Crossabeg man is awarded an Oscar

July 1983

A man who was born in Crossabeg and who received his early education at the little school at Kyle Cross has received the highest accolade of the American motion picture industry for development and research in the science of motion picture sound.

He is Dr. John G. Frayne of Passadena, California, who is now an Oscar winner listed in the director published by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Now 89 years old, the Wexford man has at last received his due reward after years of work from his California base.

His last visit to Wexford was seven years ago, when he arrived to settle the estate of the last member of his family here, the late Joseph Frayne of Crossabeg.

Dr Frayne attended Kilkenny College after leaving school in Crossabeg and later graduated from Trinity College Dublin. He went to the USA on a university scholarship and earned a PhD at the University of Minnesota. His field was physics.

Later, he began work in Hollywood as a sound technician, and became chief of research for the giant Western Electric Company. He completed sound engineering for scores of screen productions over the years, and invented stereo sound for motion pictures. It was this which prompted the Academy to award him the Oscar, the first ever for a man in his field of film technology.

Dr Frayne created the sound effects which enabled film audiences to feel the effects of a massive earthquake while watching disaster unfold on the screen. Although now retired from Western Electric, he is still involved in sound engineering.

Dr Frayne keeps in close contact with his native Wexford, and is a member of Wexford Historical Society. He has had several articles published in the Society’s journal. Meanwhile, he is himself listed in the ‘Who’s Who’ of American Science.