Consolidated Film Industries was a film laboratory, and film processing company, and was the leading film laboratory in the
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the municipality of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123.445 inhabitants...
area for many decades. CFI processed negatives and made prints for motion pictures and television. The company or its employees received many
Academy AwardsThe Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are presented annually by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers. The formal ceremony at which the awards are presented is...
for scientific or technical achievements.
CFI was incorporated in
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
in March 1924 by
Herbert YatesHerbert John Yates was the founder and president of Republic Pictures, famous for being the home of John Wayne, Gene Autry, and Roy Rogers...
. It was reincorporated in
DelawareDelaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. The state takes its name from Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, a British nobleman and Virginia's first colonial governor, after whom Cape Henlopen was originally named.Delaware is located in...
in 1927 by the merger of several earlier companies, including Republic Laboratories, which he bought in 1918, and the Allied Film Laboratories Association, which he formed in 1919.
The
prospectusProspectus may refer to:* Prospectus * Prospectus...
claimed, Consolidated Film Industries, Inc.
Consolidated Film Industries was a film laboratory, and film processing company, and was the leading film laboratory in the
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the municipality of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123.445 inhabitants...
area for many decades. CFI processed negatives and made prints for motion pictures and television. The company or its employees received many
Academy AwardsThe Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are presented annually by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers. The formal ceremony at which the awards are presented is...
for scientific or technical achievements.
CFI was incorporated in
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
in March 1924 by
Herbert YatesHerbert John Yates was the founder and president of Republic Pictures, famous for being the home of John Wayne, Gene Autry, and Roy Rogers...
. It was reincorporated in
DelawareDelaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. The state takes its name from Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, a British nobleman and Virginia's first colonial governor, after whom Cape Henlopen was originally named.Delaware is located in...
in 1927 by the merger of several earlier companies, including Republic Laboratories, which he bought in 1918, and the Allied Film Laboratories Association, which he formed in 1919.
The
prospectusProspectus may refer to:* Prospectus * Prospectus...
claimed, Consolidated Film Industries, Inc. of Delaware was being incorporated to succeed a Company of a similar name formed in March 1924 under the laws of
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, for developing of motion picture negatives, printing the necessary positives and delivering the positives as instructed by the motion picture producers or distributors, thus rendering an essential service to the motion picture industry. The Company operates six plants, known in the motion picture business as "laboratories," in
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
,
New JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered on the north by New York, and to the east by the Hudson River, Upper New York Bay, the Kill Van Kull, Newark Bay, the Arthur Kill, Raritan Bay, Sandy Hook Bay, Westchester County, New York City, Long Island, and...
, and
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
. One of these acquired properties was the
Biograph StudiosBiograph Studios was a studio facility and film laboratory complex built in 1912 by the Biograph Company, formerly American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, at 807 E. 175th Street., in the Bronx, New York. The Biograph Company moved its facilities from its location at 11 East 14th Street in...
film laboratory facilities in the Bronx,
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
Consolidated Film Industries, Inc. was the largest concern of its kind, and is the largest purchaser of motion picture film in the world. The business has been built up on the sound foundation of quality and service at a price, in most instances, below the motion picture producer's own laboratory cost. This low price made possible through the Company's efficient and large scale operations.
Consolidated Film Industries acquired
PrizmacolorThe Prizma Color system was a technique of color motion picture photography, invented in 1913 by William Van Doren Kelley and Charles Raleigh. Initially, it was a two-color additive color system, similar to its predecessor, Kinemacolor...
in 1928, and was acquired by
Technicolor, Inc.Technicolor is the trademark for a series of color film processes pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation , now a division of Thomson SA. Technicolor was the second major color film process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color motion picture process in Hollywood...
in 2000.
In movies and television which used the company's color processing, they were typically only referred to by their initials, the credit usually reading "Color by CFI".
For a time in the late eighties CFI (in Hollywood) was jokingly said to stand for Can't Find It.
Scientific or Technical Academy Awards
- 1957: To Ted Hirsch, Carl Hauge and Edward Reichard of Consolidated Film Industries for an automatic scene counter for laboratory projection rooms. (Class III award)
- 1961: To Carl Hauge, Robert Grubel and Edward Reichard of Consolidated Film Industries for the development of an automatic developer replenisher system. (Class III award)
- 1965: To Sidney P. Solow, Edward H. Reichard, Carl W. Hauge and Job Sanderson of Consolidated Film Industries for the design and development of a versatile Automatic 35mm Composite Color Printer. (Class II award)
- 1965: To Edward H. Reichard and Carl W. Hauge of Consolidated Film Industries for the design of a Proximity Cue Detector and its application to motion picture printers. (Class III award)
- 1965: To Edward H. Reichard, Leonard L. Sokolow and Carl W. Hauge of Consolidated Film Industries for the design and application to motion picture laboratory practice of a Stroboscopic Scene Tester for color and black-and-white film. (Class III award)
- 1969: To Carl W. Hauge and Edward H. Reichard of Consolidated Film Industries and E. Michael Meahl and Roy J. Ridenour of Ramtronics for engineering an automatic exposure control for printing-machine lamps. (Class III award)
- 1969: To Eastman Kodak Company for a new direct positive film and to Consolidated Film Industries for the application of this film to the making of post-production work prints. (Class III award)
- 1971: To Leonard Sokolow and Edward H. Reichard of Consolidated Film Industries for the concept and engineering of the Color Proof Printer for motion pictures. (Class II award)
- 1972: To Producers Service Corporation and Consolidated Film Industries; and to Cinema Research Corporation and Research Products, Inc. for the engineering and implementation of fully automated blow-up motion picture printing systems. (Class III award)
- 1973: To Edward H. Reichard and Howard T. La Zare of Consolidated Film Industries, and Edward Efron of IBM for the engineering of a computerized light valve monitoring system for motion picture printing. (Class II award)
- 1977: To Consolidated Film Industries and the Barnebey-Cheney Company for the development of a system for the recovery of film-cleaning solvent vapors in a motion-picture laboratory. (Class II award)
- 1982: To Leonard Sokolow for the concept and design and to Howard T. Lazare for the development of the Consolidated Film Industries' Stroboscan motion picture film viewer. (Scientific and Engineering Award)