Although movies had been filmed in colour since the 1920s, there were times when a movie theatre just had to make the most of it when promoting a new movie. And there were times when advertisers made the most of the phrase “in vivid, living colour” outside of movie making situations.
As recently August 2009, the phrase “in vivid, living colour” was used in the daily internet publication, American Thinker. Devoted to the “thoughtful exploration of issues of importance to Americans” the entry entitled “ObamaCare and Bush League Democrats” the author, J. Robert Smith wrote:
At a recent town hall, a pretty little girl, whose mother was an early Obama supporter, read a question from a slip of paper. The President, knowing that the ball would be teed-up, swung hard and level. Bang! To the delight of his fans, a homer. But tee-ball doesn’t matter, not if you can’t manage the game. The President watches TV and reads the daily rags. Not even MSNBC or The New York Times can ignore widespread popular unrest. In vivid living color, the President sees very un-Alinsky seniors and middle class Americans give the what-for to shrinking, mealy-mouthed Democrats — daily.
Back in the early 1980s, as inflation was running rampant in America, stories abounded, telling the woeful tale of poor housing markets and mortgages in default among other things. In an article in the Deseret News run in May 28, 1981, the editor ran a story entitled, “Pity Poor Folks Who Live High Above the Tide Of Inflation.” It read in part:
He bought his second home when they weren’t so popular. He put down as little as he could and he borrowed the rest at interest rates less than half those of today. If pressed, he refinanced. Now he may rent his place at big prices to those with money beyond their immediate means. These are among the people who own those places the day-trippers envy. Unlike so many hourly and salaried workers, they have the ability to float rather than be swamped by the inflation tide. Various studies have long shown the sharp dichotomy in the two styles of life, but there is nothing like a day trip to the prime resorts near every population center to bring home the point in vivid, living color.
For Christmas 1966, the Gettysburg Times newspaper ran an advertisement for Ziegler Studios that read:
Have Your Family Portrait Taken For Christmas! There’s still time … and it’s a swell idea either for a gift, or a gift to yourselves and your home. But HURRY … the deadline for accepting appointments is near … and so is Christmas! Don’t think about it anymore … call us today and make your appointment for a setting in your home and our studio. Nothing will give more than your family in vivid, living color mounted in an attractive frame.
It wasn’t just e-magazines, bad economies and professional photographers that made use of the term either. The Ludington Daily News ran an article in the June 24, 1963 edition entitled “Food Ads Criticized By Agency” in which it was reported:
“Our American system of food distribution is really one of the greatest show on earth,” Whitney said. “It’s a giant, multi-million-dollar spectacular, staged in vivid living color, and exploding with human interest, scientific marvels, humor, fascinating, behind-the-scenes adventure stories, the snob-appeal of food as a status symbol, the romance of foods of far-away places, the emotional warmth of a mother’s instinctive desire to feed her young.”
Talk about making a leap from five years earlier when, in October 1958, the Chicago Daily Tribune ran an advertisement on page 6 in section C that promoted a movie that was reportedly a cinematic wonder on film of the “French love novel that shocked the world!”
The movie was “A Certain Smile” and was released on September 22, 1958. It starred Rossano Brazzi, Joan Fontaine and Johnny Mathis, who also sang the theme song, and was the first feature film for actor, Bradford Dillman (who went on to such movies as “The Plainsman” and “The Iceman Cometh”). The movie hype was based in large part on the fact that the movie was “in vivid, living color!”
So while the phrase may have been used in conversation, the first published use of the phrase “in vivid, living colour” appears to go back to this movie and no further.
Historically Speaking 