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The Dawn of Technicolor is the first detailed history of Technicolor?s formative years. Authors James Layton and David Pierce recount the beginnings of one of the most widely recognized names in the American film industry, painstakingly reconstructing the company?s early years from a wealth of previously unavailable internal documentation, studio production files, contemporary accounts, and unpublished interviews. Following its incorporation in 1915, the Technicolor Motion Picture...
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The Dawn of Technicolor is the first detailed history of Technicolor?s formative years. Authors James Layton and David Pierce recount the beginnings of one of the most widely recognized names in the American film industry, painstakingly reconstructing the company?s early years from a wealth of previously unavailable internal documentation, studio production files, contemporary accounts, and unpublished interviews. Following its incorporation in 1915, the Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation developed a series of two-color processes as necessary steps toward full-color photography and printing. Despite success in the laboratory and in small-scale production, the company was plagued by repeated disappointments. The feature films The Gulf Between (1917), The Toll of the Sea (1922), Wanderer of the Wasteland (1924), and The Black Pirate (1926) each showed tremendous promise in photography and color design, but implementation flaws resulted in technical problems and commercial failure. Each time, the company retooled and tried again. With the support of patient investors and the visionary leadership of Herbert T. Kalmus, Technicolor eventually prevailed against daunting odds to create the only commercially viable color process for motion pictures. The Dawn of Technicolor investigates these vital make-or-break years, as the firm grew from a small team of exceptional engineers into a multimillion-dollar corporation. Color provided new creative tools for film-makers, but also introduced new challenges on-set, in the laboratory, and during projection. The authors chart the making of pivotal films in the process, from the troubled productions of Ben- Hur (1925) and The Mysterious Island (1926?29), to the early short films in Technicolor?s groundbreaking three-color process: Walt Disney?s animated Flowers and Trees (1932) and the live-action La Cucaracha (1934). The book spotlights the talented engineers and filmmakers associated with Technicolor, and the remarkable technical innovations that finally made color films practical, changing the film industry forever.