Featured ShowBiz story
Yogi Bear Comes to Life
An animatronic character conversion Paul worked on at ShowBiz Pizza Place with costume-support manager Jul Kamen, with test installations in Omaha, Colorado Springs, and Augusta.
The Paul Linden Archive
Paul Linden
Inventor Entertainment Technology Pioneer Optical Engineer
Paul Linden has spent his career imagining new ways for people to experience entertainment — from ShowBiz Pizza’s groundbreaking multimedia shows to inventing patented large-format laser projection systems.
A life of invention and impact
For more than four decades, Paul combined engineering, creativity, and a passion for storytelling.
Paul Linden has spent his career at the intersection of technology and spectacle — building experiences that had not existed before.
His work moved from operating and servicing amusement equipment just after college, to helping lead entertainment development at ShowBiz Pizza Place, to pioneering large-format video projection systems that used lasers as their light sources.
Through Armour Amusement, ShowBiz Pizza Place, Advanced Laser Projection, and Linden Laser Systems, Paul's ideas reached millions of people — often behind the scenes, but consistently at the frontier of what was possible.
Read his story →Chapters in a career
View timeline →
01
Early Curiosity & Armour Amusement
1968–1980
Long before the lasers, there was a teenager building the future of underwater cities and a college student learning how entertainment technology actually behaves once it leaves the lab.
02
ShowBiz Pizza Place & Multimedia Entertainment
1980–1990
As Director of Entertainment, Paul helped shape one of the most ambitious location-based entertainment experiences of its era — synchronising audio, video, lighting, and animatronics into a single show.
03
Advanced Laser Projection
1988–1996
The center of Paul's invention story: using lasers as the light source for large-format video projection, and the patents that came out of it.
04
Linden Laser Systems & Beyond
1992–present
Paul's own company — where the laser projection, optics, holography, and show work continued as custom design, installation, and show labor for clients around the world.
Featured invention
Laser Projection Apparatus
A way to build a large, full-color video image out of red, green, and blue laser light — combining and balancing the beams through an optical system so the projected picture is bright, sharp, and correctly colored.
In the press
More in the archive →
press · 1997
"Linden’s Lasers Project Unique Images"
A 1997 Kansas Alumni profile — Paul, KU class of ’75, on being "the only machine with an image mover," projecting video onto a water screen, a football helmet, and more.
press · early 1990s
"Aniforms' laser video wows MCI meeting"
MCI's shareholder meeting at the Kennedy Center used Advanced Laser Projection's system (Irving, TX) — projecting giant waving flags and 3D logos onto oddly shaped screens. The article notes there was "only one in the U.S. and a second in Osaka, Japan."
artifact · 1991
1991 Collier Trophy print — Northrop B-2 team
A commemorative print for the 1991 Collier Trophy — aviation's top honor — awarded to the Northrop/industry B-2 team. Paul's laser video projection ran the big-screen visuals at the award's gala presentation in Washington, D.C. (Marine Band and military leadership in attendance). The images were on the screen — not the aircraft itself.
A career in milestones
Full timeline →-
1968
"Underwater Cities: Homes of the Future"
Independent
As a high-school sophomore, Paul wins the Iowa Hawkeye Science Fair and is a Finalist at the 19th International Science Fair in Detroit with "Underwater Cities: Homes of the Future."
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1974
Experiments in holography at the University of Kansas
University of Kansas
The Sioux City Journal documents Paul and fellow KU senior Barney Wages making holograms — "laser-beam photography" — his earliest known work with lasers.
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1980s
Director of Entertainment, ShowBiz Pizza Place
ShowBiz Pizza Place
Paul directs entertainment technology and programming at ShowBiz — audio, video, lighting, and animatronics — and works on Cyberstar and the Yogi Bear test shows.
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1992
Linden Laser Systems
Linden Laser Systems
Paul continues and commercializes his work — the ProFX and Taurus imagers, the Stingray II projector, holography, and custom installations for clients worldwide.
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1992
U.S. Patent 5,136,426 — Laser Projection Apparatus
Advanced Laser Projection
Paul's foundational laser projection patent is issued — on the birthday of his wife, Elaine.
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1994
U.S. Patent 5,365,288 — Image Mover
Advanced Laser Projection
A second patent, with Lloyd Cross and Duane Dewald, for an optical system that moves and repositions a projected image.
From the archive
Browse the archive → photograph · 1968
Science-fair project: "Underwater Cities: Homes of the Future"
press · August 28, 1974
"Holography Explored as Art Medium"
artifact · 1991
1991 Collier Trophy print — Northrop B-2 team
photograph · 1973
"Kiss I" — multiplex hologram portrait
press · 1997
"Linden’s Lasers Project Unique Images"
Clients
Clients around the world
A sampling of the clients whose projects used Paul's laser systems — from corporate events and broadcast to entertainment and international installations, as listed on his own laservideo.com.
