1961 NBC "Tinted" Color Programming?

[holmesuser01]

Technicolor used Yellow, Cyan, and Magenta as its primary colors, with a B/W contrast on the base print. Thats why the soundtrack is nearly always black and white on a Technicolor print. They used cyan soundtracks early on, but they could never get past the low quality of the playback.

Technicolor has a very interesting history. I've got the book, Glorious Technicolor, in my collection library.

As of right now, I have 185 Technicolor prints in my collection. They are as beautiful today as the day they were printed... some are over 50 years old!!

[Steve D.]

Originally Posted by Leslie

"Glorious Technicolor" by Fred E. Basten, 1980, makes for an interesting read for the history of Tech. I picked up a copy at a used book store for $12.00.

I have that hard to find book as well. Great history of the Technicolor Co. up to the 1980 publishing date. It does mention that Natalie Kalmus became such a pain in the a** to producers, directors and DP's, she was finally shipped off to Technicolor in the U.K.

-Steve D.

[Leslie]

Originally Posted by holmesuser01

Technicolor used Yellow, Cyan, and Magenta as its primary colors, with a B/W contrast on the base print. Thats why the soundtrack is nearly always black and white on a Technicolor print. They used cyan soundtracks early on, but they could never get past the low quality of the playback.

Technicolor has a very interesting history. I've got the book, Glorious Technicolor, in my collection library.

As of right now, I have 185 Technicolor prints in my collection. They are as beautiful today as the day they were printed... some are over 50 years old!!

Your film collection sounds fabulous! Since you have worked in the Television industry, I dare say there is probably a very interesting book in you just waiting to be written!

[holmesuser01]

My first TV job: An independent station in a southern city.

Sometimes, we were amazed that the transmitter was still running at the end of the day.

When the studio to transmitter microwave link would go down, I'd run tapes out to the transmitter site, start the tapes and the engineer would switch from the stand by slide to the tape. I loved seeing stuff I copied on the air.

The station paid me to spot check features before air time. So, every night, I'd take usually 2 features home and screen them with my Pageant AV-255S built in 1959. I had a long living room-dining room, and it was a perfect 10 foot image on a smooth white wall!!

When I worked there, 90% of programming was film. 6AM to 2AM. There were two of us doing film inspections.

My boss was a photographic genius. He taught me. It sunk in. Here I am.

Thats the book.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled program, on NBC

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by etype2

Here is an example of the color I saw, except my memory is that the red was much more faded. My impression was thinking this was a strange black and white show with a funny tint.

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3...0/colortst.jpg

Thanks for posting that picture with the test card - I have been trying to find anyone who knows what colors were used on the Technicolor Lilly. Were they always the same, or changed for different productions?
This image may not answer it, but it's the closest thing I have seen.

It's hard to believe Superman was shot on 3-strip, but
1) I wonder if that is a real Technicolor lilly
2) (in case prints were made on dye imbibition, which I also wonder about for a TV series); or
3) maybe it's an adaptation of the lilly idea for processing of Kodak film.

[Leslie]

Originally Posted by holmesuser01

My first TV job: An independent station in a southern city.

Sometimes, we were amazed that the transmitter was still running at the end of the day.

When the studio to transmitter microwave link would go down, I'd run tapes out to the transmitter site, start the tapes and the engineer would switch from the stand by slide to the tape. I loved seeing stuff I copied on the air.

The station paid me to spot check features before air time. So, every night, I'd take usually 2 features home and screen them with my Pageant AV-255S built in 1959. I had a long living room-dining room, and it was a perfect 10 foot image on a smooth white wall!!

When I worked there, 90% of programming was film. 6AM to 2AM. There were two of us doing film inspections.

My boss was a photographic genius. He taught me. It sunk in. Here I am.

Thats the book.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled program, on NBC

We could have used you here in Chicago during the sixties. Our first UHF station used to run "Our Miss Brooks" and "December Bride" back-to-back, from 16mm prints. Once, the "Bride" print had the middle and end sequences mixed-up on the reel. Apparently no one inspected that print. Also, you could hear the projector clacking away while the muddy sound came through, as though a mic had been placed by the projector speaker. (That was a standard feature of that station). Does anyone remember "Science Fiction Theater"? that show , in it's first season, had the introduction (by Truman Bradley) and the closing in black-and-white, while the main story was presented in color. In the second season, the show was completely black-and-white.

[Steve Hoffman]

Originally Posted by old_tv_nut

Thanks for posting that picture with the test card - I have been trying to find anyone who knows what colors were used on the Technicolor Lilly. Were they always the same, or changed for different productions?
This image may not answer it, but it's the closest thing I have seen.

