The company was named for its eponymous primary product, a display device invented by Hubert Schlafly which scrolls text to people on video or giving speeches, replacing cue cards or scripts.
The company started around 1950 by businessman Irving B. Kahn; Fred Barton, Jr., a Broadway theatre actor; and Schlafly, an electrical engineer.
Kahn was convicted in federal court in 1971 and imprisoned for 20 months for trying to bribe members of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania city council to award his company a local cable franchise.
[6] In 1969, TelePrompTer acquired the Filmation animation studio from its founders, Lou Scheimer, Hal Sutherland and Norm Prescott.
In 1989, Westinghouse sold Filmation to Paravision International, an investment consortium led by the French cosmetics company L'Oréal.