Herbert T. Kalmus(1881-1963)

Herbert Kalmus was born 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 was married to Elanor Brodie King in 1949 until his death in 1963.