1 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:02,000 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class. It's a production of I 2 00:00:02,080 --> 00:00:06,480 Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hi everyone, I'm Eves and welcome to This 3 00:00:06,600 --> 00:00:09,640 Speaker 1: Day in History Class, a podcast where we dust off 4 00:00:09,680 --> 00:00:12,240 Speaker 1: a little piece of history and placed it ever so 5 00:00:12,320 --> 00:00:26,040 Speaker 1: gently on your brainshelf. Every day. Today is February. The 6 00:00:26,120 --> 00:00:31,360 Speaker 1: day was February nineteen o nine. The first public screenings 7 00:00:31,400 --> 00:00:34,800 Speaker 1: of Kinemacolor took place at the Palace Theater of Varieties 8 00:00:34,880 --> 00:00:40,080 Speaker 1: in London. Kinemacolor was the first successful color motion picture process. 9 00:00:41,240 --> 00:00:44,440 Speaker 1: Hand coloring of motion pictures began in the eighteen nineties. 10 00:00:44,920 --> 00:00:49,639 Speaker 1: By nine Frederick Marshall Lee and Edward Raymond Turner had 11 00:00:49,640 --> 00:00:53,479 Speaker 1: applied for the first British color moving picture patent, but 12 00:00:53,520 --> 00:00:58,400 Speaker 1: the early color film processes were rudimentary, costly, and time consuming. 13 00:00:59,480 --> 00:01:02,520 Speaker 1: Over the years, people built on the technology for color 14 00:01:02,640 --> 00:01:06,920 Speaker 1: and motion pictures. There was William N. L. Davidson who 15 00:01:06,959 --> 00:01:11,400 Speaker 1: experimented with color cinematography. He patented a three color still 16 00:01:11,440 --> 00:01:15,640 Speaker 1: photography system, but he did not create a successful natural 17 00:01:15,680 --> 00:01:20,040 Speaker 1: color motion picture system. Film producer Charles Urban and engineer 18 00:01:20,120 --> 00:01:23,200 Speaker 1: Alfred Darling also took interest in the issue in the 19 00:01:23,240 --> 00:01:27,600 Speaker 1: early days of film. In nineteen o three, Urban commissioned 20 00:01:27,680 --> 00:01:31,640 Speaker 1: hypnotist and film pioneer George Albert Smith to work on 21 00:01:31,680 --> 00:01:35,399 Speaker 1: a color motion picture process. In November of nineteen oh six, 22 00:01:35,720 --> 00:01:41,400 Speaker 1: Smith patented the Kinemacolor process. Kinemacolor was an additive process 23 00:01:41,560 --> 00:01:45,240 Speaker 1: using alternating red and green filters that were applied to 24 00:01:45,280 --> 00:01:47,480 Speaker 1: the shutter in front of the camera and in front 25 00:01:47,480 --> 00:01:51,680 Speaker 1: of the projector. The two color system couldn't produce blue 26 00:01:51,720 --> 00:01:55,680 Speaker 1: and violet hues, and whites had a yellowish coloration, so 27 00:01:55,760 --> 00:01:59,560 Speaker 1: Smith proposed using blue violet filters over the projection light. 28 00:02:00,720 --> 00:02:04,000 Speaker 1: The first motion picture shown in Kinemacolor was an eight 29 00:02:04,040 --> 00:02:07,080 Speaker 1: minute short filmed and brightened and called A Visit to 30 00:02:07,080 --> 00:02:10,600 Speaker 1: the Seaside, screened in nineteen o Eight months later, on 31 00:02:10,639 --> 00:02:15,200 Speaker 1: February nineteen o nine, short films were shown at the 32 00:02:15,200 --> 00:02:18,440 Speaker 1: Palace Theater in London. It was the first time the 33 00:02:18,440 --> 00:02:22,920 Speaker 1: general public saw kinemacolor. The process was first shown in 34 00:02:22,960 --> 00:02:26,000 Speaker 1: the United States in December of that year at an 35 00:02:26,040 --> 00:02:29,920 Speaker 1: exhibition in Madison Square Garden in New York. Charles Urban 36 00:02:30,040 --> 00:02:33,320 Speaker 1: formed the Natural Color Kinematograph Company Limited in March of 37 00:02:33,400 --> 00:02:37,320 Speaker 1: nineteen o nine, and he began producing films using the process. 38 00:02:38,440 --> 00:02:42,320 Speaker 1: Hundreds of Kinemacolor projectors were installed in theaters across Britain, 39 00:02:42,480 --> 00:02:45,600 Speaker 1: the US, and Japan, but it was hard to make 40 00:02:45,639 --> 00:02:49,040 Speaker 1: back the money spent on installing the projectors. On top 41 00:02:49,080 --> 00:02:52,960 Speaker 1: of that, the process caused distortions and images that audiences 42 00:02:53,080 --> 00:02:58,080 Speaker 1: weren't particularly fond of. In the US, Kinemacolor's Hollywood studio 43 00:02:58,240 --> 00:03:01,800 Speaker 1: was taken over by director D. W. Griffith. He was 44 00:03:01,840 --> 00:03:05,919 Speaker 1: shown a Kinemacolor adaptation of Thomas Dixon's novel The Klansman, 45 00:03:06,400 --> 00:03:08,800 Speaker 1: a book that depicts the Koul Klux Klan in a 46 00:03:08,840 --> 00:03:13,000 Speaker 1: positive light. Griffith took over the project, and though the 47 00:03:13,040 --> 00:03:15,640 Speaker 1: film was never released, it led him to make the 48 00:03:15,639 --> 00:03:19,560 Speaker 1: controversial film The Birth of a Nation. The company was 49 00:03:19,639 --> 00:03:23,320 Speaker 1: not financially successful, and it went into liquidation in nineteen 50 00:03:23,360 --> 00:03:25,600 Speaker 1: fifteen in the wake of a legal case over the 51 00:03:25,680 --> 00:03:31,040 Speaker 1: Kinema color patent. It stopped production that year. Companies continue 52 00:03:31,080 --> 00:03:34,840 Speaker 1: to experiment with and refine color motion picture film throughout 53 00:03:34,920 --> 00:03:38,600 Speaker 1: the nineteen twenties and nineteen thirties, and in nineteen thirty 54 00:03:38,680 --> 00:03:42,760 Speaker 1: two Technicolor introduced a three color process. It was the 55 00:03:42,840 --> 00:03:47,600 Speaker 1: first full color process used successfully in theaters. I'm Eve, 56 00:03:47,680 --> 00:03:50,560 Speaker 1: Jeffcote and hopefully you know a little more about history 57 00:03:50,640 --> 00:03:54,920 Speaker 1: today than you did yesterday. 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