Recent from talks
Nothing was collected or created yet.
Lenny Lipton
View on Wikipedia
Leonard Lipton (May 18, 1940 – October 5, 2022) was an American author, filmmaker, lyricist, and inventor. At age 19, Lipton wrote the poem that became the basis for the lyrics to the song "Puff, the Magic Dragon". He wrote books on independent filmmaking and was a pioneer in the field of projected three-dimensional imagery. Leonard Lipton developed 3D theater technology that is used in RealD 3D theaters. His technology is used to show 3D films on more than 30,000 theater screens worldwide.
Key Information
In 2021, he published The Cinema in Flux, an 800-page illustrated book on the history of cinema technology.
Early life
[edit]Lipton was born in Brooklyn, New York. He majored in physics at Cornell University after starting out in electrical engineering. A self-described "mediocre student", he only excelled once he found a field he loved. Lipton urged schools to be more "accepting of eccentric people with a different point of view because we are the people who make the difference."[1]
Career
[edit]Puff, the Magic Dragon
[edit]Lipton was 19 when he wrote the poem that was adapted into the lyrics for the 1963 song "Puff, the Magic Dragon", performed by Peter, Paul and Mary. His inspiration was a 1936 Ogden Nash poem, "The Tale of Custard the Dragon". "Pirates and dragons, back then, were common interests in stories for boys", Lipton said. "The Puff story is really just a lot like Peter Pan." Lipton spent decades denying that the song was about marijuana and believed that the myth was created by New York columnist Dorothy Kilgallen.[2]
Independent films
[edit]In the 1960s, Lipton shot several experimental films on 16 mm stock, most with running times of less than 10 minutes. The best known, Let a Thousand Parks Bloom, a 27-minute film about Berkeley's People's Park, played at the Tate Liverpool Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art.[3][4] The following decade, he wrote two books on technologies and methods for independent filmmakers: Independent Film Making (1972) and The Super 8 Book (1975). Lipton on Filmmaking, a compendium of his magazine writings, was published in 1979.[5]
Stereography
[edit]Lipton was a pioneer in the field of projected three-dimensional imagery and was one of the creators of the electronic stereoscopic display industry.[6][1] His interest dated back to his childhood in New York where he attended movie palaces, with some films shown in 3D. He drew his own 3D comics using red and green crayons on tracing paper, which were viewed using primitive glasses constructed of cardboard tubes and magnifying lenses.[7]
Royalties from "Puff the Magic Dragon" and Independent Filmmaking, which remained in print for 20 years, gave Lipton an independent income that allowed him to follow his interests. His career in stereoscopic display began to gel around 1972. In one early stint, he served as the "convergence setter" for the 1983 3D film Dogs of Hell, determining for each shot the optimal position at which to cross the dual lens axes. Previewing a scene from the film, technical staff from Universal were impressed by the stereoscopic imagery.[5]
He built a prototype of a flicker-free, field-sequential 3D display system and founded StereoGraphics Corporation in 1980 to fund development. The system worked by doubling the display rate of images, thereby overcoming a problem inherent in 3D motion picture projection, where each eye views only half the available images.[8] In 1989, he patented the active ZScreen polarization filter that uses a circularly polarized liquid crystal filter placed in front of a projector, which can then display both the left and right halves of a stereo pair. After Real D Cinema acquired StereoGraphics in 2005, the technology became the basis for the RealD cinema system.[9] The system is in use in more than 30,000 screens worldwide.[10] Lipton was the chief technology officer at RealD until 2009, when he left to do independent consulting.[11]
Lipton published his definitive treatment of the subject, Foundations of the Stereoscopic Cinema: A Study in Depth, in 1982.[12] In 2011, the International 3D Society gave him its Century Award for Lifetime Achievement.[13] As of 2015, he held 68 stereography-related patents.[2]
