Boca Artist Creates Bust of Famed Inventor Featured in Documentary, “Genius on Hold”

BOCA RATON – The documentary film, “Genius on Hold,” tells the gripping story of inventor Walter L. Shaw, whose work in the telecommunications field was squelched by the former Bell Telephone Co., forcing him into poverty and dependency on the mob.

It was presented twice during the Palm Beach International Film Festival – at the Cultural Arts Center in Boca Raton April 13 and at the Muvico Parisian 20 at CityPlace in West Palm Beach April 19.

Boca Raton sculptor and artist Yaacov Heller was not only featured in the film, he created a bronze bust of the late Walter L. Shaw which includes a pedestal listing the inventor’s patents.

The film, produced by the inventor’s son, Walter L. Shaw Jr., says his father had an astonishing 39 patents to his credit including: conference calling, call forwarding and the White House ‘Red Phone’ alert system. His inventions would have earned him fame and fortune, had it not been for the stranglehold of Bell Telephone, the largest government-granted telecommunications monopoly in the United States, which refused to reward his genius or allow him to compete.

Unable to support his family, Shaw accepted work from the only organization that offered to pay: the mob, whose bookies used his ‘black boxes’ to make untraceable calls. Shaw’s descent from telecommunications genius into homelessness and his son’s resulting ascendancy into the ranks of the Mafia as a notorious jewel thief are told in “Genius on Hold.”

The sculpture was unveiled Sunday evening during a reception at Heller’s Gallery 22 in Royal Palm Place in Boca Raton. Walter L. Shaw’s son, Walter, Jr., spoke on behalf of his father.

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