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00:01They are in 90% of American households,
00:04with a quarter billion shipped globally each year,
00:08and nearly a decade of our lives
00:10spent glued to their screens.
00:13Television has become life, and life has become television.
00:17But one century ago, the idea of sending images
00:20through the air electronically is science fiction.
00:24The future is electric television.
00:27Until a poor farm boy with a genius idea
00:31grows up to take on a ruthless radio mogul
00:35in a race to bring this revolutionary machine to the world.
00:39Seeing Farnsworth go up against RCA
00:42is this classic underdog story.
00:45It's an epic battle of outsized egos,
00:48dirty tricks, and bad blood.
00:51I want you to blow Mr. Farnsworth's pants to smithereens!
00:54You may be able to push everyone else around, but not me.
00:57But with billions at stake,
00:59only one man will make history.
01:04This is Titans of Television.
01:08It's 1921.
01:20While the decade that will become known as the Roaring Twenties is just beginning,
01:26mass popular entertainment is in its infancy.
01:41Entertainment that everyone is sharing and experiencing at the same time,
01:45news events that everyone is experiencing at the same time,
01:48that's a really novel thing.
01:51Cinema is still silent.
01:53And one brand new medium, radio, is a luxury.
01:58At a time when Americans earn about 16 cents an hour,
02:01radios cost $200, too expensive to be common in homes.
02:06Most still think of radio only as a way to send messages,
02:11a wireless telegraph.
02:13The notion that we would send entertainment over the air,
02:18that we would gather around a radio in the night
02:22and listen to a concert from hundreds of miles away,
02:25that really hadn't occurred to a lot of people.
02:34If we can't own the device, we're not interested.
02:36RCA does not pay royalties.
02:39We collect them.
02:44But one low-level executive at RCA,
02:47the Radio Corporation of America,
02:49sees this technology as his way to the top.
02:5430-year-old David Sarnoff has been obsessed with making his mark
02:58since he stepped off the boat from Russia.
03:01When Sarnoff first got here,
03:04he didn't know any English,
03:06but he wound up selling newspapers on the street
03:08without knowing any English.
03:09I mean, the guy was a hustler.
03:12That hustle got him a job
03:14at the company of radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi,
03:18when one day Sarnoff, just a teenage office boy,
03:21encountered his famous boss on the street.
03:24And Sarnoff introduces himself.
03:27You know, I'm David Sarnoff.
03:29May I be of assistance.
03:30He became his valet,
03:33his personal assistant.
03:35He wanted to become a great man like Marconi
03:39and grow up to be someone who changed the world.
03:42One day, Sarnoff will be known as the father of television
03:47and the man who launched NBC,
03:53the longest-running TV network of all time,
03:56now worth some $30 billion.
04:01Back in July 1921,
04:03the world still has no idea who Sarnoff is.
04:06That's about to change.
04:16He's trying something that's never been done,
04:18broadcasting a huge sporting event live.
04:22It's the fight of the century.
04:24American Jack Dempsey versus George Carpentier of France.
04:30And to pull it off,
04:31Sarnoff's putting thousands of RCA's dollars
04:34and his own job on the line.
04:37They just thought it's this weird little thing
04:39that Sarnoff wants to do.
04:41They didn't really see the potential.
04:44July 2, 1921,
04:46the largest crowd ever assembled in America
04:49for any sporting event.
04:53To make sure a big audience can tune in,
04:56Sarnoff's set up dozens of listening stations,
04:59everywhere from theaters to town squares.
05:03Can they hear you?
05:06But he's using World War I-era military equipment,
05:10not built to transmit for long periods.
05:15There's that good right hand by Carpentier.
05:18Dempsey still advancing on George Carpentier.
05:21Quickly right hands by Carpentier.
05:24How many people are in the theater?
05:27Can everybody hear?
05:28Can everybody hear?
05:33I said, can everybody hear?
05:40And it's anybody's mind.
05:46By the fourth round,
05:47Sarnoff's in trouble.
05:49His transmitter is fading.
05:52He needs the fight to end
05:53before it fails altogether
05:55and cuts off thousands of listeners
05:57from hearing the outcome.