History of motion picture technology
[edit]In 2021, Lipton published The Cinema in Flux: The Evolution of Motion Picture Technology from the Magic Lantern to the Digital Era.[14] In the 800-page illustrated book, Lipton argues that film scholars mistakenly consider inventions that preceded the 19th century motion picture cameras from Thomas Edison and the Lumières brothers as prehistory. Lipton sets the genesis of the medium to 1659 and Dutch physicist Christiaan Huygens' invention of the magic lantern, marking the first time moving images were projected on a screen. The book divides the history into three eras: glass, celluloid, and digital. Flux's origins date back to 2009, when Lipton was speaking at the Cinémathèque Française, whose museum happened to be exhibiting a history of magic lantern technology. His subsequent research led him to the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences' Margaret Herrick Library, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers digital library, The Library of Congress's collection of motion picture periodicals, and some 400 books.[15]
Film historian Laurent Mannoni, the curator of collections at the Cinémathèque Française, wrote that the book represents "the first time that this vast technical and aesthetic history has been told by an inventor-technician-physicist-industrialist, who has himself filed patents for cinematographic inventions, run a company and made films. His point of view is both authoritative and fascinating since, until now, no conventional historian has had such varied credentials...."[16]
In his foreword, Douglas Trumbull wrote that Lipton "is on the trail of a vitally important nexus between the illusion of motion and the story contained within that illusion." Each new innovation raises the question of whether theater will become "an even more high-powered juggernaut of immersive and experiential technical perfection"—a theme park ride with no heart—or remain an emotional experience relying on the traditional talents of screenwriters, directors, and actors. "Lenny Lipton delivers the background we need to help make sure that our beloved art form does not go off the rails."[17]
Personal life and death
[edit]Lipton was married to Julie and had four children. He died from brain cancer in Los Angeles, on October 5, 2022, at age 82.[18]
Books
[edit]- Independent Filmmaking (1972)[19]
- The Super 8 Book (1975)[20]
- Lipton on Filmmaking (1979)[21]
- Foundations of the Stereoscopic Cinema: A Study in Depth (1982)[22]
- The CrystalEyes Handbook (1991)[23]
- Puff, the Magic Dragon: Peter Yarrow, Lenny Lipton, Eric Puybaret (2007)[24]
- The Cinema in Flux: The Evolution of Motion Picture Technology from the Magic Lantern to the Digital Era (2021)[25]
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Once a physicist: Lenny Lipton". Physics World: Institute of Physics. July 2007. Retrieved March 11, 2024.
- ^ a b Chelin, Pamela (February 3, 2015). "The Man Who Wrote "Puff, the Magic Dragon" Swears It's Not About Drugs". L.A. Weekly. Retrieved May 17, 2025.
- ^ "Lenny Lipton – NY Filmmaker's Coop". film-makerscoop.com. 1965. Retrieved November 12, 2017.
- ^ Lipton, Lenny. "Lenny Lipton: Inventor, Author, Songwriter and Filmmaker". www.lennylipton.com. Retrieved November 12, 2017.
- ^ a b Zone, Ray (2005). 3-D Filmmakers: Conversations with Creators of Stereoscopic Motion Pictures. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810854376.
- ^ Cohen, David S. (April 14, 2016). "RealD at 10: 3D Giant Reinvents Itself to Serve All Screens". Variety. Retrieved November 10, 2017.
- ^ Kung, Michelle (July 14, 2011). "A 3-D Maven Weighs In". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved November 10, 2017.
- ^ Zone 2005 p. 25
- ^ Richardson, Martin (2013). Techniques and Principles in Three-Dimensional Imaging: An Introductory Approach. IGI Global. p. 94. ISBN 9781466649330.
- ^ "RealD - About Us". LinkedIn: RealID. Retrieved October 11, 2021.
- ^ "At the Crossroads | Computer Graphics World". www.cgw.com. Retrieved November 4, 2017.
