Natalie Kalmus

CMoore · May 23, 2021

Any of you Gals/Guys have an affection for or knowledge about Technicolor in general and Mrs. Kalmus in particular.?
I find her a fascinating person.
Technicolor and Hollywood marched hand in hand for many years.
Not sure who, if anybody, had more film credits than she did.
I know there were several Producers and Directors, not to mention Costume, Set and Lighting directors that battled with her.
But she seems to have prevailed, for many years, in lieu of that.
She must have known Something....she must have been good at Something.!

Have any of you guys given much thought to her.?
"She" affected a ton of movies. Perhaps more than any single person of her era.
Was she a color genius, or would some films have been better off without her.?

It was the reading of the thread below that made me think of her. Some of you guys have EXTENSIVE knowledge of color.
I wanted to post about her in that thread because it seemed relevant to me.............others might have disagreed, so here we are.
https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/quality-of-color-for-lighting-cri-r9-tlci-etc.183912/

pentaxuser · May 23, 2021

CMoore, can I ask: What is the link between what the lady you speak of, did in Technicolor film sets and the link you provide us with. The link seems to be an explanation of the theory of the quality of colour lighting. What was she able to do with that lighting that exploited the theory and practice of using that lighting?

Thanks

pentaxuser

CMoore · May 23, 2021

pentaxuser said:
CMoore, can I ask: What is the link between what the lady you speak of, did in Technicolor film sets and the link you provide us with. The link seems to be an explanation of the theory of the quality of colour lighting. What was she able to do with that lighting that exploited the theory and practice of using that lighting?

Thanks

pentaxuser

Other than the fact that she was THE Advisor to Hollywood for Technicolor.................i am not sure if there is a link.
Some of our members have such a big, technical knowledge of color, i thought one of them might be a closet Hollywood/Technicolor nerd.

As guess what i was wondering was..........how Good/Knowledgeable was she.?
She was a college graduate.....i forget what field her degree was in.
But she married half of Technicolor. Talk about luck.!
But they were divorced for most of the Golden Age Of Technicolor. Yet they still lived under the "same: roof and continued to work "together".
It was really she and not he that was the key person the studios of that time would have dealt with.

So it made me wonder, when i read that other thread..............What did she know about color theory. How good was she with "Color".?
I know she devised some type of Color Chart as it related to 35mm color film. Of course, we are talking 3-Strip Technicolor.

Anyway..................just wondering if one of our members might be into Technicolor and/or Herbert Kalmus or Natalie Kalmus.

pentaxuser · May 23, 2021

In the 50s in my boyhood, when Technicolor "Westerns" were shown in U.K. cinemas, I thought it looked great but as I grew up I found myself preferring Deluxe such as "The Magnificent Seven" was shot with. It had a cooler more muted palette that was more to my taste but it would seem that for recent colour film users i.e. those of about two generations younger than I, the kind of hues that characterised Technicolor is what is sought

pentaxuser

CMoore · May 23, 2021

pentaxuser said:
In the 50s in my boyhood, when Technicolor "Westerns" were shown in U.K. cinemas, I thought it looked great but as I grew up I found myself preferring Deluxe such as "The Magnificent Seven" was shot with. It had a cooler more muted palette that was more to my taste but it would seem that for recent colour film users i.e. those of about two generations younger than I, the kind of hues that characterised Technicolor is what is sought

pentaxuser

i was just 5 years old, when she died in 1965. Never knew her name until 5-6-7 years ago.
But.............."Hollywood" was in a state of collapse when i was a kid.
The studios were selling off all kins of Precious/Historical assets, just to stay in the black, financially.
So, A LOT of their films circa 1930-1960 made their way to television. That is how i know about Technicolor.
If not for television, and my older sisters love of Hollywood, i might not even know what Technicolor was.

Anyway....................yeah, you are right. VERY vivid colors.
My Kodak Color-Plus 200 looks Nothing like Technicolor.

pentaxuser · May 23, 2021

I'd be a Portra man myself but only very occasionally given its price now in the U.K.

pentaxuser

falotico · May 24, 2021

It's wonderful that the career of Natalie Kalmus has piqued the interest of a member of APUG. Ms. Kalmus had a profound effect on the development of color cinema, and I believe she has not been given due credit for her contributions.

There is a reason for this. The principal biography about her was written by the woman who married her ex-husband. As a general rule, if you are a man's first wife and you want to have a good reputation DO NOT let his second wife write your life-story. Natalie's life-story was written by the second Mrs. Kalmus, Eleanore King Kalmus, who effectively performed a hatchet job on the first Mrs. Kalmus.

