A teleprompter, also known as an autocue, is a display device that prompts the person speaking with an electronic visual text of a speech or script. Using a teleprompter is similar to using cue cards. The screen is in front of, and usually below, the lens of a professional video camera, and the words on the screen are reflected to the eyes of the presenter using a sheet of clear glass or other beam splitter, so that they are read by looking directly at the lens position, but are not imaged by the lens. Light from the performer passes through the front side of the glass into the lens, while a shroud surrounding the lens and the back side of the glass prevents unwanted light from entering the lens. Optically, this works in a very similar way to the Pepper's ghost illusion from classic theatre: an image viewable from one angle but not another. Because the speaker can look straight at the lens while reading the script, the teleprompter creates the illusion that the speaker has memorized the speech or is speaking spontaneously, looking directly into the camera lens. Notes or cue cards, on the other hand, require the presenter to look at them instead of at the lens, which can cause the speaker to appear distracted, depending on the degree of deflection from the natural line of sight to the camera lens, and how long the speaker needs to glance away to glean the next speaking point; speakers who can internalize a full sentence or paragraph in a single short glance timed to natural breaks in the spoken cadence will create only a small or negligible impression of distraction. The original TelePrompTer package was leased, not sold. The package consisted of four remote-controlled electronically synchronized script machines that are controlled by an operator from a fixed-position master control unit. Each unit was powered by a self-synchronizing motor which keeps the rollers that hold the script moving together at speeds up to 50 words a minute. The synchronized units allow the actor to refer to any of the teleprompter units and be sure that the arrow pointing to the line of text on each machine is pointing to the same place. Considerable research went into the development of the first TelePrompTers. The Underwood Typewriter Company built special typewriters to type text 1 inch high, in four copies. The Standard Registry Business Firm Company developed special yellow paper, carbons, and ink that ensured maximum legibility of all four copies. The sprocketed paper could be spliced, allowing for last-minute deletions, corrections, and additions. The technology has continued to develop, including the following iterations:
first mechanical paper roll teleprompters — used by television presenters and speakers at U.S. political conventions in 1952 dual glass teleprompters — used by TV presenters and for U.S. conventions in 1964 computer-based rolls of 1982 and the four-prompter system for U.S. conventions — added a large off-stage confidence monitor and inset lectern monitor in 1996 replacement of glass teleprompters at U.K. political conferences by several large off-stage confidence monitors in 2006. TelePrompTer in the US and Autocue in Commonwealth and some European countries were originally trade names but have become genericized trademarks used for any such display device.
History
The TelePrompTer Corporation was founded in the 1950s by Fred Barton Jr., Hubert Schlafly 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, in inch-high letters, was printed by a special electric typewriter on a paper scroll, which was advanced as the performer read, and the machines rented for the then-considerable sum of $30 per hour. The teleprompter was used for the first time on December 4, 1950, in filming the CBS soap The First Hundred Years. It was used by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in 1953 to read commercials on-camera. Jess Oppenheimer, who created I Love Lucy and served for its first five years as its producer and head writer, developed the first "in-the-lens" prompter and was awarded U.S. patents for its creation. His system uses a mirror to reflect a script onto a piece of glass placed in front of the camera lens, thus allowing the reader to look directly into the camera. The producers of Dragnet estimated the use of teleprompters cut the show's production time by as much as 50% Arthur Godfrey, Raymond Massey, Cedric Hardwicke, and Helen Hayes were early users of the technology. The technology soon became a staple of television news and is the primary system used by newscasters today. In 1952 former President Herbert Hoover used a Schlafly-designed speech teleprompter to address the 1952 Republican National Convention in Chicago. U.S. Governor Paul A. Dever spoke at the 1952 Democratic National Convention, also held in Chicago, using a mechanical-roll teleprompter on a long pole held by a TV technician in the convention audience, while the 1952 Republican National Convention used a smaller teleprompter placed in front of the speaker's rostrum. Mechanical prompters were still being used as late as 1992. In the early years of teleprompter use by politicians, some saw the device as cheating. in 1955, Richard L. Neuberger, a Democratic Senator from Oregon, proposed legislation that if a politician used a teleprompter the use of the device had to be noted in the speech.
The new technology saw quick adoption in the sponsored film industry where cutting production costs made the difference between a film that made money and one that lost money. Cinécraft Productions was the first to advertise the availability of three-camera synchronized filming with a teleprompter when in 1954 they began to advertise their use of the new technology in Business Screen, a magazine dedicated to the sponsored film industry. Cinécraft used the technique to film the 1953–1960 weekly television series The Ohio Story. Cinécraft also used the technique for executive desk talks in the 1950s and 1960s. On January 4, 1954, Dwight Eisenhower was the first President to use a teleprompter for a State of the Union address.
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