Winterhaven Festival of Lights in Tucson in December, 1964. Time exposure at Christmas Ave. and McKenzie St.

The Winterhaven Festival of Lights in black and white? Why? There was color film available in the 1950s and ’60s, including Kodak’s Kodachrome and Ektrachrome. But newspapers, like the Arizona Daily Star and Tucson Citizen, didn’t have much, if any, color-printing capabilities then, so even photos of Christmas lights had to be taken with black and white film. It all fell on the skill of the photographer to make black and white photos of Christmas lights sing. Go to tucson.com/retrotucson for more photos of Tucson’s Winterhaven Festival of Lights from the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. The 65th annual Winterhaven Festival of Lights starts at 6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 13, and continues through Dec. 27.


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