Briefly, in 1903 Herbert Kalmus was a college student at Boston Tech (later called Massachusetts Institute of Technology) when--at the age of 20--he married a 24 year old woman who had some theatre experience and often worked as a clerk. This was Natalie Kalmus. Dr. Kalmus was close to her mother and sister and the couple stayed together until they divorced in 1922. But after that they still held themselves out as husband and wife, even living together in Dr. Kalmus's houses in Bel Air, California and Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Only when Dr. Kalmus wanted to marry a divorcee, Eleanore King, a USC graduate, lecturer at colleges and author of a daily newspaper column, that Natalie Kalmus sued for what amounted to about half of the Technicolor Company. This lead to mean and brutal litigation, much of it hinging on the fact that Dr. Kalmus was a skirt-chaser and Natalie Kalmus had embarasing letters that detailed these affairs written by him and his lovers. Dr. Kalmus settled with a cash payment and doubled Natalie's alimony.

Eleanore was a ghost writer on Dr. Kalmus's autobiography, "Mr. Technicolor", and she alone wrote the passages about Natalie Kalmus, relying on court transcripts and other documents since Dr. Kalmus refused to contribute anything to the book about his first wife. Although the manuscript was finished during the last year of Herbert Kalmus's life, 1963, it was not published until 1993--after Natalie Kalmus had died. Thus Natalie Kalmus never had a chance to refute the worst allegations in the text: that she aborted Dr. Kalmus's child, but never told him she was pregnant; that she was subject to public temper tantrums; that she was cunning and manipulative, etc.

All in all, I think Natalie Kalmus was treated unfairly. She was on the set of every Technicolor movie made with the three-strip model D camera up until 1948. Her advice was instrumental in producing the magic look of "Wizard of Oz", "Gone With The Wind", "Robin Hood" (with Errol Flynn), "The Red Shoes", "Blithe Spirit" etc., etc.

CMoore · May 24, 2021

falotico said:
It's wonderful that the career of Natalie Kalmus has piqued the interest of a member of APUG. Ms. Kalmus had a profound effect on the development of color cinema, and I believe she has not been given due credit for her contributions.

There is a reason for this. The principal biography about her was written by the woman who married her ex-husband. As a general rule, if you are a man's first wife and you want to have a good reputation DO NOT let his second wife write your life-story. Natalie's life-story was written by the second Mrs. Kalmus, Eleanore King Kalmus, who effectively performed a hatchet job on the first Mrs. Kalmus.

Briefly, in 1903 Herbert Kalmus was a college student at Boston Tech (later called Massachusetts Institute of Technology) when--at the age of 20--he married a 24 year old woman who had some theatre experience and often worked as a clerk. This was Natalie Kalmus. Dr. Kalmus was close to her mother and sister and the couple stayed together until they divorced in 1922. But after that they still held themselves out as husband and wife, even living together in Dr. Kalmus's houses in Bel Air, California and Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Only when Dr. Kalmus wanted to marry a divorcee, Eleanore King, a USC graduate, lecturer at colleges and author of a daily newspaper column, that Natalie Kalmus sued for what amounted to about half of the Technicolor Company. This lead to mean and brutal litigation, much of it hinging on the fact that Dr. Kalmus was a skirt-chaser and Natalie Kalmus had embarasing letters that detailed these affairs written by him and his lovers. Dr. Kalmus settled with a cash payment and doubled Natalie's alimony.

Eleanore was a ghost writer on Dr. Kalmus's autobiography, "Mr. Technicolor", and she alone wrote the passages about Natalie Kalmus, relying on court transcripts and other documents since Dr. Kalmus refused to contribute anything to the book about his first wife. Although the manuscript was finished during the last year of Herbert Kalmus's life, 1963, it was not published until 1993--after Natalie Kalmus had died. Thus Natalie Kalmus never had a chance to refute the worst allegations in the text: that she aborted Dr. Kalmus's child, but never told him she was pregnant; that she was subject to public temper tantrums; that she was cunning and manipulative, etc.

All in all, I think Natalie Kalmus was treated unfairly. She was on the set of every Technicolor movie made with the three-strip model D camera up until 1948. Her advice was instrumental in producing the magic look of "Wizard of Oz", "Gone With The Wind", "Robin Hood" (with Errol Flynn), "The Red Shoes", "Blithe Spirit" etc., etc.

