neil harris - cultural excursions

8/13/2019 Neil Harris - Cultural Excursions

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N E L H R R

U U

XUO

MARKETING APPETITES

AND CULTURAL TA STES

I N MODERN AMERIC A

The University of Chicago Pre g L


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Color and Mdia: So

Copasons and Spculatio

he litetue o color nd colo theoy s of hugeextet d vety. Majo contrbutos nclude New

to, Byle Descres Voltie Goethe Gldstoe

Hvelock Ellis Kal Goos Schopehue d

Wlhelm Ostwld to me ust few gnts Fo

centues colo symbolsm d colo choces he

fscted phlosophes scetsts mystcs d

rtsts And ty o huded yes go colos ot

only enoyed thepeutic eligous nd cultul sigicce but foed

popul subject fo joulistc dscusso 1

Despte ll ths ttetin howee the eltonshp betwee colo d

the mode med hs been oly tflly eploed We do kow much bout the

poess of veto process work nd colo photogrphy Impessve ties tet the hstoy of colo printig Egld nd Amec; thee e

ctlogues exhbton lists bbliogphies 2 But lttle ttempt hs bee mde

to tie the quest fo colo epuction to lge issues. Wht I wish to do heeis to speculte bout conectos and compsons ot rmly estblshed d

to propose some pelimiry obseations.

Thee e my diectons in whch oe might prse the study of colo

Fo 11728 Coy 9 abg Unvy P nw on h ub

COLOR AND MEDIA: S COSONS AND SPCUTION

in socil cotet. The gowg cpcty to produce colo hs ected ge

of epressos-i fashio eductio dveisig d mss pductio

These I will ot descbe. Wht teests me the e cotempoy ectos

to the new dces epoduction Ws colo expected to chge the ts

mittig med o the ecevg udieces? Wht lks the new techc skills

with assumptos bout medi fom? How dd pomotes nd citcs vew the

iotos? The vst expsio f pctor epesenttio hs chleged tditionl vebl descpto s n nstrumet of communction s well s meth

ods of citicl evuto At stke in these debtes is the detio of populr

cultue The guments therefoe must hold menings fo us.

I some seses clo c be temed the pctol of ll the pctoil

med's chcteistics In ecoomicl msspoduced d ccute mode

colo hs geelly be dcult to epoduce riing fte most othe tech

icl poblems hd bee soled blck nd white But the comg of colo

ws ot puely trumph. It could lso be receed s theteing oelty by

those who found saety wods o olde forms of isul epesentt Ad

ts ril cold be sezed s moment for tkg stock of the socl mpct of

brod med noeltes. Re spose s to color sy somethg bout the ecepto

of illustted expeeces s whole d the sessmet s ethe dmutions o enhcemets of exstng cultue

My pocedue wll be smple. st s bckgoud I wll commet upo

the lengthest best documeted d most complex emple of popul colo

transmsso: pts d the illustrto of books d mgzs wll tu

net to the l of colo n moton pictues d suggest the te of expec

ttions d esposes hee s well. lly I will tet the comg of color

televso. As we move fm medium to medum we wll see gowg coles

cence of ctcl d commecl issues Ths coespods to chges com

muctios moe geelly d suggests few reectios I wll oe t the

ed. Becuse the stoies re ot esly lble will need to supply occ

so tios. They re necessly sketchy.

The devepmet of printed llusttn foms of couse mjo histoicl subect on its ow The search fo expensie esthetclly plesig nd

objectvely fithful methods fr repoducig color on pape domted comme

cil piting in the nieteenth cetuy Processes ad mtels lke ik d

ppe wee contiully modied fom the middle of the lst cetuy onwd

Any mee summry of the hanges tht took plce from the ieto f chomo

thogphy to the deelopment of thee d foucolor methods ty yers lte

would be impossibly lengthy fo ou purposes But although the ndidul steps

wee numeos nd idiosyctc by the lte ieteeth cetuy colr printing

hd become force ll its own ts tes enterig the lgge to evoke insti


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HAPTR E

ton Colot, ndeed, wr rgd to delop thr own conntons. Wher

color wa condmned t w frqntly bcs of nhappy mitaton. Bt a

orgnal docmnts color prnt cold be admrd n thmlv

Whn w t to color and moton pctr, w nd omwht bt not

toally drnt crcumtanc. Th commrcal tak ar mor dend (and

mch largr), th thtc tandrd mo; yothfl and th nl prodct mor

standardzd Bt nonthle there rman n vdnc oe rstanc, omdcrmnton, and a framwork of ctcal valaton prpred to accpt poly

chromtc and monochromatc drty In th nd howver, totl commtmnt

to color mrg, along wth n smpton of nal pfeton, n contrat to

th prnt xprnc

On nd to thnk tht color ntrd moton pctr n a ngl convl

s momnt, lk ond. Bt t htoy long nd too almot a old

moton pctr themlv Th dre to marr color to movement wa

apprntly cral nd mmdat. In hs xhtv f tchncal eamnaton

of color and mov, Jm Lmbachr repo that by 184 Rob Pl wa

color-prntng h onrelr, and Gorge Ml wa hand-tntng T to

the Moon and n tonome Deam12 In th aly twnteth cntry othr

lmmkr d prtntd lm, gng one color at a tm for shot qncnd omtm for the whol work. Dd Gth d tntd seunc for