06:02Come on.
06:04Come on.
06:07And down those Carpentier.
06:13Five, four, nine, ten, and out!
06:18Yes!
06:20Moments later,
06:21the overburdened transmitter blows.
06:24But the world's first live sportscast
06:27is a sensation
06:29with 300,000 listeners.
06:32David Sarnoff was such a promoter.
06:35He was a real operator,
06:36a genius in business.
06:38In a way, he reminds me a little bit of Elon Musk,
06:41who often is over-promising
06:44or doing something dramatic for publicity,
06:47but at the same time building incredible technology.
06:50Within three years, RCA sells $80 million in home radio sets.
07:04Sophie, will you come in, please?
07:06Sarnoff is elevated to vice president,
07:09and now he's pushing the top brass at RCA
07:12to invest in his next dream.
07:14I believe that television,
07:16which is the technical name for seeing
07:19instead of hearing by radio,
07:21will come to pass in due course.
07:24The only question is, how does he do it?
07:26Someone unexpected may have already beaten him to the answer.
07:37A 14-year-old Idaho farm boy.
07:41His name is Philo T. Farnsworth.
07:44First of all, where but in America
07:46do you even get a name like that?
07:48And Farnsworth is just such a great American story.
07:52His family, as far as we know, didn't even have a radio.
07:56He'd only recently moved to a house that had electricity.
08:00But he told members of his family
08:03that he wanted to be an inventor like Thomas Edison.
08:07In 1921, Farnsworth has his head buried
08:11in the latest science magazines,
08:13obsessively reading everything he can
08:15about what will one day be called television.
08:18At the time, the only device that exists
08:22is a crude one known as mechanical television.
08:25Giant spinning discs with holes,
08:28each with a camera lens.
08:30The spinning disc would capture pieces of an image
08:33over and over and kind of piece them together like a flipbook.
08:36At this point, they were never able to get any kind of resolution
08:41more than a thumbnail or a postage stamp,
08:44blurry image, and you couldn't tell what it was.
08:48Farnsworth believes the key is a new device called the vacuum tube.
08:54It's already been used in radio to transmit sound.
08:57He thinks it can do the same with images.
09:03But he has no idea how.
09:04While staring at the family's potato field, Farnsworth suddenly imagines a new way
09:21to make television.
09:23You plow a field by doing one row, and doing another, and then another.
09:28That's it. That was his bolt from the blue.
09:31He envisions a system that would break an image into horizontal lines
09:35and reassemble those lines into a picture on the other end.
09:51Farnsworth realized that the secret of television was that it was delivered in little bits,
09:59and those bits had to be organized.
10:01And his idea was to organize them in lines that would be constantly scanned over and over again.
10:08It will be the foundation of nearly all the world's television systems for the next 60 years.
10:14Farnsworth calls his idea electric television.
10:19But in 1921, the concept seems bizarre.
10:23He first told his father, who said you should keep it secret.
10:26He thought people would think his son was strange.
10:32After months of silence, Farnsworth finally tells the only person he thinks might understand.
10:38His high school science teacher, Justin Tolman.
10:41So, you know about television?
10:42The spinning discs, right?
10:44Forget that. The future is electric television.
10:51Oh, I'm lost.
10:53Okay.
10:59Here. This is simpler.
11:01By 1927, American industry is booming, accounting for nearly half of the entire planet's economic output.
11:19And the hottest sector of all is tech.
11:21We have aviation, we have cars, we have radio.
11:26The stock market takes off during the 1920s, which means there's more money to be invested on innovations.
11:31And new technologies are everywhere.
11:34One technology that's benefiting, electronic television.
11:45Philo Farnsworth has secured a $25,000 investment for his idea.
11:50No longer an Idaho farm boy, Farnsworth has traveled west, along with his new wife, Pem, to chase his dream.
11:57The technology he's trying to develop is a new kind of vacuum tube.
12:03He calls it his image dissector.
12:06The image dissector is really the world's first electronic television camera.
12:11But after months of effort, Farnsworth can't get it to work.
12:16We've got to wait for it to heat up.
12:19Let's start again.