- ^ Zone 2005 p 17
- ^ "International 3D Society Names Lenny Lipton Century Award Winner for Lifetime Achievement | Computer Graphics World". www.cgw.com. February 3, 2011. Retrieved December 28, 2017.
- ^ "Cinema in Flux". EurekAlert! | AAAS. American Association for the Advancement of Science. May 10, 2021. Archived from the original on June 29, 2021. Retrieved June 29, 2021.
- ^ Hogg, Trevor (October 6, 2021). "Lenny Lipton: Projecting History Through the Magic Lantern". VFX Voice Magazine. Retrieved October 8, 2021.
- ^ Mannoni, Laurent (November 2021). "The Cinema in Flux, the Evolution of Motion Picture Technology from the Magic Lantern to the Digital Era". Journal of Film Preservation. 105. International Federation of Film Archives: 138–139. ISSN 1609-2694.
- ^ Lipton, Lenny (2021). The Cinema in Flux. Heidelberg & Los Angeles: Springer. pp. ix. ISBN 978-1-0716-0950-7.
- ^ Giardina, Carolyn; Barnes, Mike (October 6, 2022). "Lenny Lipton, "Puff the Magic Dragon" Lyricist and 3D Filmmaking Pioneer, Dies at 82". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved October 6, 2022.
- ^ Lipton, Lenny (1983). Independent filmmaking. Stan Brakhage. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-671-46258-X. OCLC 9283347.
- ^ Lipton, Lenny (1975). The super 8 book. San Francisco: Straight Arrow Books. ISBN 0-87932-091-5. OCLC 1853897.
- ^ Lipton, Lenny (1979). Lipton on filmmaking. Chet Roaman. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-671-24427-2. OCLC 4591333.
- ^ Lipton, Lenny (1982). Foundations of the stereoscopic cinema : a study in depth. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. ISBN 0-442-24724-9. OCLC 7837335.
- ^ Lipton, Lenny (1991). The CrystalEyes handbook. Robert Akka, Lhary Meyer. San Rafael, CA: StereoGraphics Corp. ISBN 0-9629566-0-0. OCLC 28336936.
- ^ Yarrow, Peter (2008). Puff, the magic dragon. Lenny Lipton, Eric Puybaret. London: Macmillan Children's. ISBN 978-0-230-70381-0. OCLC 828489038.
- ^ Lipton, Lenny (2021). The cinema in flux : the evolution of motion picture technology from the magic lantern to the digital era. New York, NY. ISBN 978-1-0716-0951-4. OCLC 1245926410.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
External links
[edit]- Lenny Lipton, Official Website: LennyLipton.com
- New York Times obituary, October 21, 2022
- Lenny Lipton, Real D CTO, bio Archived November 7, 2017, at the Wayback Machine
- Lipton on The History of Movie Making: The Advanced Imaging Society podcast
- Who is Lenny Lipton? About Inventor and Chief Technical Officer of RealD through 2008
- Stereoscopic Displays and Applications Virtual Library
- Lenny Lipton discography at Discogs
- Lenny Lipton at IMDb
Lenny Lipton
View on GrokipediaLeonard "Lenny" Lipton (May 18, 1940 – October 5, 2022) was an American inventor, filmmaker, author, and lyricist renowned for his pioneering contributions to electronic stereoscopic 3D display technology and for penning the poem that inspired the lyrics to the folk song "Puff, the Magic Dragon."[1][2]
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Lipton developed an early interest in film through a childhood 16mm projector, later studying physics at Cornell University after initially pursuing electrical engineering.[3][4] At age 19, while a student, he composed a poem titled "Puff the Magic Dragon" in a notebook left at Peter Yarrow's apartment, which Yarrow adapted into lyrics for the 1962 Peter, Paul and Mary hit, though Lipton received no songwriting credit.[1][5]
Lipton's most significant achievements centered on 3D technology; he founded StereoGraphics Corporation in 1980 and invented CrystalEyes, the first electronic LCD shutter glasses enabling stereoscopic viewing for computer graphics and professional applications, earning a Smithsonian Institution award in 1996.[6][7] Over his career, he amassed approximately 70 patents related to stereoscopic systems, including alternating polarized screens and electronic controls that facilitated the digital projection of 3D feature films in cinemas.[8][9] Recognized as the "father of the electronic stereoscopic display industry," Lipton's innovations underpinned modern 3D cinema resurgence, and he authored The Cinema in Flux (2021), a historical analysis of projection technologies.[10][3] Lipton died of brain cancer at age 82.[8]
Early Life and Education
