Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades. It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952. Technicolor became known and celebrated for its saturated levels of color, and was used most commonly for filming musicals such as ''The Wizard of Oz'' and ''Singin' in the Rain'', costume pictures such as ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' and ''Joan of Arc'', and animated films such as ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' and ''Fantasia''. However, it was also used for less spectacular dramas and comedies, and sometimes even a Film noir such as ''Leave Her to Heaven'' or ''Niagara'' was filmed in Technicolor.

"Technicolor" is the trademark for a series of color motion picture processes pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation (a subsidiary of Technicolor, Inc.), now a division of Technicolor SA. The Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation was founded in Boston in 1914 (incorporated in Maine in 1915) by Herbert Kalmus, Daniel Frost Comstock, and W. Burton Wescott. The "Tech" in the company's name was inspired by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Kalmus received his undergraduate degree and was later an instructor. Technicolor, Inc. was chartered in Delaware in 1921.

Name usage

The term "Technicolor" historically has been used to describe four concepts:

Technicolor process or format: the several image origination systems used in film production, which culminated in the "three-strip" process. (1917–1954)

Technicolor IB printing ("IB" abbreviates "imbibition", a dye-transfer operation): a process for making color motion picture prints that allows the use of dyes which are more stable and permanent than those created in chromogenic color prints. Originally used for printing from color separation negatives photographed on black-and-white film in a Technicolor camera, it was later applied to making prints from negatives photographed on standard color film in an ordinary camera. (1928–2002, with differing gaps of availability post-1974 depending on lab)

Technicolor labs: a collection of film laboratories across the world owned and run by Technicolor for post-production services including developing, printing, and transferring films in all major developing processes, as well as Technicolor's proprietary ones. Films using these labs thus retain a "Color by Technicolor" credit even though no Technicolor ''format'' or ''printing'' have been offered recently. (1922–present)

Technicolor: an umbrella company encompassing all the above as well as other ancillary services. (1914–present)

History

Two-color Technicolor

Process 1

Technicolor originally existed in a two-color (red and green) system. In Process 1 (1916), a prism beam-splitter behind the camera lens exposed two consecutive frames of a single strip of black-and-white negative film simultaneously, one behind a red filter, the other behind a green filter. Because two frames were being exposed at the same time, the film had to be photographed and projected at twice the normal speed. Exhibition required a special projector with two apertures (one with a red filter and the other with a green filter), two lenses, and an adjustable prism that aligned the two images on the screen. The results were first demonstrated to members of the American Institute of Mining Engineers in New York on February 21, 1917. Technicolor itself produced the only movie made in Process 1, ''The Gulf Between'', which had a limited tour of Eastern cities, beginning with Boston and New York in September 1917, primarily to interest motion picture producers and exhibitors in color. The near-constant need for a technician to adjust the projection alignment doomed this additive color process. Only a few frames of ''The Gulf Between'', showing star Grace Darmond, are known to exist today.

Process 2

Convinced that there was no future in additive color processes, Kalmus focused his attention on subtractive color processes. This culminated in what would eventually be known as Process 2 (1922) (sometimes confusingly called "two-strip"). As before, the special Technicolor camera used a beam-splitter that simultaneously exposed two frames of a single strip of black-and-white film, one behind a green filter and one behind a red filter.

The difference was that the two-component negative was now used to produce a subtractive color print. Because the colors were physically present in the print, no special projection equipment was required and the correct registration of the two images did not depend on the skill of the projectionist.

The frames exposed behind the green filter were printed on one strip of black-and-white film, and the frames exposed behind the red filter were printed on another strip. After development, each strip was toned to a color complementary to that of the filter—red for the green-filtered images, green for the red-filtered. Unlike tinting, which adds a uniform veil of color to the entire image, toning chemically replaces the black-and-white silver image with transparent coloring matter, so that the highlights remain clear (or nearly so), dark areas are strongly colored, and intermediate tones are colored proportionally. The two strips, made of film stocks thinner than regular film, were then cemented together base to base to create a projection print. ''The Toll of the Sea'' debuted on November 26, 1922 as the first general release film to use Technicolor.

The second all-color feature in this process, ''Wanderer of the Wasteland'', was released in 1924. Process 2 was also used for color sequences in such major motion pictures as ''The Ten Commandments'' (1923), ''The Phantom of the Opera'' (1925), and ''Ben-Hur'' (1925). Douglas Fairbanks' ''The Black Pirate'' (1926), became the fourth feature to be filmed entirely in Technicolor.

Although successful commercially, Process 2 was plagued with technical problems. Because the images on the two sides of the print were not in the same plane, both could not be perfectly focused at the same time. The significance of this problem depended on the depth of field of the projection optics. Much more serious was a problem with cupping. Films in general tended to become somewhat cupped after repeated use. Every time a film was projected, each frame in turn was heated by the intense light in the projection gate, causing it to bulge slightly. After it had passed through the gate, it cooled and the bulge subsided, but not quite completely. It was found that the cemented prints were not only very prone to cupping, but that the direction of cupping would suddenly and randomly change from back to front or vice versa, so that even the most attentive projectionist could not prevent the image from temporarily popping out of focus whenever the direction changed. Technicolor had to supply new prints so the cupped ones could be shipped to their Boston laboratory for flattening, after which they could be put back into service, at least for a while. The unusual thickness of the film and the presence of image layers on both surfaces made the prints especially vulnerable to scratching, and because the scratches were vividly colored they were very obtrusive. Splicing a Process 2 print without special attention to its unusual laminated construction was apt to result in a bad splice that would fail as it passed through the projector. Even before these problems became apparent, Technicolor regarded this cemented print approach as a stopgap and was already at work developing an improved process.

Process 3

Based on the same dye-transfer technique first applied to motion pictures in 1916 by Max Handschiegl, Technicolor Process 3 (1928) was developed to eliminate the projection print made of double-cemented prints in favor of a print created by ''dye imbibition''. The Technicolor camera for Process 3 was identical to that for Process 2, simultaneously photographing two consecutive frames of a black-and-white film behind red and green filters.

In the lab, every other frame of the camera negative was printed onto one strip of specially prepared gelatin film (or "matrix") to create a red record, and the remaining frames were printed onto a second strip of blank film to create a green record. On exposure to UV light, the gelatin hardened. Areas not exposed to light were washed away by the developer leaving a relief image created by the hardened gelatin. The two matrix films were then soaked in dye baths of their complementary colors. The strip containing the red record was dyed green and the green record strip was dyed red. The thicker the gelatin on each frame, the more dye it absorbed.

During the final printing, the matrices were placed in contact with a blank, emulsified strip of film (known as the "blank") and the dye was transferred from the matrices to the new print. A mordant made from deacetylated Chitin was applied to the blank before printing, which kept the dye from migrating.

As this dye-transfer process was introduced around the same time as sound-on-film, the emulsion on the blank was adapted to a black-and-white film stock where the soundtrack and frame line were printed in black and white first, and then the dye-layer was added.

The first feature made entirely in the Technicolor Process 3 was ''The Viking'' (1928), which had a synchronized score and sound effects. ''Redskin'' (1929), with a synchronized score, and ''The Mysterious Island'' (1929), a part-talkie, were photographed almost entirely in this process also but included some sequences in black and white. The following talkies were made entirely – or almost entirely – in Technicolor Process 3: ''On with the Show!'' (1929) (the first all-talking color feature), ''Gold Diggers of Broadway'' (1929), ''The Show of Shows'' (1929), ''Sally'' (1929), ''The Vagabond King'' (1930), ''Follow Thru'' (1930), ''Golden Dawn'' (1930), ''Hold Everything'' (1930), ''The Rogue Song'' (1930), ''Song of the Flame'' (1930), ''Song of the West'' (1930), ''The Life of the Party'' (1930), ''Sweet Kitty Bellairs'' (1930), ''Bride of the Regiment'' (1930), ''Mamba'' (1930), ''Whoopee!'' (1930), ''King of Jazz'' (1930), ''Under a Texas Moon'' (1930), ''Bright Lights'' (1930), ''Viennese Nights'' (1930), ''Woman Hungry'' (1931), ''Kiss Me Again'' (1931) and ''Fifty Million Frenchmen'' (1931). In addition, scores of features were released with Technicolor sequences. Numerous short subjects were also photographed in Technicolor Process 3, including the first color sound cartoons by producers such as Ub Iwerks and Walter Lantz. ''Song of the Flame'' became the first color movie to use a widescreen process (using a system known as Vitascope, which used 65mm film).

In 1931, an improvement of Technicolor Process 3 was developed which removed grain from the Technicolor film, resulting in more vivid and vibrant colors. This process was first used on a Radio Picture entitled: ''The Runaround'' (1931). The new process not only improved the color but also removed specks (that looked like bugs) from the screen, which had previously blurred outlines and lowered visibility. This new improvement along with a reduction in cost (from 8.85 cents to 7 cents per foot) led to a new color revival. Warner Brothers took the lead once again by producing three features (out of an announced plan for six features): ''Manhattan Parade'' (1932), ''Doctor X'' (1932) and ''Mystery of the Wax Museum'' (1933). Radio Pictures followed by announcing plans to make four more features in the new process. Only one of these, ''Fanny Foley Herself'' (1931), was actually produced. Although Paramount Pictures announced plans to make eight features and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer promised two color features, these never materialized. This may have been the result of the lukewarm reception to these new color pictures by the public. Two independently produced features were also made with this improved Technicolor process: ''Legong: Dance of the Virgins'' (1934) and ''Kliou the Tiger'' (1935).

