Nod to The Legend · The inventions · 1950s
Charley Douglass's Laff Box
The laugh track
Douglass built a machine of recorded laughs he could play by hand, sweetening TV comedies with laughter. Networks used his laff box for decades.
Still heard: Audience sweetening, and the line between live and produced, in TV.
Related legends
- The Electro-Voice RE20: Broadcast dynamic microphone
- Ray Dolby: Inventor of Dolby noise reduction
- Bob Orban and the Optimod: Broadcast processor designer
- Harvey Fletcher and Wilden Munson: Bell Labs researchers
- The Wheaties Jingle: Often called the first radio jingle
- Pro Tools: Peter Gotcher and Evan Brooks of Digidesign