Boen Bloom Intolence Down Eat nd The Bth of a Naton von Stroh

m mployd yllow for cn n Geed nd Entn nted pclr ob

jct n om of hs work, lk th yng of th rd ag n Potemn Accordng

to Lmbachr' tmate, by 20 80 prcnt of Hollyoods fetr wr

bng tntd n om w, patly by hand th rt by tntd stock n all th

color of th ranbow

Manwhl, color procsses alo dvlopd, amng to prnt yhng

n ntrl color A long ln of nvntor and pocsses ppard: Frdck

Mrhll L, Raymond Ter, Chal Urban F I, Wllam Fr

Gren, Pthcolor, Gamont Color Bocolor Cnechron Cncolorgraph,

Lppmnn, Sngr-hprd, Kromoscopome of them btractv, om ddt, mot now forgottn A few chd momnta ucc. Charl Ur

bn creatd hg mpact wth h 108 London showng of th Drbar n

Delh, nd omwhat latr wth color lm of Gorg Vs coonaton

Bt dspt th man attempt ctv ntural color was tll a long way

o pror to World War I. It wold com only aftr lngthy nd xpn xper

mnt begun by two MIT gradt, Hrbr T Kalms nd Dnl Comtock,

who ncoportd n 15 Techncolor, Inc. The st Techncolor fatr was

mde as rly 12 n a two-color proc, The Toll o the Sea. Dpt t

crudenes t grod mo than $2500 Invtment ntrt grw, for th

C AND MDIA SM CMRSS ND SPUIS

nancl prz bd far to b nomo In 126 nothr major prodcton r

led som of h aly conce bot mo color. Th wa Dogl Far

banks The Blac Pate Th dcson to lm n Tchncolor ndcatd th fa

and hope otd wth color Frbank hmlf belvd that no on hd

btter captrd prat thm than th Amrcn rator Howard Pyl,

whoe tdo n th Bandywne Vly wa a nr for mny Amrcn att

"Pronlly, Farbank wt I cold not mgn pracy wthot color Bth dmttd that cnmatc trdton argd drntly Flm color w tll

mprfct and ndmnd th mplcty nd drctn whch moton pc

tur dvd from th unobtu black and wht. By th md-twnt,

wth vral dcad of lm at bhnd thm, om pt tll nstd that a

nw vaabl lk color olatd th mdm conoaphc charctr Althogh

th poton wa l aggrv than hotlty to ond a an prabl n

matc dangr t dd rpresnt a gmnt of crtcal opnon Not o vgoro an

ntcolor lobby a the opponnt of chromolthogaphy th oc dv

fhr tdy bfore we cn b condnt abot thr nmbr or nnc Far

bank hmf td thr argumnt to oldr tandard. mlr obcton had

bn mad to scenry whn t wa t ntalld on th nglh tag, h ot

The Blac Pate wa no matrpc; color, prmably, cold not damag tOn crc fond t t anothr typcl Hollyood mlodrama, dolcnt n

al, he wa mprd by th delct had. The pblc had bcom

d to th qur colol wold of th mo, Chal Tylor wot, o The

Bac Pate had prfomd a rvc n brngng natral color to th crn14

Th on rgument w cad on btwn tho blvng that lm po

d natral black nd wht prop and tho who dd not Bt th lagr

concd the tchncal ccracy of th color proc and t potntal

for dtractng ttenton way from h tor ln and characterzaton Mot

crtc admtd tht color wa bond to com. Thy drd on how to handl

t Twocolor Tchncolor hd mny problms t pltt wa rdcd and d

tong t wa xpens Nonthl durng th lt twnt th Technolor

Company nlrged t fclt for lm dlopmnt, rnd t camra,harpnd t cost control, and prodcd r of twlv tworeelr on a

ay of bjcts rngng from Bty Ros and th craton of th Amcan

ag to th dorce of Napolon and Jophn Th clma to lent Tchncolor

cam n 2 wth a MtroGoldwyn-Mayr prodcton, Irng Thlbrg' The

Vng Expnse nd lborat, t fald, ccordng to Hrb Kalm, b

ca of too many whkrs mo adenc of th twents he wot latr,

lkd th los smoothhavn

What rlly chngd thng wa th ond rvolton It cad poblm

for oldr color ms, whch cold not b used bca hy blockd th lght


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CR FFN

ignal tranmittng sound But Kalmus beleved t impact wa favorable

Sound reuired o many radical producto changes that t became easier for

tudio executive oon thereafter to contemplate the need for the derent light-

ing conditon, set and cotume desgn and overall coordiation that color

lming required With so much else tued upsde down, promoter of Techn-

color could argue that only slightly more eor wuld adust tudo practices

he ve scope and suddenes of the talking revolution suggested, morover an analogy with color ndicatng that moves could become somethig

dierent than they had been Soud divded lm hsto nto two eparate pas;

silent production uckly ended. Advocate of color could argue that ther n

novaton would bng the same kds of basic changes to the screen Studios

grew interested i the Technicolor expements, Waer Brothers igning on for

more than twenty feature Oe of them On wh he Sh became the rst all-

talkng allTechncolor feature, tll in twocolor Because so many tudos

placed orders with Technicolor for lm and pocessng, too many were made

The larger proect got a bad reputation which aga s reminscent of the m

pact of chroolthography in cheap editons a century earer olor was seen

as the last refuge of an incompetent picture resoted to only after poor tory,

core actg or drecto had conpired to doom the reult. The ight to colorwas presented as further evdence of Hollywoods eo to tu bra into gold

But the issue wa complex. One reviewer in 9:0 condemned The Song

of he We as a nspd operetta, uncompesated for by its color But he foud

color redeemed o the other hand in a version of V illos Vagaond Kng.

