Anna May Wong - Chinese Costume Party Pt.2 - 1937 Technicolor

Look for Anna at the end of Part 1. This completes the celebration of color at the expense of Color.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Al Lyons
• Tap Dance
• Movies
• Malibu
• Hollywood

[Onlymusical]

Look how much sharper and more vivid and varied the color is here than color today, even though we're watching it on youtube. I've seen this in a theatre (Film Forum in New York) and saw colors modern color is incapable of reproducing.

[AnnaMayWongSociety]

@Onlymusical I was deeply involved with surviving Technicolor engineers and scientists near the end of their lives and they agree with you but it is not only political, competitive policies that caused changes but many of the actual dye elements used were and are not environmentally or cost effectively available

[swallin19]

Remarkable fine condition for early three strip Technicolor, just after getting the process up and running, the best period, with the then new coated lenses being used as well. Leon Errol appeared in many colour shorts from Warners and MGM, he must have had a good agent!

[AnnaMayWongSociety]

@swallin19 Coated lenses..now there is a hint you are maybe ASC. Did you know my years deceased friend Linwood Dunn. My 12 inch thick patents on Technicolor distracted me so much over the years I never got a chance talk to Lin about Lenses during that era oh I remember Technama lenses I passed on but the was a 50's thing

[Onlymusical]

@AnnaMayWongSociety Yes, that's my perception. You can see it in color stills from the 1950s vs. today after the silver nitrate, I believe, was taken out of the process. I saw a perfectly preserved original print of "Singin' in the Rain" at the Museum of the Moving Image in NYC a few years ago and there were colors there I'd never seen in a movie as an adult. Same thing with the restorations of "Wizard of Oz" and "GWTW" around 1997. Shockingly better technology.

[13loomisst]

Thanks very much. I quite like AMW.

[DraconianAngel]

On a random note, I do believe that most of those robes worn by the band were made for women (wide sleeves). But thank you for posting these vids, I enjoyed Anna's brief and elusive appearence in Part 1, those dresses were so stunningly made.

[AnnaMayWongSociety]

@swallin19 This is all Malibu in fact the party scene was filmed where later Obama relaxed after his victory - a later large mansion has replaced the locale. Great info about the the lenses. Loved the look of Technicolor England

[swallin19]

@tlyoung88 Maybe Catalina Island, used in several other colour shorts like Pirate Party, sun and beaches, good conditions to film under.

[swallin19]

@AnnaMayWongSociety Only an enthusiast camera and film collector, Technicolor fascinated me since seeing the UK based no2 camera in the Science Museum, used in all the British colour films from 1936 at Denham and later at Pinewood. I have got a tandem Vistavision lens used for 3D experiments in the 1950's ex Hollywood and Pinewood., and some TTH fixed lens used on several famous UK films shot on 3 strip..

[swallin19]

@AnnaMayWongSociety Coating came from the UK company Taylor Hobson(TTH), who pioneered the process, licensing Baush and Lomb in the 1930's, but also TTH sold direct to Technicolor. It minimised colour fringing, and ghosting, which showed more on the three strip process, and shows for instance in the "Service with a smile" Vitaphone short, (again with Leon Erroll), where non coated lens were used and the problem shows. Over the years TTH sold more lens to Hollywood than any other maker.