Kalmus, Herbert T.

Kalmus, Herbert T. (Thomas) . inventors. Married in 1902, she studied art while Herbert earned his B.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (1904). They went to Europe (1905–06) where both continued their studies. He taught at MIT (1907–15) and formed Kalmus, Comstock and Westcorr, Inc., in 1915. The firm developed an early form of Technicolor by 1915 and it was used in the motion picture The Gulf Between (1917). The couple secretly divorced in 1921 but continued to work together and Natalie is generally recognized as having played a significant role in developing Technicolor. Herbert moved his operations to Hollywood (1927) and the three-color technology was used in what is regarded as the first full-color movie, Becky Sharp (1935). Natalie sued Herbert in the late 1940s, seeking half his assets; the court upheld the 1921 divorce and she received only a pension of $11,000 a year. Herbert was sued by the U.S. Justice Department in an antitrust action (1947), but he retained control of Technicolor until he retired in 1959.