e ave ethusiats who have been denoucng color in favor of black ad

whte a the only art form of the moves must be ether colorbld or simply

gorat of the art ualty color s one of the mot impotant means of

cinematc expresion The irony h e ponted out is that whle color wa de

rded by thoe profesing to be conceed wth cnema art it was beng devel

oped by those to whom a ws only a bute vice paid to vrtue. As printig,

m color was held suspect by tradtionalsts who reseted t as an ntson

Techncolor beneted by new atteton Between 929 ad 930 it ap

proprted three millon dollars for new eupment and fuher research But

the Deprsson hu The extra cot and crtcal abuse cut to order Soluton

came frm three area. Oe was Walt Dsney who fter tryng Technicolor for a

932 Sy Symphon ued it in 1933 for the anmated euivalet of the FDR

inaugural, The Thee Le Pg. A second source lay corporate nvestors lke

oh Hay Whtney and Coelius Vanderblt Wth a former head of RKO they

orgaized Pioeer Picture to produce featurelength Techncolor lms. The

thrd ource was techologcal a threecolor Techncolor whch vastly mproved

reproductve ualty. After more than thity years of expermentato move

F

COO N MD SOM OMRSONS N SCONS

color was nally about to blossom To help coordnate the new at Poneer

Pctures brught n Robe Edmud ones a student of Max Reinhardt and a

stage desgner for both the Provncetown Theater and the New York heater

Guild First Joes helped produce a expemetal sho releaed n mid 1934

La ucaha the clmx to fteen yeas of Technicolor reearch and an in-

vetment of more than $ millio In two reels and twenty minutes th obscue

musical lm convnced watchers n the Waldo Astoa's Ser Room that colorhad come to tay. he followng year came the rst threcolor echncolor

feature whch premiered at Rado Citys Muc Hall Ths wa Becky Sha

based on a tuofthecentury Langdon Mitchell play itself built of course on

Thackeray any Fa The lm stared Mram Hopkn ad was drected by

Reube Mamoulia wth Jnes again serg as the color desgner. Here wa

the rst major moment for crtic and obserers to evaluate the color revoluton,

and the future drecton of lm. Interestngly eough comments were mixed

Ths was not an uambgous revoluton. Techicolor stok dd e twentyve

pont and Newweek devoted it cover and a feature tory to Becky Shap and

ts breakthrough But the aho Wod labeled the picture a op, Ots Fer-

gon called t tagy and entimetal and Grenvlle Veon concluded that it

wa still too early to conclude "whether this new poce s going to oust thepreset method of screen projecto. w Many revewer enthused about ome

of the color eects, however Wllam Try n the Naon marked Becky Sha

a a nw stage cnema hitoy for t supplied "oe more of the ualities

whch stll separate motion pictures from life The problem, he arged, was

that color was "too planly beng exploited for it own sake ad ot uciently

fused with the plot line On the lmted suface of a scree set within a dark

eed theater color were dageouly close o takng over everything The

contrastmontage employed so succesfully by Ruian director would be fa

more dcult color. 9 Directoral kill were suddenly oveaxed he vey

preoccupaton wth color problems, ome cts felt, was dveing directos

from ther actua task, although what was now labelled the "mootony of black

and white had nally been challenged for costume dramas As Otis Ferguson

argued in a revew entitled New Wne and Old Bottles the probem was that

color made the producer "a kd candy land and hs poduct was as pleas

ing to the eye as a freshfuit sundae, but not much more Be patent Ferguson

advsed readers it would take tme Only whe color was trascended as an

isue would the ueton of color lm be ettled.0

Without admrng all of Hollywoods product or displayng abolute con-

dence in the power of color as a dramatic nstrment mot lm crtcs ex-

presed hope about it future ad respect for the medium's integrity Move color

will come ito it own, Tm magazine argued when "producers can forge


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about it."21 While this suggested a dirent world from that of pnting (wher

color continued to arouse debat long after its accptanc s n instrmnt of

illustration had ceased to be questioned), it showd a conc for rstraint for

subordination of color to higher values which t lst indicatd that lm its

was capable of operating within n understandable cnon of thtcl accom-

plishmnt.

During th nxt thre or four yars a series of Tchnicolor fturs apprd including Dancing Pia te st in old Spanish Calfoa; A Star Is Bo;

The Gade of Allah Nothing Sac ed The Adventue of Robi Hood nd The

Tail of the Loneome Pine, a cinmatic vrsion of John ox's gipping West

Virgini novl, starng Hnr Fonda Sylvia Sidney rd MacMuy and

Spnky Mcand his was th rst chnicolor lm shot out of doors and to

som cm prtty clos to longsought pfction" its naturl color adding to

rathr than distracting from its dramtic impact 22 On sing it on columnist

insistd Within thr yas thr cant b a movi made in black nd whit"23

While othrs wr mor rstraind picturs lik this convinced thm that

olor education proram of vst importanc was bout to be unleashd Color

atrocitis will be rlgtd to th dpths of oblivon, on nthusiast wrot in a

printing joul ftr tlking with Hnry Hathaway dirctor of The Tal of theoneome Pie. Manufacturrs of fuitur gs and clothing would gradually

abolish their gaudy tastlss highly omentl itms as color picturs led to

a nw coneption of rstraind hamony. Lik color pnting a entury before

it was still possibl to think of th chang in traditional terms as part of a

program of public rnmnt enlightning and inspirational as well as enter

taining

In thse rst few yars, rviewr vluted th us of th nw chni

color mdium specically according to how color dirction and camra work

aidd th largr intentions of the lms 25 But within thre or four yrs of the

t thrcolor production th issu had ben sttd By 1939 or 1940 somrviewrs in newspaprs and magazins wer no longr bothng to mntion

that lms thy wer considring had bn shot in color vn though prior toWold War , color prductions still includd only small minoty of all of