12:37The image dissector tube was structurally unsound.
12:40And there was a danger that it was going to implode at any moment.
12:44The tube had to be created in the right shape.
12:47It had to be big enough.
12:48He had fires in his laboratory.
12:50He was just working out all these problems.
12:53After months of failures and a crash course in the art of glassblowing,
12:58Farnsworth finally lands on a much larger design that doesn't blow up.
13:04But now, Farnsworth has to prove his new tube can capture clear, moving images.
13:11I'm turning on the receiver tube.
13:12Transmitting a simple vertical line painted on a glass slide.
13:18Here we go.
13:21Cliff, insert the slide.
13:28It's not very clear.
13:29I'm just going to adjust the focusing coil.
13:48Turn the slide a quarter turn, Cliff.
13:50It's not very clear.
13:51It's not very clear.
13:52It's not very clear.
13:53It's not very clear.
13:54It's not very clear.
13:55It's not very clear.
13:56It's not very clear.
13:58Well, that's it, folks.
13:59There you have electronic television.
14:00Looking back on it for us, it doesn't seem like a lot.
14:01But that's the first time anybody has ever sent a moving picture over the airwaves.
14:16Today, we'd be like, how can you get so excited about that line?
14:19But for him, after all the blood, sweat, and tears, it finally works.
14:24And he literally can see the light.
14:28Farnsworth applies for a patent.
14:30And in 1928, his breakthrough makes front page news.
14:34In New York, after two years of effort, David Sarnoff's engineers are still experimenting with primitive mechanical television and have little to show for it.
14:51Sarnoff sees this little Philo Farnsworth from Midwestern United States as having done what their teams of inventors couldn't do.
15:01What is going on?
15:02To head off his new rival, Sarnoff pens an op-ed about television in the New York Times.
15:09He says, RCA is going to be the company that perfects this system.
15:13So don't buy into anybody else's system.
15:18But on October 29th, 1929, the stock market crash puts the emerging TV wars on ice.
15:26Innovation depends on a certain degree of confidence in future markets.
15:33And so one of the things the Depression did was basically put this real crimp on innovation.
15:38Farnsworth's tiny operation is suddenly on the brink of ruin.
15:47His most valuable asset, his TV design, still awaits approval at the U.S. Patent Office.
15:53He was running out of money. He couldn't raise more money.
15:58And although he was still a young man, it began to take a toll.
16:02In New York, RCA takes a major hit as well.
16:08Sarnoff lays off several hundred RCA employees and has his $80,000 salary slashed almost in half.
16:18Even so, Americans still hold on to their radios.
16:23When times got really bad during the Great Depression, people were more willing to have all of their furniture repossessed than to give up their radio.
16:34Despite the financial challenges caused by the Depression, Sarnoff doubles down and buys up radio stations nationwide on the cheap, building the very first broadcast network, NBC.
16:48He then uses them to innovate something new and profitable.
16:53Have a bottle of ice cold Coke and shop refreshed.
16:57Commercials.
16:58Can you imagine how messaging can be crafted and shaped to create a nationwide buzz over a product or an idea?
17:08That was impossible before the creation of the radio network.
17:15Not tomorrow. I want it done now.
17:19In 1930, Sarnoff is promoted to president of RCA.
17:24Flush with money from NBC's ads, he now has the funds and the power to try to overtake Farnsworth in the race for TV.
17:34And Sarnoff is willing to play dirty to win.
17:37He found out about a scientist who was also on the trail of electronic television. And he started hatching a plan.
17:49Vladimir Zworkin is smart. He's clever. Probably not as clever as Farnsworth, but he's imaginative.
17:59Zworkin has been working for years at Westinghouse, an RCA competitor. But his bosses don't see much value in his ideas.
18:09It is a receiving tube that I have been working on for some years.
18:22The screen will show a picture of five inches. Clear enough for more than one person to see.
18:29Farnsworth had a working camera. Zworkin had a working receiver. So in a sense, they had two pieces of the puzzle.
18:47How much do you think it will cost to develop this device?
18:53$100,000.
18:59Welcome to RCA.
19:04David Sarnoff steals Vladimir Zworkin from a competitor.
