and his previous employer, the Federal Reserve Bank. Later life Romero became active in the deaf community in New York City and along with friends John Funk and Sam Block started the Theatre Guild of the Deaf in 1934. The theatre company lasted for twenty years; Romero acted and directed in multiple plays throughout the years. In 1938 and 1939 he was the editor of Digest of the Deaf. He started a new career as a sheet-metal and template maker for Republic Aviation, helping to produce the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft used in World War II. Always looking for ways to help the deaf community, Romero bought several films and experimented with providing captions. In 1947, Romero developed the first captioning for a movie, slicing film strips and inserting images with captions between picture frames. The effect was similar to the title cards of silent movies, interspersing action scenes with images of text. He rented the films to deaf schools and clubs. The films were of bad visual quality, in an attempt to prevent bootlegging; in addition, Romero's technique ruined the soundtrack of the film for anyone who was able to hear. However, his efforts were noticed by others, including Edmund Burke Boatner, the superintendent of the American School for the Deaf, who would create more practical methods of captioning and would co-found the U.S. government-funded Captioned Films for the Deaf program. Romero would go on to create and sell the Vibralarm in 1959, a vibrating alarm clock for deaf and hard of hearing people; he sold an entire product line of items for the deaf such as doorbells, smoke detectors and baby alarms. He retired from his job at Republic Aviation in 1965. In 1970 the New York City Civic Association of the Deaf honored Romero with its annual civic achievement award "in recognition of his tireless efforts and dedication to the deaf". Romero and his wife moved to Boulder, Colorado in spring 1972; he died there on October 16, 1972. References External links Emerson Romero shares information about his film captioning project 1-minute video in ASL with spoken English translation 1900 births 1972 deaths Cuban emigrants to the United States 20th-century American male actors 20th-century Cuban male actors People from Havana American male silent film actors Hispanic and Latino American actors American businesspeople Cuban deaf people American deaf people