Very few of the original camera negatives of movies made in Technicolor Process 2 or 3 survive. In the late 1940s, most were discarded from storage at Technicolor in a space-clearing move, after the studios declined to reclaim the materials. Original Technicolor prints that survived into the 1950s were often used to make black-and-white prints for television and simply discarded thereafter. This explains why so many early color films exist today solely in black and white.

Warner Bros., which had vaulted from a minor exhibitor to a major studio by its introduction of the talkies, incorporated Technicolor's printing to enhance their films. Other producers followed Warner Bros.' example by making features in color, with either Technicolor or one of its competitors, such as Brewster Color and Multicolor (later Cinecolor).

Consequently, the introduction of color did not increase the number of audiences to the point where it was economical. This, and the Great Depression severely strained movie studios' finances, and spelled the end of Technicolor's first financial success.

===Three-strip Technicolor ===

Process 4: Development and introduction

As early as 1924, Technicolor envisioned a full-color process, and by 1929, the company was actively developing such a process. Hollywood made so much use of Technicolor in 1929 and 1930, that many believed the feature film industry would soon be turning out color films exclusively. By 1931, the Great Depression took its toll on the movie industry, and they began to cut back on expenses. The production of color films had decreased dramatically by 1932, when Burton Wescott and Joseph A. Ball completed work on a new three-color movie camera. Technicolor could now promise studios a full range of colors, as opposed to the limited red-green spectrum of previous films. The light passing through the camera lens was split into two beam paths by a prism block. Green light was recorded through a green filter on panchromatic film, while the other half of the light passed through a magenta filter and was recorded on bipack film stock with two strips running base to base. On this stock, the front film was sensitized to blue light only, backed by a red gelatin layer which acted as a light filter to the panchromatic film behind it. This process accurately reproduced the full color spectrum when optically printed using a dye-transfer process in cyan, magenta and yellow.

Kalmus convinced Walt Disney to shoot one of his ''Silly Symphony'' cartoons ''Flowers and Trees'' (1932) in Process 4, the new "three-strip" process. Seeing the potential in full-color Technicolor, Walt Disney negotiated an exclusive contract for the use of the process, continuing to September 1935 (when other studios could start producing cartoons in the process, but were barred from releasing them until 1936). Competitors such as the Fleischer Studios and the Ub Iwerks studio were shut out – they had to settle for either the two-color Technicolor systems or use a competing process such as Cinecolor.

''Flowers and Trees'' was a success with audiences and critics alike, and won the first Academy Award for Animated Short Film. All subsequent ''Silly Symphonies'' from 1933 on were shot with the three-strip process. One 1933 ''Silly Symphony'', ''Three Little Pigs'', engendered such a positive audience response that it overshadowed the feature films with which it was shown. Hollywood was buzzing about color film again. According to ''Fortune'' magazine, "Merian C. Cooper, producer for RKO Radio Pictures and director of ''King Kong'' (1933), saw one of the ''Silly Symphonies'' and said he never wanted to make a black-and-white picture again."

Although Disney's first 60 or so Technicolor cartoons used the three-strip camera, an improved "successive exposure" process was adopted circa 1937 ''mainly'' for cartoon work: the camera would contain one strip of black-and-white negative film, and each animation cel would be photographed three times, on three sequential frames, behind alternating red, green, and blue filters (the so-called "Technicolor Color Wheel", then an option of the Acme, Producers Service and Photo-Sonics animation cameras). Three separate dye transfer printing matrices would be created from the red, green, and blue records in their respective complementary colors, cyan, magenta and yellow.

Successive Exposure was also employed in Disney's "True Life Adventure" live-action series, wherein the 16mm Kodachrome Commercial principal photography element was first duplicated onto a 35mm fine-grain SE negative element in one pass of the 16mm element, thereby reducing wear on the relatively small 16mm element and also eliminating registration errors between colors. The live-action SE negative thereafter entered other Technicolor processes and were incorporated with SE animation and three-strip studio live-action, as required, thereby producing the combined result.

Shooting Technicolor footage, 1932–1955

Technicolor's advantage over most early natural-color processes was that it was a subtractive synthesis rather than an additive one. Technicolor prints could run on any projector; unlike other additive processes, it could represent colors clearly without any special projection equipment or techniques. More importantly, Technicolor held the best balance between a quality image and speed of printing, compared to other subtractive systems of the time.

The Technicolor Process 4 used colored filters, a beam splitter made from a thinly coated mirror inside a split-cube prism, and three strips of black-and-white film (hence the "three-strip" designation). The beam splitter allowed ⅓ of the light to shine through a green filter onto one strip of film, capturing the green part of the image. The other ⅔ was reflected sideways by the mirror and passed through a magenta filter, to remove any green (which would have been redundant). The diverted non-green light exposed a pair of film strips spooled together; one which captured only blues, itself a filter, and another which picked up whatever was left (the red part of the image). The "blue" strip could act as a filter because it was a special type of film known as orthochromatic, which is designed to absorb some light frequencies and not others. The "green" and "red" strips were both of the broad-spectrum, panchromatic type.

To print the film, each colored strip had a print struck from it onto a light sensitive piece of gelatin film. When processed, "dark" portions of the film hardened, and light areas were washed away. The gelatin film strip was then soaked with a dye complementary to the color recorded by the film: cyan for red, magenta for green, and yellow for blue (see also: CMYK color model for a technical discussion of color printing).

A single clear strip of black-and-white film with the soundtrack and frame lines printed in advance was first treated with a mordant solution and then brought into contact with each of the three dye-loaded printing strips in turn, building up the complete color image. Each dye was absorbed, or imbibed, by the gelatin coating on the receiving strip rather than simply deposited onto its surface, hence the term "dye imbibition". Strictly speaking, this is a mechanical printing process, very loosely comparable to offset printing or lithography, and not a photographic one, as the actual printing does not involve a chemical change caused by exposure to light.

In the early days of the process, the un-exposed blank receiver film would be pre-exposed with a 50% black-and-white image derived from the green strip, the so-called Key, or K, record. This process was used largely to cover up fine edges in the picture where colors would mix unrealistically (also known as fringing). This additional black increased the contrast of the final print and concealed any fringing. However, overall colorfulness was compromised as a result. In 1944, Technicolor had improved the process to make up for these shortcomings and the K record was, therefore, eliminated.

Convincing Hollywood

The studios were willing to adopt three-color Technicolor for live-action feature production, if it could be proved viable. Shooting three-strip Technicolor required very bright lighting, as the film had an extremely slow speed of ASA 5. That, and the bulk of the cameras and a lack of experience with three-color cinematography made for skepticism in the studio board rooms.

''Fortune'' magazine's October 1934 article stressed that Technicolor, as a corporation, was rather remarkable in that it kept its investors quite happy despite the fact that it had only been in profit twice in all of the years of its existence, during the early boom at the turn of the decade. A well-managed company, half of whose stock was controlled by a clique loyal to Kalmus, Technicolor never had to cede any control to its bankers or unfriendly stockholders. In the mid-'30s, all the major studios except MGM were in the financial doldrums, and a color process that truly reproduced the visual spectrum was seen as a possible shot-in-the-arm for the ailing industry.

In November 1933, Technicolor's Herbert Kalmus and RKO announced plans to produce three-strip Technicolor films in 1934, beginning with Ann Harding starring in a projected film ''The World Outside''.

Live-action use of three-strip Technicolor was first seen in a musical number of the MGM feature ''The Cat and the Fiddle'', released February 16, 1934. On July 1, MGM released ''Hollywood Party'' with a Technicolor cartoon sequence "Hot Choc-late Soldiers" produced by Walt Disney. On July 28 of that year, Warner Brothers released ''Service With a Smile'', followed by ''Good Morning, Eve!'' on August 5, both being comedy short films starring Leon Errol and filmed in three-strip Technicolor. Pioneer Pictures, a movie company formed by Technicolor investors, produced the film usually credited as the first live-action short film shot in the three-strip process, ''La Cucaracha'' released August 31, 1934. ''La Cucaracha'' is a two-reel musical comedy that cost $65,000, approximately four times what an equivalent black-and-white two-reeler would cost. Released by RKO, the short was a success in introducing the new Technicolor as a viable medium for live-action films. The three-strip process also was used in some short sequences filmed for several movies made during 1934, including the final sequences of ''The House of Rothschild'' (20th Century Pictures/United Artists) with George Arliss and ''Kid Millions'' (Samuel Goldwyn Studios) with Eddie Cantor.

Pioneer/RKO's ''Becky Sharp'' (1935) became the first feature film photographed entirely in three-strip Technicolor. Initially, three-strip Technicolor was only used indoors. In 1936, ''The Trail of the Lonesome Pine'' became the first production to have outdoor sequences, with impressive results. The spectacular success of ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' (1937), which was released in December 1937 and became the top-grossing film of 1938, attracted the attention of the studios.

