Encyclopedia, Difference between revisions of "David Sarnoff" - New World
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| − | + | '''David Sarnoff''' (February 27, 1891–December 12, 1971) led the [[Radio Corporation of America]] (RCA) in various capacities shortly after its founding in 1919 to his retirement in 1970. Known as ''the general'', he ruled over an ever-growing [[radio]] and [[electronics]] empire that became one of the largest companies in the world. | |
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| − | + | ==Life== | |
| + | [[Image:1 David Sarnoff 800.jpg|thumb|The mausoleum of David Sarnoff in [[Kensico Cemetery]]]] David Sarnoff was born in [[Uzliany]] ''[[shtetl]]'' near [[Minsk]], [[Russia]] (now in [[Belarus]]) to a poor [[Jew]]ish family, the eldest son of Abraham and Leah. Given the limited opportunities for Jews in Russia, Sarnoff's future as a bright young boy seemed assured as a rabbi. Until his father emigrated to the [[United States]] and raised funds to bring the family, Sarnoff much of his early childhood in a [[kheder]] studying and memorizing the [[Torah]]. | ||
| − | + | He emigrated with his mother and two brothers to [[New York City]] in 1900, where he supported his family by selling penny newspapers before and after schooling at the [[Educational Alliance]]. When his father became incapacitated by tuberculosis in 1906, Sarnoff planned to pursue a full-time career in the newspaper business. A chance encounter led to a position as an office boy at the [[Commercial Cable Company]]. When his superior refused him unpaid leave for [[Rosh Hashanah]], he joined the [[Marconi Company|Marconi]] Wireless Telegraph Company of America on Sunday, September 30, beginning a career of over sixty years in electronic communications.<ref>O'Toole, Michael. [http://www.stfrancis.edu/ba/ghkickul/stuwebs/bbios/biograph/sarnoff.htm David Sarnoff] Business Biography. Retrieved January 28, 2007.</ref> | |
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| − | + | Sarnoff married Lizette Hermant on July 4, 1917. Despite some indiscretions on Sarnoff's part, the marriage was successful and the couple had three sons: Robert, Edward, and Thomas.<ref>[http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/S/htmlS/sarnoffdavi/sarnoffdavi.htm Sarnoff, David] Museum of Broadcast Communications. Retrieved January 28, 2007.</ref><ref>[http://www.nndb.com/people/854/000031761/ David Sarnoff] NNDB. Retrieved January 28, 2007.</ref> | |
| − | + | Sarnoff groomed his eldest son, Robert, to follow in his footsteps as the president of RCA following his retirement. | |
| − | Sarnoff | + | David Sarnoff died at age 80 of heart failure related to shingles. He is interred in a mausoleum featuring a stained-glass vacuum tube in [[Kensico Cemetery]] in [[Valhalla, New York]]. |
| − | == | + | ==Work== |
| + | Sarnoff rose from office boy to commercial manager of the company, learning about the technology and business of electronic communications on the job and in various libraries. He served at Marconi stations on ships and posts on [[Siasconset]], [[Nantucket]] and the New York [[Wanamaker's|Wanamaker Department Store]]. In 1911 he installed and operated wireless equipment on a ship hunting seals off [[Newfoundland and Labrador]], and used the technology to relay the first remote medical diagnosis from the ship's doctor to a radio operator at Belle Isle with an infected tooth. The following year he led two other operators at the Wanamaker station in an effort to confirm the fate of ''[[RMS Titanic|''Titanic'']]'' and gather the survivors' names. Over the next two years Sarnoff earned promotions to chief inspector and contracts manager for a company whose revenues swelled after Congress passed legislation mandating 24-7 staffing of commercial shipboard radio stations and Marconi won a patent a suit that gave it the coastal stations of the [[United Wireless Telegraph Company]]. He also demonstrated the first use of radio on a railroad line, the Lackawanna Railroad Company's link between [[Binghamton, New York]], and [[Scranton, Pennsylvania]]; permitted and observed Edwin Armstrong's demonstration of his regenerative receiver at the Marconi station at [[Belmar, New Jersey]]; and used [[H. J. Round]]'s hydrogen arc transmitter to demonstrate the broadcast of music from the New York Wanamaker station. | ||
| + | |||
| + | This demonstration and the [[AT&T]] demonstrations in 1915 of long-distance wireless telephony inspired the first several of many memos to his superiors on applications of current and future radio technologies. Sometime late in 1915 or in 1916 he proposed to the company's president, [[Edward J. Nally]], that the company develop a "radio music box" for the "amateur" market of radio enthusiasts. Nally deferred on the proposal because of the expanded volume of business during [[World War I]], and Sarnoff devoted his time to managing the company's factory in [[Roselle Park, New Jersey]]. | ||
