Emerson Romero (August 19, 1900 – October 16, 1972) was a Cuban-American silent film actor who worked under the screen name Tommy Albert. Romero developed the first technique to provide captions for sound films, making them accessible for the deaf and hard of hearing; his efforts inspired the invention of the captioning technique in use in films and movies today. Early life and education Emerson Irving Romero was born August 19, 1900, in Havana, Cuba. He was a first cousin to film and television star Cesar Romero. At age six, Romero was deafened by a fever caused by whooping cough. In 1907 his family sent him to New York City and he was enrolled in the Wright Oral School. After completing that school's program in 1915, he attended Stuyvesant High School for one year. He also attended Interlaken High School in Indiana and graduated from Blair Academy in New Jersey in 1920. He spent one year studying at Columbia University in New York City, then transferred to Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. After studying at Lafayette for two years, Romero was compelled to leave after his father had financial difficulties. Acting career After leaving Lafayette College, Romero found work at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. His older brother Dorian started a film company in Cuba, the Pan-American Film Corporation, and encouraged Romero to consider acting. Romero starred in a full-length film written by Dorian named A Yankee in Havana. In addition to acting, he also helped shoot film on location, edit films, and write subtitles. The films he starred in while in Cuba were commercially unsuccessful but Romero's acting skills drew attention from director Richard Harlan, who encouraged Romero to move to Hollywood in 1926. From 1926 to 1928 Romero appeared in more than 24 two-reel short comedies, including Beachnuts, The Cat's Meow, Great Guns, Hen-Pecked in Morocco, Sappy Days, and a remake of Tillie's Punctured Romance. At the request of his film distributors, who wanted him to have a "more American-like" name, he changed his name to Tommy Albert. Romero did all his own makeup and stunt work and worked with actors such as W. C. Fields. When sound films ("talkies") were introduced in 1927, deaf people were no longer considered potential actors; studios no longer included intertitles and deaf people were shut out of enjoying movies. In the fall of 1928, Romero returned to New York