"Moviola seemed the best..."

Like a classic Horatio Alger story, the Serrurier saga is defined by ingenuity, hard work and persistence in the face of failure. A Dutch-born electrical engineer, Iwan Serrurier came to the U.S. at the turn of the century, intrigued by the technical advances taking place here. He settled with his wife in Pasadena where he made a hefty profit in the real estate boom, and later went to work for the Southern Pacific Railroad as a draftsman. "He was bored and wanted to do something more creative with his engineering background," says Steve, who spent summers as a young boy working at Moviola Co. "Iwan got bit by the film bug. He took pictures like crazy. Look at all these..." he urges, opening his grandfather's bulging family album. Around 1917, Iwan got the idea that a home movie projector enclosed in a beautiful wooden cabinet, like a Victrola, would be welcomed by the public. He thought studio executives, in particular, would find it useful for viewing dailies in the comfort of their own offices. He built a rough model, recieved a patent and asked his five children to submit names for the new machine. Of the twenty or more names suggested over dinner one night, "Moviola" seemed the best. "It's a take off on Victrola," says Steve. "Remember, the name initially referred to the projector for the home, and had nothing to do with editing."

In 1923, Iwan manufactured about 15 of these machines. The idea was good, but a tough sell. It's main flaw was the exhorbitant price tag. Costing $600 in 1920 (roughly the equivalent of $20,000 today), who could afford it? Iwan made the rounds of the movie studios, but had little success generating enthusiasm. During 1923 and 1924, he sold only three machines. Finally, he met an editor at Douglas Fairbanks Studios who showed him how movies were being edited at the time. The pieces of film were studied over a light well, spliced and then run in the projection room, this process being repeated several times until the cut was acceptable. It was said that some cutters could move the film intermittantly by hand and see a moving picture. The editor at Fairbanks thought the Moviola might be useful for editing if it could be modified for use on the editing table. No problem. Over the weekend, Iwan"roughed together" an editing machine. He removed the projection lens and lamp house, turned the machine upside down and attached a viewing lens. He didn't bother to adapt a motor, but simply hooked a hand crank to the intermittant movement, which he had brilliantly adapted from a clock. It was a crude mechanism designed purely to determine whether it was something editors could use. The editors at Fairbanks loved it! In 1924, Iwan sold his first editing machine to Douglas Fairbanks Studios for $125 (approximately $4,500 today). "when you stripped the machine of its gorgeous wood cabinetry, the cost came down quite a bit," explains Steve.