I appreciate your input... Thank You
I find her, her husband, Technicolor and Hollywood of that era, an Utterly Fascinating and Interesting story.
It should be made into a 6 hour documentary.........or it Should HAVE been. It might be too late now.
Perhaps there is enough archived info on Him, Her, and Technicolor for a dedicated film maker to put together an extensive documentary.?

CMoore · May 24, 2021

Fascinating............Utterly Fascinating

CMoore · May 24, 2021

Here is a copy of "Color Consciousness" her Magnum Opus about color and film.

https://www.eastman.org/sites/default/files/technicolor/pdfs/ColorConsultants_ColorConsciousness.pdf

Robert Maxey · Aug 5, 2021

CMoore said:
Any of you Gals/Guys have an affection for or knowledge about Technicolor in general and Mrs. Kalmus in particular.?
I find her a fascinating person.
Technicolor and Hollywood marched hand in hand for many years.
Not sure who, if anybody, had more film credits than she did.
I know there were several Producers and Directors, not to mention Costume, Set and Lighting directors that battled with her.
But she seems to have prevailed, for many years, in lieu of that.
She must have known Something....she must have been good at Something.!

Have any of you guys given much thought to her.?
"She" affected a ton of movies. Perhaps more than any single person of her era.
Was she a color genius, or would some films have been better off without her.?

It was the reading of the thread below that made me think of her. Some of you guys have EXTENSIVE knowledge of color.
I wanted to post about her in that thread because it seemed relevant to me.............others might have disagreed, so here we are.
https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/quality-of-color-for-lighting-cri-r9-tlci-etc.183912/

At last ... a thread I can speak volumes about. I adore Technicolor because it is related to several other processes: Eastman Kodak Wash-off Relief and the Dye Transfer process. All three are essentially the same. I have done considerable research on Technicolor for a book I am writing about Vectographs.

Her list of movie credits is indeed a very long list and her word as far as color went was law.

When you understand just how complex the Technicolor process was, you will appreciate it all the more. And if you ever get a chance to see a Technicolor three-strip IB movie print, do it. Nothing like glorious Technicolor. In later years, Technicolor made separations from color negative stock, but it is simply not the same as an original process print.

With the loss of theaters with projection equipment for film disappearing, so goes Technicolor.

Bob

CMoore · Aug 5, 2021

Robert Maxey said:
At last ... a thread I can speak volumes about. I adore Technicolor because it is related to several other processes: Eastman Kodak Wash-off Relief and the Dye Transfer process. All three are essentially the same. I have done considerable research on Technicolor for a book I am writing about Vectographs.

Her list of movie credits is indeed a very long list and her word as far as color went was law.

When you understand just how complex the Technicolor process was, you will appreciate it all the more. And if you ever get a chance to see a Technicolor three-strip IB movie print, do it. Nothing like glorious Technicolor. In later years, Technicolor made separations from color negative stock, but it is simply not the same as an original process print.

With the loss of theaters with projection equipment for film disappearing, so goes Technicolor.

Bob

Oh Man.............i am VERY Happy you replied.

1. It sounds fascinating. Must have been a Wonderful, Trying, Fun, Adventurous labor of love.
2. PLEASE keep us updated...here... about your book. Maybe throw some teasers our way about what you have learned and written.

3. Congratulations on this pursuit.
In addition to the Vectographs and other associated process............You are one of the few people that stand between the knowledge of Technicolor and the rumor of Technicolor.
Feel free to, obnoxiously, self promote your book.
I tip my hat to you.

Robert Maxey · Aug 6, 2021

CMoore said:
Oh Man.............i am VERY Happy you replied.

1. It sounds fascinating. Must have been a Wonderful, Trying, Fun, Adventurous labor of love.
2. PLEASE keep us updated...here... about your book. Maybe throw some teasers our way about what you have learned and written.

3. Congratulations on this pursuit.
In addition to the Vectographs and other associated process............You are one of the few people that stand between the knowledge of Technicolor and the rum or of Technicolor.
Feel free to, obnoxiously, self promote your book.
I tip my hat to you.

Well, Technicolor's history is rather well documented. What should be more fully recognized is Natalie's work. It has been written that even the biggest Hollywood stars and studio heads had to bend to Natalie's will. Mrs. Kalmus knew color and how certain colors would render on the screen and she made sure the proper costume and set colors were used to preserve her husband's reputation. And remember, in those days, Hollywood was desperately seeking a viable color process.

Even more information can be gleaned from the various patents Technicolor was granted. What is interesting to me are the cameras. Think about what it took to design and build a camera that shot three rolls of film. Further imagine what it took to economically print those separate strips of film in perfect register. Amazing.

