The "Tech" in Technicolor comes from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the college of its creator, Herbert Kalmus. Kalmus aspired to be a concert pianist, but a baseball injury prevented him from pursuing that dream. He devoted himself instead to a process to add color to black and white photography.
Kalmus founded the Technicolor company in 1915, but a film wasn't made using the process until 1917's "The Gulf Between." It required two cameras shooting simultaneously, which led to problems with synchronization. In 1922, he tried splicing two different colored films together. This was also unsuccessful. Only a few films were made using this method, including "The Toll of the Sea" and "The Black Pirate."
Not all movie actors were pleased with the early technicolor efforts. Douglas Fairbanks, who starred in "The Black Pirate," was unsatisfied with the look of the movie and upset because he invested in the film and lost money. He refused to do another film in Technicolor. In 1939, Claudette Colbert made "Drums Along the Mohawk" but refused to make another film in color for 20 years since she didn't like the way she looked in the movie. On the other hand, Esther Williams, Lucille Ball and Betty Grable did favor the Technicolor look.
In 1932, Kalmus finally developed the process that used the three colors at once. Walt Disney used it that year in the animated short "Flowers and Trees." The short won an Oscar, and Disney signed a long term contract with Technicolor. Some blockbusters that used the new process included "Gone with the Wind" and "The Wizard of Oz" in 1939. Other companies developed competing color processes. For example, Kodak introduced "Eastman Color" also known as "Deluxe" or "Metrocolor," in 1950. None of the competition outdid Technicolor and its vivid look.