Leopold Godowsky, Jr.
Born May 27 1900 - Died Feb 18 1983

Color Photography
Patent Number(s) 1,997,493

Inducted 2005

Leopold Godowsky, Jr. and Leopold Mannes, affectionately known by colleagues and friends as "God and Man," were professional musicians who performed together as violinist and pianist and who enjoyed photography as a hobby.

As a classical concert violinist Godowsky also performed as soloist and as first violinist of the San Francisco and the Los Angeles Symphonies. He also enrolled at UCLA to study physics and chemistry. In 1916 the pair started experimenting with the complex, awkward methods of producing color images by taking multiple black-and-white exposures through filters of various colors. For 14 years they worked in their families' kitchens and bathrooms, often in total darkness and measured the developing times of film by whistling the last movement of Brahms' 1st Symphony at a metronomic pace of two beats per second. Their passionate interest in improving the ease and quality of color film production made Kodachrome® color film a commercial success. Godowsky continued research into the 1950s, improving the process for Kodak in his own laboratory in Westport, Connecticut.

Invention Impact

Leopold Godowsky, Jr. and Leopold Mannes revolutionized color photography by making it commercially possible and available to the world by inventing the process that became Kodachrome film. Prior color techniques were too complicated and expensive. Kodachrome film's ease of use and exceptional quality appealed to amateurs and professionals interested in still and movie photography.

Inventor Bio

Despite Godowsky's success as an inventor, he considered music, especially playing chamber music - often with the most illustrious musicians of his time like Heifetz, Primrose, Feuermann, and Piatigorsky - his greatest passion in life.