The camera films were rated at ASA 5 (ISO 5). The temperatures on set would often exceed 100 degrees. The cameras were noisy, so large soundproof blimps were required as well.

By the way, there were three, two-color Technicolor processes tried and used before three color (Process Four) came along.

Sadly, many Technicolor movies, seps and matrices were simply thrown away by Technicolor. Very few original camera negatives of movies made in the early Technicolor processes 2 or 3 survived Technicolor's house cleaning. Original Technicolor prints were sometimes used to make black-and-white prints for TV and thrown away, so all we see today are black and white versions.

Anyway, I am glad to see someone knows who Mrs. Klamus was.

Bob

Robert Maxey · Aug 6, 2021

CMoore said:
Here is a copy of "Color Consciousness" her Magnum Opus about color and film.

https://www.eastman.org/sites/default/files/technicolor/pdfs/ColorConsultants_ColorConsciousness.pdf

Thanks for posting the link. I read that several years ago and could not remember where I found it.

Bob

Robert Maxey · Aug 6, 2021

pentaxuser said:
In the 50s in my boyhood, when Technicolor "Westerns" were shown in U.K. cinemas, I thought it looked great but as I grew up I found myself preferring Deluxe such as "The Magnificent Seven" was shot with. It had a cooler more muted palette that was more to my taste but it would seem that for recent colour film users i.e. those of about two generations younger than I, the kind of hues that characterised Technicolor is what is sought

pentaxuser

I have talked to any number of people that would agree with you. I am on the fence; not sure what I really prefer. What I love is the incredible shadow and highlight detail. I have read accounts of people first seeing The Wizard of OZ and were gobsmacked when Dorthy walked from a black and white/sepia version of her world to one of full color.

Interesting that Judy Garland's salary was far less than the other actors.

Bob

CMoore · Aug 6, 2021

Robert Maxey said:
Well, Technicolor's history is rather well documented. What should be more fully recognized is Natalie's work. It has been written that even the biggest Hollywood stars and studio heads had to bend to Natalie's will. Mrs. Kalmus knew color and how certain colors would render on the screen and she made sure the proper costume and set colors were used to preserve her husband's reputation. And remember, in those days, Hollywood was desperately seeking a viable color process.

Even more information can be gleaned from the various patents Technicolor was granted. What is interesting to me are the cameras. Think about what it took to design and build a camera that shot three rolls of film. Further imagine what it took to economically print those separate strips of film in perfect register. Amazing.

The camera films were rated at ASA 5 (ISO 5). The temperatures on set would often exceed 100 degrees. The cameras were noisy, so large soundproof blimps were required as well.

By the way, there were three, two-color Technicolor processes tried and used before three color (Process Four) came along.

Sadly, many Technicolor movies, seps and matrices were simply thrown away by Technicolor. Very few original camera negatives of movies made in the early Technicolor processes 2 or 3 survived Technicolor's house cleaning. Original Technicolor prints were sometimes used to make black-and-white prints for TV and thrown away, so all we see today are black and white versions.

Anyway, I am glad to see someone knows who Mrs. Klamus was.

Bob

I have a huge affinity for "Hollywood".
That very short period of time when so many movies were made there........start to finish.
The so called "golden years" of the studio system. I would have loved to have been part of that. Not as an actor, but as a craft person.

I watched a short doc about Technicolor last year and they showed a few short clips of 2-Strip Color.
As a kid in the 1960's and 70's.........when Hollywood was dying..........a lot of movies were starting to be shown on television.
That was my introduction to Mrs Kalmus.
My older sister was delighted to see the female names in the credits...... Editor and Costume Design were rather common..... and of course Edith Head and Natalie Kalmus were on lots of end credits.

Very Good Luck with that book

Europan · Aug 6, 2021

CMoore said:
I find her a fascinating person.

Having read about the Kalmus couple about 35 years ago for the first time I got piqued by your statement also because I have lived with a similarly gifted woman once. Immediately she came to my mind, I thought Mrs. Kalmus might have had the same Venus aspect—Aries.

Then I looked up her birthday, April 7, 1882. Then the ephemeris and bam—Venus-Aries.

Believe me, it’s not always easy to have someone around you with that streak. They crystallize everything around them. My former girlfriend has the adjusting, so to speak. Don’t know the best expression for it. Natalie Kalmus must have been a mover, endlessly, until she had it the way she needed it only to start anew on another project. But a pioneer she was.

