Jim Bornhorst

The Showco Innovator Who Helped Move the Light

Jim Bornhorst holds a defining place in the history of Showco, Vari-Lite, and the live event production industry.

Originally hired by Showco founder Rusty Brutsche to assist with the development of sound systems, Jim quickly proved to be far more than a technician. His ability to design systems, solve problems, and create company-owned technology helped give Showco a major edge in the rapidly growing concert production business.

During the 1970s, Jim worked his way through Showco as a sound engineer, road technician, and product developer. He was involved in major advancements in live audio, including Showco’s Superboard, one of the early live mixing consoles to feature parametric EQ. But his most lasting impact would come when Rusty asked him to help lead a team searching for a better way to change colors in concert lighting.

What began as an effort to reduce the massive number of PAR cans and gels required on touring rigs became something far bigger: the development of the first commercially successful automated moving light system. Working with a team that included Tom Walsh, John Covington, Tom Littrell, and others, Jim helped bring the Vari-Lite concept to life. The VL0 and later the VL1 changed the way concerts, television, theatre, and live events were lit forever.

The first major public debut came with Genesis on the Abacab tour in 1981, where the new Vari-Lite system stunned audiences and opened an entirely new chapter in production design. What followed was an industry-wide revolution. Today’s moving lights, from concert rigs to theatre fixtures and television lighting, trace part of their lineage back to that Showco/Vari-Lite breakthrough.

Jim was honored in 2001 with the Wally Russell Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing his extraordinary contributions to the lighting industry. He has also been recognized as a key creative and technical force behind Vari-Lite’s ongoing evolution, always quick to credit the full team and the Showco environment that made such innovation possible.

Jim Bornhorst’s story is not just about a fixture or a company. It is about the culture of Showco itself: road-tested problem solving, technical imagination, and a willingness to build what did not yet exist.

Because of Jim Bornhorst and the team around him, live production quite literally learned how to move light.