Negotiating the Archives: The Natalie Kalmus Papers and the “Branding” of Technicolor in Britain and the United States

Abstract

Negotiating the ArchivesThe Natalie Kalmus Papers and the “Branding” of Technicolor in Britain and the United States Sarah Street (bio) Based on research for a project on color films in Britain, this essay presents a case study of the Natalie Kalmus Papers in the Margaret Herrick Library, Los Angeles, highlighting Kalmus’s role in exploiting Technicolor in the U.K. market and as a color advisor for British production. Credited as “color consultant” on most Technicolor films from 1933 to 1949, Natalie Kalmus was the ex-wife of Technicolor cofounder Herbert Kalmus. Though she often worked with others and delegated responsibilities, recent scholarship demonstrates that, contrary to opinion that downplayed her role in film history, she most certainly influenced how Technicolor was used for many years.1 In her position as head of the Color Advisory Service, she developed guidelines, advocating a theory of color consciousness through the use of charts for each film that operated like a musical score and associated color intensity with dominant moods or emotions.2 Kalmus produced a chart after reading a script, after which consultations would take place with producers and members of a studio’s art and costume departments, and further adjustments would be made on the set and into postproduction. In addition to cinematographers, art directors were key production personnel who negotiated the details of working with color in collaboration with Kalmus and Joan Bridge, who was also credited as “color director” on many British films.3 Kalmus thus oversaw the exportation of Technicolor into Britain in the mid-1930s, working firsthand on several productions. My search for primary documentation involved locating Kalmus’s papers, which I hoped might answer questions about the extent of her influence, particularly on British films, and her dealings with Technicolor Ltd., the British side of the operation, formed in 1935. The extent of Kalmus’s involvement with British films is a key issue in film history, as is the nature of the work she did with the Color Advisory Service, which producers had to use as part of their contract to use Technicolor. Primary archival documentation on this topic did not, in the main, survive, and in the absence of a Technicolor Ltd. archive, the Natalie Kalmus Papers were a route toward understanding a major link in the company’s international activities. The Natalie Kalmus collection spans the years 1930–48 (see the description at the end of this article). It was a gift to the Herrick in 1992 by Ron Haver, who was the head of the film program at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and a noted film historian, collector, and preservationist. The collection is lacking in some areas, while being surprisingly rich in others. Though the collection is cataloged according to a particular correspondent, organization, film title, or type of documentation (e.g., fan mail or radio broadcast transcripts), it is necessary to read everything because you can never be sure what a file might actually contain. The fields in which I was interested related to a number of key themes, including Kalmus’s professional work generally, how the [End Page 2] Click for larger view View full resolution Advertisement for Technicolor Ltd. From Kinematograph Weekly, October 29, 1953. [End Page 3] Color Advisory Service operated in relation to British filmmakers, and evidence about the company’s technical innovations in the form of reports circulated by the company and occasional commentary in letters. I also considered it important to gain a sense of Kalmus’s overall place in women’s film history and, finally, to learn more about her personal history. She is an interesting example of a woman in a key position in Technicolor, occupying a fairly unique technical role at a time when Hollywood was concerned about expanding the lucrative English-speaking market in the face of European protectionist policies.4 Click for larger view View full resolution Technicolor Ltd. offices and lab (Bath Road, Harmondsworth, West Drayton, Middlesex, England), circa 1937. It was highly promising to find that primary documentation from the 1930s and early 1940s had survived since previous research on film trade papers indicated that this was a crucial period before Technicolor had established its...