The first “teleprompters” were simply mechanical devices located near the camera. The script was printed on a paper scroll, which was advanced as the performer read.

The TelePrompTer company was founded in the 1950s by Fred Barton Jr., Hubert J. (Hub) Schlafly, and Irving Berlin Kahn. Barton was an actor who suggested the concept of the teleprompter as a means of assisting television performers who had to memorize large amounts of material in a short time.

The first personal computer–based Teleprompter, Compu=Prompt, appeared in 1982. It was invented and marketed by Courtney M. Goodin & Laurence B. Abrams in Hollywood, California. This custom software and specially redesigned camera hardware ran on the Atari 800 Personal Computer. Their company later became ProPrompt Inc., which is still providing teleprompting services some 26 years later. Other paper-based Teleprompting companies—Q-TV and Telescript—followed suit and developed their own software several years later, when computers with enough graphics power to provide the smooth scrolling text became available..

It should also be noted that Jess Oppenheimer, producer of I Love Lucy, claims credit for the original concept of the teleprompter and was awarded the U.S. patent for its creation. Originally used so that Lucille Ball could read commercials on-camera, it soon became a staple for television news.

As late as 1992, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was still using an early mechanical teleprompter.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Autoscript (a UK- and US-based company) pioneered TFT monitors rather than the traditional CRTs. This enabled significantly less weight on the camera itself and more portability. They also introduced high-brightness monitors enabling prompters to be used in direct sunlight. A further breakthrough in 2005 introduced Voice Activated Prompting. Along with their partner, Sysmedia, Autoscript developed a prompter that required no peripheral to control the scroll of the prompter. The voice-activated prompter simply scrolled at the speed of the presenter’s speech.

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