Herbert Kalmus
{{Short description|American scientist and engineer (1881–1963)}}
{{Infobox person
| birth_name = Herbert Thomas Kalmus
| image = Herbert T. Kalmus.jpg
| image_size =
| caption = Kalmus in 1936
| birth_date = {{birth date|1881|11|9|mf=y}}
| birth_place = Chelsea, Massachusetts, USA
| death_date = {{death date and age|1963|7|11|1881|11|9|mf=y}}
| death_place = Los Angeles, California, USA
| occupation = Scientist
Engineer
| known_for = Co-founder of Technicolor
Developing color motion picture film processes
| spouse = {{Marriage|Natalie Dunfee|1902|1922|end=div}}
}}
Herbert Thomas Kalmus (November 9, 1881 – July 11, 1963)U.S. Census, 1910, State of Massachusetts, County of Suffolk, enumeration district 1647, p. 8-B, family 180.Ancestry.com. Social Security Death Index [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2009.Ancestry.com. California Death Index, 1940-1997 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2000. was an American scientist and engineer who played a significant role in developing color motion picture film. Kalmus was the co-founder and president of the Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation.{{cite journal|title=Obituary: Herbert T. Kalmus|journal=Physics Today|date=September 1963|volume=16|issue=9|pages=107|doi=10.1063/1.3051117|doi-access=free}}[http://scitation.aip.org/getpdf/servlet/GetPDFServlet?filetype=pdf&id=PHTOAD000017000003000091000001&idtype=cvips&doi=10.1063/1.3051505&prog=normal&bypassSSO=1 March 1964 Correction to the Sept. 1963 obituary for Herbert T. Kalmus in Physics Today]
Biography
Kalmus received a bachelor's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1904; the "Tech" in Technicolor is partly a tribute to that school.{{citation needed|date=January 2021}} He earned his doctorate at the University of Zurich and was a research associate at MIT from 1908 to 1910 before teaching physics, electrochemistry and metallurgy at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He was also a director of research for the Canadian government's electro-chemical laboratory.
On July 23, 1902, Kalmus married Natalie (née Dunfee or Dunphy) Kalmus, who became the color coordinator for nearly every live-action Technicolor feature released from 1934 to 1949. Although they divorced in 1922 after twenty years of marriage, they continued to live together, appearing as husband and wife, until 1944.[http://online.ceb.com/CalCases/CA2/97CA2d74.htm Kalmus v. Kalmus], 1950. He then married Eleanore King in 1949.{{cite news|title=Film Magnate Weds|newspaper=The New York Times|date=September 7, 1949|page=37}}
In 1912, Kalmus and fellow MIT graduate Daniel Comstock formed Kalmus, Comstock, and Wescott, an industrial research and development firm, with mechanic W. Burton Wescott, who left the company in 1921. When the firm was hired to analyze an inventor's flicker-free motion picture system, they became intrigued with the art and science of filmmaking, particularly color motion picture processes, leading to the incorporation of Technicolor in 1915. Most of Technicolor's early patents were taken out by Comstock and Wescott, while Kalmus served primarily as the company's president and chief executive officer.{{Citation needed|date=February 2020}}
In 1938, Kalmus received the Progress Medal from the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. In 1952, he received their Samuel L. Warner memorial award, "for Technicolor's perfection of the imbibition process for 16mm color prints and for the techniques of making separate sound negatives for mass production by the 35mm/32mm method for excellence of 16mm sound",{{cite web |title=The Samuel L. Warner Memorial Medal Award Recipients {{!}} Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers |url=https://www.smpte.org/about/awards-programs/warner-award |website=www.smpte.org |access-date=23 November 2020 |language=en |quote=For Technicolor's perfection of the imbibition process for 16mm color prints and for the techniques of making separate sound negatives for mass production by the 35mm/32mm method for excellence of 16mm sound.}} however it was "accepted on his behalf by Mr. Wadsworth Pohl, his associate."{{cite journal |title=Awards |journal=Journal of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers |date=December 1952 |volume=59 |issue=6 |pages=535–540 |doi=10.5594/J01162 |doi-access=free }} He was made an honorary life member of the SMPTE. He also received an award from the US Office of Scientific Research and Development.{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|date=July 17, 1963|page=7|title=Kalmus, Dead at 81, Founder of And 48 Years With, Technicolor Corp.}}
He was a director at Stanford Research Institute.
He had two daughters. Kalmus' god-daughter (and later step-daughter), Cammie King, played the part of Bonnie Blue Butler in the film Gone With the Wind (1939). The autobiography of Herbert Kalmus, Mr. Technicolor ({{ISBN|1882127315}}), was published in 1993.
Legacy
- Kalmus has a star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood, California.
- Kalmus Beach in Hyannis, Massachusetts, is named after him.{{cite web | url = https://capecodlife.com/changing-shape-cape-islands-lewis-bay-hyannis-port-kalmus-beach-great-island/3/ | title = The Changing Shape of the Cape & Islands: Lewis Bay, from Hyannis Port to Kalmus Beach & Great Island | last = Setterlund | first = Christopher | date = May 2017 | website = Cape Cod Life | access-date = April 19, 2021}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.thomson.net/EN/Home/Group/herbert_kalmus.htm Brief biography of Herbert Kalmus] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090106064648/http://www.thomson.net/EN/Home/Group/herbert_kalmus.htm |date=2009-01-06 }}
- [http://online.ceb.com/CalCases/CA2/97CA2d74.htm Kalmus v. Kalmus], 1950.
- [http://online.ceb.com/CalCases/CA2/103CA2d405.htm Kalmus v. Kalmus], 1951.
- {{Find a Grave|6593915}}
- {{Internet Archive author |sname=Herbert Kalmus |sopt=t}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kalmus, Herbert}}
Category:American cinema pioneers