Father of Television:

David Sarnoff

Main Life Accomplishments:

 

David Sarnoff was a Belarusian-born Russian-American businessman and pioneer of American commercial radio and television. He founded the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) and throughout most of his career he led the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in various capacities from shortly after its founding in 1919 until his retirement in 1970. He ruled over an ever-growing telecommunications and consumer electronics empire to include both RCA and NBC, which became one of the largest companies in the world. Named a Reserve Brigadier General of the Signal Corps in 1945, Sarnoff thereafter was widely known as "The General."[1] Sarnoff is credited with Sarnoff's law, which states that the value of a broadcast network is proportional to the number of viewers.

 

Basics:

Born:  February 27, 1891(1891-02-27) near Minsk, Russian Empire (now Belarus)

 

Died: December 12, 1971 (aged 80) New York City, New York, USA

Nationality:  American

 

Religion:  Jewish

Fields:   Business

Main Accomplishments:  David Sarnoff, who is commonly regarded as the “father of television,” began his career as a Russian immigrant working as a messenger for a telegraph company. He conceived the idea of “radio music boxes,” predicting they would become household items. He also predicted the advent of television and fostered its technical development. He himself was broadcast from the 1939 World’s Fair in one of the first televised pictures announcing that the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) would begin daily programming. He went on to build the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), which owned NBC at that time, into a worldwide conglomerate, retiring in 1966.

 

Chronology of Life Events:

1891

David Sarnoff born.

1915

Submitted proposal to Marconi Company for “radio music box.”

1921

Appointed general manager of RCA.

1926

Launched the National Broadcasting Company (NBC).

1939

Led first public demonstration of television by NBC at World’s Fair.

1944

Promoted to brigadier general and awarded Legion of Merit for service in World War II.

1947

Elected chairman of RCA.

1950

Led efforts to establish color television standards. RCA reported $46 million profit and employed 54,000 persons.

1966

Retired from RCA.

1971

Died in New York City.

 

Early Life:

David Sarnoff was born in Uzlian, a small Jewish village near the city of Minsk , Russian Empire (now in Belarus), to a poor Jewish family, the eldest son of Abraham and Leah Sarnoff. Given the limited opportunities for Jews in Russia at that time, 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 spent much of his early childhood in a cheder studying and memorizing the Torah. He emigrated with his mother and three brothers and one sister to New York City in 1900, where he helped support his family by selling newspapers for a penny before and after his classes at the Educational Alliance. In 1906 his father became incapacitated by tuberculosis; and at age 15, David was forced to work to feed his mother, ailing father, and siblings.[2] He had planned to pursue a full-time career in the newspaper business, but 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 September 30, 1906, and thus started a career of over sixty years in electronic communications.

Over the next thirteen years Sarnoff rose from office boy to commercial manager of the company, learning about the technology and the business of electronic communications on the job and in various libraries. He also served at Marconi stations on ships and posts on Siasconset, Nantucket and the New York Wanamaker Department Store. In 1911 he installed and operated the 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 the Titanic.[3] Learning early the value of self-promotion and publicity, Sarnoff falsely advanced himself both as the sole hero who stayed by his telegraph key for three days to receive information on the Titanic's survivors and as the prescient prophet of broadcasting who predicted the medium's rise in 1916.[2]

Regarding the Titanic story, some modern media historians question whether Sarnoff was even at the telegraph key at all. As the profile done for the Museum of Broadcast Communications correctly points out, by the time of the Titanic in 1912, Sarnoff was in management, and no longer a telegrapher; plus, the event occurred on a Sunday, when the store would have been closed. (see footnote 2) Regarding the "radio music box" prediction, the memo he allegedly wrote making that claim has never been found, but Louise Benjamin, the author of the 1993 article which expressed skepticism about it has since back-tracked somewhat. She and the curator of Sarnoff's papers found a previously mis-filed 1916 memo that did mention Sarnoff and a "radio music box scheme" (the word "scheme" in 1916 usually meant a plan); Benjamin wrote a follow-up article about Sarnoff and the radio music box in 2002. (See Louise Benjamin articles in References, below)

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. That same year Marconi won a patent suit that gave it the coastal stations of the United Wireless Telegraph Company. Sarnoff also demonstrated the first use of radio on a railroad line, the Lackawanna Railroad Company's link between Binghamton, New York, and Scranton, Pennsylvania; and permitted and observed Edwin Armstrong's demonstration of his regenerative receiver at the Marconi station at Belmar, New Jersey. Sarnoff 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 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. Thoughtout the war years, Sarnoff remained Marconi's Commercial Manager,[1] including oversight of the company's factory in Roselle Park, New Jersey.

 

Wife Background:

Lizette Hermant, wife of David Sarnoff they got married on July 04, 1917. Their 54-year marriage survived Sarnoff's occasional philanderings and proved the bedrock of his life. They had three sons: Robert, Edward, and Thomas. Robert succeeded his father as RCA's president.

 

Father Background:

 

Abraham Sarnoff, was a Jewish painter in a shtetl of Uzlian in Russia. Needless to say, they were very poor. In 1896, Abraham came to the United States with a large influx of other Russian Jews. The idea was to make enough money to bring the rest of the family over in time. David would not see his father again for four years.

 

In 1900, his father had made enough money to bring the rest of his family over to the United States. His father had endured some hard times in New York, doing menial jobs which only sometimes included house painting or paperhanging. This did much in destroying his health. Instead of coming over to the United States and into the harbor, his mother chose a cheaper much longer way of getting to the United States. They finally arrived in Manhattan on July 2,1900. Through a mixup in communications, Abraham was waiting for them at a different dock. They finally met up later that evening. The family was quite shocked at the sheer magnitude of the city. They obviously had never seen anything so huge as the city of New York in their lives. They also were shocked to see the poor health David's father was in. Their new home was a fourth story flat on Monroe Street on the lower East Side. Obviously Abraham had not fared too well in America. David saw the squalor they lived in and decided that he had to do something about it. At nine years of age, he was going to have to become the family breadwinner.

 

Mother Background:

Leah Privin, mother of David Sarnoff who wanted him to be a scholar, sent Sarnoff to his uncle, a rabbi, where for five years he studied the Talmud for 15 hours a day. In 1905, he and his family joined his father in America.

 
 
SuperAttainer

ANALYSIS SECTION:

 
 
1. Early Success
 

When did the SuperAttainer first display ability that was greatly above average and what were his accomplishments? 
 

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2. Contrarian

 
What actions did the SuperAttainer take that demonstrated a mindset that was very different from those around him?
 

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3. Conceited
 
What are the actions and documented statements that exhibit an elevated sense of self importance of the SuperAttainer? 
 
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4. Hard-Knocked 
 
During what events did the SuperAttainer experience personal misery and severe anxiety?
  

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5. Loner
 
Is there evidence of the SuperAttainer being comfortable spending time apart from others? 
 

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6. Mentored & Motivated
 
Who was vital to developing the SuperAttainer and guiding his career and what significant actions were taken?
 

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7. Discontent
 
What evidence is there that the SuperAttainer was unsatisfied with even great personal accomplishment?
 

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8. Promoted
 
What actions or events were responsible for publicizing the tremendous achievements and abilities of the SuperAttainer?
 

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Overall Score:

x out of 8 = xx% 

PASS

SuperAttainer Type:

Describe the factors in the SuperAttainer’s background to indicate whether he is a Come-From-Nothing or Aristocratic type..

Conclusion:

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