Submitted by: Dan Rich
Aug. 8, 1904 - April 20, 1999
South Bend Tribune 4/22/1999
Edmund Mitchell, inventor of Scene-A-Magic 3D, died on Tuesday, April 20, in Indianapolis, Ind. at age 94. For 17 years, his Scene-A-Magic 3D machines entertained thousands of visitors at the South Bend Regional Airport and the Potawatomi Zoo.
Born and raised on Walnut Street in South Bend, Mitchell attended Indiana University where he studied law. He became a writer for the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C., and then a copywriter for several advertising agencies in New York City, including J. Walter Thompson, where he won many national awards for his creative work. He and his wife, Ethel, managed the Mitchell Apartments on St. Joseph Street in South Bend from 1951 to 1995. They were married for 71 years.
Mitchell is survived by his wife, Ethel; a daughter, Janet Phelps; grandchildren, Pam Allen and Gary Fryar; and by three great-grandchildren.