Childhood and Family Background
Leonard Lipton was born Leonard Lipschitz on May 18, 1940, in Brooklyn, New York.[1] His father, Samuel Lipschitz, owned a soda shop and introduced him to filmmaking at age eight by gifting him a toy 16-millimeter projector, which ignited Lipton's early fascination with projection and cinema.[1][9] Samuel died when Lipton was 12 years old, leaving his mother, Carrie (née Hibel), a homemaker, to raise him.[1] Lipton grew up in a working-class Jewish family in Brooklyn, where he developed an interest in three-dimensional films from attending local movie palaces that screened early 1950s 3D features and comic books.[5] This environment, combined with the technical curiosity sparked by his father's gift, laid the groundwork for his later innovations in stereoscopy, though his immediate childhood pursuits were more aligned with self-taught tinkering than formal training.[9]Academic Pursuits and Early Interests
Lipton enrolled at Cornell University in the late 1950s, initially pursuing electrical engineering before switching to physics, the field in which he completed his undergraduate degree.[11][10] As a physics major, he shared academic circles with peers like Peter Yarrow, with whom he collaborated informally on creative projects amid his studies.[1] During his freshman year in 1959, Lipton demonstrated an early penchant for poetry by composing a verse inspired by Ogden Nash's 1936 work "The Tale of Custard the Dragon," which later formed the basis for the lyrics of "Puff, the Magic Dragon."[5][1] This creative output occurred alongside his scientific coursework, highlighting a blend of analytical and artistic inclinations from an early stage in his academic career. Lipton's fascination with stereoscopic imaging traced back to childhood in New York, where exposure to 3D films screened in local theaters during the early 1950s ignited his interest; he responded by sketching his own three-dimensional comics.[4][12] These pursuits foreshadowed a technical curiosity that persisted through his physics education, though his formal studies remained grounded in conventional scientific principles rather than applied optics at the time.[11]Career Beginnings
Songwriting and "Puff, the Magic Dragon"
Leonard Lipton, a freshman at Cornell University, composed the poem "Puff, the Magic Dragon" in the spring of 1959, drawing inspiration from childhood readings and Ogden Nash's "Custard the Dragon."[13][14] Lipton typed the four-stanza verse on a roommate's typewriter after descending a ski slope and observing the lights of Ithaca, New York, evoking themes of autumnal melancholy and lost innocence.[13] The poem personifies a dragon named Puff who laments the departure of his companion, Jackie Paper, symbolizing the end of youthful imagination rather than any coded reference to drug use, as Lipton and collaborator Peter Yarrow consistently maintained.[14][5] Lipton's roommate, Victor Koenigsberg, discovered the poem and shared it with Peter Yarrow, a fellow Cornell alumnus visiting the campus.[13] Yarrow, then forming the folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary, adapted the poem into song lyrics and composed the melody, retaining Lipton's original wording with minor additions like the refrain "A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys."[5][14] The group recorded the track in 1962 for their self-titled debut album, released by Warner Bros. Records on May 26, 1962, with the single following in January 1963.[5] It peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on October 12, 1963, selling over 1 million copies and earning gold certification.[5] Though Lipton's songwriting output remained limited primarily to this work, the royalties from "Puff" provided substantial financial support for his pursuits in independent filmmaking and stereoscopic innovation throughout the 1960s and beyond.[1][2] He received co-writing credit alongside Yarrow, reflecting the poem's foundational role, and later reflected on the song's enduring cultural impact without pursuing further musical endeavors.[13]Entry into Filmmaking