When [[Owen D. Young]] of the [[General Electric Company]] arranged the purchase of American Marconi and turned it into the [[Radio Corporation of America]], a radio patent [[monopoly]] in 1919-1920, Sarnoff revived his proposal in a lengthy memo on the company's business and prospects. His superiors again ignored him but he contributed to the rising postwar radio boom by helping arrange for the broadcast of a heavyweight boxing match between [[Jack Dempsey]] and [[Georges Carpentier]] in July 1921. Up to 300,000 people heard the fight, and demand for home radio equipment bloomed that winter. By the spring of 1922 Sarnoff's prediction of popular demand for broadcasting had come true, and over the next eighteen months, he gained in stature and influence | When [[Owen D. Young]] of the [[General Electric Company]] arranged the purchase of American Marconi and turned it into the [[Radio Corporation of America]], a radio patent [[monopoly]] in 1919-1920, Sarnoff revived his proposal in a lengthy memo on the company's business and prospects. His superiors again ignored him but he contributed to the rising postwar radio boom by helping arrange for the broadcast of a heavyweight boxing match between [[Jack Dempsey]] and [[Georges Carpentier]] in July 1921. Up to 300,000 people heard the fight, and demand for home radio equipment bloomed that winter. By the spring of 1922 Sarnoff's prediction of popular demand for broadcasting had come true, and over the next eighteen months, he gained in stature and influence | ||
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Initially, the [[Great Depression]] caused RCA to cut costs, but Zworykin's project was protected. After nine years of hard work, Sarnoff's determination and Zworykin's [[genius]], they had a commercial system ready to launch. The standard approved by the [[NTSC]] in 1941 differed from RCA's, but RCA quickly became the market leader. | Initially, the [[Great Depression]] caused RCA to cut costs, but Zworykin's project was protected. After nine years of hard work, Sarnoff's determination and Zworykin's [[genius]], they had a commercial system ready to launch. The standard approved by the [[NTSC]] in 1941 differed from RCA's, but RCA quickly became the market leader. | ||
| − | + | During WWII, Sarnoff served on [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower's]] propaganda staff, arranging expanded radio circuits for NBC to transmit news from the invasion of France in June 1944. In France, Sarnoff arranged for the restoration of the [[Radio France]] station in [[Paris]] that the Germans destroyed and oversaw the construction of a radio transmitter powerful enough to reach all of the allied forces in Europe. He received the [[Brigadier General]]'s star in December, and thereafter preferred to be known as "General Sarnoff." | |
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| − | + | After the war, monochrome television production began in earnest. Color television was the next major development and [[CBS]] had their electro-mechanical color television system approved by the [[Federal Communications Commission|FCC]] on October 10, 1950. Sarnoff filed an unsuccessful suit in the [[United States district court]] to suspend the ruling. He made an appeal to the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme court]] which also upheld the FCC decision. Sarnoff pushed his engineers to perfect an all-electronic color television system that used a signal that could be received on existing monochrome sets. CBS was unable to take advantage of the color market, due to lack of manufacturing capability and sets that were triple the cost of monochrome sets. A few days after CBS had its color premiere on 14 June 1951, RCA demonstrated a fully functional all-electronic color television system. | |
| − | + | Color television production was suspended in October 1951 for the duration of the [[Korean War]]. As more people bought monochrome sets, it was increasingly unlikely that CBS could achieve any success with its incompatible system. The NTSC was reformed and recommended a system virtually identical to RCA's in August 1952. On December 17, 1953 the FCC approved RCA's system as the new standard. | |
| + | |||
| + | In 1955, General Sarnoff received [[The Hundred Year Association of New York]]'s Gold Medal Award "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the City of New York." | ||
| + | |||
| + | Sarnoff retired in 1970 at the age of 79. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Legacy== | ||