Limitations and difficulties

One major drawback of Technicolor's three-strip process was that it required a special, bulky, and very heavy Technicolor camera. Film studios could not purchase Technicolor cameras, only rent them for their productions, complete with camera technicians and a "color supervisor" to ensure sets, costumes and makeup didn't push beyond the limitations of the system. Often on many early productions, the supervisor was Natalie Kalmus, ex-wife of Herbert Kalmus and part owner of the company. Directors had great difficulty with her; Vincente Minnelli said, "I couldn't do anything right in Mrs. Kalmus's eyes."

The process of splitting the image reduced the amount of light reaching the film stock. Since the film speed of the stocks used were fairly slow, early Technicolor productions required a greater amount of lighting than a black-and-white production. It is reported that temperatures on the film set of ''The Wizard of Oz'' from the hot studio lights frequently exceeded 100 °F (38 °C), and some of the more heavily costumed characters required a large water intake. Some actors and actresses claimed to have suffered permanent eye damage from the high levels of illumination.

Because of the added lighting and triple amount of film necessary, Technicolor demanded high film budgets.

The introduction of Eastmancolor and decline

thumb|right|250px|''[[Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (film)|Gentlemen Prefer Blondes'', an example of Technicolor filming in 1950s Hollywood.]]Color films that recorded the three primary colors in three emulsion layers on one strip of film had been introduced in the mid-1930s by Eastman Kodak in the United States (Kodachrome for 16mm home movies in 1935, then for 8mm home movies and 35mm slides in 1936) and Agfa in Germany (Agfacolor Neu for both home movies and slides later in 1936). Technicolor introduced ''Monopack'', a single-strip color reversal film (a 35 mm version of Kodachrome Commercial) in 1941 for use on location where the bulky three-strip camera was impractical, but the higher grain of the image made it unsuitable for studio work.

Eastman Kodak introduced its first 35 mm color motion picture negative film in 1950. The first commercial feature film to use Eastmancolor was the National Film Board of Canada documentary ''Royal Journey'', released in December 1951. In 1952, an improved version suitable for Hollywood production was introduced. This allowed Technicolor prints to be struck from a single camera negative exposed in a standard camera. ''Foxfire'' (1955), filmed in 1954 by Universal, starring Jane Russell and Jeff Chandler, was the last American-made feature photographed with a Technicolor three-strip camera.

In 1952, Eastman Kodak introduced a high-quality color print film, allowing studios to produce prints through standard photographic processes as opposed to having to send them to Technicolor for the expensive dye imbibition process. That same year, the Technicolor lab adapted its dye transfer process to derive matrices and imbibition prints directly from Eastmancolor negatives, as well as other stocks such as Ansco and DuPont color stocks.

Technicolor unveiled their stereoscopic camera for 3-D films in March 1953. The rig used two three-strip cameras, running a total of six strips of film at once (three for the left eye and three for the right). Only two films were shot with this camera set-up: ''Flight to Tangier'' (1953) and the Martin and Lewis comedy ''Money From Home'' (1954). A similar, but different system had been used by a different company, using two three-strip cameras side-by-side for a British short called ''Royal River''.

In 1954, Technicolor made reduction dye transfer prints of the large format VistaVision negative. Their process was also adapted for use with Todd-AO, Ultra Panavision 70 and Technirama formats. All of them were an improvement over the three-strip negatives since the negative print-downs generated sharper and finer grain dye transfer copies.

By the late 1960s, the dye-transfer process eventually fell out of favor in the United States as being too expensive and too slow in turning out prints. With the growing number of screens in the US, the standard run of 200-250 prints increased. And while dye-transfer printing yielded superior color printing, the number of high speed prints that could be struck in labs all over the country outweighed the fewer, slower number of prints that could only be had in Technicolor's labs. The last American film released before Technicolor closed their dye plant was ''The Godfather, Part II'' (1974).

In 1975, the US dye transfer plant was closed and Technicolor became an Eastman-only processor. In 1977, the final dye-transfer printer left in Rome was used by Dario Argento to make prints for his horror film ''Suspiria''. In 1980, the Italian Technicolor plant ceased printing dye transfer.

The British line was shut down in 1978 and sold to Beijing Film and Video Lab in China. A great many films from China and Hong Kong were made in the Technicolor dye transfer process, including Zhang Yimou's ''Ju Dou'' and even one American film, ''Space Avenger'' (1989, director: Richard W. Haines). The Beijing line was shut down in 1993 for a number of reasons, including inferior processing.

Reintroduction of the dye transfer process

In 1997, Technicolor reintroduced the dye transfer process to general film production. A refined version of the printing process of the 1960s and 1970s, it was used on a limited basis in the restorations of films such as ''The Wizard of Oz'', ''Rear Window'', ''Funny Girl'', and ''Apocalypse Now Redux''.

After its reintroduction, the dye transfer process was used in several big-budget, modern Hollywood productions. These included ''Bulworth'', ''Pearl Harbor'', and ''Toy Story''. The distinct "look" this process achieves, often sought after by filmmakers looking to re-create the period of time at which Technicolor was at its most prominent, is difficult to obtain through conventional, high-speed printing methods and is one explanation for the enduring demand and credibility of the process.

The dye-transfer process was discontinued by Technicolor in 2002 after the purchase of the company by Thompson which in 2010 changed its name to Technicolor SA.

Dye transfer Technicolor in archival work

By the late 1990s the dye transfer process still had its advantages in the film archival community. Because the dye transfer process used stable acid dyes, Technicolor prints are considered of archival quality. A Technicolor print from the dye transfer era will retain its original colors virtually unchanged for decades with proper storage, whereas prints printed on Eastmancolor stocks produced prior to 1983 may suffer color fading after exposure to ultraviolet light and hot, humid conditions as a result of less stable photochemical dyes. Fading on some prints is so rapid that in many cases, after as little as five to ten years, only the magenta record is perceivable on the film.

An article on the restoration of ''Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope'' claimed that a rare dye-transfer print of the movie, made for director George Lucas at the British Technicolor lab during its initial run, had been used as a color reference for the restoration. The article claimed that conventional color prints of the movie had all degraded over the years to the extent that no two had the same color balance. However, because of the variation in color balance per print, dye-transfer prints are used in the professional restoration world as only a rough guideline.

Furthermore, three-strip camera negatives are all on silver-based black-and-white stock, which have stayed unaltered over the course of time with proper handling. This has become of importance in recent years with the large market for films transferred to video formats for home viewing. The best color quality control for video transfer by far is achieved by optically printing from Technicolor negatives, or by recombining the negative through digital means and printing, onto low-contrast stock.

One problem that has resulted from Technicolor negatives is the rate of shrinkage from one strip to another. Because three-Strip negatives are shot on three rolls, they are subject to different rates of shrinkage depending on storage conditions. Today, digital technology allows for a precise re-alignment of the negatives by resizing shrunken negatives digitally to correspond with the other negatives. The G, or Green, record is usually taken as the reference as it is the record with the highest resolution. It is also a record with the correct "wind" (emulsion position with respect to the camera's lens). Shrinkage and re-alignment (resizing) are non-issues with Successive Exposure (single-roll RGB) Technicolor camera negatives. This issue could have been eliminated, for three-strip titles, had the preservation elements (fine-grain positives) been Successive Exposure, but this would have required the preservation elements to be 3,000 feet or 6,000 feet whereas three-strip composited camera and preservation elements are 1,000 feet or 2,000 feet.

One issue that modern reproduction has had to contend with is that the contrast of the three film strips is not the same. This gives the effect on technicolor prints that (for example) fades cause the color balance of the image to change as the image is faded. Transfer to digital media has attempted to correct the differing color balances and is largely successful. However, a few odd artifacts remain such that saturated parts of the image may show a false color. Where the image of a flame is included in shot, it will rarely be of the expected orange/yellow color often being depicted as green.

Technicolor today

The Technicolor company remained a highly successful film processing firm and later became involved in video and audio duplication (CD, VHS and DVD manufacturing) and digital video processes. MacAndrews & Forbes acquired Technicolor, Inc. in 1982 for $100 million, then sold it in 1988 to the British firm Carlton Communications PLC for $780 million. Technicolor, Inc. acquired the film processing company Consolidated Film Industries in 2000. Since 2001, Technicolor has been part of the French-headquartered electronics and media conglomerate Thomson. The name of Thomson group was changed to “Technicolor” as of February 1, 2010, re-branding the entire company after its American film technology subsidiary.

The visual aesthetic of dye transfer Technicolor continues to be used in Hollywood, usually in films set in the mid-20th century. Parts of ''The Aviator'', the 2004 biopic of Howard Hughes, were digitally manipulated to imitate color processes that were available during the periods each scene takes place. The two-color look of the film is incorrectly cited as looking like Technicolor's two-color systems, and is in fact a facsimile of Hughes' own color system, Multicolor. The "three-strip" Technicolor look begins after the newsreel footage of Hughes making the first flight around the world.

See also

List of film formats

List of color film systems

Imbibition

List of early color feature films

References

Further reading

Fred E. Basten, ''Glorious Technicolor: The Movies' Magic Rainbow''. Easton Studio Press, 2005. ISBN 0-9647065-0-4

Adrian Cornwell-Clyne, ''Colour Cinematography''. London Champman & Hall, 1951.

Richard W. Haines, ''Technicolor Movies: The History of Dye Transfer Printing''. McFarland & Company, 2003. ISBN 0-7864-1809-5

John Waner, ''Hollywood's Conversion of All Production to Color'', Tobey Publishing, 2000.

Herbert T. Kalmus with Elenaore King Kalmus, ''Mr. Technicolor: The Fascinating Story of the Genius Who Invented Technicolor and Forever Changed the History of Cinema", MagicImage Filmbooks, 1993. ISBN 1882127315

External links

Technicolor official site

Kulturblog: Technicolor, An Explanation

Technicolor History at the American WideScreen Museum

Technicolor Corporate Website

Database of 3-strip Technicolor Films

Category:Film and video technology Category:Organizations awarded an Academy Honorary Award Category:1914 introductions Category:1915 introductions Category:Technicolor SA Category:History of film Category:Private equity portfolio companies Category:1932 introductions

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label	Epic Records, RCA Records
website	}}

Paloma Faith (born Paloma Faith Blomfield; 21 July 1985) is an English singer-songwriter and actress. In 2009, she released her debut single "Stone Cold Sober" and her debut album, ''Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?'', which was certified Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry. Her album stayed within the top 40 album charts for over forty weeks. The album spawned five singles: "Stone Cold Sober", "New York", title track "Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?", "Upside Down" and "Smoke & Mirrors". Faith also recorded the theme song to the 2010 British film ''4.3.2.1'' and appeared on the charity record "I Put a Spell on You". Faith made her feature film debut in the 2007 remake of ''St Trinian's''. She has since appeared in two more feature films, ''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'' and ''Dread''. In March 2010, Faith revealed that she was working on a second album. Almost two years later, Faith announced that her second album would be called ''Fall to Grace'' and will be released on 28 May 2012. It will be preceded by the single "Picking Up the Pieces".

Early life

Faith was born in Hackney, London to a Spanish father and an English mother who split up when Faith was two years old. Faith was raised by her mother in Stoke Newington. As a child, Faith was encouraged to dance by her mother and she took weekly ballet classes in Dalston. After completing her A-Levels, Faith went on to study for a degree in contemporary dance at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, which Faith describes as "the worst experience of [her] life". Faith then went on to study for an MA in theatre directing at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, funding her studies by working various part-time jobs, which included; a sales assistant at Agent Provocateur, a singer in a burlesque cabaret, a life model and a magician's assistant.

Music career

2007–08: Career beginnings

Faith's first foray into music began when she mimicked famous soul and jazz singers including Etta James and Billie Holiday, whom she admired and cites as influences for her own work. Faith met her managers Jamie Binns and Christian Wåhlberg of Lateral Management in 2007. Binns had been tipped off by the producer Peanut, a client who had recently worked with Faith in his studio and been suitably impressed. He met up with Faith shortly afterwards and was "completely blown away", later saying: "I wasn't sure what this girl was going to do - she was an actress and a singer - but there was just something about her in that artistic realness that when I came out of the meeting I called Christian and said, 'We have to do something with this girl!'" Although Faith had been looking for a manager, she was still wary about entering into a formal agreement with Binns and Wåhlberg. She instead wanted to build their relationship before any contracts were signed. The managers spent six months to a year helping Faith with the A&R; process, setting up sessions, and guiding and advising her before Faith was officially signed to Lateral Management.

During her time at college, Faith worked in a pub where the manager asked her to front his band, which they later called 'Paloma and the Penetrators'. During a performance with the band at a cabaret show, Faith was scouted by an A&R; man from Epic Records, who invited Faith to sing for the manager of the label. Twenty minutes into the audition, Faith asked the manager to turn his phone off and when he refused, she walked out. Epic A&R; Joanna Charrington told HitQuarters "When she played a showcase for us it was clear that she was a star but the material was a bit generic. She didn't have the hit songs." Not being one hundred percent convinced the label executives decided to wait. During this time Charrington regularly checked Faith's MySpace page "to see if she had something that had a special direction or sound." After several months her attention was eventually piqued by "Broken Doll", which she thought was a well-crafted song with a "fantastic chorus and brilliant lyrics." Charrington told Epic managing director Nick Raphael "I think we should get this girl back in. She sounds like she is getting it now. We can help her get the songs." Faith revealed in an interview that the manager called her and offered her a contract saying he had seen many acts since and none had been as memorable as her. Faith turned down an opportunity to join Amy Winehouse's band and she began to write and perform her own songs.

Faith's first recognised work was the song "It's Christmas (And I Hate You)", which she recorded as a duet with singer-songwriter, Josh Weller in 2008. Faith's music is influenced by soul and jazz and her singing style has been compared favourably to those of Amy Winehouse and Duffy.

2009–10: ''Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?''

Faith released her debut single, "Stone Cold Sober", in mid-2009 and it reached Number 17 on the UK Singles Chart. Faith's second single, "New York" was released in September 2009. The song made its peak position in early October, peaking at number 15 on the UK Singles Chart. Faith then released her debut album, ''Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?'', on 28 September 2009. Faith wrote or co-wrote all of the songs on the album in the UK, Sweden and America and recorded it entirely in London. It debuted at number 14 on the UK Albums Chart and later peaked at number 9, it remained in the chart for sixteen weeks. The album became BBC Radio 2's 'Album of the Week' from the 19 September 2009. In the same year, Faith appeared as a guest vocalist on Basement Jaxx's ''Scars'' album and on American hip-hop artist MF Doom's album, ''Born Like This''. Faith released her third single, the album's title track, "Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?" on 21 December 2009. The song did not perform as well as Faith's previous singles and failed to reach the top twenty. It peaked at number 64 in January 2010. In March 2010, Faith released her fourth single, "Upside Down", which peaked at Number 55 in the UK. To promote the album, Faith went on her first tour, featuring dates in the UK, Germany and France. On 4 November 2009, Faith announced her first headlining tour of the UK and Ireland starting on 17 March 2010. ''The Times'' described the tour as being "full of theatrical artifice, but based on the rock-solid foundation of [Faith]'s sensational singing voice and a personality that sparkled like a rough diamond". Faith performed a live set for the BBC's ''Radio 2 Introduces...'' and gave an interview to the station's host, Dermot O'Leary. Faith also appeared on current events programme ''This Week'' discussing her views on the British education system with Michael Portillo. During this month she also appeared as a guest on ''Never Mind the Buzzcocks'', performed the song "Upside Down" on ''The Hollyoaks Music Show,'' and performed her single "New York" on ''Friday Night with Jonathan Ross''. She also appeared on the BBC's ''Later with Jools Holland'', recorded on 13 October 2009, and his live Hootenanny on 31 December 2009. Faith performed at numerous festivals throughout that summer, including T4 on the Beach. "Stone Cold Sober" was used as the backing track for a Rimmel commercial starring Lily Cole and the B-side, "I Just Wait", was used in a UK television alcohol awareness advert. Samsung's Corby mobile phone TV commercial featured Faith's "Technicolour" song. Faith became involved in an album artwork competition with BBC Blast in November 2009, in which teenagers won the chance to work alongside leading artists, photographers and music industry professionals to create new publicity artwork for the singer.

During an interview with Mayer Nissim of Digital Spy in March 2010, Faith revealed that she is working on a second album. She also revealed that if she continues to make losses for her record label they will drop her. Faith's manager subsequently refuted any suggestion that her contract with the label was under threat, saying that, on the contrary, debut album UK sales of 500,000 without a hit single is an impressive foundation for a long-term career, and Sony are "smart enough" to recognise that and are 110% behind her. Faith, along with Adam Deacon and Bashy, recorded the theme song to the 2010 British film ''4.3.2.1''. The track, titled "Keep Moving", was released on 28 May 2010. In the same month, Faith performed at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival with the The Guy Barker Orchestra. The performance was broadcast on BBC Radio 2. In June 2010, it was announced that Faith would re-release an updated version of "New York" featuring rapper Ghostface Killah. The single was released on 1 August 2010. Faith released a live EP album following an appearance at the 2010 iTunes Festival. The album charted at number 11 on the iTunes top 200 albums. Faith revealed in a September interview that she would be releasing her new single "Smoke & Mirrors" in October 2010. The track was her final single from her debut album and its video was uploaded to YouTube.

