Of all the colour processes that were either invented by William Van Doren Kelley or associated with him, Kesdacolor is the most mysterious and the least written about. Almost all contemporary knowledge regarding the details of Kesdacolor come from just two sources. One, a brief history of the company that was contained in Kelley’s obituary, written by W. E. Theisen and published in the Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers (March, 1935); the other, the technical specifics of the process, which can be drawn from US patent 1431309A, filed by Kelley and Dunning in 1919. 

Theisen states that following the first Prizma film release in 1917, Kelley was not satisfied with the colour achieved and entered into a new partnership with Carroll H. Dunning and Wilson Saulsbury. A laboratory was opened at 205 West 40th Street in New York City, under the name Kesdacolor. The first film made by the Kesdacolor process under the new partnership was a picture of the American flag. At a length of 50 ft, it was shown at the Roxy [sic] and Rialto theatres in New York, on September 12, 1918 (Theisen, 1935). 

This statement was copied by Major Adrian Bernard Klein (aka Adrian Cornwell-Clyne) in his book Colour Cinematography, first published in 1936, and later reprinted in 1939 and 1951. Since this book became the ultimate guide for film colour researchers, this short history of Kesdacolor has been copied and quoted by many historians and researchers whose writings touched on this subject.

Although Theisen would have meant Rivoli and Rialto (as the Roxy theatre was not opened until 1927), no record has been found of the screening of the film The American Flag on September 12, 1918 in any of the contemporary motion-picture trade papers. One plausible explanation could be that the American Flag was seen in every theatre, either physically on stage, or on slides and films, as part of the widespread wartime victory celebrations. The film could have been buried in a sea of similar images. There was, however, a similar film made by Douglass Natural Color Films described as the “American Flag in Natural Colors” that was promoted and shown over the same period in 1918 (Anon., 1918b).

Colour film historian Roderick T. Ryan wrote an article about Carroll H. Dunning in 1971, also stating that Dunning joined Kelley and Wilson Saulsbury to form Kesdacolor, and that they made a 100-ft scene of the American flag exhibited simultaneously at the Rialto, Rivoli and Criterion theatres in New York City on September 12, 1918 (Ryan, 1971). The length of the supposed film changed from 50 to 100 ft. However, primary records of the screening, in all three theatres, on the specific date are still lacking.

With the inconsistencies and misinformation in available sources, and the lack of concrete evidence in historical records, the history of Kesdacolor is still shrouded in mystery. However, several facts can be established based on primary sources. First, Kesda, Inc. was incorporated in July 1918 with $50,000, in Manhattan, by H. W. Saulsbury, C. H. Dunning and W. V. D. Kelley, and the address was 1586 East 17th Street, Brooklyn (Anon., 1918a). The name “Kesda” came from the names of Kelley, Saulsbury and Dunning combined (Ryan, 1971). Second, Kelley mentioned “Kesda” was working on a method for producing a film that projected at 16 pictures per second, in November 1918 (Kelley, 1918). This fact increases doubts about the supposed September 1918 screening of the Kesdacolor film. Kesdacolor ceased operations at the end of 1918 when Kelley, Saulsbury and Dunning rejoined Prizma. H. W. Saulsbury went on to become the president of Prizma, Carroll H. Dunning vice president and W. V. D. Kelley technical adviser (Anon., 1919).  

H. W. Saulsbury died in May 1923 and Carroll H. Dunning resigned his position at Prizma soon after (Anon., 1923). Dunning moved to California and opened his own laboratory in 1926, specialising in special optical printing effects and later developed the Dunningcolor process in the 1930s. Kelley left Prizma around 1924 and died in 1934. Dunning died in 1975, at the age of 94 – the final of the three founding members of the Kesdacolor (Anon., 1975).