Max and the tube
Max Factor is widely known, amongst other things, for his contributions to the motion picture industry. Many of the solutions he or the Westmores invented ended up in the make-up bags of the general public. After the Second World War the motion picture industry became increasingly threatened by television. It was to be expected that the firm of Max Factor would get involved in this new industry at an early stage.
Commercial television came to America during the forties and fifties but, as in Europe, there were tests and transmission in the thirties. It was soon found that there were problems associated with the use of make-up in the new medium. Make-up that looked good in real life or that worked in film, looked terrible on black-and-white television. The firm of Max Factor provided a solution.
Max Jr. then turned his attention to make-up for television. Earlier, in 1933, he had worked with his father on experimental tests, and again on his own in 1946, to introduce the first make-up for black and white commercial television. (Baston, 2008, p.145)
The BBC’s London Television Service (a non commercial broadcaster) had also encountered make-up difficulties. The problem must have been well known, as a discussion of it ended up in ‘The Art and Craft of Hairdressing’ (Bari-Woollss, n.d.) believed to be published in 1936 – the same year regular television broadcasts started in London. Before you ask how the hairdressers got into the TV business, it should be remembered that both Max Factor and the Westmores started out in hair.
British television in the thirties had some problems not experienced by later broadcasters. They were transmitting in two forms, one of which was partly mechanical (the Baird system), and they were also using a line standard much lower than that used after the war – with a correspondingly reduced picture definition. This explains some of the discussion outlined below.
Television
This new branch of entertainment has brought with it an entirely new technique of make-up. Here two considerations decide the kind of make-up to be used. The first is light sensitivity at the transmitter; the second is the degree of definition attainable at the receiving station. Since the received picture is in monochrome, that is black and white, or black and red, or black and green, colour does not appear on the screen. There are two methods of scanning the scene. One is to flood it with light and to scan it with a mechanical or electrical device. The other is to light it with a moving spot of light. Whatever coloured light is used, the colour used for the make-up must provide deep contrasts, but owing to the fact that the photo-sensitive cells used for transmitting are preponderantly sensitive to one range of colour the actual colour of the make-up must be the complementary colour of that which most affects the “electric eye.” Thus, if the cell is sensitive to red the make-up must be green. With such a cell, the actor would use green for shadows, wrinkles, eye shade eyebrows, etc., while he would use red to soften out shadows and blemishes.
Again, the television screen shows a picture that is made up of lines of varying depth of shadow and light. Many factors limit the number of lines which can be used so that the picture is comparatively coarse and rather like a rough half-tone block. Definition of a very high order is therefore not yet practicable. Hence at the receiver, particularly with thirty-line television, the features are very blurred and indistinct. Soft graduations of details in the actor’s face are lost altogether. For this reason in the chief purpose of television make-up to increase the contrast. The lips, nostrils, and eye shadows are very deeply made up with green or purple according to which system is used, and any facial lines to be emphasized are lined in with the same colour. Shadows which have to be removed are covered with colour of the same hue as that to which the photo-cell is most sensitive, which, in the case mentioned above, where green was used for heavy contrast, would be red. The same considerations enter into the costumes used in television. Only when photo-cells can be made panchromatic and the definition of television systems increased to the fineness of the cinema film will ordinary cinema make-up technique be of any use. (Foan, n.d., p.500)
This situation did not last for long. Improvements in television cameras after the Second World War meant that the pick-up tubes were soon reproducing grey tones as faithfully as panchromatic film – as predicted in Bari-Woollss. The arrival of colour television introduced some new problems but predicably, Max Factor developed make-up suitable for colour television production as well.
The make-up required by early black-and-white television must have taken a bit of getting use to on set. Unfortunately, the few images I have located are all in black and white. However, perhaps they explain why we all end up like zombies when we sit staring at the box for too long.
March 22 2009
Sources
Basten, F. (2008). Max Factor: The man who changed the faces of the world. New York: Arcade Publishing.
Foan, G. A., & Bari-Woolls, J. (Eds.). (n.d.). The art and craft of hairdressing: The standard and complete guide to the technique of modern hairdressing, manicure, massage and beauty culture (2nd ed.). London: New Era Publishing.
http://cosmeticsandskin.com/aba/max-and-the-tube.php