19:09But his first assignment for him won't be as an engineer.
19:13He's a engineer.
19:14He's an engineer.
19:19He's a engineer.
19:22He's a engineer.
19:26They're a engineer.
19:28He's a engineer.
19:33We went for another one to a pothole.
19:35He was a engineer.
19:38He's an engineer.
19:39He's an engineer.
19:40So glad you could make it.
19:51Please.
19:54The image dissector has a very specific design.
19:57Have a look at the flat end.
20:02In April 1930, a struggling Philo T. Farnsworth
20:06welcomes engineer Vladimir Zwerken to his lab.
20:10Farnsworth knows of Zwerken's experiments in television,
20:13but not his relationship with RCA mogul David Sarnoff.
20:25Should we be showing him all this?
20:29Zwerken's a scientist. He's no thief.
20:35Plus, a patent will protect us.
20:37Zwerken spends three days in Farnsworth's lab,
20:42and he asks a lot of questions, a lot of detailed questions.
20:47This is a beautiful instrument.
20:52I wish I designed it myself.
20:55Just that little bit of know-how,
20:57just knowing how it should be done,
20:59can be an incredible advantage
21:01for those that have that knowledge.
21:11Despite that,
21:13Sarnoff re-evaluates when Farnsworth's patent is approved.
21:17Convinced his work is an imminent threat to RCA,
21:20Sarnoff tries to buy it outright.
21:22We are to own all Mr. Farnsworth's patents,
21:26as well as his lab space.
21:28Sarnoff knows Farnsworth's lab desperately needs an infusion of cash.
21:33And the equipment.
21:35Sarnoff would make a $100,000 offer
21:38for Farnsworth's lab
21:40and for the services of Farnsworth himself.
21:44Tell Mr. Sarnoff he may be able to push everyone else around,
21:47but not me.
21:48Maybe we should not.
21:50The answer is no.
21:51Especially in the backdrop of the depression,
21:54that was a gutsy move.
21:56Most passionate inventors will do that.
22:00They believe so much in what they have
22:02that they don't want to let go of the baby.
22:05But Sarnoff won't let a simple no stop him.
22:08Back at the RCA laboratories in Camden, New Jersey,
22:19Zwarkin formed a team
22:21known as the Get Around Farnsworth Department.
22:26The idea was to reverse engineer Farnsworth's system
22:30that Zwarkin had seen,
22:31but to try to do it in a way
22:33that didn't violate Farnsworth's patents.
22:38Meanwhile, Zwarkin's undercover job at RCA
22:42is discovered by his rivals.
22:45They were alarmed.
22:48David Sarnoff already had a reputation
22:50of taking other people's ideas.
22:54You can't be naive,
22:55and you've got to have the proper checks and balances,
22:58the proper insulation,
23:00or someone's going to steal it.
23:01You know, unfortunately, that's life.
23:03Then, a cash-strapped Farnsworth
23:10gets an unexpected lifeline.
23:13RCA's rival, radio maker Philco,
23:16have finally realized
23:17the goldmine potential of television.
23:20But they're starting from square one,
23:22so they bring in Farnsworth
23:23to catapult them instantly ahead,
23:26and they let him retain control of his patent.
23:29It seemed providential.
23:31It seemed like a good fit.
23:33They gave him some of the corporate structure
23:35and the financial backing.
23:41The interesting thing is that the Philco building
23:44was on one side of the Delaware River in Philadelphia.
23:48On the other side was Camden, New Jersey,
23:50home of RCA Laboratories.
23:52If Mr. Sarnoff is still in the building,
23:58go get him.
24:00Zworkin and RCA
24:01pick up Farnsworth's experimental transmissions,
24:04now growing more advanced
24:06and coming from just a few hundred yards away.
24:09What am I looking at here?
24:11It has to be Farnsworth.
24:17What he sees doesn't make Sarnoff happy.
24:20Farnsworth is ahead of him again.
24:23And his patent is so broadly worded,
24:25simply titled television system,
24:28that it seems untouchable.
24:32A television system?
24:34That's like me patenting the desk!
