Legendary LA film stage lighting and motion picture lighting manufacturing company Mole Richardson seems to be going out of business here with a final auction announced recently.
For those not in the know, Mole Richardson has a thrilling history, and pretty much invented the motion picture lighting business. It was founded by the innovative Italian immigrant Peter Mole in 1927, who began selling incandescent tungsten lighting 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 films.
Mole-Richardson invented the Fresnel Solar Spot unit in 1935, adapting the fresnel lighthouse lens for use in motion pictures. During World War II, Mole-Richardson concentrated their efforts on developing searchlights 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 conference held in San Francisco.
Mole-Richardson was 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, and their lighting won four Academy Awards. For a long time, they operated out of a beautiful art deco building on La Brea Ave. in Los Angeles as well.
Apparently the word is that a shift away from in house manufacturing made parts scarce, repairs expensive, and prices rose to unsustainable levels, especially considering the myriad of cheaper alternatives being manufactured overseas.
(https://www.aagauction.com/world-famous-motion-picture-lighting-equipmen...)
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holy crap
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Yikes! If only had a bottomless wallet, a cube-van and a storage lockup in LA. But seriously, this is actually kind of disturbing news for the art of filmmaking.