Robert Gottschalk (March 12, 1918 – June 3, 1982) was an American camera technician, inventor, and co-founder of

Panavision Panavision is an American motion picture equipment company founded in 1953 specializing in cameras and lenses, based in Woodland Hills, California. Formed by Robert Gottschalk as a small partnership to create anamorphic projection lenses dur ...

Early life

Born to Gustav and Anna Gottschalk in Chicago, Illinois. His father was an architect who built several hotels in the city. Gustav's success left the family well-off financially and influenced Gottschalk's interest in film. In 1939, Gottschalk graduated with a degree in theater and arts from

Carleton College Carleton College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota. Founded in 1866, it had 2,105 undergraduate students and 269 faculty members in fall 2016. The 200-acre main campus is between Northfield and the 800-acre Cowlin ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over t ...

. He then moved to

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

to open a camera shop with a long-term goal of becoming a filmmaker.

Panavision

He bought an interest in a

camera A camera is an optical instrument that can capture an image. Most cameras can capture 2D images, with some more advanced models being able to capture 3D images. At a basic level, most cameras consist of sealed boxes (the camera body), with ...

shop and later got to know a nearby outfit that made underwater filming equipment for

Jacques-Yves Cousteau Jacques-Yves Cousteau, (, also , ; 11 June 191025 June 1997) was a French naval officer, oceanographer, filmmaker and author. He co-invented the first successful Aqua-Lung, open-circuit SCUBA ( self-contained underwater breathing apparatus). T ...

. Equipment restrictions at the time made wide-angle filming difficult, and Gottschalk began experimenting with

anamorphic Anamorphic format is the cinematography technique of shooting a widescreen picture on standard 35 mm film or other visual recording media with a non-widescreen native aspect ratio. It also refers to the projection format in which a distorted ...

lens equipment patented by

Henri Chrétien Henri Jacques Chrétien (1 February 1879, Paris – 6 February 1956, Washington, D.C.) was a French astronomer and an inventor. Born in Paris, France, his most famous inventions are: - the anamorphic widescreen process, using an anamorphic ...

. In 1953, the

CinemaScope CinemaScope is an anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter. Its creation in 1953 by ...

process, based on Chrétien's patents, was purchased and named by

20th Century Studios 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

. While the camera lenses were now available, the process required projection lenses as well. Gottschalk teamed up with several colleagues and began offering projection lenses under the name Panavision, which used prismatic rather than cylindrical optics. This led to a successful expansion into lenses for cameras, which are still widely used.Bijl, Adriaan. ''The Importance of Panavision'': "The Invention Phase". Reprinted by permission in ''The 70mm Newsletter''. March 2002. URL:http://www.in70mm.com/newsletter/2002/67/panavision/pages/invention.htm. Accessed: 2011-10-02. (Archived by WebCite® at)

Awards and achievements

Gottschalk was a two-time

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

winner. His first was a Special Technical Oscar, awarded in 1960, for the development of the MGM Camera 65 wide-screen photographic system. He shared the Oscar with MGM executive

Douglas Shearer Douglas Graham Shearer (November 17, 1899 – January 5, 1971) was a Canadian American pioneering sound designer and recording director who played a key role in the advancement of sound technology for motion pictures. The elder brother of ac ...

and Panavision co-founder Richard Moore. He also received an Academy Award of Merit in 1978 for developing the Panaflex camera. Under Gottschalk's leadership and enginuity, Panavision received eleven

Academy Scientific and Technical Awards The Scientific and Technical Awards are three different Honorary Awards that are given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) during the annual Academy Awards season. The Awards have been presented since the 4th Academy Awards ...

from 1958 to 1978. The first was bestowed at the

31st Academy Awards The 31st Academy Awards ceremony was held on April 6, 1959, to honor the best films of 1958. The show's producer, Jerry Wald, started cutting numbers from the show to make sure it ran on time. He cut too much material and the ceremony ended 20 ...

, for the development of the ''Auto Panatar'' anamorphic lens, with Gottschalk accepting on behalf of the company. From 1977 to his death, Gottschalk received 14

patents A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

for his lenses and other camera equipment, including body-mounted support apparatuses, vibration dampeners, and camera harnesses. Six additional patents would be granted after his death, the last coming in May 1986. All but three of his inventions are assigned to Panavision.

Death

On June 3, 1982 at 9 a.m. police received a phone call from Gottschalk's partner of 2 years, Laos "Ronnie" Chuman. Police would find Gottschalk's badly beaten body sprawled out in the master bedroom of his Bel-Air mansion. Chuman, after making conflicting statements during police questioning, admitted to the killing but claimed

self-defense Self-defense (self-defence primarily in Commonwealth English) is a countermeasure that involves defending the health and well-being of oneself from harm. The use of the right of self-defense as a legal justification for the use of force ...

, alleging that he

human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, cultu ...

was trying to end the relationship against Gottschalk's wishes when the fight broke out. The LA

coroner A coroner is a government or judicial official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquest into the manner or cause of death, and to investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within the coroner's jur ...

would later testify in pre-trial hearings that Gottschalk suffered at least five blows to the head and 19 stab wounds to the back and chest, while Chuman had only a bruised hand. Chuman was ordered to stand trial in November 1982, and was convicted of murder in July 1983. He was sentenced to 26 years to life in prison. During sentencing, Judge

Laurence J. Rittenband Laurence James Rittenband (December 5, 1905 – December 30, 1993) was an American judge. He was a judge on the Superior Court of Los Angeles County in California. Background The son of a New York City clothing manufacturer, he graduated at the ...

of the Santa Monica

Superior Court In common law systems, a superior court is a court of general jurisdiction over civil and criminal legal cases. A superior court is "superior" in relation to a court with limited jurisdiction (see small claims court), which is restricted to civi ...

noted Gottschalk had "signed his own death warrant" after discovery was made that his

will Will may refer to: Common meanings * Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death * Will (philosophy), or willpower * Will (sociology) * Will, volition (psychology) * Will, a modal verb - see Shall and wi ...

had been amended 3 weeks prior to his death, leaving 10% of his estate to Chuman. Gottschalk was interred in the

Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park & Mortuary is a cemetery and mortuary located in the Westwood Village area of Los Angeles. It is located at 1218 Glendon Avenue in Westwood, with an entrance from Glendon Avenue. The cemetery was ...

, in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gottschalk, Robert 1918 births 1982 deaths 1982 murders in the United States Burials at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery Carleton College alumni Deaths by stabbing in California LGBT people from Illinois People murdered in Los Angeles American murder victims United States Commissioners of Patents Panavision 20th-century American inventors Deaths from bleeding Violence against LGBT people in the United States Male murder victims 20th-century LGBT people