| + | Sarnoff's drive and vision helped shape American broadcasting. His determination to see a radio in every household in America was largely successful thanks to his leadership in programming and business at RCA. While this drive profited himself greatly, America, and the world, are better off for the advent and proliferation of radio technology. It paved the way for other technologies such as television (which Sarnoff was also instrumental in popularizing) and now the internet. Sarnoff's drive prepared the American public for mass media. These technologies are important as they have created a common culture in the United States completely unknown before the 20th century. | ||
| + | |||
| + | He also represents the classic 'rags to riches' tale of American lore. His rise from Eastern European poverty to the presidency of a major network is an inspiration to anyone from a less-than-privileged background. | ||
| − | [ | + | Sarnoff was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1989.<ref>[http://www.radiohof.org/pioneer/davidsarnoff.html David Sarnoff] Radio Hall of Fame. Retrieved January 28, 2007.</ref> |
| − | == | + | ==References== |
| − | + | <references/> | |
*Kenneth Bilby, 'The General: David Sarnoff and the Rise of the Communications Industry' (NY: Harper & Row, 1986). The best biography available, by the retired RCA vice president of public affairs | *Kenneth Bilby, 'The General: David Sarnoff and the Rise of the Communications Industry' (NY: Harper & Row, 1986). The best biography available, by the retired RCA vice president of public affairs | ||
* Carl Dreher, 'Sarnoff: An American Success' (NY: Quadrangle/New York Times Book Company, 1977). A thoughtful biography by an early associate of Sarnoff's. | * Carl Dreher, 'Sarnoff: An American Success' (NY: Quadrangle/New York Times Book Company, 1977). A thoughtful biography by an early associate of Sarnoff's. | ||
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* David Sarnoff, 'Looking Ahead: The Papers of David Sarnoff' (NY: McGraw Hill, 1968). A useful one-volume compendium of Sarnoff's writings, covering his views on innovation, broadcasting, monopoly rights and responsibilities, freedom, and future electronic innovations. | * David Sarnoff, 'Looking Ahead: The Papers of David Sarnoff' (NY: McGraw Hill, 1968). A useful one-volume compendium of Sarnoff's writings, covering his views on innovation, broadcasting, monopoly rights and responsibilities, freedom, and future electronic innovations. | ||
* [[Robert Sobel]], 'RCA' (NY: Stein and Day, 1984). The most authoritative history on the company by a prolific business historian, with a thorough bibliography but no footnotes. | * [[Robert Sobel]], 'RCA' (NY: Stein and Day, 1984). The most authoritative history on the company by a prolific business historian, with a thorough bibliography but no footnotes. | ||
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==External links== | ==External links== | ||
Revision as of 02:24, 29 January 2007
David Sarnoff (February 27, 1891–December 12, 1971) led the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in various capacities shortly after its founding in 1919 to his retirement in 1970. Known as the general, he ruled over an ever-growing radio and electronics empire that became one of the largest companies in the world.
Life
David Sarnoff was born in Uzliany shtetl near Minsk, Russia (now in Belarus) to a poor Jewish family, the eldest son of Abraham and Leah. Given the limited opportunities for Jews in Russia, Sarnoff's future as a bright young boy seemed assured as a rabbi. Until his father emigrated to the United States and raised funds to bring the family, Sarnoff much of his early childhood in a kheder studying and memorizing the Torah.
He emigrated with his mother and two brothers to New York City in 1900, where he supported his family by selling penny newspapers before and after schooling at the Educational Alliance. When his father became incapacitated by tuberculosis in 1906, Sarnoff planned to pursue a full-time career in the newspaper business. A chance encounter led to a position as an office boy at the Commercial Cable Company. When his superior refused him unpaid leave for Rosh Hashanah, he joined the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America on Sunday, September 30, beginning a career of over sixty years in electronic communications.[1]
Sarnoff married Lizette Hermant on July 4, 1917. Despite some indiscretions on Sarnoff's part, the marriage was successful and the couple had three sons: Robert, Edward, and Thomas.[2][3]
Sarnoff groomed his eldest son, Robert, to follow in his footsteps as the president of RCA following his retirement.
