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Hazard Earle Reeves, Jr. (July 6, 1906 – December 23, 1986) was an American pioneer in sound and sound electronics, and introduced magnetic stereophonic sound to motion pictures. He was also the president of over 60 companies, including Cinerama Inc.
Reeves was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Susan (Perreyclear) and Hazard Earle Reeves. [1] He graduated from Georgia School of Technology in 1928 with a degree in engineering. [2]
Reeves moved to New York, where his first job was for the Columbia Phonograph Company. After being appointed as a special consultant to the Harvard University Film Foundation, his interests shifted from phonograph recordings to motion picture audio. By 1933, Reeves had set up his own sound recording studio in New York. The studio soon became the largest on the east coast of the US. [3]
In 1939, Reeves met Fred Waller during the construction of the 1939 New York World's Fair on an exhibit for Eastman Kodak. Waller showed Reeves his idea for a multiple-camera photography system that would fill the peripheral vision, initially dubbed "Vitarama". Waller asked Reeves if he could invent a multi-channel system of sound. Reeves agreed, and ultimately invested money into the company.
During World War II, Reeves ran the Reeves-Ely Laboratories, Inc. (R.E.L.), manufacturing electronic products for the war effort. His company won the Army-Navy "E" Award for merit four times, fulfilling contracts totaling millions of dollars.
Originally also known as Reeves Sound Laboratory, following the war, in 1946, Reeves founded the Reeves Soundcraft Corporation (later known as Reeves Sound Services) and directed the operation of a number of companies manufacturing a variety of products including recording tape and film, record discs, wire cable, television tubes and cameras and precision recording equipment. Reeves introduced magnetic recording to the film industry in 1948.
Utilizing separate magnetic film, Reeves created a seven-channel sound system [4] for Cinerama, the company of which he was president by 1952. That same year, Cinerama released its first picture, This is Cinerama . Reeves' sound system was the first, discrete stereophonic sound system used in post-war commercial application.[ citation needed ] (Walt Disney had originally released Fantasia (1940) in three-track optical sound, but the Disney "Fantasound" system was not used for any other film afterwards.)
Reeves Soundcraft Corporation won an Academy Award in 1953 for their development of a process of applying stripes of magnetic oxide to motion picture film for sound recording and reproduction.
Reeves died at age 80 of a heart attack in Tuxedo Park, New York. [5] One year after he died, Unitel Video bought the assets of his firm.
Reeves was married to Adeline Johnstone Fowles. Their granddaughter is actress Perrey Reeves. [6]
70 mm film is a wide high-resolution film gauge for motion picture photography, with a negative area nearly 3.5 times as large as the standard 35 mm motion picture film format. As used in cameras, the film is 65 mm (2.6 in) wide. For projection, the original 65 mm film is printed on 70 mm (2.8 in) film. The additional 5 mm contains the four magnetic stripes, holding six tracks of stereophonic sound. Although later 70 mm prints use digital sound encoding, the vast majority of existing and surviving 70 mm prints pre-date this technology.
CinemaScope is an anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter.
Cinerama is a widescreen process that originally projected images simultaneously from three synchronized 35mm projectors onto a huge, deeply curved screen, subtending 146-degrees of arc. The trademarked process was marketed by the Cinerama corporation. It was the first of several novel processes introduced during the 1950s when the movie industry was reacting to competition from television. Cinerama was presented to the public as a theatrical event, with reserved seating and printed programs, and audience members often dressed in their best attire for the evening.
Ampex Data Systems Corporation is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M. Poniatoff as a spin-off of Dalmo-Victor. The name AMPEX is an acronym, created by its founder, which stands for Alexander M. Poniatoff Excellence. Ampex operates as Ampex Data Systems Corporation, a subsidiary of Delta Information Systems, and consists of two business units. The Silicon Valley unit, known internally as Ampex Data Systems (ADS), manufactures digital data storage systems capable of functioning in harsh environments. The Colorado Springs, Colorado, unit, referred to as Ampex Intelligent Systems (AIS), serves as a laboratory and hub for the company's line of industrial control systems, cyber security products and services and its artificial intelligence/machine learning technology.
A movie projector is an opto-mechanical device for displaying motion picture film by projecting it onto a screen. Most of the optical and mechanical elements, except for the illumination and sound devices, are present in movie cameras. Modern movie projectors are specially built video projectors.
