David Sarnoff facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
David Sarnoff
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| Давид Сарнов | |
Sarnoff in 1922
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| Born | February 27, 1891 |
| Died | December 12, 1971 (aged 80) New York City, U.S.
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| Resting place | Kensico Cemetery Valhalla, New York, U.S. |
| Citizenship | American |
| Years active | 1919–1970 |
| Employer |
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| Board member of |
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| Spouse(s) |
Lizette Hermant
(m. 1917) |
| Children | 3, including Robert W. Sarnoff |
| Relatives | Eugene Lyons, Bernie Privin, Richard Baer, Bruce J. Oreck |
| Awards |
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| Military career | |
| Nickname(s) | "The General" |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Service/ |
 United States Army |
| Years of service | 1941–1945 |
| Rank | Brigadier General |
| Unit | Army Signal Corps |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
| Awards |
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David Sarnoff (born February 27, 1891 – died December 12, 1971) was an American businessman who was born in Russia. He was a true pioneer in the world of radio and television. For most of his career, he led the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). He started working there shortly after it was founded in 1919 and stayed until he retired in 1970.
Sarnoff was in charge of a growing empire of telecommunications and media. This included both RCA and NBC, which became some of the biggest companies in the world. In 1945, he was named a Reserve Brigadier General in the Army Signal Corps. After that, many people called him "The General."
Sarnoff is also known for Sarnoff's law. This idea says that the value of a broadcast network grows as more people watch or listen to it.
Contents
David Sarnoff's Early Life and First Jobs
David Sarnoff was born into a Jewish family in Uzlyany, a small town in the Russian Empire. This area is now part of Belarus. His father, Abraham Sarnoff, moved to the United States first to earn money to bring the family over. David spent much of his early childhood studying the Torah in a special school called a cheder.
In 1900, David, his mother, and his three brothers and one sister moved to New York City. David helped his family by selling newspapers before and after school. When he was 15, in 1906, his father became very sick with tuberculosis. David had to start working full-time to support his family. He wanted to work in the newspaper business, but by chance, he got a job as an office boy at the Commercial Cable Company.
He left that job when his boss wouldn't let him take time off for Rosh Hashanah, a Jewish holiday. On September 30, 1906, he joined the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America. This was the start of his career in electronic communications, which lasted over 60 years.
Over the next 13 years, Sarnoff moved up from office boy to commercial manager. He learned a lot about the technology and business of electronic communications by working and reading in libraries. He also worked at Marconi stations on ships and at locations like Nantucket and the New York Wanamaker Department Store. In 1911, he put wireless equipment on a ship hunting seals. He used this technology to send the first remote medical diagnosis from the ship's doctor to a radio operator on land.
The next year, Sarnoff helped confirm what happened to the Titanic. He worked with two other operators at the Wanamaker station. Sarnoff later told stories that made it seem like he was the only hero who stayed at his telegraph key for three days to get news about the Titanic survivors. While he was a manager, he was still very involved in the effort.
Sarnoff kept getting promoted. He became chief inspector and contracts manager. His company grew a lot after a law was passed that required commercial ships to have radio stations staffed all the time. Sarnoff also showed how radio could be used on a train line. He also saw Edwin Armstrong demonstrate his new radio receiver. Sarnoff himself showed how to broadcast music from the New York Wanamaker station using a special transmitter.
These demonstrations gave Sarnoff an idea. Around 1915 or 1916, he suggested to his boss that the company should make a "radio music box" for people who liked radio as a hobby. His boss didn't go forward with the idea because the company was busy with World War I. During the war, Sarnoff continued as Marconi's Commercial Manager.
David Sarnoff's Business Career
Leading RCA and NBC
Many people involved with early radio saw it as a way for two people to talk to each other. But Sarnoff saw something different: he saw radio as a way for one person to talk to many people at once. He imagined a "broadcaster" speaking to thousands of "listeners."
When General Electric bought American Marconi and renamed it the Radio Corporation of America, Sarnoff saw his chance. He brought back his idea for a "radio music box." His bosses still didn't pay much attention, but he helped make radio popular by arranging the broadcast of a big boxing match in July 1921. Up to 300,000 people listened to the fight. After that, many more people wanted to buy radio equipment for their homes. By 1922, Sarnoff's idea that radio broadcasting would be popular had come true. He became very important and influential.
