About_Us

McNulty Nielsen Productions draws its roots from
Keith McNulty's father, Bernard (aka "Barney") -
who is credited with inventing cue cards and is
affectionately known as "The Cue Card King."

Barney began his career as a page at CBS and by
1949 was working on The Ed Wynn Show - CBS's first
variety show. When Ed Wynn became ill, the veteran
entertainer feared that his medication would
interfere with his memory on the live show, so
Barney was asked to put the entire script on large
sheets of cardboard. He stayed up until 4 a.m. to
complete the task and then flipped the cards for
Wynn during the show, launching his own career and
a new industry. Shortly after this, satirist Stan
Freberg told him: "I can see it now... Barney
McNulty, president of the Cue Card Corporation of
America!" Barney named his freelance cue card
business Ad-Libs and was off and running.

Barney flipped the cards to cue Bob Hope on his
television shows and throughout his travels with
Bob Hope's USO tours, as well as for Lucille Ball
for the pilot of I Love Lucy, Groucho Marx, Orson
Welles, Cybill Shepherd & Bruce Willis on the
series Moonlighting, Hubert Humphrey, Frank
Sinatra, Milton Berle, Danny Kaye, Angela Lansbury,
Carol Burnett, Jack Benny, Dinah Shore, Fred
Astaire, and the Smothers Brothers - just to name a
few. One of Barney's greatest challenges came when
he was holding the cards for actors during filming
of a John Ford western. John Wayne summoned Barney
during a break and insisted he join a poker game
with the challenge: "Now we'll see how good you
really are with cards."

Though Barney sadly passed away in December of
2000, his company, Ad Libs, lives on and is run by
his beloved wife Jill, along with daughters Brynna
and Erin.

Barney's sister, Penny Singleton, is perhaps best
known in her role as "Blondie" in the famous
Blondie and Dagwood series of the late 30's and
early 40's. Penny is known to later generations as
the endearing voice of Jane Jetson on the hit
cartoon The Jetsons. Penny's remarkable talents as
an entertainer earned her two stars on Hollywood's
Walk of Fame.

Keith McNulty, Barney's son, worked for his father
from the age of twelve quite literally "growing up"
on film sets. By the time he was eighteen Keith
was handling most of Barney's new accounts. And,
for the next fifteen years, it was not unusual for
Keith to be working on as many as four different
productions in a single day - for such shows as The
Bope Hope USO Tour (from 1978 to 1992), Carol &
Company (Carol Burnett), Murder She Wrote,
Moonlighting, One Day at a Time, Alice, Fat Albert,
Different Strokes, Too Close for Comfort, The Red
Fox Show, and Golden Girls.

Together, Barney and Keith ran cue cards for many
of the television & personal appearances for Orson
Wells, Lucile Ball, George Burns, Burgess Merideth,
and Burt Reynolds.

In 1989 Keith launched his own teleprompting
business called, McNulty's Computer Prompting, and
over the next fifteen years worked on thousands of
projects ranging from A-List feature films, to TV
series, music videos, concert tours, and live
events. In 1995 lighting and sound services were
added to Keith's company. His client list evolved
into a who's who of Hollywood, with projects
including Forest Gump, Apollo 13, Naked Gun,
Grumpier Old Men, Wag the Dog, and the concert
tours of Aerosmith and Van Halen. Keith also worked
for Presidents Gerald Ford, George Bush I, and
Ronald Reagan.He now works primarily as a DP on
television commercials,web content, music videos
etc.

Keith's daughter, Mellisa Nielsen, is the founder of
The Charity Angels, an organization devoted to
helping charitable organizations raise money and
awareness for their cause. An original founder of
McNulty Nielsen Productions, Mellisa continues to
spearhead our business development activities.

In 2004, Keith partnered with Erik Nielsen, SVP
Director of Strategic Services at advertising
agency Young & Rubicam Brands.

Together, Keith, Mellisa, and Erik launched McNulty
Nielsen Productions, a full-service production
handling Film, TV, Online Video, Music, and Live
Events.

McNulty NIelsen, Inc is located at:
6930 1/2 Tujunga Ave
North Hollywood, CA 91605

For more information about the company, or to order
press kits, please call our main office at:

(310) 704 - 1713

"McNulty Nielsen Productions" is a registered
trademark of McNulty Nielsen, Inc., a California
Corporation.

All rights reserved.