illiarn A. Palmer, veteran formers quickly adopted tape to pro- film classic. Over the next 60 years, San Francisco filmmaker, duce their shows and record albums. Palmer and his company produced Winventor, and audio record- The work of Palmer and Mullin led hundrcds of 16-mm industrial and ing pioneer, died of a stroke on to an almost immediate acceptance made-for-television films, as well as Thursday, June 6, at his home in of tape as the standard American providing film production and labora- Menlo Park, California, at the age of recording method for radio, film tory services. 85. Palmer founded W.A. Palmer & sound tracks, and records-a sweep- Born in Oakland in 191 1, Palnler Co. in San Francisco in 1936, later re- ing technical revolution. was descended from a family of early named W. A. Palmer Films, lnc., a Meanwhile, the two engineers pro- California settlers who came from business over which he actively vided Ampex Corporation in Red- Maine to enter the foundry, farming, presided until his death. wood City, California, with essential and dredging businesses during the Working with Bing Crosby, ABC, help in perfecting that company's Gold Rush of the 1850s. Shortly after and Ampex just after World War IT, Model 200, the first U.S. commercial his birth, his family moved to Palo Palmer was the essential catalyst that professional audio tape recorder, in- Alto, where he was raised and educat- began the era of high-quality audio troduced in 1948. The Mullin-Palmer ed. He graduated from Stanford Uni- magnetic tape recording in America. and Ampex machines also spawned versity in 1932 wit11 a B.A. degree in Palmer and his colleague, John T. magnetic data recording for instru- engineering. He held numerous film, Mullin of San Francisco, perfected an mentation and computers, and later, audio, and video patcnts and was a American version of the German videotape recording. fellow of both the Audio Engineering "Magnetophon" high-fidelity audio In the early 1950s, before the suc- Society and the Society of Motion tape recorder in 1946. A memorable cessful introduction of the videotape Picture and Television Engineers as Mullin-Palmer demonstration of their recorder. Palmer developed a unique well as an active member of the San magnetic recorders at the MGM stu- system for recording the TV image on Francisco Bohemian Club. dios in Hollywood in October of 16-mm film, a modified "kinescope" He is survived by nieces Nancy D. 1946, grabbed the town's attention process, the Palmer Television Film Palmer of Palo Alto and Nancy with a stunningly clear recording of a Recorder, which eliminated the "kine" Phelps of Felton; nephews Hall studio performance by Jose Iturbi, shutter bar problem. Palmer of Palo Alto; Bruce Palmer of George E. Stoll and the MCM Sym- The accepted standard for profes- Los Altos; Barton P. Phelps of Sun- phony Orchestra. The new medium sional motion picture production in nyvale, and several grandnephews. was demonstrably superior to the the 1930s and '40s was 35-mm An organ recital in his memory was then-new method of optical film film-16mm was considered an am- Iield at the Stanford University recording for the production of film ateur format. Palmer was among the Memorial Church in Palo Alto, Cali- sound tracks, (he MGM 200-mil first in the country to use 16-mm film fornia, on Wednesday, June 26. The push-pull system. for commercial productions. During family requests donations in Palmer's Using the Mullin-Palmer tape ma- World War 11, his compact 16-mm memory be made to the Organ Con- chines in 1946, Mew Griffin in San technology enabled him to produce cert Fund, Stanford Mernorial Francisco was the first U.S. per- color sound films made aboard air- Church, Stanford, CA 94305-2090. former to master a commercial disc craft caniers at sea. Peter Hammar on tape, "Songs by Merv Griffin," Palmer was one of the first film- San Carlos, CA with Lyle Bardo and his Orchestra. makers in the United States to use The next year, crooner Bing Crosby optical sound on film for cominercial became the first to go on the air coast and educational productions. In 1933 'lliam S. Bachman, AES to coast with magnetic tape, using the he developed his own design for a 16- fellow and honorary mem- Mullin-Palmer tape decks to record mm sound-on-film camera. Since the ber, retired vice president and edit his "Philco Radio Time" 16-mm black-and-white fiim would ofw Columbia Records Division of the show on the ARC Radio Network for need synchronized sound, Palmer Columbia Broadcasting System, died the 1947-48 season, a revolution in built his own light valve, as well as April 8 in Greenville, Delaware, an era of "live," unedited broadcasts. the necessary amplifiers with the help USA. Ile was 87 years old. By the summer of 1948, all of the of his future business partner, Jack Bachman graduated from Cornell radio networks were producing Mullin. In 1934, he received an University in 1932 and began his pro- shows on tape, as well as using the exclusive contract from the Columbia fessional career at General Electric new medium to time-shift programs Steel Company to document on film where he remained for a number of for different time zone broadcasts. the construction of the San Francisco- years. During the latter part of his Burl lves, Les Paul, and other per- Oakland Bay Bridge, an industrial work there he designed a phono- s

J. Audio Eng. Soc., Vol. 44, No. 9, 1996 September 797 graph pickup having a unique electro- in June of that year. Bachman proposed and consequently mechanical configuration. This device During the course of the continuing reached concurrence with the other was a wide frequency response, low LP product improvement program members in establishing what has distortion and low tracking force that followed, Mr. Bachman con- since become known as the world transducer, known as the GE Model tributed some notable advances to the standard RIAA recording & repro- DM 1RM 6C variable reluctance art of disc recording. Among them ducing curve for LPrecords. pickup. This item was produced in were such innovations as the feather- Prior to his retirement from Co- large numbers and became a part of edge hot-stylus disc cutting system, lumbia, Bachman turned his atten- the postwar audio technology that ini- which greatly extended high frequen- tion to the problem of achieving and tiated the "high fidelity" era in phono- cy detail while lowering unmodulated maintaining a higher level of product graph reproduction. groove noise at the same time, and the quality from their processing plants. In the spring of 1946 he was invited automatic variable pitch groove spac- This work led to his design of an al- to join Columbia Records in their ing technique. most completely automated LP newly created post of director of engi- In 1953 he accepted an invitation pressing plant at the Columbia Santa neenng. He accepted, and in this posi- by the Record Industry Association of Maria, CA, operation. This novel tion he undertook the complex task of America (RIAA) to become a mem- manufacturing approach also extend- re-engineering the various unsuccess- ber of their engineering group com- ed to a separate facility for the ful commercial and laboratory posed of the technical representatives recording, rewinding, and final as- attempts to produce a viable fine of the major producers of LP record- sembly of compact cassettes as well. groove, extended playing time, disc ings in the U.S. The purpose of the Later these same disc and tape pro- recording, suitable for both the con- RIAA in forming this group was to duction systems were duplicated in sumer market and the radio broadcast request that a mutually agreed upon the construction of their Pitman, NJ field. This work, by a development specification for a common LP processingplant. team under his direction, continued recording and reproducing frequency Bachman is survived by his wife, a on into 1948 and led to the formal response be adopted industrywide. son, daughter, and five grandchildren. public introduction of the Columbia Since the Columbia Records pioneer- William Savory long playing (LP) microgroove record ing position was recognized de facto, Falls Church, VA

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