Watch Charles Douglass Videos

Charles "Charley" Douglass (January 2, 1910 – April 8, 2003), born Charles Rolland Douglass, was an American sound engineer, credited as the inventor of the laugh track. Douglass was born in Guadalajara, Mexico in 1910 to an American family. His father was an engineer on assignment there, and eventually relocated the family to Nevada. Douglass graduated from the University of Nevada with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, and eventually found work as a sound engineer with CBS Radio in Los Angeles. During World War II, Douglass served in the Navy and worked in Washington with... MORE

Charles "Charley" Douglass (January 2, 1910 – April 8, 2003), born Charles Rolland Douglass, was an American sound engineer, credited as the inventor of the laugh track. Douglass was born in Guadalajara, Mexico in 1910 to an American family. His father was an engineer on assignment there, and eventually relocated the family to Nevada. Douglass graduated from the University of Nevada with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, and eventually found work as a sound engineer with CBS Radio in Los Angeles. During World War II, Douglass served in the Navy and worked in Washington with engineers developing shipboard radar systems. Before television, audiences often experienced comedy, whether performed live on stage, on radio, or in a movie, in the presence of other audience members. Television producers attempted to recreate this atmosphere in its early days by introducing the sound of laughter or other crowd reactions into the soundtrack of television programs. However, live audiences could not be counted on to laugh at the correct moment. Other times, the audiences could laugh too long or too loud, sounding unnatural and forced. Douglass noticed these, as he put it, "God-awful" LESS