Sound-on-film is a class of sound film processes where the sound accompanying a picture is recorded on photographic film, usually, but not always, the same strip of film carrying the picture. Sound-on-film processes can either record an analog sound track or digital sound track, and may record the signal either optically or magnetically. Earlier technologies were sound-on-disc, meaning the film's soundtrack would be on a separate phonograph record.
Todd-AO is an American post-production company founded in 1953 by Mike Todd and Robert Naify, providing sound-related services to the motion picture and television industries. The company retains one facility, in the Los Angeles area.
Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration of two loudspeakers in such a way as to create the impression of sound heard from various directions, as in natural hearing.
A roadshow theatrical release or reserved seat engagement is the practice of opening a film in a limited number of theaters in major cities for a specific period of time before the wide release of the film. Roadshows would generally mimic a live theatre production, with an upscale atmosphere as well as somewhat higher prices than during a wide release. They were commonly used to promote major films from the 1920s–60s and build excitement.
Dolby Stereo is a sound format made by Dolby Laboratories. It is a unified brand for two completely different basic systems: the Dolby SVA 1976 system used with optical sound tracks on 35mm film, and Dolby Stereo 70mm noise reduction on 6-channel magnetic soundtracks on 70mm prints.
The Movietone sound system is an optical sound-on-film method of recording sound for motion pictures, ensuring synchronization between sound and picture. It achieves this by recording the sound as a variable-density optical track on the same strip of film that records the pictures. The initial version of this system was capable of a frequency response of 8500 Hz. Although modern sound films use variable-area tracks instead, modern motion picture theaters can play a Movietone film without modification to the projector. Movietone was one of four motion picture sound systems under development in the U.S. during the 1920s. The others were DeForest's Phonofilm, Warner Brothers' Vitaphone, and RCA Photophone. However, Phonofilm was principally an early version of Movietone.
Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical, mechanical, electronic, or digital inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording.
Cinemiracle was a widescreen cinema format competing with Cinerama developed in the 1950s. It was ultimately unsuccessful, with only a single film produced and released in the format. Like Cinerama it used 3 cameras to capture a 2.59:1 image. Cinemiracle used two mirrors to give the left and right cameras the same optical center as the middle camera. This made the joins between the projected images much less obvious than with Cinerama.
The history of sound recording - which has progressed in waves, driven by the invention and commercial introduction of new technologies — can be roughly divided into four main periods:
Perspecta was a directional motion picture sound system invented by the laboratories at Fine Sound Inc. in 1954. The company was founded by Mercury Records engineer C. Robert (Bob) Fine, husband of producer Wilma Cozart Fine. As opposed to magnetic stereophonic soundtracks available at the time, Perspecta's benefits were that it did not require a new sound head for the projector and thus was a cheaper alternative.
Audio Fidelity Records, was a record company based in New York City, most active during the 1950s and 1960s. They are best known for having produced the first mass-produced American stereophonic long-playing record in November 1957. The Audio Fidelity label was acquired by 43 North Broadway, LLC.
Optical sound is a means of storing sound recordings on transparent film. Originally developed for military purposes, the technology first saw widespread use in the 1920s as a sound-on-film format for motion pictures. Optical sound eventually superseded all other sound film technologies until the advent of digital sound became the standard in cinema projection booths. Optical sound has also been used for multitrack recording and for creating effects in some musical synthesizers.
The pallophotophone was a photographic sound recording and playback system developed by General Electric researcher Charles A. Hoxie circa 1922. The RCA Photophone sound-on-film system for motion pictures was later derived from it.
Electric music technology refers to musical instruments and recording devices that use electrical circuits, which are often combined with mechanical technologies. Examples of electric musical instruments include the electro-mechanical electric piano, the electric guitar, the electro-mechanical Hammond organ and the electric bass. All of these electric instruments do not produce a sound that is audible by the performer or audience in a performance setting unless they are connected to instrument amplifiers and loudspeaker cabinets, which made them sound loud enough for performers and the audience to hear. Amplifiers and loudspeakers are separate from the instrument in the case of the electric guitar, electric bass and some electric organs and most electric pianos. Some electric organs and electric pianos include the amplifier and speaker cabinet within the main housing for the instrument.
Frederic Waller was an American inventor and film pioneer.