ollyoods faturs Unlik sound the prblems color posd could not be

instantly solved, nor was its logic so inspabl as to mak black and white

lms obsolete

But by the arly fortis the discussion hd largly ndd Occasionally

in latr years a nwly rlesd lm md spcial us of color and this would

arous commnt But ths wer rrties Aprt from tchnical ouals color

in lms disappers as an sthtic issue

OO MI SOM OMRISOS SEUIONS

n fact it ws not until th age of telvision bgan in the 950 that colorbcam standard Sking more obvious contrasts bwn movigoing and

hom tlevision lm producrs tued incrasingly to spctaulr techniques

lik the wid scrn thredimensionality and color. ncreasingly black nd

whit became a special eect used ony whn budgtary limits dmanded it,

or when the director wished to make a statmnt through the sfimposed lim

itation of the black and white tradition What black nd white did for mostviewers by the sixties, howevr was to projct a sns of time gving the talk

ing lm an hitor past f th coming of color to podicas had ncouraged a

sense of spatial hierarchy compartmntaliing th illustrted functon within

dierent catgoris th ris of chnicolor ncouraged temporl distinctions,

endowing th medium with a clary dnd trdition But few notied this or

whil th chnicolor novlty had stimulated traordinary excitement this

lastd only bout four or v years to b followd by ctical indiernc

argely a sconscious commrcial stratg by monopolists who exactd oy

altis from all lmmakrs it had both a clar bgnning and pparntly an

nd Most assumd color would b s pvsive as it was inevitabl athough

thr wre som lingring rts bout th loss of older onventions. Undr

som circumstancs chnicolor as n djctiv would bar faintly porativ ton but on much mildr than chromciviliation" Unlik books or

jouals lms could not b customid One an improvement apprd it was

dicult to void univrsal appliction t was te that for a dcad or o

popl viwd th scrn in both color and black and white Newsrls sras

nd h doubl ftur would frquntly be without olor But thse wr by

sttions on th road to a world tht would soon b entirely in color

f chnicolor modid mny of th exprnes and vlus assoiatd

th color pnting tlvision ggratd the contrsts still furthr ts adop

tion of color rvald a world with fundamntlly dirent stndards built

ound th prsenc of what mny critics found to b a disappointing but dan

grous mdium. h srch for tchnial pefction in television color provd

mor controvrsial than th slow achievment of Tchnicolor t is a fscintingsto of scintic int conomic dlay and political postponemnt cli

med by a suddn ovhlming and vn unexpcted victory for on of th

comptitors f the chivmnt took longr than many at rst expectd its

diusion was ultimtly mor imprssiv

s nationl system tlevision was lmost redy for deployment by th

lat 1930 but th coming o f th wr put it into holding pttern 26 By thtim of full dmobiliation in the lt 1940s tlevision sts had bgn to selland sttions to multiply n th rst dys of this tko many progrmmer nd


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@ CHAPTR IFEEN

erhood of sciece, the cecendo of invention, epement, abtraction,

nance, and mass podction" had thundered to a clmax. And yet, Shayon

mused, thee mst be omething more to the accomplishmet tha Ed Sullivan

and Faye Emeson. It cannot be that fo this alone the scintic wizards of

weste civilizatio have prophesied and labored."32 So upiciously was tele-

visio viewed by many critics then, that color sets, th mot complex consumer

commodity that had ever been mass prodced (some producer argued proudly)

seemed like a wooden victory, a souce of sham a meauring stick to berate

al involved with the industry. Promise, wonder and repect associated with

color inovation in preious media, were replacd by irony and a concenta-

tio on the nancial and purely commecial apect of the innovation. 33

In any event, the 1951 pomie of color tlevision came to very little. As

American involvement in Koea gw, so did milita pduction Charles E.

Wison seeking to concetate the limited number of electronic engineers on

defense matters, asked CBS to postpone production of color televison. CBS

agreed immediately. I fact, Tim suggested that rank Stanto, plaged by

rsing costs and contiuing technical problems was probably relieved. And

the CBS eor totally and iepicably stopped. It was eplaced by a enor

mously expensive but sutained eo by NBC which saw its oppotunity and

took it, under Saos podding. The 1950s were yea of red ink, for So

plunked down some $130 milion for development of camera, pitre tubes

and a system of prodcig eective color televiio ets. H got CC approval

in the eary 150s and pent the rest of te decade making slow but perceptible

improvements Ten year after the rst CBS boadcat, on February 17, 1961

NBC ran what it called Color ay programmig all it show that day in color

Patience was required to tune the ets i poperly, and although critics com

mented on the faitly nrealistic air of color, they admitted that it enlivened

daytime soap opera and variety shows 35

But as of this date fewer than 1 percet of American home had color

teevision sets; st 147000 sets were sold that year ot of a total of six million

television sets old nationally a pitiful 2. 5 pecent, and this after ten years and

a huge dollar invetment But n 1961 the end of the beginning was in sight;

othe maufacturers beides RCA now began to iteet themelves in the color

eldZeith, Genel lectric, Philco, Sylvaia. While CBS had just about

stopped its color boadcating, and ABC dd ve little, NBC planned to oer

more tha 16 hou of color in 1962 By 96: ity million black and white

sets wee operatig in America, and l. 2 milo in colo a mal percentage,

but the colo et were tarting to take o The ign of a massive shift had

begu Walt Diny eft his bac and white show o A BC to come to NBC and

colo astman Koda dropped the d Sliva show on CBS to cosponsor the

COLO AND EA: SOE COMRSONS AN SPUTONS

new Disney prodction, while automobile manufacturers like Chrysler and

food processor lik Kaft wee displaying new interest. By 1965 a boom was

underay 5 million co lor set wee sold, t he pice of the least expensive

models came down to below $4 and NBC planned to broadcast 96 percent

of its primetim e how in color. Betwee 96 and 969 color went from hav

ing an outlet in 3 percent of America's T houehold to 33 pecent. ter all

the pemature expectation, mafacturers now fond they had undeestimateddemad, and waiting lists developed By the ealy seventies, eight years after

the boom began, color dominated all netwok broadcasting.

