John T. Jack Mullin

Publish date: 2024-04-12

Hollywood audio and video engineer John T. “Jack” Mullin, who brought audio magnetic tape recording to America in the late 1940s, which revolutionized the entertainment industry, died June 24 of heart failure at his Camarillo home. He was 85.

Mullin worked most prominently as chief engineer for Bing Crosby, creating recordings so real that audiences were convinced the singer was performing his radio show live.

Born in San Francisco in 1913, Mullin served in the Army during World War II. In the summer of 1945, while on a mission to investigate advances in Nazi electronics, he learned about the German AEG Magnetophon audiotape recorder, a device far beyond the recording technology then used in the United States.

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Mullin received permission to bring two of the recorders back home and, after some modifications, he began demonstrating the devices for stunned American sound engineers in 1946. Soon his machines were being produced for professional and consumer use.

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In October of 1946, Mullin put on a demonstration of his high-fidelity equipment in Hollywood in association with Palmer Films. Bing Crosby’s technical producer, Murdo MacKenzie, heard about the machines and arranged for Mullin to become Crosby’s chief engineer. The new recording technology made Crosby, whose popularity had been falling since he refused to do live broadcasts, a hit again. In a short time, most other radio and recording artists adopted tape to produce their shows, including such luminaries as Burl Ives and Les Paul.

Beginning in 1950, Mullin developed videotape recorders through Bing Crosby Enterprises and produced a prototype, the world’s first, in 1951. While that device was never released commercially, Mullin’s work established the engineering principles that became the basis for future video recording equipment.

Among Mullin’s other contributions to the entertainment industry was the laugh track, although he was reportedly not very proud of that particular achievement.

Mullin also adapted his tape recording technology for the military’s use in data gathering. Magnetic tape soon became the standard for government and industrial data recording.

Crosby sold his electronics lab to 3M in 1956, where Mullin worked as chief engineer until his retirement in 1975.

In retirement, Mullin worked as a volunteer teacher, writer and lecturer and also recorded over 2,000 hours of books on tape for the blind.

Mullin was a Fellow and Honorary Member of the Audio Engineering Society, a recipient of the Emile Berliner Award and an elected member of the Carlton Society.

He is survived by a son and daughter.

Family asks that donations be sent to Santa Clara U., attn. Paul Locatelli, S.J., Santa Clara, CA 95053.

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