From Two Strip to Technicolor

Color arrived in steps. Two strip Technicolor tinted silent sequences.

Three strip, from 1934, needed a huge camera and blinding lights: Becky Sharp came first, and Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz perfected the grandeur. Monopack film made color portable in the 1940s, and by the 1960s black and white was a choice rather than a default.

The dye transfer prints of the classic era still define what movie color means..