To Colorize or Not

The Lindyhop’s Most Famous Dance Sequence

The musical, Hellzapoppin’, is mainly remembered for the 5-minute Lindy Hop in the middle. It features the Harlem Congaroos, played by Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, a dance troupe out of Harlem's Savoy Ballroom. Like most films from the 1940s, the scenes were shot in black and white. Most film buffs will maintain that it’s best seen that way.

B/W Version 

Technological advances have made it possible to colorize old films like Hellzapoppin’ with improved accuracy. DeOldify, an open-source project that leverages AI neural networks trained with 1000s of reference images, was used to produce the color version of the Lindy Hop dance number.  This technology has come a long way in trying to visualize the past.

Colorized Version