Polacolor

Not to be confused with the unrelated Polaroid process.

Polacolor was a film coloring process created by Aurele Poulin for Poulin Baker Animation Studios. It was discontinued in early 1984.

History
Poulin pitched the process to Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures and Goldwyn in 1921. Paramount would use it for a short time and stopped using it by 1923. When Poulin reopened Poulin Productions in 1929, he went back to Paramount and they used Polacolor for Poulin-Baker productions until the studios severed ties in 1951. Poulin-Baker went to 20th Century-Fox after that and all Poulin-Baker productions used Polacolor until 1982. Until 1984, it was used on a smaller scale, and by early 1985, the process was completely dropped. The original Polacolor cameras and some historical film are on display in various film museums in the United States and France.

Poulin-Baker refused to use Technicolor for any productions. Polacolor quickly became the cheaper alternative to Technicolor.

"Polacolor" was trademarked and patented as a coloring process in 1925. Both marks were renewed until 1982, when Poulin Baker announced it was dropping the process for digital cameras.

Originally Polacolor was one-strip, meaning it could only record in red, green or blue. It was improved in 1930 becoming two-strip for the Peppatoons cartoons and again in 1934 where it was changed to three-strip.