2011–present: ''Fall to Grace''

In January 2011, Faith was nominated for "British Female Solo Artist" at the 2011 BRIT Awards. At the ceremony, Faith performed "Forget You" alongside Cee Lo Green. Faith appears on the charity single "Hard Times" alongside Plan B and Elton John. She also recorded the song "Desire" with Graham Coxon and Bill Ryder-Jones for a Converse campaign. During an interview with Popjustice, Faith revealed her second album would contain more "agony and suffering." The singer also hoped the album would be done with one producer as she wanted a "solid piece of work." She explained "I love the beautiful side of things like that Tom Waitsy, Rufus Wainwrighty, Ed Harcourt sort of stuff, and in contrast I like all the OutKast production, Gnarls Barkley and 'Beggin' and all that sort of sound. Contemporary but with a nod to the past. But you never know. You might just meet someone and something else would make sense." In July 2011, Faith revealed her frustrations about releasing the follow up to ''Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?''. She did not know when the album was going to be completed and said the process was slow. She told Kristy Kelly of Digital Spy, "The album's not finished yet and I'm not sure when it will be. If I had my way it would be out tomorrow, but there are so many other people involved that nothing happens quickly." Faith also admitted being signed to a major record label made her feel under pressure to be instantly successful. On 7 February 2012, a writer for the ''Gloucestershire Echo'' reported Faith had been named as Artist in Residence for the upcoming Cheltenham Jazz Festival.

On 29 February 2012, Faith revealed her second album would be called ''Fall to Grace'' and that it would be released by RCA Records on 28 May 2012. Faith enlisted record producer Nellee Hooper and co-producer Jake Gosling to work with her on the project. Hooper told a writer for ''NME'' that he had not really heard of Faith as he was living in Los Angeles when her first album was released. He said Sony and RCA Records contacted him and suggested he meet her. Of ''Fall to Grace'', Faith said "The new album has taken on a very cinematic mood. I am very excited to introduce my new sound into the world. Working with Nellee Hooper (Björk, Madonna) has been really inspirational." Faith told Dom Gourlay of Contactmusic.com that ''Fall to Grace'' is a personal record about a period of her life. Faith wrote and recorded the album in London. ''Fall to Grace'' will be preceded by the single "Picking Up the Pieces" on 20 May. On 4 April 2012, Alex Fletcher of Digital Spy reported Faith had joined ''The Voice UK'' as one of four guest mentors. Faith will work with coach Danny O'Donoghue during the battle rounds phase of the competition.

Acting career

In 2006, Faith made her primetime television acting debut in the series ''Mayo''. In 2007, Faith appeared in an episode of the BBC police drama ''HolbyBlue'', and in the same year Faith made her feature film acting debut as Andrea in ''St Trinian's''. In 2009, Faith appeared in Terry Gilliam's ''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'' as Sally, the girlfriend of the Devil (played by Tom Waits). She also appeared in horror film ''Dread'' as Clara Thornhill. Faith revealed that she was able to attend film auditions during promotion for her debut album, in the hope that she would land a role once all of her album commitments were over. In August 2010, Faith appeared in Channel 4's series ''Coming Up''. She also appears in the short film, ''A Nice Touch'' with Dougray Scott. Faith became attached to appear in Wayne Holloway's untitled punk movie in 2012. She will make an appearance as a cabaret performer in the BBC drama, ''Blandings''.

Discography

;Studio albums ''Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?'' (2009)

''Fall to Grace'' (2012)

;Singles

"Stone Cold Sober" (2009)

"New York" (2009)

"Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?" (2009)

"Upside Down" (2010)

"New York" (feat. Ghostface Killah) (2010)

"Smoke & Mirrors" (2010)

"Picking Up the Pieces" (2012)

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006		Guest	Episode: 1.6
2007	''HolbyBlue''	Donna Reynolds	Episode: 1.7
2007		Various	Episode: 1.4
2007		Andrea	Film debut
2009	''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus''	Sally
2009		Clara Thornhill
2010	''Coming Up''	Rainy	Episode: "I Don't Care"
2011	''A Nice Touch''	Alma	Short
2012	''Blandings''	Cabaret performer

References

External links

Paloma Faith at Curtis Brown

Paloma Faith portrait competition at BBC Blast

Category:1985 births Category:Blue-eyed soul singers Category:English female singers Category:English film actors Category:English people of Spanish descent Category:Living people Category:People from Hackney Category:Alumni of the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design Category:People from Stoke Newington

da:Paloma Faith de:Paloma Faith es:Paloma Faith fr:Paloma Faith it:Paloma Faith pl:Paloma Faith pt:Paloma Faith ro:Paloma Faith ru:Фейт, Палома fi:Paloma Faith sv:Paloma Faith

Name	Tim Myers
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Timothy Myers
Alias	Tim Myers
Birth date	November 30, 1984
Origin	Orange, California, United States
Genre	Pop rock, alternative rock, Indie rock
Occupation	Singer-songwriter
instrument	Vocals, guitar, piano, bass,
Years active	2007–present
Website	Tim Myers MySpace }}

Tim Myers (born 30 November 1984) is an American singer, songwriter and musician from Orange, California.

Myers is also known for playing bass in the band OneRepublic from 2004-2007.

Early life

Born and raised in southern California, music has been a presence in Myers life since an early age. Myers was compelled by piano at five and mastered classical piano by age 13, at which time he was introduced to guitar and bass. Myers soon started writing songs at age 14.

Career

Early musical career

In 2002, Myers moved to Los Angeles, California and joined the Interscope/Geffen Records band Limousine. The band was released from their contract within months of beginning work on their debut record.

===OneRepublic=== In 2004, Myers met founders of OneRepublic, Ryan Tedder and Tedder's high school classmate Zach Filkins in Los Angeles. Myers played bass in the band from 2004 to 2007, as well as helped compose four tracks on the record, including their Billboard hit "Stop & Stare". After signing a deal with Columbia Records, they recorded a number of songs, only to be dropped by the record label shortly after turning in their record. Myers then left the band to pursue a solo career. The band went on to become the number one unsigned band on MySpace and soon got signed to Interscope Records under the Mosley Music Group, headed by Timbaland. The band recorded a full album, ''Dreaming Out Loud'' and was released on 20 November 2007 in the United States. The band has since smashed records with their mega-hit "Apologize", becoming the biggest radio airplay hit in the history of North American Top 40 radio, according to Billboard, and was played more than 10,000 times in a span of a week.

Myers co-wrote two songs featured on the Deluxe edition of OneRepublic's second album ''Waking Up'' released on November 17, 2009. Myers co-wrote and played on the songs "Sucker Punch" and "Trap Door". These songs were written before Myers left the band in 2007.

Solo career

In early 2007, Myers released a solo EP titled ''Revolution EP''. The six-song "Revolution EP" was filled with political anti-war songs. The lyrics call for the need to make positive changes in the turbulent times in which we live. The single "World War" reached #3 on the Triple A radio charts. "A Revolution Song" featured vocals from Colbie Caillat.

References

External links

Category:American male singers Category:American rock guitarists Category:1984 births Category:Living people Category:American rock songwriters

it:Tim Myers

name	Carole Lombard
birth name	Jane Alice Peters
birth date	October 06, 1908
birth place	Fort Wayne, Indiana
death date	January 16, 1942
death place	Mount Potosi, Nevada
death cause	Plane crash
resting place	Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California
spouse	William Powell (m. 1931–1933; divorced) Clark Gable (m. 1939–1942; her death)
occupation	Actress
years active	1921–1942
other names	}}

Carole Lombard (October 6, 1908 – January 16, 1942) was an American actress. She is particularly noted for her comedic roles in the screwball comedies of the 1930s. She is listed as one of the American Film Institute's greatest stars of all time and was the highest-paid star in Hollywood in the late 1930s, earning around US$500,000 per year (more than five times the salary of the US President). Lombard's career was cut short when she died at the age of 33 in a plane crash while returning from a World War II Bond tour.

Queen of the 1930s screwball comedies, she personified the anxiety of a nervous age. Graham Greene praised the "heartbreaking and nostalgic melodies" of her faster-than-thought delivery. "Platinum blonde, with a heart-shaped face, delicate, impish features and a figure made to be swathed in silver lamé, she wriggled expressively through such classics of hysteria as ''Twentieth Century'' and ''My Man Godfrey''."

Ancestry and early life

Lombard was born Jane Alice Peters in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Her parents were Frederick C. Peters (1875–1935) and Elizabeth Knight (1877 – January 16, 1942). Her paternal grandfather, John Claus Peters, was the son of German immigrants, Claus Peters and Caroline Catherine Eberlin. On her mother's side, she was a descendant of Thomas Hastings who came from the East Anglia region of England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634. Lombard was the youngest of three children, having two older brothers, Fred C. Peters Jr. and Stuart Peters. She spent her early childhood in a sprawling, two-story house at 704 Rockhill Street in Fort Wayne, near the St. Mary's River. Her father had been injured during a work-related accident and was left with constant headaches which caused him to burst out in paroxysms of anger which disturbed the family. Lombard's parents divorced and her mother took the three children to Los Angeles in 1914, where Lombard attended Virgil Jr. High School and then Fairfax High School. She was elected May Queen in 1924. She quit school to pursue acting full-time but eventually graduated from Fairfax in 1927. Lombard was a second generation Bahá'í who formally enrolled in 1938.

