The Dawn of Technicolor: 1915–1935

by James Layton, Paolo Cherchi Usai (Editor), Catherine Surowiec (Editor)

Published to coincide with Technicolor's centennial in 2015, "The Dawn of Technicolor" recounts the beginnings of one of the most widely recognized names in the American film industry, 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from a wealth of previously unavailable internal documentation, studio production files, contemporary accounts and unpublished interviews.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, Technicolor 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. 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. 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. Lavishly illustrated with more than 400 reproductions, it includes a comprehensive annotated filmography of all two-color Technicolor titles produced between 1915 and 1935.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction

448 pages, Hardcover

First published February 24, 2015

About the author

James Layton is Manager of the Museum of Modern Art’s Celeste Bartos Film Preservation Center. Prior to this he worked at George Eastman House in Rochester, NY, where he curated two gallery exhibitions and the website Technicolor 100, and co-wrote the book The Dawn of Technicolor (2015) with David Pierce. Layton has also acted as Cataloguer and Workflow Coordinator at the East Anglian Film Archive in Norwich, UK, and is co-author of the Image Permanence Institute’s informational poster Knowing and Protecting Motion Picture Film (2009).

Reviews

[Raquel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Painstakingly researched, The Dawn of Technicolor is the definitive book on the history of this technology. There is no resource anywhere that will have the level of detail and the volume of information on early Technicolor. It sets the standard for future scholarly works. This book comes highly recommend and is a must for your film studies library.

Read my full review here: http://www.outofthepastblog.com/2016/...

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

very informative.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would have given it five stars, but the writing style drove me crazy with its constant repetition of things. If you've ever watched a show where they say "when we come back after the break..." and say what you'll see, and then recap what you just saw when you do come back, that's what this was like. But if the style can be ignored, there is definitely a lot of very good information here.