The Triumph of Color

Synchronized sound was introduced to the silent movies in 1927 and promptly swept across the motion-picture production industry. Just as silent films were accompanied by music from the earliest years, techniques for coloring or tinting motion-picture film existed as well. Yet color motion-picture film coexisted with black-and-white film for decades without making a sudden and sweeping takeover of feature film production. The Technicolor Company was founded in 1917, and experimentation in color motion picture film processes made great progress through the 1930s. Not until after World War II, however, did Eastman Kodak introduce new film stocks with color sensitive emulsions that were considerably less expensive and easier to use than anything that Technicolor had available.

Feature film production in black and white remained the norm even after Kodak's new stocks were placed on the market and consumer demand began to reduce the...