Hazard Earle Reeves, Jr. (July 6, 1906 – December 23, 1986) was an American pioneer in sound and sound electronics, and introduced magnetic

stereophonic sound Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...

to motion pictures. He was also the president of over 60 companies, including Cinerama Inc.

Early life and education

Reeves was born in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean t ...

, the son of Susan (Perreyclear) and Hazard Earle Reeves. He graduated from

Georgia School of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

in 1928 with a degree in engineering.

Early career and war

Reeves moved to New York, where his first job was for the

Columbia Phonograph Company Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. It was founded on January 15, 1889, evolving from the Ame ...

. After being appointed as a special consultant to the

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

Film Foundation, his interests shifted from phonograph recordings to motion picture audio. By 1933, Reeves had set up his own sound recording studio in New York. The studio soon became the largest on the east coast of the US. In 1939, Reeves met

Fred Waller 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, for his creation of the Waller Flexible Gunnery Tr ...

during the construction of 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 Purc ...

on an exhibit for

Eastman Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...

. Waller showed Reeves his idea for a multiple-camera photography system that would fill the

peripheral vision Peripheral vision, or ''indirect vision'', is vision as it occurs outside the point of fixation, i.e. away from the center of gaze or, when viewed at large angles, in (or out of) the "corner of one's eye". The vast majority of the area in th ...

, initially dubbed "Vitarama". Waller asked Reeves if he could invent a multi-channel system of sound. Reeves agreed, and ultimately invested money into the company. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Reeves ran the ''Reeves-Ely Laboratories, Inc.'' (R.E.L.), manufacturing electronic products for the war effort. His company won the Army-Navy "E" Award for merit four times, fulfilling contracts totaling millions of dollars.

Later career

Originally also known as ''Reeves Sound Laboratory'', following the war, in 1946, Reeves founded the ''Reeves Soundcraft Corporation'' (later known as ''Reeves Sound Services'') and directed the operation of a number of companies manufacturing a variety of products including recording tape and film, record discs, wire cable, television tubes and cameras and precision recording equipment. Reeves introduced magnetic recording to the film industry in 1948. Utilizing separate magnetic film, Reeves created a seven-channel sound system for Cinerama, the company of which he was president by 1952. That same year, Cinerama released its first picture, ''

This is Cinerama ''This Is Cinerama'' is a 1952 American documentary film directed by Mike Todd, Michael Todd, Jr., Walter A. Thompson and Fred Rickey and starring Lowell Thomas. It is designed to introduce the widescreen process Cinerama, which broadens the asp ...

''. Reeves' sound system was the first, discrete stereophonic sound system used in post-war commercial application. (Walt Disney had originally released ''

Fantasia Fantasia International Film Festival (also known as Fantasia-fest, FanTasia, and Fant-Asia) is a film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. Regularly held in July of each year, it is valued by both hardcor ...

'' (1940) in three-track optical sound, but the Disney "Fantasound" system was not used for any other film afterwards.) Reeves Soundcraft Corporation won an Academy Award in 1953 for their development of a process of applying stripes of magnetic oxide to motion picture film for sound recording and reproduction. Reeves died at age 80 of a heart attack in

Tuxedo Park, New York Tuxedo Park is a village in Orange County, New York, United States. Its population was 623 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown metropolitan area as well as the larger New York metropolitan area. Its name ...

. One year after he died, Unitel Video bought the assets of his firm. Reeves was married to Adeline Johnstone Fowles. Their granddaughter is actress Perrey Reeves.

References

External links

Cinerama Adventure - Hazard Reeves
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reeves, Hazeard E. 1906 births 1986 deaths Harvard University people Georgia Tech alumni

Early life and education

Early career and war

Later career

See also

References

External links