Herbert T. Kalmus(1881-1963)
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Herbert Kalmus was born on November 9, 1881, in Chelsea, Massachusetts.
He graduated from M.I.T. and then got his PhD. from the University of
Zurich in Switzerland. He formed his company, "Technicolor Company", in
1912, when he was still a professor at the Canadian school. He
incorporated in 1915 and in 1917 made the first color film [the
two-color process],
The Gulf Between (1917). It was
a one-reeler and it superimposed figures on a background. He made the
first full-length, real two-color movie in 1926,
The Black Pirate (1926). The
first three-color process, more commonly known as Three-Strip
Technicolor, movie was
Becky Sharp (1935). Dr.Kalmus' first
wife, Natalie Kalmus, was also a company
executive and had a reputation for always being on set and interfering
with the director, but after the patent ran out in 1949, she
"disappeared", only to reappear as a consultant to a TV cabinet
company! Ironically, she divorced Dr. Kalmus in 1921 (finalized in
1922), but they lived together until 1944. He passed away in 1963, and
she died two years later.