Peter Mole - Mole Richardson

Born in Italy, in 1891, Peter Mole arrived in the United
States when he was six years old. At the age of twenty,
he attended Bryan & Stratton College in Buffalo, New
York, earning an Electrical Engineering Degree. After graduating,
Peter Mole joined the engineering staff of the General
Electric Company, where he was active in the development of
the General Electric searchlight and a high-intensity rotating
carbon-arc theater projection lamp.
In 1923 Peter Mole left the General Electric Company
and moved to California where he began working with motion
picture studio lighting, first with the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Studios in the electrical department. After receiving his groundwork
training in production, he went on to work for Creco, a
motion picture studio lighting equipment manufacturer. With
his technical background plus experience in the studios he was
ideally suited to enter the field of the manufacture of specialized
equipment for an emerging industry where requirements
were changing almost monthly. With the advent of Eastman
Kodak’s Panchromatic black & white film stock, he saw the
possibility of creating a new incandescent fixture to replace
the less efficient carbon arc light by developing the first color
temperature compatible incandescent tungsten lamp.
Peter Mole joined with Elmer C. Richardson, a design
engineer, and Fielding C. Coates, a studio chief electrician, to
form the Mole-Richardson Company in 1927. He received his
first Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recogni-
Peter Mole
A Brief Biography of Peter Mole
tion this same year for his contribution to the success of the
incandescent illumination fixture. Peter Mole and his company
went onto receive Academy Awards in 1935, 1940 and
1946 for Technical Achievement. In 1948 Peter Mole received
the Progress Medal Award from the Society of Motion
Picture Engineers for Outstanding Achievement in Motion
Picture Technology. Peter Mole was a lifelong member of the
Society of Motion Picture Engineers, the American Society of
Cinematographers, and in 1951 he was elected President of
the newly formed Society of Motion Picture and Television
Engineers, where he was instrumental in embracing television
as a viable compliment to motion picture instead of a rival.
Peter Mole’s technical contributions have been many,
including adapting the fresnel focusing lenses to both arc and
incandescent lighting equipment, developing electrical and
mechanical devices such as the sound boom. He authored
numerous published papers dealing with the various facets of
illumination as applied to motion picture studio lighting for
the SMPE, the SMPTE, the ASC, as well as serving on
motion picture committees.
The engineering expertise of Peter Mole afforded him to
meet the demands and needs of a rapidly growing motion
picture industry, wether it was developing quiet fixtures with
the introduction of sound, creating a line of fixtures compatible
with the newly introduced Technicolor color film or pioneering
television lighting by producing a comparatively silent
and cooler tungsten fixture.
With the outbreak of World War II, Peter Mole directed
his energy toward serving the country. His contributions
included developing and manufacturing military searchlights,
aircraft landing lights, and a classified tank with strobe-light,
which was to be used to disable the approaching enemy. One
of Peter Mole’s proudest moments came when he was commissioned
by the State Department to supervise and install
lighting equipment for the historic first United Nations
Conference being held in San Francisco, California during the
summer of 1945. His expertise was called upon to in order to
record this historic event on both still and motion picture film.
Peter Mole was also known for his humanitarian and
philanthropic efforts throughout the Hollywood community.
He was a substantial contributor to the Shiner’s Children’s
Hospital, assisted in the relief efforts for the 1933 Long
Beach earthquake, and along with his wife, assisted in the
SMPTE Women's Guild. His generosity also extended to
many area schools, including Loyola Marymount University,
Notre Dame High School and Sacred Heart Academy.
The success of Peter Mole in lighting was not only due
to his ability to organize and operate an engineering and manufacturing
organization to meet the needs of a unique industry,
he also had an unusual insight into the intangibles created
by the motion picture production. He knew that engineering
perfection did not transcend utilization in an industry where
dramatic effect is the end result; yet he was able to design and
produce highly specialized lighting tools which satisfy both
the artist and the engineer.