By ERIC C. RODENBERG
Antique Week Associate Editor

ORANGE, Calif. — Loaded with laughs, the Laff Box has to be one of the most bizarre Rube Goldberg-type inventions ever.

But, it brought chuckles, applause and guffaws into millions of American households from the 1950s to the1970s.

While television critics, writers and some viewers learned to despise the canned laughter, the Laff Box soon became a staple of American television culture. A strange amalgamation of typewriter keys, rolling tapes with a foot pedal, the 2-foot tall contraption was the invention of sound engineer Charley Douglass (1910-2003). After winning the patent race in 1953 against another inventor, Douglass had a monopoly on the laugh business. He was “the only laugh game in town,” according to TV Guide critic Dick Hobson in 1966.

By the 1960s, live television sitcoms became cost prohibitive, and Douglass was brought in to provide the audience, or at least the sound of an audience. He traveled from studio to studio, with his “oooohs” and “aaahs,” as well as riotous laughter and unbridled applause.

The Laff Box was used on Bewitched, The Munsters and The Beverly Hillbillies. The more outrageous shows would get the full force of Douglass’ Laff Box. The more lower-key shows, like The Andy Griffith Show, The Brady Bunch and My Three Sons were given more moderate audience response.

“I have vivid memories sitting next to Charley as a child, and watching him play his Laff Box,” says, Gregg Oppenheimer, son of the I Love Lucy creator Jess Oppenheimer. “It was like watching a musical virtuoso. He was a master with his machine. He’d start the audience out with a titter, then slowly bring up rustling in the crowd, and then bring it to a crescendo. He could do anything with that machine.”

Oppenheimer knows his laugh machines. It was his father, Jess Oppenheimer (1913-1988) who lost the patent race against Douglass.

As a child, Oppenheimer was one of the very few people within the industry who witnessed Douglass using the Laff Box.

“He put the I Love Lucy library on his machine,” Oppenheimer says. “That’s why laughter from Gilligan’s Island might sound familiar. It was first on I Love Lucy. Charley worked for CBS, which backed I Love Lucy.”

Douglass was notoriously secretive about his one-of-a-kind invention. He literally kept it under lock and key when not using it.

Now, the world will get a chance to guffaw along with the Laff Box when it – and part of Oppenheimer’s laugh machine, the Jayo Laugher – comes up for sale on June 25-26 at Don Presley Auctions in Orange.

The Jayo Laugher (so named for the inventor’s initials) will be sold with his memoir Laughs, Luck … and Lucy: How I Came to Create the Most Popular Sitcom of All Time, completed and signed by son, Gregg. Among other items in the lot will be original recorded laughs from the I Love Lucy show on a tape, dated May, 6, 1953, a 1954 Daily Variety story about the Jayo, and photos of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.

The Jaylo Laugher was consigned by Oppenheimer’s children, Gregg and Jo Davis.

Proceeds from the Jaylo machine will be donated to the Motion Picture & Television Fund. The organization was created to provide assistance to members of the entertainment industry. Additionally, Don Presley Auctions is waiving its auction commission and buyer’s premium on the sale of the Jayo Laugher.

Proceeds from the Laff Box will go to a private owner who discovered it, and its history, two years ago in a storage unit. (see page 6C for that story)
The Laff  Box comes with two amazing journals. One journal illustrates the inventor’s blueprints, while the other book is a log detailing the shows, dates and fees for each show that Douglass worked.

It’s obvious Douglass made quite a bit of money over the years, according to Presley.

The blueprint journal shows the ingenuity and time that were put into the historical innovation. In addition to the machine’s history, the paperwork used to file for the patent and newspaper articles written about Douglass and his Laff Box will be included in the lot.

“This thing should be in a museum,” Presley said. “It should be in the Smithsonian or a broadcasting museum. This is a part of American television history. It was used on more than 20,000 shows in the 50s, 60s, 70s and maybe even beyond. To have it and the journals detailing the invention and use of the machine is just incredible.”

Presley has put a “conservative” $10,000 estimate on the Laff Box. However, he expects it to go much higher.
The machine has an impressive lineage – a
s detailed in the journal - extending back to the early days of television. Even comedian Milton “Mr. TV” Berle, saw the advantages of such mass media behavior modification.

While witnessing Douglass at work Berle was reported to say, “this joke didn’t get all that we wanted.” Douglass inserted a guffaw after the failed joke, and Berle said, “See? It was funny.”

And, it’s still funny today.

During an April sale, Presley could not resist the temptation to “test drive” the Laff Box.

“When someone won a piece, I’d hit the button for applause,” he said. “If I told a dumb joke and no one laughed, I could hit another button and avoid embarrassment. It’s actually an auctioneer’s best friend … we had it here, sitting in the office, and it got stuck – just laughing and carrying on – I thought our staff would split a gut.”

In inventing the Laff Box, Douglass not only made history, but also showed viewers “he who laughs last, laughs best.”

Contact 714 633-2437 or visit www.donpresleyauction.com for more information.