David Sarnoff died at age 80 of heart failure related to shingles. He is interred in a mausoleum featuring a stained-glass vacuum tube in Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.
Work
Sarnoff rose from office boy to commercial manager of the company, learning about the technology and business of electronic communications on the job and in various libraries. He served at Marconi stations on ships and posts on Siasconset, Nantucket and the New York Wanamaker Department Store. In 1911 he installed and operated wireless equipment on a ship hunting seals off Newfoundland and Labrador, and used the technology to relay the first remote medical diagnosis from the ship's doctor to a radio operator at Belle Isle with an infected tooth. The following year he led two other operators at the Wanamaker station in an effort to confirm the fate of Titanic and gather the survivors' names. Over the next two years Sarnoff earned promotions to chief inspector and contracts manager for a company whose revenues swelled after Congress passed legislation mandating 24-7 staffing of commercial shipboard radio stations and Marconi won a patent a suit that gave it the coastal stations of the United Wireless Telegraph Company. He also demonstrated the first use of radio on a railroad line, the Lackawanna Railroad Company's link between Binghamton, New York, and Scranton, Pennsylvania; permitted and observed Edwin Armstrong's demonstration of his regenerative receiver at the Marconi station at Belmar, New Jersey; and used H. J. Round's hydrogen arc transmitter to demonstrate the broadcast of music from the New York Wanamaker station.
This demonstration and the AT&T demonstrations in 1915 of long-distance wireless telephony inspired the first several of many memos to his superiors on applications of current and future radio technologies. Sometime late in 1915 or in 1916 he proposed to the company's president, Edward J. Nally, that the company develop a "radio music box" for the "amateur" market of radio enthusiasts. Nally deferred on the proposal because of the expanded volume of business during World War I, and Sarnoff devoted his time to managing the company's factory in Roselle Park, New Jersey.
When Owen D. Young of the General Electric Company arranged the purchase of American Marconi and turned it into the Radio Corporation of America, a radio patent monopoly in 1919-1920, Sarnoff revived his proposal in a lengthy memo on the company's business and prospects. His superiors again ignored him but he contributed to the rising postwar radio boom by helping arrange for the broadcast of a heavyweight boxing match between Jack Dempsey and Georges Carpentier in July 1921. Up to 300,000 people heard the fight, and demand for home radio equipment bloomed that winter. By the spring of 1922 Sarnoff's prediction of popular demand for broadcasting had come true, and over the next eighteen months, he gained in stature and influence
When he was put in charge of radio broadcasting at RCA, he soon recognized the potential of television. He was determined for his company to pioneer the medium. He met with Westinghouse engineer Vladimir Zworykin in 1928, who was developing an all-electronic television system in his spare time on the company premises. Zworykin told Sarnoff he could build a viable television system with a mere $100,000 grant in two years. Sarnoff decided to fund his research but the estimate was off by several orders of magnitude and several years. RCA demonstrated a working iconoscope camera tube and kinescope receiver tube to the press on April 24, 1936.
The final cost of the enterprise was closer to $50 million. On the way they had to battle young inventor Philo T. Farnsworth who managed to secure patents in 1930 for his solution to broadcasting moving pictures. In 1929, Sarnoff engineered the purchase of the Victor Talking Machine Company, the nation's largest manufacturer of records and phonographs, merging radio-phonograph production at Victor's large manufacturing facility in Camden, New Jersey.
Sarnoff became president of RCA on January 3, 1930, succeeding General James Harbord. On May 30 the company was involved in an antitrust case concerning the original radio patent pool. Sarnoff was able to negotiate an outcome where RCA was no longer partly owned by Westinghouse and General Electric, giving him final say in the company's affairs.
Initially, the Great Depression caused RCA to cut costs, but Zworykin's project was protected. After nine years of hard work, Sarnoff's determination and Zworykin's genius, they had a commercial system ready to launch. The standard approved by the NTSC in 1941 differed from RCA's, but RCA quickly became the market leader.
