Photo-Sonics gets award
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Robert Chacon
One could argue that Walt Disney, the famed creator of Disneyland
theme parks, had a hand in the fate of Photo-Sonics Inc.
The Burbank-based company that specializes in photo technology was
named the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Prime Contractor of
the Year last month for its work with the military.
But while it specializes in high-speed film, tracking systems, and
display and digital cameras, the company took off when Disney visited
it almost 80 years ago.
Walt Disney walked in to the company, which was then a machine
shop, and asked if someone could modify a motion-picture camera to
make it take still shots of animation.
“Walt Disney was known to only want to do business with companies
he could walk to from his office location down on San Fernando Road,”
said Philip Kiel, vice president of operations for Photo-Sonics.
Kiel’s grandfather was the operations manager at the time.
After their first project for Disney was successful, he hired the
company -- then named Acme Tool and Manufacturing -- to make the
cameras used to film “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”
Acme Tool moved to its location at 820 S. Mariposa St. in 1940.The
company continued to manufacture animation cameras until after World
War II, when branches of the armed forces began looking for
high-speed cameras used to film aircraft and weapons systems tests.
The company manufactured high-speed cameras that could film up to
1,000 frames per second and changed its name from Acme Tool and
Manufacturing to Photo-Sonics in 1951 to better reflect the types of
products it made.
By 1988, the company had won two technical Academy of Motion
Pictures Arts and Sciences awards for the innovations in the way
films were shot.
The most recent award came after the U.S. Navy nominated
Photo-Sonics for the contractor of the year award.
When the Navy found glitches with display cameras for the AV8B
jet, Photo-Sonics took responsiblity and paid to repair those
glitches.
Photo-Sonics won the award for the SBA’s region 9, which includes
California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington.