Frederic Waller (1886 – May 18, 1954) was an American inventor and film pioneer.

Career

Waller is most known for his contributions to film special effects while working at

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

, for his creation of the Waller Flexible Gunnery Trainer, and for inventing

Cinerama Cinerama is a widescreen process that originally projected images simultaneously from three synchronized 35mm projectors onto a huge, deeply curved screen, subtending 146° of arc. The trademarked process was marketed by the Cinerama corporati ...

, the immersive experience of a curved film screen that extends to the viewer's peripheral vision for which he received an Academy Award. Waller, a snow skiing and boating enthusiast, is also credited with obtaining the first patent for a

water ski Water skiing (also waterskiing or water-skiing) is a Surface water sports, surface water sport in which an individual is pulled behind a boat or a Cable skiing, cable ski installation over a body of water, skimming the surface on two skis or ...

in 1925. He produced and directed 200 one-reel shorts for Paramount, including ''

Cab Calloway's Hi-De-Ho ''Cab Calloway's Hi-De-Ho'' (also known as ''Hi-De-Ho'') is an American musical short film directed by Fred Waller and released by Paramount Pictures in 1934. The film stars jazz bandleader Cab Calloway and actress Fredi Washington. In 2001, th ...

'' and Duke Ellington's ''

Symphony in Black ''Symphony in Black: A Rhapsody of Negro Life'' is a -minute musical short produced in 1935 that features Duke Ellington’s early extended piece, "A Rhapsody of Negro Life". The film, Billie Holiday’s screen debut, was directed by Fred Waller ...

''. He patented several pieces of photographic equipment, including a camera that could take a 360-degree still photo. As the special projects director for the

1939 New York World's Fair The 1939–40 New York World's Fair was a world's fair held at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York, United States. It was the second-most expensive American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchas ...

, he collaborated on the fair centerpiece attraction called the

Perisphere The Trylon and Perisphere were two monumental modernistic structures designed by architects Wallace Harrison and J. Andre Fouilhoux that were together known as the Theme Center of the 1939 New York World's Fair. The Perisphere was a tremendous ...

, the Eastman Kodak Hall of Color, and he developed the Time and Space Building to showcase his creation, Vitarama an 11-projector system projecting onto a half dome sphere and precursor to Cinerama. During World War II the Vitarama Corporation (and Fred Waller) produced a five projector aerial gunnery trainer used by the armed forces. It saved an estimated 350,000 casualties during the during the war.

Patents

* : Aquaplane (filed Aug 22, 1925, issued Oct 27, 1925) * : Anemometer (filed Dec 29, 1936, issued Aug 2, 1938) * : Apparatus for taking sounds (filed May 29, 1937, issued Jul 4, 1939) * : Screen for picture projection (filed Jun 14, 1938, issued Feb 17, 1942) * : Gunnery training apparatus (filed May 20, 1944, issued Jul 27, 1948) * : Control band for gunnery training apparatus (filed May 20, 1944, issued May 17, 1949) * : Electrically illuminated display apparatus (filed Jul 26, 1944, issued Nov 16, 1948) * : Desiccator (filed Mar 8, 1946, issued Nov 8, 1949) * : Apparatus for controlling picture displays from sound records (filed Feb 15, 1947, issued Apr 4, 1950) * : Screen for picture projections (filed Sep 22, 1947, issued Jul 19, 1949) * : Method of photographically correcting the photographic images of objects (filed Feb 4, 1948, issued Jan 5, 1954) * : Parallax correction for multilens cameras (filed Oct 9, 1948, issued Jan 22, 1952) * : Apparatus for holding and guiding a chain of slides for successive display (filed Nov 17, 1948, issued Aug 14, 1951) * : Linked holder for lantern slides (filed Dec 4, 1948, issued Jul 6, 1954) * : Photographic apparatus for correcting negatives during printing thereof (filed Sep 30, 1949, issued Jan 5, 1954) * : Slide projector with sloping magazine and slide carrier for withdrawing the lowermost slide from the magazine (filed Feb 20, 1951, issued Apr 5, 1955)

Awards

* Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers Progress Medal (1953) *

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...

Scientific or Technical Award (1954)

References

External links

*
in70mm.com - Mr. Cinerama

in70mm.com - Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Cinerama!
{{DEFAULTSORT:Waller, Fred 1886 births 1954 deaths Polytechnic Institute of New York University alumni 20th-century American inventors Recipients of the Scientific and Technical Academy Award of Merit American water skiers Sports inventors and innovators

Career

Patents

Awards

References

Further reading

External links