t was paicularly impreive a Goodman Ace suggeted , for commer-

cials. Prophecies paid le att entio n to color's impact on the medium as an

aethetic device than to its selling power Changes in packaging were seen a

oe likely result Sol Polk, a maj or Chicago appliance dealer, predicted happily

that coor would produce a new form of obsolescence. Not only advertiements

but progams as well could feature the latest color schemes in clothing fui

te, ad accessoes, training viewers in dierentating the uptotheminute

fom the pasY Pogramming itsef received little mention he addition of

color" Lo Bogat wote in an early study of television, published in 1956

wold do little to the medim except to give it a more realistic and naturalcharacte" and heghte the possbility for atstry in dramatic shows. But Bo-

gart went on to admit that colo would permit televisio to compete more eec-

tively with magazines, whose colo supplement til then had been the most

sensuou tranlatio of podct quality to the byig public. 38

Becaue telision wa so ew whe color appeared, there was little in

the way of ay aethetic taditio to defend The movies, at least, had thiry

years of black ad white cinemato graphy behind them, and a corps of master

director Bt television Golde Age was entirely a retospective invention.

The view of Goodman Ace and Robe Shayon wee shared by others like Saul

Caron, who condemned the abece of experimeta deviation. Video was im-

itating radio' general mediocrity," he insisted, ecapitulating the race be-

tween mechant and m(ral inocents" However limitless the possibilities of

televion fo edcatio and etetainment what iteests our TV planners

mot is putting wa pait o Milto Bee"39

Th, color for critics in the sitie as i the ties, was a purely technical

addition. They narrated the technological ad commecia waare, evaluated

the technica improvement, ad teated the etie episode as primarily an

engineering and maketig advtue Conict cotied as the RCA system

competed with Fench and Gema veions fo domiatio of Europe, just as

enith and Motoolas woud compete with Soys ad Hitachis But this was

compario hopping on a cooic ad techca level, ewsworhy mainly


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CAER FFEN

furher development Esy evoction h thu ecliped even the lrger hitoy_

of color s n intellectul problem, except mong technicins bent on recovering the histoy of invention

In the twenties nd thiie, excited by colored mgzine ds, Techcolor, plstics, nd home photogphy, mode Americns wited new er ofcolor slvtion Color ws inted in ylum room to speed recovey: re

chmbers for depressive, yellow for hytercl prlytic blue for the vlent. Engineers plced colors on moving mchine p to dminih ftigeand improve idustrial afety School bords experimented with yeow chalk

on een blckbord Hopitl clinic ubtituted bluish green for white ur

ca mocks and theater walls. Color engneers showed tore how to incree

sale, and factore how to improve poduction4 In Chicago Amo Alonzo

Stagg tted out two dresing rooms fo hi 1928 football team: blue one for

ret, a red one for ght-talk Howad Ketchum, Fabe Birren, Matthew Luck-

ieh, nd other publihed ttcks on mentl coloblindness he hckle of oclled culture re diolved by the decltion of independence Luck-iesh wrote in 1938 of new color inuencs All his hd been mde poible

by chromtic revolution

Prnting nd photography eemed to uppot thee bode views Thepromise of color movie nourshed them And televiion helped mke themirrelevnt or o long peoccuption timulus nd pu to cosmic viewscolor h been lot in colos The erch fo technicl pefection nd universludiences hs ucceeded in covering it tck Wte Benjmin used thephre reception in tte of ditraction" to charcteize chnge in pper-ception. The history of cticl repone to colo reproduction my suggestone wy of determining how thi developed nd plce ome of the esponsi-bility, t let, on the critic a well the media

Pictoal Pls:

Th Ris ofArican Illustration

he pproching end of centuries tends to poduceretrospection It w to be expected, then, tht during the 1890s mny commentries on the evolutionof Americn durng its rt hundred ye ppered in print Written minly by crtics nd tists, sevel of thee summries concentrted on reltive newcomer ehibiting unuul vigor ndpromie Thi newcome, of coure, ws book ndperodicl illutrtion.

A they uveyed the distnce tht eprted the cde wood engrvingof ntebellum yer fom the ourhing engraving industry of a lte dy, commenttor wed elouent bout the triumph of ntionl kill A gly of gret

nmes hd spng up most within the previous qurer centuy mny so-cited with pecilied techniques nd ubjects here were illutrato whoconcentrted on militry cmps or wete cenes, or upon fm nd ul set-tings; there wee thoe known for their presenttions of women of black, or oflndcpe till others who fetured eighteenthcentu Amec, iteenth-centuy Englnd, nieteenthcentury rnce or the exotic Middle nd Fr

Fom G W Wa d Bk NJ Wu Wnh Mum 1 1 n i mon o hbh


12/13

NOS O GS 2

9. David H Flahey Pivacy in Colonial New

England (Chaloesville: Univesity of Vrginia

Press 1972, pp 6-7. See also Alan F Wesin

Pva and Feedom (New York: Aheneum 1967)

chap 2

20 Alexander Alland Sr. , jaob A. Rii: Pho

togrpher ad Citizen (New York: Apture 1974)

pp. 26-27

2 bd p For a listing of books illustratedwh photographs in the second haf of the nineteenth

cenu see Juia Van Haaften Orginl Sun Pc

tures': A Chk Ls of the New York Publc Libra's

Holdings of ly Works llusraed wih Phoo

raphs 14- ," Bulletin ofthe New Yok Pub

lic Libra (Sping 1977): 55-45 Before the

late 10s these bks have mounted plates bound

ino hem ad tend o be in limied and epensve

ediions.

