Leopold Godowsky, Jr.

Leopold Godowsky, Jr. (May 27, 1900 - February 18, 1983) was an American violinist and chemist, who together with Leopold Mannes created the first practical color transparency film, Kodachrome. Mannes and Godowsky's experimentation with color photography began in 1917, after seeing the film Our Navy in Prizma Color, which was advertised as a color film. Because of the low quality the boys felt cheated and decided to do something about it. They bu... more

Leopold Godowsky, Jr. (May 27, 1900 - February 18, 1983) was an American violinist and chemist, who together with Leopold Mannes created the first practical color transparency film, Kodachrome. Mannes and Godowsky's experimentation with color photography began in 1917, after seeing the film Our Navy in Prizma Color, which was advertised as a color film. Because of the low quality the boys felt cheated and decided to do something about it. They built a movie camera and projector each with three lenses covered by red, blue, and yellow filters. They took multiple black-and-white exposures and projected them back through the filters. They patented this system while still in high school, but it was not a commercially viable process. Godowsky studied violin at UCLA and became a soloist and first violinist with the Los Angeles and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestras. He also enrolled at UCLA to study physics and chemistry. He performed jointly with his father, Leopold Godowsky, one of the... less