FROM TITANIC TO TV

Most of us connect the name David Sarnoff with broadcasting. The Russian-born Jew, whose idea for radios that could “bring music into homes by wireless” saw his 1915 dream developed when he joined RCA in 1920. Three years later, Sarnoff wrote, “I believe that television will come to pass …” and at the 1939 New York World’s Fair he showed off the marvel. In 1944, President Roosevelt made him a Brigadier General and the Television Broadcasters Association conferred upon him the title “Father of American Television.”

What you may not know is, it was this same young Sarnoff, who, at 21, following the Titanic disaster on April 14th 1912, remained glued to his wireless earphones for 72 hours in the telegraph station at John Wanamaker’s New York store, and was one of the first to relay the names of the survivors to the world.

Source: DidJew know? by Marnie Winston-Macauley