RCA

In the early 1920s, David Sarnoff publicly speculated on the possibility of “every farmhouse equipped not only with a sound-receiving device but with a screen that would mirror the sights of life.” The idea of television was not new, and mechanical systems had demonstrated crude pictures. But it was Sarnoff’s historic meeting with engineer Vladimir Zworykin that set the stage for RCA’s success at electronic television transmission and reception. The engineer had already successfully demonstrated his “iconoscope” camera and “kinescope” receiver. Sarnoff sought out the inventor to learn more about his work and ask what it would cost to continue his experiments and develop a marketable system. Zworykin replied “$100,000 and a year and a half.”

Ten years and $50 million later, Sarnoff introduced television at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City. Visitors during the fair not only got to see television, they actually brought home wallet cards to prove they’d been “televised.” President Franklin D. Roosevelt, present at the creation of RCA and a frequent speaker on radio, became the first president to be seen on television when the fair’s opening ceremonies were telecast ten days later.

Before long, consumer television development was halted as the country entered World War II. By late 1939, pioneering tests had proved that television could be used aboard aircraft. RCA was ready. For months, the Radio Corporation had been planning for the eventual involvement of U.S. forces in the growing conflict. Manufacturing plants were converted for war production in order to fill orders for sound equipment, mine detectors, sonar equipment, bomb fuses, radio tubes, and even phonograph records to entertain the troops. On December 7, 1941, Sarnoff sent an RCA Radiogram to President Roosevelt after learning about the attack at Pearl Harbor. “All our facilities and personnel are ready and at your instant service,” Sarnoff wrote. “We await your commands.”