Alan E. Freedman

Alan Eliot Freedman (October 12, 1889 – April 29, 1980) was a pioneer and long-time executive in the motion picture film processing industry. He founded DeLuxe Laboratories after serving as president of its predecessor, Fox Film Laboratories. His career lasted over 50 years.

Freedman was born in Russia in 1889. Shortly after his birth his parents brought him and several cousins to the United States, settling in New York’s upper east side. He had seven younger brothers and sisters, all born in New York. Freedman retired in 1962, and died in 1980.

He started his long career in film processing at the industry’s infancy in 1907, a time before cameras and projectors had sprockets and film had holes to match in order to assure a constant film flow, and steady exposed and projected image. Safety film, sound, and color reversal film stocks had not been conceived. And it was a time before continuous processing; when movie film was loaded on racks, batch processed in dip tanks and dried in drums.

His first industry job was with the Wendel film processing laboratory in Manhattan. He moved to Crystal Film Company in the Bronx shortly thereafter. In 1911 Fox Film Corporation (later 20th Century Fox) Executive Assistant Sol Wurtzel recruited Freedman as a bookkeeper and paymaster for its laboratory; he was soon promoted to business manager by Vice President Jack Leo, and he went on to run the lab under various titles. Freedman led the lab through the trials and shortages of World War I, overcoming a catastrophic explosion and fire and finding ways to pioneer improvements in film processing such as the addition of sound.

In the depths of the depression, Freedman bought the lab from Fox Film Corporation, renamed it “DeLuxe”. (Since Freedman's retirement, DeLuxe has been sold several times and is now known as DeLuxe Entertainment Services Group.) Under his direction, various innovations, including the processing and sound striping of Cinemascope, were developed and implemented. Many of those were patented and/or received Academy awards. During World War II, in addition to processing films from Fox and the other studios, his firm worked with the Signal Corps and the War Department to process military surveillance and training films. In appreciation, the War Department presented Freedman its patriotic services award. Similarly, the Commerce Department presented two certificates of appreciation, one in 1953 for services rendered … in time of national emergency … without compensation and one for his … contribution to the defense of the United States by [his] service in the National Defense Executive Reserve. After the war, Freedman served as an UNESCO emissary to Europe to re-establish and vitalize film industries there.

...
Wikipedia