Louis Clyde Stoumen

After graduating from Lehigh University in 1939, he worked as a freelance journalist and photographer in New York. Many of the photographs of Times Square he made were published in the 1985 book Times Square: 45 Years of Photographs. Stoumen taught at UCLA Film School. He spoke of his innovation in The True Story of the Civil War. He invented a track for the camera to move back and forth over historic photos and paintings. It also tracked up and down (in and out). The technique is often referred to today as the "Ken Burns effect". Stoumen received Colin Higgins' master's thesis, a screenplay called Harold and Maude. Stoumen spoke of his enjoyment of the writing, but doubted it would ever be produced. He wasn't unhappy when proven wrong by the film's success. Stoumen married Lini De Vries in 1943; the couple divorced in 1949. He subsequently married and was divorced from Joyce Wessel. The Academy Film Archive preserved The True Story of the Civil War and T Is for Tumbleweed by Stoumen.

Louis Clyde Stoumen studied at Lehigh University. Places of work recorded in the authority are United States. Work by Louis Clyde Stoumen is recorded in the collections of Minneapolis Institute of Art, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, National Gallery of Canada, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Michael C. Distinctions recorded are Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) and Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film.

• Name — Louis Clyde Stoumen • Born — 15 July 1917 • Birthplace — Springtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, U.S. • Died — 20 September 1991 • Place of death — Sebastopol, California, U.S. • Occupation — Film director Photographer Film producer • Years Active — 1950–1964

• The Naked Eye (1956) • The True Story of the Civil War (1956) • Operation Dames (1959) • Black Fox: The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler (1962)