Career

Lombard made her film debut at the age of twelve after she was seen playing baseball in the street by director Allan Dwan; he cast her as a tomboy in ''A Perfect Crime'' (1921). In the 1920s, she worked in several low-budget productions credited as Jane Peters, and later as Carol Lombard. Her friend Miriam Cooper helped Lombard land small roles in her husband Raoul Walsh's films. In 1925, she was signed as a contract player with Fox Film Corporation (which merged with Daryl Zanuck's Twentieth Century Productions in 1935). She also worked for Pathé Exchange and appeared as one of Mack Sennett's Bathing Beauties in 1928. She quickly became a well-known actress and made a smooth transition to sound films, starting with ''High Voltage'' (1929). In 1930, she won a contract with Paramount Pictures after having been dropped from both Twentieth Century and Pathé Exchange.

Lombard achieved a few minor successes in the early 1930s. In 1930's ''Safety in Numbers'' with Charles "Buddy" Rogers and 1932's ''No Man of Her Own'' with Clark Gable, but she was continually cast in second-rate films. It was not until 1934 that her career began to take off. That year, director Howard Hawks encountered Lombard at a party and became enamored with her saucy personality, thinking her just right for his latest project. He hired her for ''Twentieth Century'', alongside stage legend John Barrymore. Lombard was at first intimidated by Barrymore, but the two quickly developed a good working rapport. The film bolstered Lombard's reputation immensely and brought her a level of fame that her previously lackluster career had denied her.

Also in 1934, she starred in ''Bolero'' with George Raft and it was for this film that she turned down the role of Ellie Andrews in ''It Happened One Night''. In 1935 she starred in Mitchell Leisen's ''Hands Across the Table'' which helped to establish her reputation as a top comedy actress. 1936 proved to be a big year for Lombard with her casting in the screwball comedy ''My Man Godfrey'' alongside ex-husband William Powell who refused to do the film unless Carole was cast opposite him. Although divorced, Lombard and Powell remained close until her death. Her performance earned Lombard an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. It was followed by ''Nothing Sacred'' in 1937, casting her opposite Fredric March and under the direction of William A. Wellman. It was Lombard's only film in Technicolor and was regarded a critical and commercial smash. ''Nothing Sacred'' put Lombard at the top of the Hollywood tier and established her as one of the highest paid actresses in the business.

In 1938, Lombard suffered a flop with ''Fools for Scandal'' and moved on to dramatic films for the next few years. In 1939, Lombard took roles opposite James Stewart in producer David O. Selznick's ''Made for Each Other'' (1939) and Cary Grant in ''In Name Only'' (1939). She also starred in the dramatic ''Vigil in the Night'' in 1940.

Audiences did not respond as well to Lombard in dramatic roles and she made a return to comedy, teaming with director Alfred Hitchcock in ''Mr. & Mrs. Smith'' (1941). The film gave Lombard's career a much needed boost and she followed her success with what proved to be her last film, and one of her most successful, ''To Be or Not to Be'' (1942).

Personal life

In October 1930, Lombard met William Powell. They had worked together in the films ''Man of the World'' and ''Ladies' Man''. Unlike many of Lombard's other suitors at the time, Powell was urbane and sophisticated. He also appreciated her blunt personality and bawdy sense of humor. They married on June 26, 1931. Lombard commented to fan magazines that she did not believe their sixteen-year age difference would present a problem, but friends felt they were ill-suited, as Lombard had an extroverted personality while Powell was more reserved. They divorced in 1933, but remained good friends and worked together without acrimony, notably in ''My Man Godfrey''.

In 1934, following her divorce from Powell, Lombard moved into a house on Hollywood Boulevard. She lived with a friend from the days of Mack Sennett, Madalynne Fields, who became Lombard's personal secretary and whom Lombard called "Fieldsie." Lombard became known as one of Hollywood's great hostesses for her outrageous parties with unconventional themes. During this time she carried on relationships with actors Gary Cooper and George Raft, as well as the screenwriter Robert Riskin.

Also during 1934, Lombard met and began a serious affair with crooner Russ Columbo. Columbo reportedly proposed marriage, but was killed in a freak shooting accident at the age of 26. To reporters, Lombard said Columbo was the love of her life.

Lombard's most famous relationship came in 1936 when she became involved with actor Clark Gable. They had worked together previously in 1932's ''No Man of Her Own'', but at the time, Lombard was still happily married to Powell and knew Gable to have the reputation of a roving eye. They were indifferent to each other on the set and did not keep in touch.

It was not until 1936, when Gable and Lombard reunited at the Mayfair Ball, of which Lombard was hostess, that their romance began to take off. Gable, however, was married at the time to oil heiress Ria Langham, and the affair was kept quiet. The situation proved a major obstacle in Gable accepting the role of Rhett Butler in ''Gone with the Wind'', as MGM head Louis B. Mayer sweetened the deal for a reluctant Clark Gable by giving him enough money to settle a divorce agreement with Langham and marry Lombard. Gable divorced Langham on March 7, 1939 and proposed to Lombard in a telephone booth at the Brown Derby.

On March 29, 1939, during a break in production on ''Gone with the Wind,'' Gable and Lombard drove out to Kingman, Arizona and were married in a quiet ceremony with only Gable's press agent, Otto Winkler, in attendance. They bought a ranch previously owned by director Raoul Walsh in Encino, California and lived a happy, unpretentious life, calling each other "Ma" and "Pa" and raising chickens and horses. They also attempted to have children but were not successful.

Off-screen, Lombard was much loved for her down-to-earth personality and well known for an earthy sense of humor and use of blue language. Friends of Lombard's included Alfred Hitchcock, Marion Davies, William Haines, Jean Harlow, Fred MacMurray, Cary Grant, Jack Benny, Jorge Negrete, William Powell, and Lucille Ball.

Death

When the US entered World War II at the end of 1941, Lombard traveled to her home state of Indiana for a war bond rally with her mother, Bess Peters, and Clark Gable's press agent, Otto Winkler. After raising over $2 million in defense bonds, Lombard addressed her fans, saying: "Before I say goodbye to you all, come on and join me in a big cheer! V for Victory!" Lombard, anxious to return home to husband Clark Gable, wanted to take a plane instead of a train. Her mother and Winkler were both afraid of flying. They begged her to take the train. Lombard said they would flip a coin, heads the train, tails the plane. The coin came up tails.

On January 16, 1942, Lombard, her mother, and Winkler boarded a Transcontinental and Western Air DC-3 airplane to return to California. After refueling in Las Vegas, TWA Flight 3 took off and 23 minutes later, crashed into "Double Up Peak" near the level of Mount Potosi, southwest of Las Vegas. All 22 aboard, including 15 army servicemen, were killed instantly.

On January 18, 1942, Jack Benny did not perform his usual program, both out of respect for Lombard and grief at her death. Instead, he devoted his program to an all-music format.

Shortly after her death at the age of 33, Gable (who was inconsolable and devastated by her loss) joined the United States Army Air Forces. After officer training, Gable headed a six-man motion picture unit attached to a B-17 bomb group in England to film aerial gunners in combat, flying five missions himself. Gable attended the launch of the Liberty ship on January 15, 1944.

Lombard's final film, ''To Be or Not to Be'' (1942), directed by Ernst Lubitsch and co-starring Jack Benny, a satire about Nazism and World War II, was in post-production at the time of her death. The film's producers decided to cut part of the film in which Lombard's character asks, "What can happen on a plane?" as they felt it was in poor taste, given the circumstances of her death.

At the time of her death, Lombard had been scheduled to star in the film ''They All Kissed the Bride''; when production started, her role was given to Joan Crawford. Crawford donated all of her pay for this film to the Red Cross.

Lombard is interred at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. The name on her crypt marker is Carole Lombard Gable. Although Gable remarried, he was interred next to her when he died in 1960. Bess Peters was also interred beside her daughter.

Awards and honors

In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Lombard 23rd on its list of the 50 greatest American female screen legends. She received one Academy Award for Best Actress nomination, for ''My Man Godfrey''. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6930 Hollywood Blvd.

Lombard's Fort Wayne childhood home has been designated a historic landmark. The city named the nearby bridge over the St. Mary's River the Carole Lombard Memorial Bridge.

