My thought would be; red=hot
black=hot
white=neutral
no ground

Go in the circuit box and see where the black, red and white hook up to. Also see if you have grounds.

My first guess would be the same as hendricus's. What's going on in that junction box? Is it perhaps used for a three-way switch? Or might it be that the line has some switched fixtures but not all switched fixtures? (For example, is there a receptacle that is switched for a lamp and other receptacles that are always hot?)

If so, that'd go a long way to answering the question. By 1964, ground wires were getting common (although they were often lighter guage and not necessarily hooked to switches, receptacles and fixtures), but grounds were not yet universal. And I've never seen an insulated ground from that era except when a separate ground was pulled for some specific purpose.

Anything's possible, but a red neutral would be pretty weird.

ok, here is some more info...

The power comes in through the fixture, (that has red, black and tan.) It needs to go out and feed the switch for that light plus switches to 2 other lights (so for those lights, the power comes in at the switch) The outgoing cable (from the fixture) has white, black and green -newer wire-.

ok, so the problem is I got the main light working off the switch, but now the secondary lights aren't working. Maybe that red wire is hot and is a traveler to feed the other switches. Also, how do I get a neutral to the other switches?

(Sheepishly) when I initially hooked up the light there was an extra piece of white wire (? pigtail) connecting something, but I took it off and now can't remember where it went...

No wonder electricians make the big bucks!

Thanks

If you want neutral to the switches you'll have to rewire. Neutral runs from the main circuit box continuously to the fixture, it may go thru any number of wire nuts but does not go thru the switch unless you have a switch that requires power itself to operate like a telltale light.

If you find a black and white wire on a switch, that is called a switchleg and the white should be, though not required to be, taped or marked black to show it's hot

How many cables in the fixture? How many cables in the switch box? Are all the switches in the same box? Which wires in the fixture and switch box have power on them? Is this system cables or conduit(pipes)? Green wires are normally only found in conduit not cables.
The tan wire is a white wire that has discoloured over time. Might even be slightly burnt from too high a wattage bulb being used in the fixture.

The tan wire is a discolored white wire and should be a neutral.

Typically in a setup like you describe the power would come in on the black and white wires . The whites would be hooked together and a pigtail provided for the neutral to the light fixture. The red would be the other wire to the light fixture. The blacks would be hooked together and feed straight through, no connection to the light at the box where the fixture mounts.

The switch for the light with the red wire would connect the black and red together where that switch is located. The black and white that continue on to additional switches provides both a hot and neutral to that box.

If cable with the red wire doesn't have a green or bare wire it doesn't have a ground. If this is in fact the cable the power comes in on then the green wire in the other cable should be left unconnected unless you can get a ground wire to one end of the cable with the green wire.

ITSUNCLEBILL- I THINK YOU MIGHT HAVE IT. Essentially there must be a black and a white which run around (bypass) the fixture and go to the switch. The red provides power to the fixture and a "bridge" wire (the little white wire I took off) makes a connection from the fixture to the white bypass wires.
Interestingly, that switch used to have a little light on the switch which alerted you that the outside light was on. (a telltale switch?)

I'm going to try it out and I'll let you know if it works.

Thanks

IT WORKED!!!

Thank you all so much for your help.

dogridge