During WWII, Sarnoff served on Eisenhower's propaganda staff, arranging expanded radio circuits for NBC to transmit news from the invasion of France in June 1944. In France, Sarnoff arranged for the restoration of the Radio France station in Paris that the Germans destroyed and oversaw the construction of a radio transmitter powerful enough to reach all of the allied forces in Europe. He received the Brigadier General's star in December, and thereafter preferred to be known as "General Sarnoff."
After the war, monochrome television production began in earnest. Color television was the next major development and CBS had their electro-mechanical color television system approved by the FCC on October 10, 1950. Sarnoff filed an unsuccessful suit in the United States district court to suspend the ruling. He made an appeal to the Supreme court which also upheld the FCC decision. Sarnoff pushed his engineers to perfect an all-electronic color television system that used a signal that could be received on existing monochrome sets. CBS was unable to take advantage of the color market, due to lack of manufacturing capability and sets that were triple the cost of monochrome sets. A few days after CBS had its color premiere on 14 June 1951, RCA demonstrated a fully functional all-electronic color television system.
Color television production was suspended in October 1951 for the duration of the Korean War. As more people bought monochrome sets, it was increasingly unlikely that CBS could achieve any success with its incompatible system. The NTSC was reformed and recommended a system virtually identical to RCA's in August 1952. On December 17, 1953 the FCC approved RCA's system as the new standard.
In 1955, General Sarnoff received The Hundred Year Association of New York's Gold Medal Award "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the City of New York."
Sarnoff retired in 1970 at the age of 79.
Legacy
Sarnoff's drive and vision helped shape American broadcasting. His determination to see a radio in every household in America was largely successful thanks to his leadership in programming and business at RCA. While this drive profited himself greatly, America, and the world, are better off for the advent and proliferation of radio technology. It paved the way for other technologies such as television (which Sarnoff was also instrumental in popularizing) and now the internet. Sarnoff's drive prepared the American public for mass media. These technologies are important as they have created a common culture in the United States completely unknown before the 20th century.
He also represents the classic 'rags to riches' tale of American lore. His rise from Eastern European poverty to the presidency of a major network is an inspiration to anyone from a less-than-privileged background.
Sarnoff was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1989.[4]
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- ↑ O'Toole, Michael. David Sarnoff Business Biography. Retrieved January 28, 2007.
- ↑ Sarnoff, David Museum of Broadcast Communications. Retrieved January 28, 2007.
- ↑ David Sarnoff NNDB. Retrieved January 28, 2007.
- ↑ David Sarnoff Radio Hall of Fame. Retrieved January 28, 2007.
- Kenneth Bilby, 'The General: David Sarnoff and the Rise of the Communications Industry' (NY: Harper & Row, 1986). The best biography available, by the retired RCA vice president of public affairs
- Carl Dreher, 'Sarnoff: An American Success' (NY: Quadrangle/New York Times Book Company, 1977). A thoughtful biography by an early associate of Sarnoff's.
- Tom Lewis, 'Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio' (NY: Edward Burlingame, an imprint of HarperCollins, 1991). Profiles Sarnoff's life along with those of Edwin Armstrong and Lee De Forest, drawing on archival sources.
- Eugene Lyons, 'David Sarnoff: A Biography' (NY: Harper & Row, 1966). A cousin's sympathetic but insightful biography approved by Sarnoff.
- David Sarnoff, 'Looking Ahead: The Papers of David Sarnoff' (NY: McGraw Hill, 1968). A useful one-volume compendium of Sarnoff's writings, covering his views on innovation, broadcasting, monopoly rights and responsibilities, freedom, and future electronic innovations.
- Robert Sobel, 'RCA' (NY: Stein and Day, 1984). The most authoritative history on the company by a prolific business historian, with a thorough bibliography but no footnotes.
External links
- "Pushing Technology: David Sarnoff and Wireless Communications, 1911-1921," paper presented at 2001 IEEE Conference on the History of Telecommunications
- Biography in IEEE Virtual Museum
- David Sarnoff Library
- Sarnoff Corporation
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