BBC Learning English
Words in the News
27th April 2011
Inventor of show business machine dies
Engineer Hubert Schlafly Jr, inventor of a machine that changed show business forever, has
died aged 91. The teleprompter or autocue, used by actors, newsreaders and politicians
worldwide, helps them remember what to say. Maddy Savage reports:
Almost anyone who's given a speech, led a meeting or acted on stage will recognise that sick
feeling you get when you can't remember what you were about to say next.
More than half a century ago, a team of engineers at one of America's biggest film studios
was asked to help solve the problem for Hollywood's stars of the moment. Hubert J Schlafly
Junior was a key member of the group, which arranged for the actors' lines to be printed on a
scroll of paper - which was put on a moving motor inside a suitcase next to a camera. The
actors could glance at the paper if they forgot what was coming up.
The device was tested on the set of a US soap opera and adopted by the former US President
Herbert Hoover - two years later. Updated electrical versions are still popular with politicians
and actors around the world. In fact, the machine is used so widely that some have been
criticised for relying on it.
According to a close friend, Hubert Schlafly didn't use a teleprompter himself until three
years ago, when he was rehearsing a speech for his induction into the Cable Television Hall
of Fame.
Charles Dolan, who chairs one of America's leading cable companies, has described him as
the industry's 'most innovative engineer'.
Maddy Savage, BBC News
Words in the News © British Broadcasting Corporation 2011
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Vocabulary and definitions
that sick feeling extreme nervousness, a sense of approaching disaster
half a century ago 50 years previously
stars of the moment celebrities who were most popular at the time
lines words that are said during a film, play or speech
a scroll of paper a roll of writing material
glance at quickly look at
soap opera regular TV or radio programme telling the story of a group
of people in a dramatic or sentimental way
relying on depending on, needing, trusting
induction into introduction to, inclusion as a new member of
innovative creative, original
More on this story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13205784
Read and listen to the story and the vocabulary online:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2011/04/110427_witn_teleprompter_page.shtml
Words in the News © British Broadcasting Corporation 2011
Page 2 of 2
bbclearningenglish.com