Finally! A story where my interest in fashion and fashion history intersects with my love of silent movies! These Kodachrome color tests from 1922 are quite incredible. This dreamy, surreal footage is archived at the George Eastman House and is an early test of the Two-Color Kodachrome Process.
"In these newly preserved tests, made in 1922 at the Paragon Studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey, actress Mae Murray (
the last woman in the clip wearing a red cape) appears almost translucent, her flesh a pale white that is reminiscent of perfectly sculpted marble, enhanced with touches of color to her lips, eyes, and hair. She is joined by actress Hope Hampton (
the first woman to appear wearing peach polka dot dress) modeling costumes from The Light in the Dark (1922), which contained the first commercial use of Two-Color Kodachrome in a feature film. Ziegfeld Follies actress Mary Eaton (
woman #2- in pink chiffon, reclining) and an unidentified woman and child also appear.
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| Hope Hampton |
George Eastman House is the repository for many of the early tests made by the Eastman Kodak Company of their various motion picture film stocks and color processes. The Two-Color Kodachrome Process was an attempt to bring natural lifelike colors to the screen through the photochemical method in a subtractive color system. First tests on the Two-Color Kodachrome Process were begun in late 1914. Shot with a dual-lens camera, the process recorded filtered images on black/white negative stock, then made black/white separation positives. The final prints were actually produced by bleaching and tanning a double-coated duplicate negative (made from the positive separations), then dyeing the emulsion green/blue on one side and red on the other. Combined they created a rather ethereal palette of hues."
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| Mary Eaton |
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