RCA’s Famous ‘Umber Grey’

RCA’s Famous ‘Umber Grey’

Before the ‘new look’ in the 60s, all of RCA’s equipment was painted ‘umber grey’. When I found out the official name for the color, I was confused because there is nothing grey about it…it’s brown. When I came across this great true color photo this morning showing the camera’s real colors, I decided to do some digging.

Umber is a natural brown clay pigment that contains iron and manganese oxides. Its name derives from the Latin word umbra (shadow) and was originally extracted in Umbria, a mountainous region of central Italy. It is defined as: Having a brownish color. To darken with or as if with umber. I still don’t understand the ‘grey’ part of the color name, but it is what it is.

CBS employees may argue that their RCA cameras were grey, and they are right. CBS painted their RCA equipment a medium grey and there are two theories why. First, it is said that medium grey is best for color acuity in color tv studios and control rooms. Second, Frank Stanton wanted all the CBS equipment to look uniform and most of all, different than RCA equipment so he ordered it all painted grey. Now you know. Me too. By the way, the camera is an RCA TK11 at WATE in Knoxville, TN.

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