24:37I want you to blow Mr. Farnsworth's patents
24:40to smithereens!
24:43Sarnoff wages a holy war on Farnsworth.
24:46In 1932, he takes legal action
24:50to invalidate Farnsworth's patent,
24:52claiming an earlier application
24:54filed by Vladimir Zworkin takes precedent.
24:58Then, Sarnoff delivers another blow.
25:01Give me Jim Skinner from Philco on the phone.
25:05Farnsworth's backer, Philco,
25:07licenses RCA technology to build its radios.
25:11Sarnoff called the higher muckety-mucks at Philco
25:15and said,
25:16if you don't stop your television effort,
25:19you're not going to be able to get your license
25:21to produce radios from us,
25:24we'll cut you off.
25:32Sarnoff got Philo fired from the project.
25:38You could co-op your enemies,
25:41you could destroy your enemies.
25:43Sarnoff followed that perfectly.
25:46Sarnoff was playing with brass knuckles.
25:48By spring 1934,
26:01David Sarnoff and RCA
26:03have been waging a legal battle
26:05for nearly two years
26:07to invalidate the television patent
26:09of Philo T. Farnsworth.
26:12RCA still hasn't quite figured out
26:15a way to make television.
26:17that isn't somewhat similar
26:20to Farnsworth's patent.
26:25Seeing Farnsworth go up against RCA
26:28is sort of this classic underdog story.
26:32But Farnsworth,
26:33still without corporate backing
26:35after being axed by Philco,
26:37is starting to crumble.
26:39Farnsworth was under a lot of pressure.
26:42Farnsworth at that point
26:43is drinking a lot.
26:45And he was thinking about this
26:47around the clock.
26:49That April,
26:51the two sides present their arguments
26:52to a panel from the U.S. Patent Office.
26:55Mr. Sorkin,
26:56during your visit
26:57to Mr. Farnsworth's lab,
26:59did you say,
27:00quote,
27:02this is a beautiful instrument,
27:03I wish I had invented it myself,
27:06unquote?
27:06I was just trying to be polite.
27:13RCA focuses on whose idea
27:15for electronic television came first.
27:18I would like to say
27:19that I devised my television system
27:21long ago,
27:22in 1923.
27:24I filed for a patent.
27:25Well,
27:26Mr. Farnsworth had his idea
27:28well before that.
27:29You have no proof of that,
27:30do you?
27:30Farnsworth's team
27:34is convinced he's losing,
27:35but they might have
27:36one last ace in the hole.
27:43Excuse me,
27:44I'm looking for a teacher
27:45named Justin Tolman.
27:47That's me,
27:49but I'm retired.
27:50Remember a student
27:51named Philo Farnsworth?
27:53He actually goes
27:56and finds his high school teacher
27:57with hopes
27:59that there's some evidence
28:01that his teacher
28:02might retain
28:04somehow
28:05that would save
28:06his invention
28:07and maintain
28:08his intellectual property.
28:10He goes to his attic
28:12and he digs through
28:13dusty notebooks
28:14and he flips through the pages
28:16and there it is,
28:17Farnsworth's drawing
28:18of an image dissector.
28:20In summation,
28:21I state without reservation
28:24that Mr. Farnsworth
28:26diagrammed for me
28:26a system of electronic television
28:28in 1922,
28:31so sworn by Justin Tolman
28:33of Salt Lake City, Utah.
28:44Eventually,
28:45the board issues
28:46its decision.
28:48Farnsworth's patent
28:49is upheld.
28:51Anyone who markets
28:53a television system
28:54that uses his technology
28:55will have to both credit him
28:57and pay him fees.
29:00I can only imagine
29:00just the feeling
29:02of satisfaction
29:03that Farnsworth
29:04must have had
29:05in that moment.
29:06It's a huge victory.
29:08The win over RCA
29:16attracts new investors
29:17and Farnsworth
29:18begins plans
29:19to launch
29:20his own company
29:21at an old
29:22phonograph factory
29:23in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
29:25But the good feelings
29:26are short-lived.
29:28Well, it seems like
29:29David has beaten
29:29Goliath here, right?
