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{{short description|Special effects designer}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2018}}
{{Infobox person
|image =
| name = Roy Pomeroy
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1892|4|10}}
| birth_place = [[Darjeeling]], [[India]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1947|9|3|1892|4|10}}
| death_place = [[Los Angeles, California]], United States
| occupation = Special effects artist
| yearsactive = 1923-1934
}}

'''Roy Pomeroy''' (April 20, 1892 – September 3, 1947) was an American [[special effect]]s artist and [[film director]]. One of the only three technicians that founded the [[Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]], he was awarded the [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]] for [[Academy Award for Best Visual Effects|Engineering Effects]] for the film ''[[Wings (1927 film)|Wings]]'' at the [[1st Academy Awards]].<ref name="Oscars1929">{{Cite web|url=http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1929 |title=The 1st Academy Awards (1929) Nominees and Winners |accessdate=June 16, 2013|work=oscars.org}}</ref>

==Biography==
Pomeroy's career began during the silent era, when he worked as a special effects engineer for [[Famous Players–Lasky]] and its successor studio [[Paramount Pictures]]. For 1923's ''[[The Ten Commandments (1923 film)|The Ten Commandments]],'' Pomeroy designed the [[crossing of the Red Sea|parting of the Red Sea]] sequence and an effect in which the commandments appeared in letters of flame.<ref name=Walker>Walker, Alexander. ''The Shattered Silents: How the Talkies Came to Stay.'' 1978. Morrow, 1979.</ref>{{rp|104}} He worked on ''[[Peter Pan (1924 film)|Peter Pan]], [[Old Ironsides (film)|Old Ironsides]],'' and ''[[The Rough Riders (film)|The Rough Riders]],'' all for Famous Players or Paramount. His work on the groundbreaking aviation film ''[[Wings (1927 film)|Wings]],'' released in 1927, earned him the [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]] for [[Academy Award for Best Visual Effects|Engineering Effects]] at the [[1st Academy Awards|first-ever Academy Awards ceremony]].

Pomeroy was head of research at Paramount, and experimented on an ultimately unsuccessful device to add [[sound film|sound]] to the studio's large-format [[List of motion picture film formats|Magnascope process]].<ref name=Walker />{{rp|43}} He was sent to visit the [[RCA Corporation|RCA]] and [[Western Electric]] sound laboratories to study [[Vitaphone]] sound technology, and upon his return was treated by studio workers and executives as an expert.<ref name=Walker />{{rp|64}} Jesse Lasky said, "We couldn't have treated him with more awe and homage if he had been Edison himself." Propman Joe Youngerman said, "He threw his weight around. He claimed he knew all about it."<ref name=Eyman>Eyman, Scott. ''The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution 1926-1930.'' Simon and Schuster, New York: 1997.</ref>

In 1928, Paramount decided it was ready to release an "all-talkie", a film with synchronized dialogue throughout rather than in select scenes. They chose ''[[Interference (film)|Interference]],'' a [[silent film]] directed by [[Lothar Mendes]] that had been completed but not yet released. Pomeroy was assigned to reshoot the film with sound. He demanded—and received—a pay raise from $250 per week to $2,500. The silent and sound versions were released simultaneously; the sound version was better regarded by critics, but still detracted for stilted dialogue. However, the sound techniques were praised for their relative sophistication (the critic [[Mordaunt Hall]] noted that the audience "even heard a pen scratching its way over the paper as Evelyn Brent wrote a message"), anticipating many elements commonplace today; in particular, a scene in which one character is crying shows not the character crying but a [[reaction shot]] of her lover, placing the attention on his emotional reaction rather than insistently displaying the source of the sound.<ref name=Walker />{{rp|104–105}}

After being tapped for his next directing assignment, Pomeroy asked for another raise to $3,500 a week. The studio balked and reassigned the project to William DeMille instead, and Pomeroy resigned from the studio.<ref name=Eyman /><ref name=Walker />{{rp|104}} He directed two more sound films: ''[[Inside the Lines (1930 film)|Inside the Lines]]'' for [[RKO Pictures|RKO]] in 1930, and ''[[Shock (1934 film)|Shock]]'' for [[W.T. Lackey Productions]] in 1934. Pomeroy was passionate about archery and kept a collection of bows in his studio office.<ref name=Eyman />

==Filmography==
* ''[[Peter Pan (1924 film)|Peter Pan]]'' (1924)
* ''[[Wings (1927 film)|Wings]]'' (1927)
* ''[[Interference (film)|Interference]]'' (1928)
* ''[[Inside the Lines (1930 film)|Inside the Lines]]'' (1930)
* ''[[Shock (1934 film)|Shock]]'' (1934)

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{IMDb name|0690120|name=Roy Pomeroy}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pomeroy, Roy}}
[[Category:1892 births]]
[[Category:1947 deaths]]
[[Category:American special effects people]]
[[Category:People from Darjeeling]]
[[Category:Best Visual Effects Academy Award winners]]
[[Category:British people in British India]]
[[Category:British emigrants to the United States]]

Roy Pomeroy - Revision history

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