is a stage lighting instrument and motion picture lighting manufacturing company based in hollywood california . the company was started in 1927 by sicilian immigrant pietro peter mule changed to mole . born 10 nov 1891 in the italian town of termini imerese palermo sicily he first worked for general electric ge in new york . in 1927 he began selling incandescent tungsten lighting to the film industry which allowed a more natural lighting than the previous arc lights . the new lights were also silent an advantage for the new sound films . 1 mole richardson invented the fresnel solar spot unit in 1935 adapting the fresnel lighthouse lens for use in motion pictures . it won the first of four technical academy awards the company has earned . 2 during world war ii mole richardson concentrated their efforts on developing searchlights for battleships tanks and artillery units to aid the allied forces battle in europe and the pacific . in 1945 peter mole was invited to light the first united nations conference held in san francisco . citation needed peter mole died on 2 august 1960 very suddenly . his son in law warren parker took over the company . mole richardson company is now run by two of warren parker s four sons and grandchildren of peter mole larry mole parker and mike parker . mole richardson is considered by many to be the staple of motion picture and television lighting in the movie industry today setting the standard for tungsten fresnel fixtures . however they do also manufacture hmi hydrargyrum medium arc iodide day light lighting units . their lighting is generally recognized by their maroon coloring and mr logos . references edit hollywood glamour sex power and photography 1925 1939 . proquest . 2008 . pp. 130 . isbn 978 0 549 60639 0 . richard w. kroon 30 april 2014 . a v a to z an encyclopedic dictionary of media entertainment and other audiovisual terms . mcfarland . p. 425 . isbn 978 0 7864 5740 3 . external links edit official website studio depot a mole richardson subsidiary retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title mole richardson & oldid 733089964 categories photography equipmentitalian inventionshidden categories all articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from january 2016 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages deutschitaliano edit links this page was last modified on 5 august 2016 at 09 03 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view