Mole-Richardson, also known as Mole, is an American

stage lighting instrument Stage lighting instruments (lanterns, or luminaires in Europe) are used in stage lighting to illuminate theatrical productions, concerts, and other performances taking place in live performance venues. They are also used to light television st ...

and motion picture lighting manufacturing company originally based in

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. The company was started in 1927 by Italian immigrant Pietro "Peter" Mule (changed to Mole). Born November 10, 1891, in the Italian town of

Termini Imerese Termini Imerese (; scn, Tèrmini ) , grc, Θερμαὶ αἱ Ἱμερᾶαι , grc, Θερμαὶ Ἱμέραι , or grc, Θερμὰ (Ἱμεραῖα) ; la, Thermae Himerenses; literally "Himera's hot springs". is a town of the Metropo ...

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

, he first worked for General Electric (GE) in New York. In 1927 he began selling incandescent

tungsten lighting An incandescent light bulb, incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe is an electric light with a wire filament heated until it glows. The filament is enclosed in a glass bulb with a vacuum or inert gas to protect the filament from oxidat ...

to the film industry, which allowed a more natural lighting than the previous arc lights. The new lights were also silent, an advantage for the new

sound film A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...

s. Mole-Richardson invented the Fresnel Solar Spot unit in 1935, adapting the

fresnel Augustin-Jean Fresnel (10 May 1788 – 14 July 1827) was a French civil engineer and physicist whose research in optics led to the almost unanimous acceptance of the wave theory of light, excluding any remnant of Newton's corpuscular theo ...

lighthouse lens for use in motion pictures. It won the first of four technical

Academy Awards 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 ...

the company has earned. 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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Mole-Richardson concentrated their efforts on developing

searchlight A searchlight (or spotlight) is an apparatus that combines an extremely bright source (traditionally a carbon arc lamp) with a mirrored parabolic reflector to project a powerful beam of light of approximately parallel rays in a particular direc ...

s for battleships, tanks and artillery units to aid the Allied Forces' battle in Europe and the Pacific. In 1945, Peter Mole was invited to light the first

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

conference held in San Francisco. Peter Mole died on August 2, 1960, very suddenly. His son-in-law, Warren Parker, took over the company. Mole-Richardson Company LLC is now run by Michael Parker, one of Warren Parker's four sons and grandson of Peter Mole. Mole-Richardson is considered by many to be the staple of motion picture and television lighting in the movie industry today, setting the standard for tungsten fresnel fixtures. However, they do also manufacture HMI (Hydrargyrum Medium-arc Iodide) day-light lighting units. Their lighting is generally recognized by their maroon coloring and "MR" logos. In August 2015, the company moved to Pacoima neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. In July 2021 the company moved to Sylmar, CA. 15148 Bledsoe St. Unit A, Sylmar, CA 91342.

References

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External links

Official websiteStudio Depot - A Mole-Richardson Subsidiary
Photography equipment Companies based in Los Angeles 1927 establishments in California American companies established in 1927 Academy Award for Technical Achievement winners