William 'Bill' Novey was an American special effects guru in Hollywood, Head of Special Effects at Walt Disney Imagineering

Walt Disney Imagineering

Walt Disney Imagineering is the design and development arm of the Walt Disney Company, responsible for the creation and construction of Disney theme parks worldwide...

 in the 1970s, and co-founder of Art & Technology, Inc. with Disney executive Joe Garlington in the 1980s.

At Disney, Novey was tasked with overseeing 6000 special effects in the Epcot Center near Orlando, Florida

Orlando, Florida

Orlando is a city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County, and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan area. According to the 2010 US Census, the city had a population of 238,300, making Orlando the 79th largest city in the United States...

 and Tokyo Disneyland

Tokyo Disneyland

is a 115 acre theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort located in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan, near Tokyo. Its main gate is directly adjacent to both Maihama Station and Tokyo Disneyland Station. It was the first Disney park to be built outside of the United States and opened on April 15, 1983...

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He invented over 300 projectors and helped inspire a new wave of special effects and technological innovations including the first use of holograms and vector-scanning laser projections in a theme park.

He was born William E. Novey in 1948 in Downers Grove, Illinois

Downers Grove, Illinois

Downers Grove is a village in Downers Grove and Lisle Townships, DuPage County, Illinois, United States. The population was 48,724 at the 2000 census, with an official estimated population of 49,250 in 2008.-History:...

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