In 1925, RCA bought its first radio station in New York. Then, they started the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), which was the first radio network in America. A few years later, in 1929, Sarnoff became the president of RCA. By then, NBC had split into two networks: the Red and the Blue. The Blue Network later became ABC Radio. People sometimes mistakenly say Sarnoff founded both RCA and NBC, but he actually only founded NBC.
Sarnoff played a huge role in building the AM radio business. This became the main way people listened to radio for most of the 20th century.
Creating RKO Pictures
Sarnoff also made important deals to create Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO). This was a company that made and distributed movies. Key parts of this new company were RCA, a film company called FBO, and a theater chain called KAO.
Pioneering Television
When Sarnoff was in charge of radio at RCA, he quickly saw the huge potential of television. This was the idea of combining moving pictures with electronic signals. People had thought about television for a long time, but no one had made it work well. Sarnoff was determined that his company would be the first to make it happen.
In 1928, he met Westinghouse engineer Vladimir Zworykin. At the time, Zworykin was trying to build an all-electronic television system, but he wasn't having much luck. Zworykin had visited the lab of inventor Philo T. Farnsworth, who had created a special device called an Image Dissector that could help make television work. Zworykin was so impressed that he had his team make copies of Farnsworth's device to experiment with.
Zworykin told Sarnoff about his idea, saying a working television system could be ready in two years with only $100,000. Sarnoff decided to fund Zworykin's research, likely knowing that Zworykin was underestimating how much it would cost. Seven years later, in 1935, Zworykin was on the cover of a magazine, holding an early RCA photomultiplier. This device would become a very important part of sensitive television cameras. On April 24, 1936, RCA showed the press a working camera tube and a display tube (an early TV screen). These were two key parts of electronic television.
The project ended up costing closer to $50 million. On their way to success, they had a legal fight with Farnsworth. He had been granted patents in 1930 for his way of broadcasting moving pictures. Even though Sarnoff tried to prove he invented television, he was ordered to pay Farnsworth $1,000,000 in royalties. This was a small price to pay for an invention that would completely change the world. However, Farnsworth never actually received this money.
In 1929, Sarnoff also arranged for RCA to buy the Victor Talking Machine Company. This was the biggest maker of records and record players in the country. This allowed RCA to combine radio and record player production.
Sarnoff became president of RCA on January 3, 1930. The company was involved in a legal case about its original radio patent pool. Sarnoff worked out a deal where RCA was no longer partly owned by Westinghouse and General Electric. This gave him full control over the company.
At first, the Great Depression made RCA cut costs, but Zworykin's television project was protected. After nine years of hard work by Zworykin, Sarnoff's determination, and legal battles with Farnsworth, they had a system ready for people to buy. Finally, in April 1939, regular electronic television broadcasts began in America. RCA's broadcasting division, NBC, started these broadcasts. The first TV broadcast was the opening of the RCA pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Sarnoff himself introduced it. Later that month, on April 30, the World's Fair opening ceremonies were shown on TV. President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a speech, becoming the first US President to appear on television. These broadcasts could only be seen in New York City and nearby areas. NBC television only had one station at the time. About 1,000 viewers watched from the roughly 200 TV sets in the New York City area.
The television standard approved by the National Television System Committee in 1941 was different from RCA's. But RCA quickly became the top maker of TV sets. NBC became the first television network in the United States, connecting its New York City station to stations in Philadelphia and Schenectady for some programs in the early 1940s.
Meanwhile, in Britain, a TV system based on Russian research and Zworykin's work was adopted. The BBC had a regular television service starting in 1936. However, World War II stopped the fast growth of early television.
World War II Contributions
When World War II began, Sarnoff worked with Eisenhower's communications team. He helped set up more radio connections for NBC to send news from the invasion of France in June 1944. In France, Sarnoff helped fix the Radio France station in Paris that the Germans had destroyed. He also oversaw the building of a powerful radio transmitter called Radio Free Europe, which could reach all Allied forces in Europe. For his achievements, Sarnoff received the Legion of Merit award on October 11, 1944.
Because of his great work in communications, he was given the Brigadier General star in December 1945. After that, he was known as "General Sarnoff." He was very proud of this star and often wore it. It was even buried with him.
Sarnoff believed that after the war, America would need an international radio voice to explain its policies. In 1943, he tried to convince the Secretary of State to include radio broadcasting in post-war plans. In 1947, he pushed for Radio Free Europe and Voice of America to have bigger roles. His ideas and solutions later proved to be very wise.