Lipton's entry into filmmaking occurred in the mid-1960s amid the American counterculture movement, where he immersed himself in the San Francisco Bay Area's experimental scene as a self-taught filmmaker.[5] His early interest in cinema stemmed from childhood visits to grand Brooklyn movie palaces, such as the Ambassador and Paramount, facilitated by his mother.[1] By the decade's start, while reviewing films for the underground Berkeley Barb newspaper, Lipton transitioned from criticism to production, shooting short experimental works on 16 mm film stock using borrowed equipment.[6] His debut film, Happy Birthday, Lenny (1965), a 7.5-minute color sound piece categorized as a personal diary or journal entry, captured intimate, stream-of-consciousness elements reflective of the era's avant-garde ethos.[15] This was followed by other brief experimental shorts, typically under 10 minutes, including We Shall March Again, Below the Fruited Plain, The Dunes of Turo, and Ineluctable Modality of the Visible, which explored abstract visuals, countercultural themes, and perceptual experiments often screened through cooperatives like the Film-Makers' Cooperative.[15] These works, distributed via indie networks, marked Lipton's initial foray into independent production without formal training or institutional support, aligning with the DIY spirit of 1960s underground cinema.[2] By the late 1960s, Lipton expanded to shorts like Doggie Diner and the Return of Doggie Diner (1969), blending humor and social observation in a period when he balanced filmmaking with emerging interests in stereoscopy.[2] His independent approach culminated in authorship of guides like Independent Filmmaking (published in the 1970s), which codified techniques for aspiring low-budget creators, drawing directly from his hands-on experiences.[10] This phase laid the groundwork for later professional credits, such as production assistant on One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), bridging experimental roots to mainstream involvement.[5]Technical Innovations
Development of Stereoscopic Technologies
Lipton initiated research into electronic stereoscopic displays in the early 1970s, focusing on field-sequential systems that alternate left- and right-eye images at high refresh rates to produce depth perception without traditional anaglyph or polarized methods.[3] His approach addressed longstanding issues in stereoscopy, such as flicker caused by insufficient frame rates in cathode-ray tube (CRT) displays, by requiring doubled refresh rates—typically 120 fields per second for flicker-free viewing—synchronized with liquid crystal (LC) shutter eyewear that blocks alternate eyes in phase with the image sequence.[16] In 1980, Lipton founded StereoGraphics Corporation to commercialize these advancements, building on a prototype flicker-free field-sequential 3D system he had developed earlier.[17] By 1981, the company demonstrated a practical flickerless stereoscopic projection technique using LC shutter glasses, which became foundational for subsequent digital 3D cinema implementations deployed on over 80,000 screens worldwide.[10] This innovation enabled time-multiplexed stereoscopy compatible with standard video signals, overcoming bandwidth limitations of simultaneous left-right image transmission by leveraging rapid electronic switching.[18] A pivotal invention was the ZScreen electro-optical modulator, introduced in 1988 as the first polarization-based device for flicker-free field-sequential 3D, which modulated light polarization to separate left- and right-eye views without mechanical shutters, finding applications in molecular modeling and aerial mapping visualization.[10] Lipton also pioneered CrystalEyes, the inaugural electronic stereoscopic eyewear using LC shutters for wireless, battery-powered operation, facilitating real-time 3D viewing on CRT monitors at 120 Hz.[19] These developments culminated in over 70 U.S. patents related to stereoscopic imaging, including methods for ghosting reduction and format conversion, establishing electronic stereoscopy as a viable alternative to passive polarization systems.[1]Founding of StereoGraphics Corporation