Portrayals

She has been played by:

Jill Clayburgh in ''Gable and Lombard'' (1976)

Sharon Gless in ''Moviola: The Scarlett O'Hara War'' (1980)

Denise Crosby in ''Malice in Wonderland'' (1985)

Anastasia Hille in ''RKO 281'' (1999)

Vanessa Gray in ''Lucy'' (2003)

Filmography

Features

''A Perfect Crime'' (1921)

''Gold Heels'' (1924)

''Dick Turpin'' (1925)

''Marriage in Transit'' (1925)

''Gold and the Girl'' (1925)

''Hearts and Spurs'' (1925)

''Durand of the Bad Lands'' (1925)

''The Plastic Age'' (1925)

''Ben-Hur'' (1925)

''The Road to Glory'' (1926)

''The Johnstown Flood'' (1926)

''The Fighting Eagle'' (1927)

''My Best Girl'' (1927)

''The Divine Sinner'' (1928)

''Power'' (1928)

''Me, Gangster'' (1928)

''Show Folks'' (1928)

''Ned McCobb's Daughter'' (1928)

''High Voltage'' (1929)

''Big News'' (1929)

''The Racketeer'' (1929)

''The Arizona Kid'' (1930)

''Safety in Numbers'' (1930)

''Fast and Loose'' (1930)

''It Pays to Advertise'' (1931)

''Man of the World'' (1931)

''Ladies' Man'' (1931)

''Up Pops the Devil'' (1931)

''I Take This Woman'' (1931)

''No One Man'' (1932)

''Sinners in the Sun'' (1932)

''Virtue'' (1932)

''No More Orchids'' (1932)

''No Man of Her Own'' (1932)

''From Hell to Heaven'' (1933)

''Supernatural'' (1933)

''The Eagle and the Hawk'' (1933)

''Brief Moment'' (1933)

''White Woman'' (1933)

''Bolero'' (1934)

''We're Not Dressing'' (1934)

''Twentieth Century'' (1934)

''Now and Forever'' (1934)

''Lady by Choice'' (1934)

''The Gay Bride'' (1934)

''Rumba'' (1935)

''Hands Across the Table'' (1935)

''Love Before Breakfast'' (1936)

''The Princess Comes Across'' (1936)

''My Man Godfrey'' (1936)

''Swing High, Swing Low'' (1937)

''Nothing Sacred'' (1937)

''True Confession'' (1937)

''Fools for Scandal'' (1938)

''Made for Each Other'' (1939)

''In Name Only'' (1939)

''Vigil in the Night'' (1940)

''They Knew What They Wanted'' (1940)

''Mr. & Mrs. Smith'' (1941)

''To Be or Not to Be'' (1942)

Short subjects

''Smith's Pony'' (1927)

''Gold Digger of Weepah'' (1927)

''The Girl from Everywhere'' (1927)

''Run, Girl, Run'' (1928)

''The Beach Club'' (1928)

''Smith's Army Life'' (1928)

''The Best Man'' (1928)

''The Swim Princess'' (1928)

''The Bicycle Flirt'' (1928)

''The Girl from Nowhere'' (1928)

''His Unlucky Night'' (1928)

''Smith's Restaurant'' (1928)

''The Campus Vamp'' (1928)

''Motorboat Mamas'' (1928)

''Hubby's Weekend Trip'' (1928)

''The Campus Carmen'' (1928)

''Matchmaking Mamma'' (1929)

''Don't Get Jealous'' (1929)

''Hollywood on Parade No. 11'' (1933)

''Hollywood on Parade No. A-12'' (1933)

''The Fashion Side of Hollywood'' (1935)

''Screen Snapshots Series 16, No. 3'' (1936)

''Breakdowns of 1938'' (1938)

''Hollywood Goes to Town'' (1938)

''Screen Snapshots Series 18, No. 9'' (1939)

References

External links

Carole Lombard

Photographs and bibliography

The Carole Lombard Photo Archives

Descendants of Thomas Hastings website

Descendants of Thomas Hastings on Facebook

"The house on Carole Lombard's street"

Category:1908 births Category:1942 deaths Category:20th-century actors Category:20th-century Bahá'ís Category:Accidental deaths in Nevada Category:Actors from Indiana Category:American Bahá'ís Category:American film actors Category:American people of English descent Category:American people of German descent Category:American silent film actors Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale) Category:California Democrats Category:Fairfax High School (Los Angeles) alumni Category:Indiana Democrats Category:People from Fort Wayne, Indiana Category:Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in the United States

an:Carole Lombard bg:Карол Ломбард ca:Carole Lombard cs:Carole Lombard da:Carole Lombard de:Carole Lombard es:Carole Lombard fa:کارول لمبارد fr:Carole Lombard id:Carole Lombard it:Carole Lombard he:קרול לומברד ka:კეროლ ლომბარდი nl:Carole Lombard ja:キャロル・ロンバード no:Carole Lombard pl:Carole Lombard pt:Carole Lombard ro:Carole Lombard ru:Кэрол Ломбард sr:Карол Ломбард sh:Carole Lombard fi:Carole Lombard sv:Carole Lombard vi:Carole Lombard

Name	Max Fleischer
Birth date	July 19, 1883
Birth place	Kraków, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary
Death date	September 11, 1972
Death place	Los Angeles, California, USA
Spouse	Essie Goldstein }}

Max Fleischer (July 19, 1883 – September 11, 1972) was an American animator. He was a pioneer in the development of the animated cartoon and served as the head of Fleischer Studios. He brought such animated characters as Betty Boop, Koko the Clown, Popeye, and Superman to the movie screen and was responsible for a number of technological innovations.

Early life

Born to a Jewish family in Kraków, Poland, then part of the Austrian-Hungarian province of Galicia, Max Fleischer was the second oldest of six children of an Austrian immigrant tailor, William Fleischer. His family emigrated to the USA in 1887 and settled in New York City, where he attended public school; he spent his formative years in Brownsville and Brooklyn. He attended Evening High School, received commercial art training at Cooper Union, and also attended The Mechanics and Tradesman's School. While still in his teens, he worked for ''The Brooklyn Daily Eagle'' as an errand boy, and eventually became a cartoonist. It was during this period he met newspaper cartoonist and early animator, John Randolph Bray. He married his childhood sweetheart, Ethel (Essie) Gold on December 25, 1905. Shortly afterward he accepted an illustrator's job for a catalog company in Boston. He returned to New York as Art Editor for ''Popular Science'' magazine around 1912; he also wrote books, including one called ''Noah's Shoes''.

The Rotoscope

Fleischer devised a concept to simplify the process of animating movement by tracing frames of live action film. His patent for the Rotoscope was granted in 1915, although Max and his brother Dave Fleischer made their first cartoon using the system in 1914. Extensive use of this technique was made in Fleischer's ''Out of the Inkwell'' series for the first five years of the series, which started in 1919 and starred Koko the Clown and Fitz the dog.

Fleischer Studios

Fleischer produced his ''Inkwell'' films for the Bray Studios until 1921, when he and younger brothers Dave and Lou established Fleischer Studios (initially named "Out of the Inkwell Films") to produce animated cartoons and short subjects; Max was credited as the producer at the beginning of every cartoon as well. Koko and Fitz remained the stars of the ''Out of the Inkwell'' series, which was renamed ''Inkwell Imps'' in 1927. The Fleischer brothers also partnered with Lee DeForest, Edwin Miles Fadiman, and Hugo Riesenfeld to form Red Seal Pictures Corporation, which owned 36 theaters on the East Coast, extending as far west as Cleveland, Ohio.

Fleischer invented the "follow the bouncing ball" technique for his ''Song Car-Tunes'' series of animated singalong shorts beginning in May 1924. After a few films with unsynchronized sound (music and sound effects only), Fleischer added synchronized sound to this series, with ''My Old Kentucky Home'' (released April 13, 1926) with a dog-like character saying "Follow the ball, and join in, everybody." The sound entries in the ''Song Car-Tunes'' series — roughly 19 out of 36 short films — used the Phonofilm sound-on-film process developed by Lee DeForest. The ''Song Car-Tunes'' series would last until early 1927, just a few months before the actual start of the sound era. This was before Walt Disney's ''Steamboat Willie'' (1928), which is often mistakenly cited as the first cartoon to synchronize sound with animation. However, by late 1926, both the DeForest Phonofilm Corp. and Red Seal Pictures had filed for bankruptcy, and the ''Song Car-Tunes'' series came to an end.

In 1923, Fleischer made two 20-minute educational features explaining Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity (''The Einstein Theory of Relativity'') and Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution. Both features used a combination of animated special effects and live action. Fleischer also produced ''Finding His Voice'' (1929) illustrating how sound films worked.

Into the early sound era, Fleischer produced many technically advanced and sophisticated animated films. Several of his cartoons had soundtracks featuring live or rotoscoped images of the leading jazz performers of the time, most notably Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong and Don Redman. Fleischer's use of black performers was bold at a time when depictions of blacks were often denigrating and stereotypical.

Finding success

In 1928, as film studios made the transition to sound, Fleischer revived the ''Song Car-Tunes'' series as ''Screen Songs'', starting with the release of ''The Sidewalks of New York'' on February 5, 1929 through Paramount Pictures. Out of the Inkwell Films, Inc. was reorganized as Fleischer Studios in January 1929 following bankruptcy. During this time, Walt Disney was also gaining success with Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies. In August 1929, the silent ''Inkwell Imps'' series was replaced with the ''Talkartoon'' series, beginning with ''Noah's Lark''. A year into the series, Fitz was renamed "Bimbo" and became the star of the ''Talkartoon'' series, starting with the cartoon ''Hot Dog'' (1930).

However, in August 1930, a Rubenesque poodle-human hybrid, Bimbo's girlfriend, made her screen debut in ''Dizzy Dishes'', and quickly became Fleischer's biggest star; she would later be named Betty Boop. By 1931, Betty's floppy canine ears had evolved into hoop earrings, and she was transformed into a fully human girl (though she retained her romantic relationship with the dog for several episodes after her transmogrification). By the time of ''Minnie the Moocher'' (1932), Betty Boop was in a class of her own, and by August 1932, starting with ''Stopping the Show'', the ''Talkartoon'' series was renamed as ''Betty Boop Cartoons''; by now, as noted from even the opening song from ''Stopping the Show'', Betty clearly became the self-proclaimed "Queen of the Animated Screen." Along with his standout star Boop, Fleischer had become one of the two premier animation producers; the up-and-coming Walt Disney was the other.

