Record holding movie-screen inventor Watcharapol dead at 71
Phitsanulok’s well-known businessman Watcharapol “Add Tewada” Limpapan, an inventor who once made it into the Guinness Book of World Records, passed away at the age of 71 on Monday morning from a chronic ailment.
Watcharapol died at 5.45am at his home in Muang Phitsanulok. His funeral prayer will be held during July 23-27 at Wat Khuha Sawan, with a cremation rite on July 29, said his eldest son Narupop Limpapan.
He was best known as the inventor of the 756-square-metre “Radar Curvy Screen”, an open-air cinema screen that held the Guinness World Record as the largest of its kind.
Add Tewada Advertising Co manager Worapol Srirod remembered Watchatapol founding his mobile outdoor movie-screening business in 1977. Three years later he came up with the 15.3-metre by 32.4-metre “Jor Yak Pha Lok” (world-splitting giant screen).
A tragic accident followed a few years later as one of the giant screens was being set up in Phang Nga, resulting in the deaths of three workers and several injuries, Worapol said.
The tragedy prompted Watcharapol to create the “Radar Curvy Screens”, two huge curved cinema screens set up back-to-back to add wind-resistance and stability.
The invention – which could simultaneously play two movies to two sets of audiences in an open field – was reportedly recognised as setting a Guinness World Record as the world’s largest open-air cinema screen, Worapol said.