29:31But these court fights
29:32have been not just
29:33financially draining
29:35on Farnsworth,
29:36but emotionally
29:37draining too.
29:39Despite winning
29:40the case,
29:41Farnsworth faces
29:42today's equivalent
29:43of a half million dollars
29:44in unpaid legal bills.
29:48He needs cash quick.
29:51But thanks
29:51to financial regulations
29:53following the stock market crash,
29:55his attempt
29:55to start a publicly traded company
29:57is delayed
29:58by the government.
29:59It's late.
30:15I just want to work
30:16a little more.
30:18He started to drink heavily,
30:19not just at night,
30:20but during the day.
30:21And he got a prescription
30:23for chloral hydrate
30:25as a sedative.
30:27That also became
30:29a problem.
30:31And mentally,
30:32he's getting
30:33very depressed.
30:34So he's
30:35beginning to crack.
30:39It's come to the point
30:41of choosing
30:41whether I want
30:43to be a drunk
30:43or
30:44go crazy.
30:47And Philo Farnsworth
30:54has no idea
30:55that David Sarnoff
30:56is about to make
30:57his most audacious move
30:59of all.
30:59From far and near
31:19come countless visitors.
31:21They arrive to view
31:22the marvels
31:23of the greatest exposition
31:24in history.
31:25On April 30, 1939,
31:28the World's Fair
31:29begins on a sprawling
31:311,200-acre site
31:32in Flushing, Queens.
31:34With another world war
31:36brewing in Europe,
31:37America is out
31:38to display
31:39its inventive might.
31:41We've come out
31:42of the Depression.
31:43It's a chance
31:44for every country
31:45and large corporations
31:47to show off
31:48the best of what they have
31:49to everybody else.
31:50The theme
31:51of the six-month exposition
31:53is the world of tomorrow.
31:56Among the futuristic
31:57inventions unveiled,
31:58nylon fabric,
32:01a toy called
32:02the Viewmaster,
32:03and, thanks to David Sarnoff,
32:07RCA's new state-of-the-art
32:09television.
32:11RCA builds
32:12a 9,000-square-foot pavilion
32:14to show off
32:16its new TRK-12
32:17television sets,
32:19including a specially-made model
32:21displayed like a work of art.
32:23Beautiful, big television set.
32:26Instead of being made of wood,
32:28it's made of lucite,
32:30the new miracle
32:32see-through plastic.
32:34Cameras are there
32:35to show visitors
32:36on screen, live.
32:38It's really hard
32:39to recapture
32:40what it was like
32:41the first time
32:42people saw themselves
32:43on camera.
32:45It was a remarkable thing,
32:46you know,
32:46wait, oh, that's me,
32:47I'm doing that right now.
32:49It had never happened before,
32:50and people who saw it,
32:53they were blown away
32:54by the whole idea.
32:58Sarnoff himself
32:59dedicates the exhibit
33:00with a speech beamed
33:01to several hundred
33:03RCA prototype
33:04television receivers
33:05scattered across New York.
33:07We have arranged
33:09this demonstration
33:09in the spirit
33:11of greatest possible
33:12cooperation
33:13with our licensees.
33:14What no one knows
33:16is that David Sarnoff's
33:17television system,
33:18particularly the camera,
33:20is still using aspects
33:22of Philo Farnsworth's
33:23technology,
33:24a fact Sarnoff
33:25is brazenly ignoring.
33:28Sarnoff just made
33:28the decision,
33:29screw it,
33:29I'm going to do it,
33:30and I'm going to kind of
33:31seize the narrative.
33:33He who stands
33:34on the mountaintop
33:35and beats their chest
33:36and screams the loudest
33:37very often wins.
33:38The birth of television
33:40happened really
33:42as a fake news event.
33:44Sarnoff knew
33:45he was on the hook
33:46and had a lot
33:46of liability,
33:48but he went ahead anyway.
33:55We have prepared
33:56a special motion picture film
33:58for this demonstration
33:59and will now
34:00transmit it to you
34:02so that you...
34:03By pure coincidence,
34:05Farnsworth is in New York
34:06for a meeting
34:07with his investors.
