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What film was used in "Dali Atomicus"?

Richard Man

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Dali Atomicus is the famous 1948 picture of Dali and cats and water by Philippe Halsman
http://www.shootingfilm.net/2013/04/how-famous-dali-atomicus-photo-was-taken.html

According to this interview with National Geographic Society photographer Chris Rainier, Halsman used Tri-X film:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4583051

But according to Kodak, Tri-X wasn't invented until 1954!
http://www.kodak.com/ek/US/en/Our_Company/History_of_Kodak/Milestones_-_chronology/1930-1959.htm

and of course Tri-X TX400 is not available in sheet form (currently).

So what did Halsman use?
 

markbarendt

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Good answer Simon.
 
OP
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Richard Man

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Such funny people. Please do not quit your day jobs.

Well, what do you know, apparently Wikipedia knows more than Kodak. I guess the Kodak history page only talks about roll film history:

"...Introduced around 1940 in sheets rated at ASA daylight 200 and tungsten 160, it was one of Kodak's first high-speed (for the time) black-and-white films. Tri-X was released in 35mm and 120 in 1954."
 

railwayman3

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Seems rather like worrying whether Turner bought his paints from Winsor & Newton or Rowney.
 

gone

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He bought them from Sam's Discount Paints I think. I have plenty more folks. I'll be here all week, and I don't have a day job to quit. Tried that, did not like it.

That first link, if you go to the links on the right, there's some wonderful stuff there! Especially the one of the guys photographing the bird nest.
 
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paul ron

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Dali bought his paints from either Pearl Paint or Utrecht Linen in NYC.

The popular films before the war were kodak verichromne and ansco although agfa and dupont were heavy contenders.

I'll bet on big yellow, Kodak Verachrome safety film!
 

Jim Noel

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Most likely he used Kodak Super XX, or Super Panchro Press. The latter was more favored with flash.
 

nworth

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There was a sheet film version of Tri-X available before 1954. It wasn't very common. Alternatively, he may have used Super-XX (common in the studio) of Super Panchro Press Type B (a common press film of the era, high speed, grainy - Weegee used it a lot). My guess is either Tri-X or Super-XX, because it is a pretty smooth image, as I recall. Tri-X of the era would be significantly grainier than Super-XX. The shot was made with EG&G strobes, which didn't put out the light that modern strobe lighting does. Although he had quite a number of them, speed would have been important.
 

Vaughn

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Twenty-eight attempts. I wonder how many band-aids (or equivilents) were needed after catching and throwing cats 28 times!
 
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