It's hard to believe Superman was shot on 3-strip, but
1) I wonder if that is a real Technicolor lilly
2) (in case prints were made on dye imbibition, which I also wonder about for a TV series); or
3) maybe it's an adaptation of the lilly idea for processing of Kodak film.

No. 3 is the correct answer!

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by Steve Hoffman

No. 3 is the correct answer!

Do you or anyone recognize the card? Who supplied it? What is the text/logo that appears on it?

[holmesuser01]

I can guarantee that Superman, the TV series, was not shot in Technicolor.

[holmesuser01]

Originally Posted by Leslie

We could have used you here in Chicago during the sixties. Our first UHF station used to run "Our Miss Brooks" and "December Bride" back-to-back, from 16mm prints. Once, the "Bride" print had the middle and end sequences mixed-up on the reel. Apparently no one inspected that print. Also, you could hear the projector clacking away while the muddy sound came through, as though a mic had been placed by the projector speaker. (That was a standard feature of that station). Does anyone remember "Science Fiction Theater"? that show , in it's first season, had the introduction (by Truman Bradley) and the closing in black-and-white, while the main story was presented in color. In the second season, the show was completely black-and-white.

I remember Science Fiction Theatre.

We got syndicated prints (like December Bride and Our Miss Brooks) that were all put together wrong fairly often. Some TV stations could care less how they handled the films when they returned them to the distributor.

I vividly remember a Dick Van Dyke show that had a section spliced in upside down, and backwards sound. It never happened again, either.

[Leslie]

Originally Posted by holmesuser01

I can guarantee that Superman, the TV series, was not shot in Technicolor.

I've been curious as to what color processes were used on some of these early shows. Screen Gems shows usually credit Pathe (Eastman). Universal is the only studio (to my knowledge) to employ Technicolor. Who did the color on, say, "The Lucy Show"? The restored DVDs look superb. How about "The Joey Bishop Show"? I saw a DVD of this and the color was not the greatest. Early shows like "Superman", "The Cisco Kid" and "Science Fiction Theater" were not really high-budget productions. Could they have utilized Cinecolor? By the late forties it was a three-color process. Or Republic's similar Trucolor? Were there any other lower-budget color processes available then?

[holmesuser01]

All of the color prints of The Lucy Show I've handled were processed by Consolidated Film Industries (CFI) Laboratories of Hollywood, along with the B/W shows. They did the labwork for I Love Lucy, too.

Universal did use Technicolor, but by the 1970's the prints we got of their TV shows were on Eastmancolor stock, as Technicolor stopped the IB process in 1975.

Superman, The Cisco Kid, and Science Fiction Theatre were shot in Eastmancolor.

Trucolor was by Consolidated Film Industries. Printed on Eastman film stock.

EDIT: Changed the ending date for Technicolor from 1972 to 1975. Thats what I get for using my memory!!

[Phototone]

By the 1950's, NO FILM was shot in the original Technicolor 3-strip separate b/w negative for each color camera system. Eastman color negative was used for just about everything. Technicolor (for Color by Technicolor) productions would then make separation masters from the Eastman negative, for making Technicolor prints by their exclusive IB process. It was the quality of the dyes in the prints that "made" technicolor so nice. Later Technicolor became just another (but high quality) lab for Kodak films. Therefore you can have the situation where the original Eastman color camera negatives are faded into oblivion, yet have perfect beautiful Technicolor IB prints still around.

[Steve D.]

Universal's "Foxfire" produced in 1954 and released in 1955 was the last American made film shot in 3 strip Technicolor*. However, in 1975
Technicolor processed its last domestic film in the 3 strip process (a re-print order of Disney's "Swiss Family Robinson") and closed its dye transfer plant in Hollywood*. The term "Color by Technicolor" in the credits ment that Technicolor handled all stages of the lab work. "Print by Technicolor" indicated that Technicolor was only responsible for the final-release prints.
Today, the word "Technicolor" generally appears alone in the credits.

*Source: "Glorious Technicolor" by Fred E. Basten.

-Steve D.

[holmesuser01]

Originally Posted by Steve D.

Universal's "Foxfire" produced in 1954 and released in 1955 was the last American made film shot in 3 strip Technicolor*. However, in 1975
Technicolor processed its last domestic film in the 3 strip process (a re-print order of Disney's "Swiss Family Robinson") and closed its dye transfer plant in Hollywood*. The term "Color by Technicolor" in the credits ment that Technicolor handled all stages of the lab work. "Print by Technicolor" indicated that Technicolor was only responsible for the final-release prints.
Today, the word "Technicolor" generally appears alone in the credits.

*Source: "Glorious Technicolor" by Fred E. Basten.

-Steve D.

Thanks, Steve. I updated my previous post with the year 1975.