- Charles Douglass
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For those of a similar name, see Charles Douglas.
Charles "Charley" Douglass (January 2, 1910 – April 8, 2003), born Charles Rolland Douglass, was an American sound engineer, credited as the inventor of the laugh track.
Contents
Early years
Douglass was born in Guadalajara, Mexico in 1910 to an American family.[1] His father was an engineer on assignment there, and eventually relocated the family to Nevada. Douglass graduated from the University of Nevada with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, and eventually found work as a sound engineer with CBS Radio in Los Angeles. During World War II, Douglass served in the Navy and worked in Washington with engineers developing shipboard radar systems.
The "laff box"
Before television, audiences often experienced comedy, whether performed live on stage, on radio, or in a movie, in the presence of other audience members. Television producers attempted to recreate this atmosphere in its early days by introducing the sound of laughter or other crowd reactions into the soundtrack of television programs. However, live audiences could not be counted on to laugh at the correct moment. Other times, the audiences could laugh too long or too loud, sounding unnatural and forced.[2] Douglass noticed these, as he put it, "God-awful" responses, and took it upon himself to remedy the situation.[3] If a joke did not get the desired chuckle, Douglass inserted additional laughter. If the live audience chuckled for too long, Douglass gradually muted the guffaws. This editing technique became known as sweetening, in which pre-recorded laughter is used to augment the response of the real studio audience if they did not react as strongly as desired.[3] Douglass eventually spent countless hours extracting laughter, applause, and other reactions from live soundtracks he had recorded (mainly from the dialogue-less The Red Skelton Show), Douglass then placed his recorded guffaws into a huge tape machine, dubbed the "laff box."
At first, the laugh track was used sparingly on live shows like The Jack Benny Program; as a result, its invention essentially went by unnoticed.[4] By the end of the 1950s, live comedy transitioned from film to videotape, which allowed for editing during post-production. However, by editing a prerecorded live show, bumps and gaps were present in the soundtrack.[5] Douglass was again called upon to "bridge or fill" these gaps. Eventually, both performers and producers began to get greedy when they realized the power behind these prerecorded chuckles. Comedian Milton Berle, while witnessing a post-production editing session, once said, "as long as we are here, this joke didn't get all that we wanted." After Douglass inserted a guffaw after a failed joke, Berle reportedly commented, "See? It was funny."[2] Douglass went from enhancing a soundtrack to literally reorchestrating audience reactions.[4]
An item that purports to be the original "laff box" can be seen on an episode of 'Antiques Roadshow'. [6]
By the early 1960s, live television sitcoms became cost prohibitive, and Douglass was brought in to simulate an entire audience. Shows like Bewitched, The Munsters and The Beverly Hillbillies are virtually showcases of Douglass' editing skill; the more outlandish the show, the more invasive Douglass made the audience reaction. Conversely, low-key shows, like The Andy Griffith Show, The Brady Bunch and My Three Sons, allowed Douglass to keep the audience responses at a minimum, and resulted in quicker and simpler editing jobs.
The practice of simulating an audience reaction was controversial from the very beginning. Douglass was well aware that his "laff box" was despised and maligned by critics and writers, but he also knew that the utilization of a laugh track became standard practice and as a result, a commodity in the industry.[1] From the late 1950s to the early 1970s, Douglass had a monopoly on the expensive and painstaking "laff" business.[7] As TV Guide critic Dick Hobson put it in 1966, Douglass was "the only laugh game in town."[8]
Very few in the industry ever witnessed Douglass using his mysterious "laff box", and he was notoriously secretive about his work.[9] The one-of-a-kind device was tightly secured with padlocks, stood more than two feet tall, and operated like an organ, with a keyboard to select the style, gender and age of the laugh as well as a foot pedal to time the length of the reaction. Production studios became accustomed to seeing Douglass shuttling from studio to studio to mix in his manufactured laughs during post-production.[7]
The modern "laff box" consists of a digital device approximately the size of a laptop computer and contains hundreds of human sounds.[7]
Personal life
Douglass was married for 62 years to Dorothy Dunn Douglass. They had two sons, one of whom (Bob) currently operates Northridge Electronics.
Later years
Douglass quietly retired in 1980. He died of pneumonia on April 8, 2003 in Templeton, California.[7]
Achievements
The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences honored Douglass with a 1992 Emmy for lifetime technical achievement.[7]
See also
References
- ^ a b variety.com
- ^ a b Kitman, Marvin. "Don't Make Me Laugh," Channels of Communication, August/September 1981
- ^ a b Levin, Eric. "Who does all that laughing?" TV Guide, 8 April 1978
- ^ a b Iverson, Paul: "The Advent of the Laugh Track" Hofstra University archives; February 1994.
- ^ "The Talk of the Town: Laughs," The New Yorker 10 September 1984.
- ^ [1]
- ^ a b c d e Washington Post Thursday, April 24, 2003; Page B06: "Charles Douglass, 93; Gave TV Its Laugh Track"
- ^ Hobson, Dick. "The Hollywood Sphinx and his Laff Box". TV Guide, 2 July 1966
- ^ Interview with Ben Glenn II, Television Historian
Categories:- 1910 births
- 2003 deaths
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