22 Robe Taf Photogaphy and th Amerian

Scen, p. 2 Newspaper nvason of Prvacy" Centu 6

(June 191): 1011

24. John Gilmor peed he Rgh of Prvacy"Noh Amean Review 6 (July 96): 6474 See

lso George D ichds Pctoal Joualsm"

Wold To-Da 9 (August 5): 4552

25 Some Eects of Mde Publicity" Centry

67 (Novemb ): 56

26. See, or example F Bard Rdio Po

iics" NR publi (9 March 1924): -9.

27 For a suvey of later illusraor and heir

autobiographicl expeences see Ees W Wa

son Foty Illtratos and How The Work (New

York: WasonGupll, 19). See also Susan E

Meyer, Ama's Geat Illutrators (New York:

Abrams, 97)

C M S C Sp

Two splendid bibloaphies, boh exensivlyannotated povde an excellen inroducion to var

ious issues raised by color theoy Sigmund Skrd

he Use of Coor in Literaure" Poeedings ofthe

Amrcan Philosophical Soiety 90 no (July

1946): 6249 and Robe L Herber A Color

Bibliography" Yale Univesity Libr Gette 49no 1 (July 974): 52 Herbe buil his bibliog

raphy aund the presentation of he Faber Bren

Collection of bks on color o the Yale Librr

2. Majormodeexts includeR. V Tooley En-

glish Book with-Coloed Plates 1901860, 2ded

(London 954); Michael Twman Printing 1770-1970: An Ill.tated Hto ofIts Dvlopm and

Use in Englan (London 1970) Rua McLean

Vitoran Book Deign and ColourPrnting 2d ed

(Berkeleyand Los Angeles 1972); Percy Muir -

toan Illtated Book (New York, 1971);Geore

Wakeman and Gavin D R Brdson A Gide to

Nineteenth Cent Color Printers (Lughborough

975); Grdon N. Ray The lltato a the Book

in nglandom1 7901914 (New York 1 76); Jon

M Friedman Colo Pnting in Englan, 1486-

1870 (New Haven 978) and Peter Maio The

Demoati At: Chromolithography 1840-1900

Pites for aNineteenth Centu Amrca (Boston

197)3. H M Cndall,BiketFote, R. WS (ondon

906); Martin Hardie Englih ColouedBooks (Lon-

don 1906); R M Burch, Colour Prnting and Col.

ou Pinters (Lndon, 910) C. T. C Lewis, The.

Stoy of Pcture Printing in Engla drng the

NiteenthCenty(London n.d )

4 er of Lous Prang daed November 6

1867Nation 5 (November 28 1867) 438

5. Naton 5 (October 1 167): 59.

6 (Russell Surs) Color Prining from W:

and from Sone"Nation 4 (Januay 18 1867) 36-

37 Marzio Th DemoatiA t, p 120, cites the

essaya bein g byE. L. Godkin,edior oftheNation,

alhough i s unsined. Iprefe the ascrption suggestedby Poole' nx tPeriodial Literature, rv

ed (Boson 882 1891) 1:2

7 Luis Prang Naton 5 (November 2 167):

4

Ibid., p 49

9 (l izabeh R Pennell) he Coming of Lthog

raphy," Nation 95 (ecember 5, 9 12): 547

10 (Elizabeh R. Pennell) A Note on Lithoga

phy," Nation 9 (November 20 191): 492

As quoted n Liography and he Fne

As" Cret Litete 6 (Janur 1904): 76. See

lso Eest Knau Picure Boo ks in ColorAm

ian Revie ofReviews 6 (Decembr 92): 759

65; and James B Carrngton Colored Picures n

Amecan Peodcals" Crti 7 (Sepember, 9)

222-2.

12 James Lmbacher Fou Aspet ofth e Film

(New York 969, 197) passm This is the most

etended discusson of lm color I have found Sug

gestive commens on he aesthetc implicaions of

color ae made by Stanley Cavell The Wold Viwed

Retio on the Onolog of Film (New York

1971) chp 1 Te Wrld as a Whle: Color"

As uoed in H T. Kalmus Techncolor

Advenures in Cinemaland" Jornal ofthe So iety of

Motion Pitue Engies 1 (December 9): 570.

1. Chales K Taylo oug Gets Away wh t,

Oulook 42 (Aprl 96): 561.

15. Kalmus, Technicolor Adventures n

Cinemaland"

6 Aleander Bakshy Fims" Naton 0

(March 9 90) 7

7 Nwsweek 4 (July 21 94): 6-7 , coverede premiere of La Caacha, and revewed the his

toy of color in lm. Technicolor May Revolutionze

he Screen,"iterary Diges t 9 (June 195): 24

25 gves an even fuller hsor of Technicolor The

Newweek cover sto ran in 5 (June 22 95) 22-

2, and inc uded further deails on the hisory of

Techncolo

Catholi World 141 (Sepember 95): 727-

2; Otis Fergson New Wine and Old Boles,"

New Repbli (June 26, 95): 19495 Grenvile Veon The Play and Screen" Commonweal

22 (June 2 95) 24 A more admirng accoun

is presened by Nol Call Becky Shap Takes

Over," in Michael lein ad Gllian Parker eds ,The Englh Nel and the Movis (ew York, 91)

pp 1020.

1. William Troy A Pennycolored World" Na

tion 41 (July , 195) 41.

20 Fergson, New Wine and Old Boles"

21 Time 2 (ovember 0 96): Ths was

pa of a cover sor on Th Garn ofAllah which

staed Marlene iech U nhued by such ou

sde spurs as the change in theare euipment tha

ransfomed sound ovegh from a pipe dream to a

NOS O GS 2 e

necessity oher poducer are stl wa of color s

an expensive and perhaps unhelthy prcedent"

Time wen on p 4 For more on this m see Newsweek (November 21 196): 2022 No longer was

color cwded on he lm wh he nave prodigality

of a butchers clenda" Newweek obseved. And

see Litea Digest 21 (November 4 96): 2

22. Commonweal 2 (March 6 196): 524

2. Quoted in Litera Digest 2 (Febar 29

196) 20. The ciic was H I. Phil lps of he Nw

Yok Sn For less kind comments on he m see

Newsweek 7 (Feba 29 196): 2 Naurewanted to sue for misrpresenaton shed have good

ounds" Newsweek obseved complaning hat

echnicolor ha dolled her up lke a cocoe

24 Joseph C Ges Picures and Color Pn

ing Pinting Ar Quately (1st Quer 196) p

69.

25 For examples of ths see reviews of A Sta s

Bo, The Thif ofBagdad, and Gon With the Wind

26. There i s no singe sudy hat examines the

coming of color o television. nnumerble aticles

consider he economic and legal apects of he issueand ve statistcs on the extent and iming of the

change For inomation along the way see the cover

sor At the nd of the Rnbow" Tim (Decembe 4 950) 52-5 Leona Engel Should You

Buy Color Television?" Naton 17 (Novembr I

1950) 40 1 ; Chales Kishner he Color Tele

vsion Conrovey" Universty ofPitts brghLaw Re

vew 1 (Fal 951): 654; Walter Guzzadi Jr.,

RCA: The Genera Never Go Butteries Fotun 6 (October 962): 027 164; SanfordBrown Color Caches Fre" Satuday Evning Post

26 (August 7 96): 74-75; Color TV's Ason

ishing Bom" Newsweek 65 (March 29 965) 70

72 and Mrn Koel The act ofColor Telvisionin Atralia (Melboue 969) which ncludes a

god del of satistcl inomaon about the spread

of color vewi ng n the U nte d Staes For severl of

hese references I am indebted o Professor James L

Baughman.

27. Quoted in Engel, Should You Buy Color

Television" p 40

2 This point was made among other places n

Ti 5 (June 1949) 5

29 For contempor descpions of all his see


13/13

NOTES PGS 331-36

Color Clim" Tim (October 23, 10

; Color War, Tim (Ocober 30, 177 Coor Enigmas," Tim (Sepember 11 ,10 73 ad A ong Lat Coor," Newsweek 38

(Juy 11 7.

30 Goodman Ace " n Ros," SturdayReiew ofLiterature 33 (November 2 10 .

31. Goodman Ac, h Hue and he Cy" Sat

uday Reew /Litature 34 (Jun 30 11 24.32 ob Lwis Shayon 2,1 Yars of'Pog -

rss Thales, Paley & So," Saturdy Review ofLiteatre 34 (July 28 11 2.

33. See for examp, th sm kind of comments

made tn yars laer by Jack Goud, Hiddn

Costs ofCoor" New York Tis May 1 1 II p.

1 omenting on he addd pns tht coor

woud bng to vision prduction he wroe ha

For t dissening viewr who complains that he

nworks hav ft him abndoned in a cultural bar

rel he chains may hav dvisd a nove typ of re-

spos Paint he bae "34 Ti 8 (Ocober 2, 11

3 Time 77 (Fbay 17 11 7.3 For data on elvision owneship s Na-

tional Suey of Teion Ses in Unted States

Hoehol (Nw York 1%, a suvey undeaken

piodiay by he Adveising sarch Founda-

tion, Inc. , of Nw York.

37 Quoted in Sanord Brown, Color Catches

Fir, Saturday Evening Post 23 (Augus 17

3 7

38 eo Boga Th Age of Telion : A Stuy of

Viewing Habits and theImp t of Telio n on Amr

an Le (New York, 1, p. 27.

3 Saul Cason, On he Air: Co or for What?"

Nw Rublic 121 (October 31, 14 202. Aso

see another coumn by ob Lwis Shayon, Black

& Whit or In the Red All Over Satury ReewofLiteture 33 (Dcmber 1, 10 23. Color,

Shayon concluded, cn nvr subsi ute for wit,

imagination, and adul creative progamming. That

s a gf hore of anohr coor, d it is stil galloping

somewhere over he rainbow, unamd by ehr

RCA or CBS. Fiten yea later Shayon w un

changed. evi ewing, i n som staistca l deai he

gowh o color and the inteational stgge for

adoption among vaious sysms he concluded

ere is vague talk of coor nching th shetc

consciousnss of th nation aecing our decor and

design bu similar hings wr said whn backand-

white televsion mde bw. A k at he sub

stanc o nxt sasons schdules oe no gint of

anynonchnologica breakthrough Th wold ma

lk plasntr on color eevsion but fom al n-

dications it wi hary b mo signict Sm

Black Thoughts aou Coor , Stur Rw oLiterture (Ap10, 1 83.

Ti 3 (December 4 10 8-8.

41. S Jry L. Meike Twenieth Cen

Limited Intri Dsign in Amria 925-939(Phiadphia, 17 pp 1213 e Nw Age ofCoor" Sturday Eening Post 2 (Janua 2

128 22 he Magc Wand of Color," Rer's Di

gest 3 (Auus, 13 112.

