Ginger Rogers and the shimmering origins of metallic paint

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Look up metallic paint on the worldwide web and you will find a great number of historic details which do not necessarily correspond. Metallic paint originated in the late 1920s in the automotive industry, say most, with some adding that DuPont introduced the aluminium flake-based lacquer in 1927.

But there is also the fish scales story. It is said that only the silvery inside of the fish scales was isolated and added as a pigment to the lacquer in the early 1920s. That must have been quite a job! “To produce 250 grams of real fish silver for ‘fish silver paints’, a ton of fish was needed, so this valuable material was only used to a very limited extent.” One other source that we found makes that slightly more perceptible by adding: “It would have taken 40,000 herring to make one kilo of paint. But they would give paints a mother-of-pearl sheen that could show off the curved forms of the cars of that day.”

And then there is the Metalflake finish, believed to originate in the custom car world of George Barris in 1959, in cooperation with a company named Bobeckmun. Fish scales were mentioned in a press outing once more, as was ‘crushed diamond dust’. That definitely makes it sound like a silly PR thing.

Now… what we see here is Ginger Rogers being chauffeured in the movie ‘Lady in the Dark’, which was filmed as early as 1943 – in colour. The movie’s trailer mentions: ‘Reflecting a new wizardry of lighting, photography and colour that the screen has never been able to achieve before’. We would have loved to see moving images of that heavily modified landaulet in colour, but could not find them. Any guesses what that much-modified landaulet really is?

Words: Jeroen Booij; Picture: Paramount Pictures

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