later title card (all have original titles on the master prints-all 35mm IB Technicolor)

The DVD set you refer to I *think* is the Thunderbean set. That was put together by me years back– and on the title recreations then, it was a guess as to what title was on each film. I tried to use the original music wherever I had it- and, often, the color prints *didn't* have the full version of the original music. Where I was able to get a black and white 'Official' films print that had the music, I used it. So, THAT's how I had the original music but not visuals. On a lot of the black and white Gutlohn prints of the Black and White Van Beuren cartoons, this is also true.

When I did that set, no one I knew had seen the original titles for the early films in the series, so I *had* to guess and use what I had. The first to show up was a super 8 print of 'The Picnic Panic' from the Netherlands I think. Others have shown up since. A long-time friend was nice enough to lend me that print, and I scanned it, and, if memory serves (I might be wrong) I stuck that title on the Rainbow Parade set that is now replicated (it's possible I didn't at that point, but we did use it on 'Classics from the Van Beuren Studio blu-ray)

It's a pretty good guess that the titles will be the same or similar on 'Parrotville Old Folks'. The track on that print was from a 40s Official films print. No archive seems to have a 35mm on the title.

When I visit the archive that has 'Post Office', THEN I'll know if it has the original title or not. The archive wanted to charge me a research fee to open up the can and look...and since I'm scanning it for sure anyway, I figured I'd wait until then.

The attempt at this point in the game is to get as many of the films in original versions as possible of course, and, for the remaining titles (right now six I think) to take the best guess possible to get them as close to the likely original title as possible.

I know everything about the Thunderbean DVD. But I knew that after that, as the time passed, I thought that you could find more real original titles of these cartoons. But it seems I was wrong.

Anyways, I still don't get why for "The Hunting Season" and "Molly Moo-Cow and Robinson Crusoe" you had to use the wrong opening theme song, and not the end of the original themes found on their Guthlon and Commonwealth Pictures prints respectively

Hey Steve, guessing you probably no longer need my Super 8 of Parrotville Fire Department at this point then? ;)