Robert Maxey · Aug 6, 2021

CMoore said:
I have a huge affinity for "Hollywood".
That very short period of time when so many movies were made there........start to finish.
The so called "golden years" of the studio system. I would have loved to have been part of that. Not as an actor, but as a craft person.

I would have as well. Hollywood was much different in those days. Nobody started out at the top; the studio system brought you along and as you got better, you got better jobs. Everything done by hand because there was no digital. Those days are gone forever.

I once wanted to work for National Geographic. Not as a photographer, but in their special projects design shop.

Bob

mshchem · Aug 6, 2021

I look forward to watching these films on TCM even on TV when shown in letterbox, original format, these prints are stunning. Today's theaters can be kinda miserable, not like the picture palaces of days gone by. We have a couple theaters left that are older. I think almost all are digital projection.

Robert Maxey · Aug 6, 2021

mshchem said:
I look forward to watching these films on TCM even on TV when shown in letterbox, original format, these prints are stunning. Today's theaters can be kinda miserable, not like the picture palaces of days gone by. We have a couple theaters left that are older. I think almost all are digital projection.

Well, you can get some sense of it on TV. But there is a real difference when you see an actual IB print. AND, some differences when you look at a three color print made from negative stocks like Eastmancolor. That said, we get into the realm of which sounds better: digital music or records records.

Bob

faberryman · Aug 6, 2021

If I tune into an old color movie after the opening credits, and the colors look off in a garish sort of way, it is a usually a sign that either it was filmed in Technicolor or it was colorized by TCM. The former is okay; the later is not okay. It was unforgivable that they colorized Casablanca, for example.

Robert Maxey · Aug 6, 2021

faberryman said:
If I tune into an old color movie after the opening credits, and the colors look off in a garish sort of way, it is a usually a sign that either it was filmed in Technicolor or it was colorized by TCM. The former is okay; the later is not okay. It was a mortal sin that they colorized Casablanca, for example.

Perhaps even a really poor quality conversion. Natalie should work for TCN. I find it quite interesting that GIMP offers a two as well as a three strip "Technicolor" color filter.

Bob

CMoore · Aug 6, 2021

Europan said:
Having read about the Kalmus couple about 35 years ago for the first time I got piqued by your statement also because I have lived with a similarly gifted woman once. Immediately she came to my mind, I thought Mrs. Kalmus might have had the same Venus aspect—Aries.

Then I looked up her birthday, April 7, 1882. Then the ephemeris and bam—Venus-Aries.

Believe me, it’s not always easy to have someone around you with that streak. They crystallize everything around them. My former girlfriend has the adjusting, so to speak. Don’t know the best expression for it. Natalie Kalmus must have been a mover, endlessly, until she had it the way she needed it only to start anew on another project. But a pioneer she was.

When i first heard of the couple...... the long development process to get what we call Technicolor today, their divorce and her long gig in Hollywood..... i did not care much for her. No doubt she was "Difficult" to work with.
I could be wrong, but it seems she DID have a talent for her unique position in The Movie Business

mshchem said:
I look forward to watching these films on TCM even on TV when shown in letterbox, original format, these prints are stunning. Today's theaters can be kinda miserable, not like the picture palaces of days gone by. We have a couple theaters left that are older. I think almost all are digital projection.

I suppose it was 30 years ago..............I saw The Wizard Of Oz at The Castro in San Francisco. It was awesome. It remains the only time i have seen it on screen.
It looked fabulous, but i have no idea what process was being used. I only know it was a much better experience than watching it on a 25 in color television.

faberryman said:
If I tune into an old color movie after the opening credits, and the colors look off in a garish sort of way, it is a usually a sign that either it was filmed in Technicolor or it was colorized by TCM. The former is okay; the later is not okay. It was a mortal sin that they colorized Casablanca, for example.

Some of those do look God-Awful.
And as you say..............Color for the sake of Color is an Affront.

Robert Maxey · Aug 6, 2021

CMoore said:
Some of those do look God-Awful.
And as you say..............Color for the sake of Color is an Affront.

When you travel back in time and see how color motion pictures developed, you begin to realize that back in the day, color was a very important goal. Many silly ideas were tried. Many failed. We learned how to get better color because there was money to be made. Remember, Hollywood was (and still is) a business and color (as well as talkies) was one big way to get people into the theater. Early on, color simply amazed people and they wanted more.

Of course, this new thing called Air conditioning also brought tens of thousands to the local Beijou. As did all the various types of wide screen. And stereo, too.

There was a time when color for the sake of color was important.

Bob

Natalie Kalmus

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