TeleprompTer Inventer Hubert J Schlafly Died at Age 91: Story behind the Invention of the mechanical device that changed TV

The TelePrompTer Corp was founded in the 1950s by Fred Barton Jr. and Hubert J. (Hub) Schlafly (1919-2011), and Irving Berlin Kahn.    Barton was an actor who suggested the concept of the teleprompter as a means of assisting television performers who had to memorize large amounts of material in a short time^. Schlafly built the first teleprompter in 1950. It was simply a mechanical device, operated by a hidden technician, located near the camera^. The script was printed on a paper scroll, which was advanced as the performer read. In 1952, former President Herbert Hoover used a Schlafly-designed teleprompter to address the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Illinois
The first personal computer–based teleprompter, Computer Prompt, appeared in 1982. It was invented and marketed by Courtney M. Goodin and Laurence B. Abrams in Hollywood California The custom software and specially-redesigned camera hardware ran on the Atari 800 Personal Computer which featured liquid smooth hardware-assisted scrolling. Their company later became ProPrompt, Inc., which is still providing teleprompting services over 28 years later. Other paper-based teleprompting companies – Electronic Script Prompting, QTV and Telescript – followed suit and developed their own software several years later, when computers with enough graphics power to provide the smooth scrolling text became available. In January 2010 Compu=Prompt received a Technology and Engineering Emmy Award for "Pioneering Development in Electronic Prompting". Jess Oppenheimer, producer-head writer of, I Love Lucy claimed credit for the original concept of the "in-the-lens" teleprompter and was awarded U.S. patents for its creation. First used by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in 1953 to read commercials on-camera, it soon became a staple for television news.
As late as 1992, the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson was still using an early mechanical teleprompter.
The inventor Hubert Schlafly died at the age of 91.
Fun Facts: The teleprompTer was designed to help soap opera stars know their lines in 1950
                 President Herbert Hoover was the first President of the US to use it for his speech at the Republican convention in 1952.
                  President Obama had used it

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