Television's Post-War Growth
After the war, black-and-white TV production really took off. Color TV was the next big step, and NBC won that battle too. CBS had its own color television system approved by the FCC in October 1950. But Sarnoff tried to stop this ruling in court, though he wasn't successful. He then appealed to the Supreme Court, which upheld the FCC's decision.
Sarnoff was very determined to win the "Color War." He pushed his engineers to create an all-electronic color television system. This system had a special feature: its signal could also be received on the black-and-white TVs that most people already owned. CBS couldn't compete in the color market because they didn't have the ability to make enough color TVs or color programs. Their system also couldn't be seen on the millions of black-and-white TVs, and their color sets cost three times as much.
A few days after CBS showed its color TV on June 14, 1951, RCA demonstrated its fully working all-electronic color TV system. RCA then became the top maker of color TV sets in the US.
CBS's color TV production was stopped in October 1951 because of the Korean War. As more people bought black-and-white TVs, it became less likely that CBS's incompatible system would succeed. Few of their color TVs were sold, and there were almost no color broadcasts, especially during prime time. This was because CBS didn't want to broadcast a show that few people could see. The NTSC committee was reformed and suggested a system almost exactly like RCA's in August 1952. On December 17, 1953, the FCC approved RCA's system as the new standard for color television.
Later Years and Legacy
In 1955, Sarnoff received a special award for his great contributions to New York City.
In 1959, Sarnoff was part of a group that reported on U.S. foreign policy. He also wrote an essay where he criticized the United States for not being strong enough in fighting the political and psychological battles of the Cold War against Soviet-led Communism. He strongly believed in an aggressive, multi-part fight to win the Cold War.
Sarnoff retired in 1970 when he was 79 years old. He passed away the next year at age 80. He is buried in a special tomb at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York. His tomb has a stained-glass window shaped like a vacuum tube, a key part of early electronics.
After he died, Sarnoff left behind a large amount of money and property. Most of it went to his wife, Lizette Hermant Sarnoff.
David Sarnoff's Family Life
On July 4, 1917, Sarnoff married Lizette Hermant. She was the daughter of a French-Jewish immigrant family who lived near his family in the Bronx. Their marriage lasted 54 years and was a very important part of his life. Lizette was often the first person to hear about her husband's new ideas as radio and television became a big part of American homes.
The couple had three sons. Their oldest son, Robert W. Sarnoff, took over his father's role at RCA in 1970. Edward Sarnoff, the middle son, led a company called Fleet Services. Thomas W. Sarnoff, the youngest, was the West Coast President for NBC.
Sarnoff was also the uncle of screenwriter Richard Baer. Sarnoff is said to have sparked Baer's interest in television. According to Baer's book, Sarnoff once called an vice president at NBC at 6 A.M. and told him to find Baer "a job by 9 o'clock" that same morning. The NBC vice president did exactly what Sarnoff asked.
David Sarnoff was also a member of the Scottish Rite Freemasonry.
Honors and Awards
- In 1938, he received an honorary degree from Oglethorpe University.
- He was an honorary member of Omicron Alpha Tau.
- He was named Knight of the Cross of Lorraine (France) in 1951.
- He was named Companion of the Resistance (France) in 1951.
- He received the Legion of Merit from the United States Army in 1944.
- Sarnoff was inducted into the Junior Achievement US Business Hall of Fame in 1975.
- Sarnoff won the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame Distinguished Service Award in 1953.
- Sarnoff was honored in the Television Hall of Fame in 1984, after his death.
- Sarnoff was honored in the Radio Hall of Fame in 1989, after his death.
- Sarnoff was honored in the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2014, after his death.
Sarnoff Museum
The David Sarnoff Library used to be a library and museum open to the public. It held many historical items from David Sarnoff's life in Princeton Junction, NJ. Now, the David Sarnoff Library exists as a virtual museum online. When the library was open, local amateur radio operators and other groups used to meet there. The exhibits are now on display at The College of New Jersey.
See also
In Spanish: David Sarnoff para niños
- Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio
- Sarnoff Corporation, the company that came after RCA Laboratories after General Electric bought RCA in 1986.
- Metcalfe's law: This law states that the value of a communication network grows much faster (by the square of the number of users) than Sarnoff's law, which says it grows in a straight line with the number of viewers.