34:08So that you might
34:09judge for yourself
34:10the extent
34:11of the technological progress
34:13we have made
34:14in television.
34:17Sarnoff is broadcasting
34:19the birth of television
34:20and essentially
34:22was taking credit
34:23for the invention.
34:24The long years
34:26of patient experimenting
34:27and a genius invention
34:29by the scientists
34:29of RCA
34:30have been crowned
34:32with success.
34:33Radio enabled man
34:35to send a whisper
34:36around the earth.
34:37and now
34:38we add radio sight
34:40to sound.
34:42I thank you.
34:46And that was the official
34:48birth of television
34:49happening
34:50without Farnsworth.
34:52Inventors and entrepreneurs
34:55too share something
34:56and that's a kind
34:57of obsession
34:58with achieving
34:59their vision.
35:00Sometimes it can border
35:01on the fanatic.
35:03Farnsworth sees his destiny
35:05wrapped up in the future
35:06of television
35:07but it's left him
35:08very much a broken man.
35:10At one point
35:11his sister
35:13said that
35:14he suffered a nervous collapse,
35:16a nervous breakdown.
35:17Later
35:18the guy
35:19who built
35:20his whole career
35:21on controlling electricity
35:22now found himself
35:24strapped to a table
35:26at this facility
35:27in Massachusetts
35:28and electrodes
35:30strapped to his head.
35:33A terrible
35:34dark chapter.
35:38Philo Farnsworth
35:39has been dealt
35:40a major blow
35:41by Sarnoff's gambit
35:42at the World's Fair
35:44but he still carries
35:46one last hope.
35:49His patent.
35:59It's late summer
36:001939.
36:02David Sarnoff
36:03has just claimed
36:04RCA invented television
36:06at the New York
36:07World's Fair
36:07even though he knowingly
36:09used his rival's
36:10patented technology.
36:12He wanted
36:13the narrative
36:14to be
36:14RCA
36:15gets television first.
36:17Philo Farnsworth
36:18remains in ill health
36:20but his corporation
36:21finally gets
36:22official approval
36:23and begins
36:24making noise
36:25about suing RCA.
36:28Knowing the damages
36:30from a lawsuit
36:30could be severe
36:31Sarnoff makes a move
36:33no one expects.
36:35Okay let's make this quick
36:36I have lunch here.
36:38In 1940
36:39Sarnoff
36:40finally agrees
36:41to license
36:42Farnsworth's patent
36:43for a $1 million fee
36:45plus royalties
36:46on RCA television sets.
36:49Okay
36:50I trust we're done.
36:53Good afternoon gentlemen.
36:58Sarnoff understood
37:00the power
37:00of a good story
37:02and a good story
37:03is
37:04we invented television.
37:06That's a good story.
37:07A less good story
37:09is there was this other guy
37:11and then we used
37:12some technology
37:12and then he said
37:14that it was corporate espionage
37:15but we did it anyway.
37:16That's a bad story.
37:17All of their
37:18bullying tactics
37:20all of their attempts
37:21to buy him out
37:22did all come to nothing.
37:23but Farnsworth's victory
37:25is short lived.
37:30When the US
37:31enters World War II
37:32work on television
37:34ceases
37:34as both RCA
37:36and Farnsworth's company
37:37switch
37:38to wartime production.
37:41The delay
37:42means a new problem
37:44for Farnsworth.
37:45Sarnoff has time
37:46on his side
37:47whereas Farnsworth
37:49has these patents
37:50that have a time clock
37:51on them.
37:52Farnsworth's original patent
37:53is going to expire.
37:55It expires in 1947.
38:05When the war ends
38:06in 1945
38:07Farnsworth attempts
38:09to jumpstart
38:10his TV company
38:11but the clock's running out.
38:13Farnsworth starts
38:14making TVs
38:15rolling them out.
38:17They're very high end.
38:19They're advertised
38:20in the best magazines
38:22but they don't sell
38:23that well
38:24and the company
38:26is losing money.
38:29They are for the elite,
38:31the effete.
38:32Boy, what a contrast
38:33when you think about
38:34how David Sarnoff
38:36approached this.
