Rosco Spectrum: Rosco Laboratories has been in business now for over 100 years. When a company has a product range and market presence as diverse as Rosco’s, it’s interesting to examine how it all began. Rosco’s Stan Miller and Mark Engel sat down for a discussion about Rosco’s history for a video series we’re calling Stan Talks.
5 comments:
It’s very cool to hear/ read about how a company as big as Rosco got it’s starts. I didn’t imagine it starting so long ago, but thinking of it’s prolific product line it makes sense that it would have a long theatrical history. We were just talking in class Wednesday about how Rosco made the Chicago backdrop for the Fifty Shades of Grey Movie, which I was surprised about since I normally only think of Rosco as a paint brand, since that’s their product we come into contact most often. It’s become such a standard across higher educational and professional scenic painting shops- I was surprised to see it competing with Nova brand paints at Mystic last summer. I’m surprised to see that Rosco’s first product wasn’t paint, but a bulb tinter/ coating. It’s very cool to see an advertisement from a time when colored lights weren’t an everyday, expected spectacle. I would have liked to learn more about how else Rosco transitioned to being the huge company that it is today, but I guess we’ll just have to tune in next week!
This is really, really cool. I didn’t know anything about the early lighting technology which lead to coloring lights. The idea of putting a lacquer onto every individual lamp seems incredibly tedious, messy, and inconsistent. I once had to do a liquid latex covering onto some low wattage lamps which were going on stage, so I understand the idea and process brought forth by the lacquer. I also thought that the root of the name Rosco is interesting that it should more correctly be Ros. Co., and that at first it was then followed by Laboratories — which I don’t think anyone would associate with current day Rosco. I think Rosco has carries some of its original values beyond doing color for theatrical lighting. The current CEO discussed how the founder would do anything and everything, and I would say that Rosco has stayed true to that as evident though their wide range of products
It’s so interesting to hear how a company like ROSCO, which has become a sort of staple in the world of theatre, got its start. The past few semesters worth of classes have brought my attention to an interesting phenomenon in our industry. Nearly every time we learn about a product, the professor will add a little side note saying ‘this was made for ___ industry, but we use it for ____’. Theatre seems to steal the most useful products from every industry and combine them all together. So the fact that ROSCO started out specifically for entertainment purposes is kind of incredible. To think they went from making chemicals for frosting lightbulbs to producing everything from gels to paints to backdrops. It’s a company that really dug out a niche for itself in an industry where it’s really hard to be sustainable. I wonder what the future of ROSCO will bring.
I find the origin stories of companies to generally be interesting especially when the company had originally focused on one specific product and has over the years been able to branch out into a more numerous amount of products. It also seems fitting that a company like Rosco which is most often thought of as a stage lightning company, even though make many more types of products including paint and tape (really paint and tape.) the idea of dipping bulbs into color lacquering solutions also seem both highly connected to the past and very forward thinking for 1910. I would say that it is high connected to the past because it makes me think of dipping candles, but what really set them up to succeed was Rosenstein's foresight in looking at the relatively new invention of a lightbulb ,which at that time was only clear, and thinking people probably want more choices in colors. And I would dare say he was more than right considering how tied into theatrical lighting Rosco now is especially when comes to provide gel colors for different lighting fixtures. And by looking at their website one can most definitely agree that they are trying to keep with Rosenstein's willingness to sell anything.
If our work is considered as behind the scenes then the companies that allow us to practice our trade are behind the behind the scenes people. It's interesting to read up on these companies and learn about their history in supplying the tools we need to create. I think it's interesting how the company has grown and how long they've been around; it's incredible to think they've been here for almost 100 years! They've seen all the technologies that came with stage lighting using electricity to create high powered lighting units for the first time. I think it's pretty interesting how different colored lighting was made in the past, as opposed to household lighting. In addition, these units weren't even considered to be used in the theaters at first. I can't even imagine how annoying it must've been to individually dip each bulb into a lacquer solution to give it it's color. Another interesting thing is how the company has branched out in it's products, going from strictly lighting focused to things that I'm more familiar with including drops, paints, etc. Long live Rosco.
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