About

History:

One of the members of the Los Angeles newsreel crews was Paramount News employee Marshall McCarroll, who lived here in 1940.

McCarroll, an MIT graduate, started in the news business as a soundman before eventually switching to the other side of the news crew as a photographer for the final few years of his career.

In between shooting stories, he spearheaded efforts towards two results – to reduce the clutter of microphones in news stories and to record better sound. On his behest in the early 30s, the LA and New York crews were financially sponsoring a project by a small Cleveland company called Brush Development Company. The result of their contributions was initially christened the “postage stamp mike” once it was released into the wild because it was the size of a three-cent stamp.

A few years later, McCarroll turned his attention to the ugly bouquet of mikes that would sprout up during pressers. He went to work to solve this visual clutter. The result of their tinkering was dubbed the “mike spider box” by the grateful crews when it was unveiled.

Sadly Marshall McCarroll’s microphone mission would come to a tragic end. On May 9, 1940, McCarroll was filming a story on an experimental aircraft being tested at Downey, CA. The experimental plane and the airplane McCarroll was riding in collided while landing at the Downey airport and McCarroll died along with the crews of both planes in the ensuing fireball. (Source: Amanda Emily, tvnewsstorytellers.com: October 31, 2014).

1940 Census:
5688 Spreading Oak Drive (Value $10,000): 1) Marshall G. McCarroll, head of household; white married male 36 years of age; born in Wisconsin; cameraman, newsreel; earns more than $5,000. 2) Etholyn McCarroll, wife; white married female 34 years of age; born in Missouri; not working.