38:37Joe Lewis puts
38:38the finishing touches
38:39on his training
38:40for the June 19th title bout
38:41with Billy Kahn.
38:44In 1946,
38:46Sarnoff makes a bold move.
38:47He stages the first ever
38:50TV broadcast
38:51of a heavyweight title bout
38:52on NBC
38:53between Joe Lewis
38:55and Billy Kahn
38:56and sells expensive
38:58RCA televisions
38:59to bars
39:00so the public
39:01can watch it.
39:03The broadcast
39:03draws 140,000 viewers
39:06in New York City alone,
39:09jumpstarting demand
39:10for TVs.
39:11In the two years
39:13after Farnsworth's patent
39:15expires,
39:16RCA sells
39:17a million TVs,
39:19capturing an overwhelming
39:2080% of the market.
39:23Sarnoff was this person
39:24that in the minds
39:25of many Americans
39:27really had thought
39:29of a new world
39:30of communication
39:31and through RCA
39:33had made that happen.
39:35At the beginning
39:36of the 1950s,
39:38there are 3 million TV sets
39:40in the United States.
39:41By the end of the decade,
39:43there are 55 million.
39:45It's the sign of success
39:48and it's the symbol
39:49of the age.
39:50It becomes a way
39:51in which Americans
39:52demonstrate to each other
39:53that frankly,
39:54they're doing well enough
39:55to buy a television.
39:56It is a space
39:57where Americans
39:58experience together
40:00some of their greatest triumphs
40:01and tragedies.
40:03Television becomes
40:04a huge driver
40:05of social change
40:06and cultural transformation.
40:11Traditional television usage
40:13will continue
40:14to increase steadily
40:15for 50 years
40:16when it hits a peak
40:18of nine hours per day
40:19for the average household
40:21in 2010.
40:23By then,
40:24TV is as common
40:25in America
40:25as indoor plumbing.
40:28The man who believes
40:30he invented television,
40:31however,
40:32won't even let
40:33his children watch it.
40:36Of course,
40:36he was bitter.
40:38He was really written
40:39out of history.
40:41The Farnsworth Television
40:42and Radio Corporation
40:43is sold in 1949
40:45and ultimately
40:47goes out of business.
40:48The inventor himself
40:50leaves the TV industry
40:51behind by the early 1950s.
40:54He did have
40:55what I would say
40:56is a final redeeming moment.
40:58In July 1969,
41:13Farnsworth,
41:13now retired,
41:14finds himself
41:15watching the greatest event
41:17in television history
41:18to date.
41:20A record 600 million people
41:22worldwide
41:23are tuned in,
41:25waiting for Apollo 11
41:26to become the first
41:28manned spacecraft
41:29to land on the moon.
41:31Hey, Neil,
41:31we can see you coming
41:32down the ladder now.
41:33Hey, Neil,
41:34we can see you coming
41:34up and collapse.
41:35For Philo Farnsworth,
41:37who knows the role
41:38he played
41:38in making this experience
41:40possible,
41:41it is a reward of sorts
41:42for the work that began
41:44when he was just a kid
41:45in high school.
41:46I'm at the foot
41:48of the ladder.
41:49The LAM footbeds
41:50are only here.
41:51And after a long wait,
41:53Neil Armstrong
41:54comes out of the module
41:55sets a foot on the moon.
41:58Farnsworth gives a big sigh
42:00and he says,
42:01Pem,
42:02this has made it
42:03all worthwhile.
42:06That's one small step
42:07for man,
42:10one giant leap
42:13for mankind.
42:13That's one small step
42:15for mankind.
42:17That's the goal
42:18that we can't
42:19all our people
42:19can get a dig
42:20of the universe.
42:21But we have to
42:22make it
42:23what we want
42:24to be able
42:25for mankind.
42:25If we had to
42:26the whole world
42:27of our people
42:27and the whole world
42:28of our people
42:30and the whole world
42:31of us,
42:32we can't
42:32have to be able
42:33to all these
42:34of the heroes.
42:35And so we're
42:36all about
42:37the people
42:37and the people
42:38of us,
42:39we can't
42:39take it
42:40and take it
Recommended
43:12
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