COLOUR FLATTERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1004, 21 June 1930, Page 27

COLOUR FLATTERS

new Lease of life for STARS UNKIND BLACK-AND-WHITE Through colour photography, the working careers of motion picture stars may be prolonged by as much as ten years, says Dr. Herbert T. Kalmus, president of the Technicolour Corporation, and a pioneer colour photography expert. Up to this time the career of the average star has been 10 years. Barring notable exceptions, players whose personalities held their public for considerably longer periods, the average life of a screen idol was a decade. Black and white photography, and the exaggerated make-up it necessitated, shortened the working days of the film actor by revealing most cruelly all the signs of advancing years. Players in technicolour film may i appear in ordinary street make-up. ; ! Nor are negligible facial defects un- j ; fairly magnified by the colour camera as they are by the black and white camera. It is Di\ Kalmus’s contention that no woman looks as attractive in black and white as in colour. He cites Marilyn Miller, Vivienne Segal, and Jeanette MacDonald as examples of beautiful women who did not photograph to such advantage in black and white as in their technicolour productions —“Sally” in the case of Miss Miller, “Song of the West” for Miss Segal, and “The Vagabond King” for Miss MacDonald.

“The screen type will change,” predicts Dr. Kalmus. “Mature women will receive tlieir opportunity. The black and white pictures were unkind. Many beautiful actresses could not be used. They did not screen well, j but that condition is changed now. i I have seen any number of older j women, fine actresses, signed up for j pictures in colour, and the results are I remarkable. It is giving the older ) stars of the industry a new lease of j life.”