Peter Mole
Pietro Mule
PETER MOLE, founder of Mole-Richardson Co., was born in Sicily in 1891. At the age of 6, moved to New York and attended Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parochial School until 6th grade. His education did not continue until age 20. After he moved to Buffalo, New York, Peter enrolled at Bryan & Stratton, a 2 year Business & Engineering College where he received his degree. At Union College in Schenectady, NY, Peter Mole earned his Electrical Engineering Degree. From 1917 to 1923 he worked for General Electric Company and in 1923 moved to Los Angeles. Peter then went to work at a rental house in Hollywood. He saw that the lighting equipment and techniques filmmakers were using were not fulfilling their potential. With the advent of Panchromatic Black & White filmstock, he saw the possibility of using the new Incandescent Lighting to replace the less efficient Carbon Arc light.
Joining forces with Elmer C. Richardson, a shop superintendent, and a chief studio electrician, Peter Mole formed Mole-Richardson to pursue this new lighting. The first Mole-Richardson light was built in a small machine shop in a garage in Hollywood, California. It was just 8 years later that the company won the first of four Academy Awards for its creation of the first Fresnel Spotlight. In 1927, Peter published an article in the the Society of Motion Picture Engineers Journal on the cost savings of the new Incandescent Illumination. In 1928, Mole-Richardson was asked by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and the American Society of Cinematographers to participate in their first Technical Report on Incandescent Illumination. The report published a picture of the new line of Incandescent lights from Mole-Richardson. Peter Mole became President of the SMPTE from 1951 to 1952 and stirred some controversy by embracing Television as a viable compliment to Motion Picture entertainment instead of its rival.