Have you seen Oppenheimer yet? As the world braced itself over recent weeks for the cultural shock wave of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, I have been preoccupied by one scene in the trailer. It’s the scene where Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) meets Albert Einstein (Tom Conti) at the edge of a pond on the grounds of the …
Above, the first hand-drawn rendering of the Image Dissector, ca. 1922. Arguably, every video display on the planet – including the one you are looking at now – can trace its origins to this drawing, which was presented during patent litigation in the 1930s. Sadly, the myth that television was “too complex” for a …
Jessica Moulton, with her grand uncle Skee Farnsworth and cousin Philo Krishna Farnsworth, accepting the induction of Philo Farnsworth into the TV Academy’s Hall of Fame, along with Ron Howard, also inducted on March 11, 2013 Ladies and Gentlemen, please meet Jessica Lauren Moulton – the great-grandaughter of Philo and Pem Farnsworth. Her mother Camille …
This just showed up in my Google alerts: World’s Fair Predicted TV’s Future (link to actual article since deceased) The article is a look back at the introduction of television at the NYC World’s Fair in April, 1939 – the one where David Sarnoff famously and pompously pronounced, “Now we add sight to sound.” “Philo …
There's been an increase in traffic to this site in the past week or so, which is quite possibly a result of the recent news that Philo T. Farnsworth – arguably the man who started it all – will be inducted next month into the Television Hall of Fame: This year’s honorees include Emmy®-winning actor/director/producer …
….if you've heard this one before. From a story that ran in the Investor's Business Daily last week: In 1929, Sarnoff secretly hired Vladimir Zworykin, an engineer and head of TV research at Westinghouse, where he worked on an electronic scanning system for a prototype TV. The Russian immigrant soon hopped from Philadelphia to San …
“Every man is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.” — Daniel Patrick Moynihan 1. The Widow and the Screenwriter In July 1993, a young playwright and screenwriter named Aaron Sorkin flew from Los Angeles to spend the better part of a day with an elderly widow in Salt Lake City, …
Malcolm Gladwell is an author and cultural commentator of increasing influence, witness the success of his books "The Tipping Point," "Blink," and his latest, "Outliers." Blogger John Kelvie of takes Gladwell to task for some of his pithier observations , most notably his conclusion a a 2002 book review for the New Yorker that Philo …
…ain’t so bad after all: While many of his peers spend rainy afternoons watching cartoons, Lance sits in front of the Military Channel learning. Other children in his grade really like Hannah Montana, but Lance’s favorite shows have titles like Weaponology. He defends television. "People say TV makes you dumb, but it doesn’t!" Lance said …
You’ve heard of The Farnsworth Invention, now you can watch The Farnsworth Confession: Mr. Farnsworth here should take heart from the Broadway version of the story. According to the play, Philo Farnsworth’s invention was flawed by a fatal "light problem," and really wasn’t very useful. And the Farnsworth character says near the end that an …
