Jack Calmes was an American inventor, sound reinforcement and lighting business executive, and musician.
18 Facts About Jack Calmes
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Jack Calmes was born in Oklahoma City to parents Mary and Charles Jack Calmes.
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Jack Calmes picked up a love of music from his mother, Mary, who was a piano player and singer.
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The Jack Calmes family had moved to Dallas' Highland Park neighborhood when he was nine, and he was performing professionally at the Dallas Sportatorium.
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Jack Calmes attended Highland Park High School, where as a sophomore, he formed his first band, the Jades, in direct competition with classmates Steve Miller and Boz Scaggs.
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Miller and Scaggs attended out-of-state colleges after high school graduation, and Jack Calmes remained in Dallas, continuing to perform locally as he attended Southern Methodist University, beginning in 1962.
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Jack Calmes laid the foundation for his future achievements in technology and business, studying engineering for two years before shifting his focus to the business school, graduating with a bachelor's degree in accounting.
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That system resulted in a 1989 lawsuit from Vari*Lite, claiming Jack Calmes infringed upon Vari*Lite's patents for moving concert lights that could change color.
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Jack Calmes countersued Vari*Lite, claiming his former business partners had misled him about the development of the Vari-Lite system when he left Showco in 1980.
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Jack Calmes felt that he had inadvertently mimicked, though exceeded, the Vari*Lite system.
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Jack Calmes produced a variety of film and live television projects, including a global satellite broadcast of the Who in 1982 for 20th Century Fox and HBO, as well as the 1988 presidential debates for CSN.
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Jack Calmes co-produced the 1978 Rolling Stones concert film Some Girls: Live in Texas '78.
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Jack Calmes earned two United States patents for a "method and apparatus for a scrollable modifier for a light fixture" and a "pattern generator for a light fixture," respectively.
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The patents he held as part of Showco were sold when he left the company, as part of the corporation's intellectual property, although Jack Calmes did keep a percentage of the patent.
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In 1967, Jack Calmes married Dallas native Morgan Fairchild, to whom he would remain married for six years, before divorcing in 1973.
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Jack Calmes married Lynn Lenau in 1975, before divorcing in 1989.
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Jack Calmes wed his third wife, Susie Calmes, in 1989, and the couple lived in Dallas, where they were partners in Syncrolite.
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Jack Calmes died from cancer at home at the age of 71.