Fleischer cartoons were very different from Disney cartoons, in concept and in execution. The Fleischer approach was sophisticated, focused on surrealism, dark humor, adult psychological elements and sexuality. The Fleischer milieu was grittier, more urban, sometimes even sordid, often set in squalid tenement apartments with cracked, crumbling plaster and threadbare furnishings. Even the jazz music on Fleischer's soundtracks was rawer, saucier, more fitting with the unflinching Fleischer look at America's multicultural scene. But as popular as Betty Boop was for Fleischer, the Fleischer Studios would never come close to matching the huge international success of Mickey Mouse.

Fleischer would come closest through his deal securing the rights to the comic strip character Popeye the Sailor from King Features Syndicate. Popeye started out as a secondary character in 1929 in the newspaper feature ''Thimble Theater'', and made his film debut in July, 1933, introduced in the Betty Boop short ''Popeye the Sailor''. Popeye was an immediate hit for Fleischer, and would remain in production until 1957.

Fleischer's studio was a major operation in New York under the support of Paramount Studio. But as a recipient of Paramount cash, Fleischer was also at the mercy of Paramount's management. During the Great Depression, Paramount went through four name changes and reorganizations due to bankruptcies. These reorganizations affected the production budgets and created obstacles to Fleischer's development.

When the three-color Technicolor process became available, Paramount vetoed it based on their concerns with economic balance, giving Disney the opportunity to acquire an exclusivity to the process for four years, thus giving him the market edge on color cartoons. Two years later, Paramount approved color production for Fleischer, but he was left with the clearly inferior two-color processes of Cinecolor (red and blue) and two-strip Technicolor (red and green). The ''Color Classics'' series was introduced in 1934 as Fleischer's answer to Disney's ''Silly Symphonies''.

These color cartoons were augmented with a Fleischer-patented three-dimensional background effect called "The Stereoptical Process," a precursor to Disney's Multiplane. This technique replaced the usual flat-plane, drawn and painted cartoon backgrounds with a circular 3-D scale-model background — a diorama — in front of which the action cels were positioned and photographed. As the character, say, hustled down a city street, the camera operator would rotate the diorama a click with each frame. The result was a constantly changing perspective of converging parallel lines that gave an amazing sense of depth. The process worked most dramatically with pans or tracking shots; for static shots, traditional drawn backgrounds sufficed. It was used to great effect in the longer format ''Popeye'' cartoons ''Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor'' (1936) and ''Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves'' (1937). These series of double-length (two-reel) cartoons were a gradual progression expressing Fleischer's desire to produce feature-length animated features. And while he had concepts for full-length features, it was not until the success of Disney's ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' (1937) that the stodgy Paramount executives realized the value of an animated feature as Fleischer had been proposing for the previous three years.

Animated features and decline

The popularity of Betty Boop was irreparably damaged as a result of the enforcement of the Hays Code in 1934. Her overt sexuality was downplayed, and her racy flapper attire was replaced with longer skirts and a less revealing neckline. While the production of the cartoons had become more refined with more structured stories, the level of the content was more juvenile, largely influenced by Paramount's front office, which was changing the tone of their films to reflect a more family-oriented audience by producing films more of the nature of MGM. Betty became a spinster career girl and maiden aunt character, a judgmental "good citizen" instead of the carefree, funloving Jazz Baby she had once been. As a result, she lost much of her audience appeal, and the era and musical style that she represented had already faded away with the coming of the Swing Era.

In 1937, film production at Fleischer's studio was affected by a five month strike, which kept his cartoons off theater screens through the rest of the year. The strikers represented by the Commercial Artists and Designers Union were not recognized by the IATSE, which represented the majority of the motion picture crafts. But after five months, Paramount Pictures urged Fleischer to settle. Then in March 1938, Fleischer Studios moved from New York City to Miami, Florida. The reasons were many. While it was reasoned that the relocation removed the studio from further union agitation, they were in need of additional space for the production of features. Coincidentally with the move, relations between brothers Dave and Max began deteriorating. A feud started simmering after Dave began an adulterous affair with his Miami secretary in 1938, and was followed by more personal and professional disputes.

While at Paramount, Dave Fleischer was asked by the studio to put the popular comic book and radio hero Superman into a cartoon series. Despite the high budgets that came from the series — triple the budget of typical ''Popeye'' one-reelers — ''Superman'' became the most successful cartoons in the late period of the studio. Its ultra-realistic drawing, stylish Art Deco look and magnificently intricate scoring made the ''Superman'' pilot the highwater mark of the studio's sophisticated output.

In the wake of Disney's inarguable triumph with ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' in 1937, Paramount top brass finally acquiesced to Fleischer's longstanding appeals to produce feature-length animated films — and now they wanted one for a Christmas 1939 release. In order to finance the new operation, Fleischer negotiated a loan with Paramount that in essence surrendered the studio's assets for the term of the loan, 10 years.

While ''Gulliver's Travels'' (1939) did moderate box office, it did not make back all of its costs since the production ran nearly $500,000 overbudget due to the relocation, transportation of film for processing and back, and costs of training new workers. At the time, it was also reported that the escalated war in Europe just three months before cut off Paramount's foreign release potential; however, recent information indicates that the picture ''was'' released in Europe but the returns were not reported to Fleischer Studios' accounting department. At the same time, returns on ''Popeye'' cartoons were also not properly accounted. These factors contributed to the continued financial losses for Fleischer's studio. The final blow came with the ill-fated release of their second feature, ''Mr. Bug Goes to Town'' (1941) two days before the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

On May 24, 1941, Paramount initiated takeover of Fleischer's studio. Max remained nominally in charge, but the long-simmering personal feud with his brother Dave further complicated the situation. Shortly after the release of ''Mr. Bug'', a disgusted Dave left for California to take over as head of Columbia's Screen Gems animation unit in April 1942 — just one month prior to the renewal of Fleischer's contract. The move put Dave in breach of contract, for taking a position with a competitor while still contracted to Paramount. This breach, along with the substantial debt to Paramount, gave the bigger studio the right to take control of the smaller, forcing Max out. Paramount installed new management, among them Max's son-in-law, Seymour Kneitel. On May 25, 1942, the studio was renamed Famous Studios, and it moved back to New York within eight months.

Despite the disappointing performance of the feature films, the ''Superman'' series continued to do well. Nine episodes were completed by Fleischer Studios, with the final eight made by Famous Studios after the reorganization. Today, the Max Fleischer ''Superman'' cartoons are considered the final triumph of this great pioneer and his innovative studio.

Later career

After leaving his studio, Fleischer was brought in as head of the Animation Department for the industrial film company, The Jam Handy Organization. While there he supervised the technical and cartoon animation departments, producing training films for the Army and Navy and was also involved with research and development for the war effort. Following the war, he supervised the production of the animated adaptation of ''Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer'' (1948), sponsored by Montgomery Ward. Fleischer left Handy in 1954 and returned as Production Manager for the Bray Studios in New York.

Fleischer lost a lawsuit against Paramount in 1955 over the removal of his name from the credits of his films. While Fleischer had issues over the breach of contract, he had avoided suing to protect his son-in-law, Seymour Kneitel, who still had a position with Paramount's Famous Studios. The lawsuit was lost because the court decided that, though Fleischer's case had merit, the statute of limitations had expired. In 1958, Fleischer revived Out of the Inkwell Films, Inc. and partnered with his former animator, Hal Seeger to produce 100 color ''Out of the Inkwell'' (1960–1961) cartoons for television. Actor Larry Storch performed the voices for Koko and supporting characters Kokonut and Mean Moe.

Although the rift with his brother Dave was never resolved, Max eventually formed a friendship with his old rival Walt Disney, who welcomed Max to a reunion with former Fleischer animators who were by then employed by Disney.

Fleischer, along with his wife Essie, moved to the Motion Picture Country House in 1967. He died from heart failure on September 11, 1972, after a period of poor health. On the day of his death, Max Fleischer was cited as a great pioneer who invented an industry, and was named by ''Time'' magazine as the "Dean of Animated Cartoons."

His son Richard Fleischer, born in 1916, entered the film industry in the 1940s, and in retirement worked on merchandising Betty Boop.

References

Review by Mindy Aloff: The Animated Life of a Film Giant", ''The Forward'', October 14, 2005. Accessed 1 July 2006.

Maltin, Leonard (1987): ''Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons''. Penguin Books.

Popeye the Sailor Vol. 2 1938 - 1940, Documentary, "Out of the Inkwell, The Fleischer Story "

External links

Freely downloadable Max Fleischer cartoons

The history of the Fleischer's Popeye series

Category:1883 births Category:1972 deaths Category:Betty Boop Category:American animators Category:American inventors Category:American people of Austrian-Jewish descent Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent Category:Cardiovascular disease deaths in California Category:People from Vienna Category:People from New York City Category:Jewish inventors

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