Nothing screams October and Halloween like a good old fashioned horror movie. It is hard to find a better one than The Shining (1980) staring Jack Nickalson and directed by Stanley Kubrick.

At the end of the film there is a spooky black and white photograph that depicts a crowd gathered at the fictional Overlook Hotel for a formal July 4th Ball in 1921.

The photo is a real one, actually from the 1920s, with one small exception: The face of Jack Torrance (played by Jack Nicholson) has been photoshopped onto the body of the man featured in the very front.

Well, since artistic license has already been taken with this photograph we thought we would join the fun.

The Shining ballroom photograph has now be eerily colorized with rich, spooky, and true to life colors by Okkama Colorizations, now providing services exclusively at The Psychogenealogist.

Here are a couple of great articles that talk about the movie and the history of the original photo:

1. At the end of “The Shining,” why is Jack in the photo of The Overlook’s July 4th, 1921 party?

2. “Midnight, And The Stars And…Who?”

And to round out the spook factor, this is said to be the man from the original image replaced by Jack’s:

While there are some mentions of the original unaltered photo in the articles listed above, the links to those mentions seem to be broken.

Was this an actual photo that hung in The Stanley Hotel (Estes Park, Colorado), which is said to have inspired Stephen King’s (author of The Shining book) Overlook Hotel? Have I fallen victim to some sort of Hollywood urban legend? I would love to find out more!

Are there photos in your family collection that you would like to see in full, vibrant, and true to life colors? Send them to us via email and we’ll get you a no obligation quote.

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