42. Coor Cur," Litera Digest 1 (D

cmbr 18, 12 2122

4 Me th Coor Enginr," Readr's Digest

38 (une 141 1343. This xct rom Futur

May 141, dscibed the work of Faber Bien, a

New York color engnr, a wel as innovaions n

color managmnt aking pace in the facto he

restaurant, th hospital, and the schlrm. For an

earier version of this inerest not al of it sous,

se Making Pope Do Things by Wa Coo"

Eebdy's 34 (Mach 11 38-. Se aso

motions Du o Coo" Ltr Diget 8 (Apl

2 12 2 for a discussion by Mahew Luck-

iesh then director of the Light ing each Labo-

raoy o Genra Elec t c uc kiesh pubished a

book Light nd Coo r in Adersing an Mercha

ding (New York, 123, descbing th bnts that

n incrd snsitiviy o ighting and color mgh

yed. Al so of amusing ures and pisods ap-

peard as pa of his new co or consciousness in th

inta ys. For on of the m, Raymond G. Twf-o, a custom tail or see h prol by Richad 0Boer Coor Nut, which appared oginaly in th

Nw Yorker (Sptmbr 23 13 2227 and was

condensed in Rear Det 3 (Janu 140

102.

Mathw Luckiesh, Coor and Coors (New

York, 138, p. The phra mna coor

blindnss ws by Luckiesh but for other appeas

for bttr color undnding s Howad Kecham

Coor Schm," Reader's Digest 30 (Mach,

37 470, orginaly in Haers Baar nd h

itings of Fabr Bin, n picu his ambitious

suey The Sto ofCoor Fom Anent Mystim

to Mod Scince (Wespo, 41.

4 War Bnjamin, Work of A in the

Age of Mechanica Rpucion" in Hannah Ar

ndt, d., luminton (Nw York, 18, p 242.

@Ptol Per The Rse of

Amercan lutratio

l. Phiip odny Pauding ustrao and I-

ustraing,"Mue 13 no. 2 (May 18 12; Ar-

thur Hobr A Cenu of Amican Ilustration"

Bookman 8 no. (Janua 18 42 (ths was

saed in h sevnth pa of an ighpa aic);

Harold Payn, Amcan Women lusrators"

Mueys 11 no 1 (Ap 894) 47 Athur Hoebr,

A Century of Amican ustration, " Bookmn B

no. 4 {December 188 317.

2. Wiliam A. Con, Amcan usration of

ToDay," Scribners Magine 1 1 no I (anuay

882 017. Con would have ad wih

Payn and Hoebr Whie it may b tu hat a god

da of he curen iusraion is nfeor i serves a

useu pupos in the ppagation of a lov o a

(Con, Amican ustraion," p. 108 George

Whaon Edwards, h Ilustration of Books, Out

look 7 no 14 (Dcmr 4, 187 817, 820

3 Wiliam Hrb Hobbs A a the Hand

maid of Lieraure" Fom 31 no. 3 (May 1

371.

4 E. L. Godkin 'Cuts and Tuth" Natn ,

no 143 (May 4 183 32. Critic , no (Jun 1): 48 4. h

unger" a reguar feaure of the Criti fturd

thr letts on illustraion in his issu.

Maningless Iusraions" Nw York Tis

(Ap 7, 1, Saurday Reviw of Bks and A

p. 232. For simir sntimnts, see 'Iusraions

That Illustrate" New York Tims (Decmbr 2

18 p. 81 Nw York Times (Ap 21 1 p.

43.

ES O PS 336-45 8

7 Kahen Gordon Hy o th Editor Nw

York Tims November 104. An eaier eer

rom John K. Hot had cticized Pyl, M.P, New

York Times Novmber 2 1 p 812.

8. Hobbs, A as Handmaid," p. 380

he Contbuo Club," Atlanti Monthl

3 no. (Ju 104 1337.

10. 'Author and usrator," Nw York Tims,

Janua 2, 11, p. 11 . Este M Hur! Picur Sudy in Educa-

ion," Otook 1 no. 3 (Janua 21, 18 174

7. For eampes s Eizbh McCrackn Pic

urs or he Tnmnts," Atlanic 8 no. 4 (October

1 128 and Cline A Leech ' he Gs-pe of Pictures," Chauaan 37, no (Auus

103 4848

12. Rolo Ogdn,] Knowldg on Sight," Na

tin 7, no. 144 (Juy 20, 183 4142. For an

ineresting ealier paale which unies this suspi-

cion of pcuremaking to a Prtstan hosiy t o

picoa ppaganda see u ia Wd Howe From

t Oak to the Oie A Plain Reod ofa Plant

Journ (Boston: Le & Shpard 188 pp. 777.3. [E L. Gdkn] Newspapr Pcturs," Na-tion , no. 142 (Api 27 183 37; John

Hopkins Denison How o se Objects llusra-

ions" Chautan 27, no. 1 (April 188 34.

14. For mor on th nw pictoraism see chap.

14. For more on Eatman Kak and he maketing

rvoution invovd in the spead of h camra, s

Rs V. Jnkins Imges an Entese Tehn

og and the Aman Photogaphic Indtry, 839-9 (Bimor and Lndon Johns Hopkins Univeiy Press 17.

1 A convnint summay of attituds o pictur

postcards, as w bibliogaphic rfrnces can

be found n Georg Mller and Dorthy Mier Pi

ture Postards in t United States 893-98 (NwYork Carkson N. Poer, 17 For one compain

au he owth of snapshos and pstcds, and h

contrat with air mthods of rcording os trav-

es, see [W. A. Bradey,] 'he Lost At of Skech-

ing," Natin no. 2343 (May 2, 110 30-31.

1 Th postr itratu is vat. On recen ar-

ic ha rfers o hosie comment about poster a

is Micha Pick H, An Amcn lustator

and His Postrs, P On, Ameran Book Coetor

neil harris - cultural excursions

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