In "The Wizard of Oz", Dorothy's journey from Kansas to Oz is symbolized by a shift from black and white to Technicolor. This camera was one of several used to film the Oz scenes.
Invented in 1932, the Technicolor camera recorded on three separate negatives--red, blue and green--which were then combined to develop a full-color positive print. The box encasing the camera, a "blimp," muffled the machine's sound during filming.
The Early Color Cinema Equipment Collection [COLL.PHOTOS.000039] includes equipment, media and ephemera related to color motion pictures from the birth of the cinema to the mid twentieth century. This collection is comprised of 5 motion picture cameras, 3 movie projectors, more than 34 pieces of editing and other apparatus, more than 60 pieces of early color film and two notebooks illustrating the Technicolor process.
Reproducing natural color on film had been an industry goal since the earliest days of motion picture production, but it took several decades to perfect a technology for making movies in color. Motion picture directors often toned or hand-tinted monochromatic film in the industry’s early days to add life and emotion to their productions. Though movie producers continued to use toning and tinting, these costly and inefficient processes could never produce the full range of color that movie cameras failed to record. Therefore, innovators increasingly focused on the use of color filters during capture and projection to reproduce color detail.
Danish-American inventor August Plahn built and patented a camera and projector that split motion picture images through three color lenses using 70mm film. When the film, with three images printed across its width, was projected through the same colored filters, movies’ natural color was restored. The collection includes forty five short lengths of processed film and documents related to Plahn’s work as well as one camera, three projector heads and over seventy-five pieces of apparatus used by the engineer.
While Plahn had little success marketing his inventions, the Boston-based Technicolor Corporation effectively marketed their similar technology to become the industry standard. The color cinema collection includes four Technicolor cameras as well as over twenty-five pieces of equipment related to the Technicolor process and a book of photographs illustrating Technicolor film processing in a train car.
The Society of Motion Picture Engineers, the industry’s leading trade group, donated examples of a number of other early color film technologies, including Prizma, Kelley-line screen, Krayn Screen, Naturalcolor, Multicolor and Morgana color processes.
This finding aid is one in a series documenting the PHC’s Early Cinema Collection [COLL.PHOTOS.000018]. The cinema-related objects cover the range of technological innovation and popular appeal that defined the motion picture industry during a period in which it became the premier form of mass communication in American life, roughly 1885-1930. See also finding aids for Early Sound Cinema [COLL.PHOTOS.000040], Early Cinema Equipment [COLL.PHOTOS.000037], Early Cinema Film and Ephemera [COLL.PHOTOS.000038] and the Gatewood Dunston Collection [COLL.PHOTOS.000021].
Benny Goodman's Quintet. side 1: Pick-a-Rib [part 1]; side 2: Pick-a-Rib [part 2] (Blue Ace 224). 78 rpm. These tracks were originally recorded in 1938 and released on Victor 26166.
Blue Ace was a bootleg record label, founded around the late 1940s. The label was dedicated to the unauthorized reissue of jazz recordings from the 1935-1942 period. Brooklyn record store owner Sam Meltzer is allegedly to have produced the recordings, who was also associated with the bootleg Hot Jazz Club of America [HJCA] recordings, which focused on jazz recordings of the 1920s.
Prop violin used by Lindsey Stirling in the music video for her song "Beyond the Veil." The wooden violin was made in Czechoslovakia in the 20th century and it bears a fake Stradavari label; the actual maker is unknown. In the video, Stirling is shown waking up on a beach to see a girl running into the sea; the girl is holding this violin. As Stirling pursues the girl through the water, she discovers an underwater fantasy world. That plot line is intercut with footage of Stirling playing a different violin on the beach and in a forest.
Lindsey Stirling is an American musician, dancer, and songwriter known for blending a diverse variety of musical styles including classical, pop, rock, and electronic influences with dance performance. As a contestant on season five of the television series America’s Got Talent in 2010, Stirling gained an enthusiastic following among viewers who enjoyed her unique dance and violin performances, but was voted off by the celebrity judges in the quarter finals. Undaunted by their criticism, Stirling started posting music videos online in 2011, pairing mash-ups of electro-pop styles with lively steps and twirls in settings often drawn from video games or movies. Her posts inspired millions, then billions, of fans worldwide and revealed how audiences and entertainers could forego traditional tastemakers and gatekeepers to build powerful connections directly through digital platforms.
This sheet music is for the song “Hail, Hail, the Gang’s All Here (What the - Deuce - Do We Care),” with lyrics by D. A. Esrom [Theodora Morse] and music by Theodore Morse and Arthur Sullivan. It was published by Leo Feist, Inc. in New York, New York in 1917. The original tune was written by Arthur Sullivan for the comic opera The Pirates of Penzance.
The cover art for this sheet music was made by Rosenbaum Studios. The firm was founded by Morris Rosenbaum (1886-1953) in the early 1910s. There were several artists working for Rosenbaum Studios throughout the firm’s 27 years in operation. Variations of a rosebud/RS symbol were used to sign the artwork. Morris Rosenbaum was commissioned to create the logo for the newly formed film company MGM (Metro Goldwyn Mayer) in 1924.