Lenny Lipton founded StereoGraphics Corporation in 1980 in San Rafael, California, to develop and market electronic stereoscopic technologies for realistic three-dimensional imagery viewing.[20][21] The company's inception was driven by Lipton's prior invention of a prototype flicker-free, field-sequential 3D display system, which required dedicated funding and resources for refinement and commercialization beyond individual experimentation.[11][22] The founding marked Lipton's shift to full-time focus on stereoscopy, leveraging the prototype as the core technology platform to produce industry-applicable products, including early shutter glasses and modulators.[21] StereoGraphics aimed to address longstanding challenges in stereoscopic projection, such as flicker and viewer discomfort, by prioritizing field-sequential methods that alternated left- and right-eye images at high frequencies synchronized with liquid crystal shutters.[23] This approach stemmed from Lipton's empirical testing of display refresh rates and optical modulation, confirming that rates above 72 Hz per eye minimized visual artifacts without relying on anaglyph or polarization techniques prone to color distortion or limited compatibility.[11] Initial operations emphasized prototyping scalable components, with the company securing early patents and demonstrations to validate viability; for instance, by 1981, Lipton showcased a flickerless projection method that laid groundwork for subsequent products like the ZScreen modulator.[6][19] StereoGraphics' structure as a specialized firm enabled targeted R&D, distinguishing it from broader media ventures and positioning it to supply hardware to computing, simulation, and entertainment sectors seeking immersive depth cues without mechanical compromises.[21]Key Patents and Inventions
Lipton secured over 70 United States patents in the field of electronic stereoscopic displays, focusing on advancements in shutter systems, projection technologies, and viewing devices that enabled practical, flicker-free 3D experiences.[10] [1] His inventions addressed longstanding challenges in stereoscopy, such as synchronization between left- and right-eye images, brightness loss in polarized systems, and viewer comfort, primarily through liquid crystal-based solutions developed during his tenure at StereoGraphics Corporation, which he co-founded in 1980.[3] A foundational invention was the CrystalEyes wireless liquid crystal shutter glasses, first commercialized in 1985, which alternated opacity for each eye in sync with field-sequential video signals to produce immersive stereoscopic images without the flicker or weight issues of mechanical alternatives.[5] This system, recognized by the Smithsonian Institution in 1996 as a pivotal contribution to computer graphics and video display technology, laid the groundwork for modern active shutter 3D eyewear.[5] The underlying technology stemmed from Lipton's early experiments in the 1970s with ferroelectric liquid crystals and twisted nematic modes for rapid switching.[17] Key patents include US 4,967,268 (issued December 30, 1990), which details a liquid crystal shutter system for field-sequential stereoscopic imaging, transmitting synchronized left- and right-eye fields while blocking the opposite eye's view to prevent crosstalk and ghosting.[24] Another significant patent, US 5,327,289 (issued July 5, 1994), covers a fast-switching 270-degree twisted nematic liquid crystal device optimized for eyewear, achieving sub-millisecond response times essential for high-frame-rate stereoscopic video without perceptible flicker.[17] For projection systems, US 7,857,455 B2 (issued December 28, 2010) describes a method for combining orthogonally polarized P- and S-rays in multi-path stereoscopic setups, enhancing brightness by recycling unused light components that traditional polarizers discard.| Patent Number | Title/Description | Issue Date | Key Innovation |
|---|---|---|---|
| US 4,967,268 | Liquid crystal shutter system for stereoscopic applications | December 30, 1990 | Synchronized field selection for flicker-free 3D viewing via LCD opacity modulation.[24] |
| US 5,327,289 | Fast switching twisted nematic LCD for eyewear | July 5, 1994 | Rapid response liquid crystal for high-refresh-rate stereopsis in portable devices.[17] |
| US 7,857,455 B2 | Combining P and S rays for bright stereoscopic projection | December 28, 2010 | Light-efficient polarization combining to mitigate brightness loss in 3D cinema projectors. |
| US 7,002,618 | Plano-stereoscopic DVD movie format | February 21, 2006 | Encoding scheme for distributing stereoscopic content on standard DVDs with planar compatibility.[25] |