This sheet music is for the song “Time Waits For No One,” with music and lyrics by Cliff Friend and Charles Tobias. It was published by Remick Music Corp. in New York, New York in 1944.
”Time Waits For No One” was featured in the 1944 Warner Bros. musical film, Shine On, Harvest Moon, directed by David Butler and starred Ann Sheridan and Dennis Morgan. The cover features a still from the movie.
Black polyester and cotton jacket with red polyester lining. Size Medium. With white piped trim at shoulders. Knit cuffs, neck and waist. Zipper front. 2 open front pockets and one zipped sleeve pocket. Hot pink and white thread lettering on front left side and back and red and green rose on back. The front of the jacket is embroidered:
Willie
(applied on the back of the jacket):
Willie and Family on the Road Again
Inspired by Live Aid, the international benefit concert for Ethiopian famine victims, Willie Nelson and other singers established Farm Aid in 1985 to support family farmers in the United States.
Actor Sessue Hayakawa is featured in a deck of cards circa 1916 by the Movie Souvenir Card Company of Cincinnati, Ohio. He was born Kintarō Hayakawa on June 10, 1886 in Japan. Professionally known as Sessue Hayakawa, he became a leading male actor and a global superstar during the silent film era of the 1910s and 1920s. Often typecast as a villain and due to anti-Japanese attitudes in the United States, Hayakawa sought work in Japan and Europe. He returned to the United States several years later and earned Oscar and Golden Globes nominations for his work on the 1957 film The Bridge on the River Kwai. In 1960, Hayakawa was honored with a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. Sessue Hayakawa died on November 23, 1973.
The black comedy film Dr. Stangelove echoed public concerns about the cataclysmic potential of faulty communication systems, unstable leaders, the bomb, and nuclear annihilation.
Susie's New Stove: The Little Chef's Cookbook was written by Annie North Bedford with illustrations by Corinne Malvern, and published by Simon & Schuster in New York, New York, in 1949.
Raised in New Jersey, Corinne Malvern (1901-1956) was a child actress who, along with her sister, performed in traveling plays, vaudeville and movies. After an accident in her teens, Malvern was forced to give up her acting career and later attended the Art Students League of New York. Proficient in watercolor, pastel, pencil and ink and paint, she launched a career as a commercial artist, and was known for her fashion illustrations and magazine covers. Shortly after, she teamed up with her sister, a children’s author, and began drawing children’s books, including seventeen for the Little Golden Book series, including Doctor Dan, Nurse Nancy, How Big?, Susie’s New Stove, and 5 Pennies to Spend.
The illustrations in Susie's New Stove reflect the traditional gender roles of the 1940s and 1950s and portrays the idyllic setting of home sweet home. The simple recipes included in the books gave little girls the chance to practice their culinary and homemaking skills. This is in stark contrast to the social upheaval that would emerge in the 1960s, challenging and altering perceptions of gender roles and civil rights.
Susie’ New Stove featured the “Little Chef” toy stove which had a working hot plate that could boil water. High-end models had a working hot plate and two functioning ovens that could be heated to 375 degrees. "Little Chef" is a trademark term used by Tacoma Metal Products, Tacoma Washington. maker of the stove.
This music box disc was made by Regina Music Box Co. in Rahway, New Jersey, around 1901-1902. It is Regina Disc #1993 - "Hiawatha (A Summer Idyl)," by Neil Moret. This disc is playable in a Regina Disc Music Box that can accommodate a 15-1/2” diameter disc.
This disc features the following patents:
U. S. Patent #417649, dated December 17, 1889 by Oskar Paul Lochmann for a music plate for mechanical instruments.
U. S. Patent #500374, dated June 27, 1893 by Gustav A. Brachhausen and Paul Riessner for a note-plate for music boxes.
This sheet music is for the song “I ‘Wanna’ Sing About You,” by Cliff Friend and Dave Dreyer. It was published by Irving Berlin, Inc. in New York, New York in 1931. The cover features an image of Husk O’Hare and his band, a popular East Coast territory band. Husk O’Hare (1896-1970) was an American jazz bandleader active during the 1920s and 1930s.
This sheet music for the song “By Studying My Lady’s Eyes” was written by Thomas Bailey Aldrice and composed by Julius S. Lyons. The song was originally published by Wm. A. Pond and Co. of New York, New York in 1889, and appeared as a supplement to the “New York Herald” on May 31, 1903. The sheet music features a pencil drawing of a woman casting a sultry gaze at the viewer.
various artists. Historic Jazz Concert at Music Inn (Atlantic 1298). 33-1/3 rpm.
Music Inn, also called the Music Barn, was an inn, performance venue, and the summer program of jazz education for the Lenox School of Jazz, in Lenox Massachusetts. From 1957-1960, the school featuring faculty including Dizzy Gillespie, Jimmy Giuffre, Percy Heath, and Connie Kayvenue. The performance venue and inn was in in operation from 1950–1979.
This sheet music is for the song “Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in The Morning,” by Irving Berlin. It was published by Waterson, Berlin and Snyder Co. in New York, New York in 1918. The cover features an image of a WWI soldier and an inset of American comedian, singer, dancer, actor, and song writer Eddie Cantor, who performed this song in Ziegfeld Follies on Broadway.