farnovision

Spreading the Big Lie to Australia

Now theater goers in Australia can hear Aaron Sorkin's twisted take on history, where "priority of invention" is awarded to the guy who actually LOST the case.

Thankfully theatre goers will have a little help keeping track of proceedings, with a central narrator setting up each scene to avoid confusion. “One of the characters will address the audience so they will easily understand what is going on,” Ryan explains.

Playing fast and loose with the historical facts, Ryan admits that the play contains an intriguing combination “of what did and did not happen”.

Unfortunately, none of the characters comes out on stage and says, "that's not what happened."  Oh, yeah, the Sarnoff character comes out and says he can't really remember how any of the litigation turned out, which is a ridiculous summation.  

Sarnoff, RCA, and Zworykin lost all the litigation with Farnsworth that mattered, to the point that RCA wound up paying Farnsworth patent royalties for the first time in its corporate history.  But you will never learn that from sitting through "The Farnsworth Invention." 

via www.melbourneweekly.com.au

 

Stop Me...

....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 Francisco to meet Farnsworth.

Strapped for cash and hoping Westinghouse would invest in his firm, Farnsworth agreed to the visit. He didn't know Zworykin was on an intelligence-gathering mission for Sarnoff.

During his three days on the West Coast, Zworykin picked up Farnsworth's prized invention, the world's first electronic TV camera, and marveled at the work.

"He calls it fascinating and remarks that he didn't think it could be done," Schatzkin said.

Farnsworth's reply? "We didn't know it couldn't be done, so we just went ahead and did it."

via www.investors.com

 

Sarnoff -v- Hearst: The Clash of the Titans That Never Was

I got a really interesting e-mail message last week from a reader of The Boy Who Invented Television telling the unlikely tale of the day William Randolph Hearst almost took an interest in Philo T. Farnsworth's little invention.  

Craig Faulkner (craig@craigfaulkner.org) writes: 

My maternal grandfather, R.L. Litchfield, was a longtime employee and close personal friend of William Randolph Hearst. Among his ancillary duties as an executive in the Hearst newspaper empire, my ‘Pops’ would also assist with fielding and giving Mr. Hearst his opinion on the many requests which would regularly be submitted for financial backing of various and sundry enterprises. Pops traveled widely and saw much. In his later years he would sometimes invite my young son and me to sit at the end of his bed and he would tell us stories about the many interesting people and places he had known. Almost invariably my son would chime in with a request for his favorite: “Pops, tell us again about the man who invented the television.”

One day in the late 1920’s Mr. Hearst [or Randy, as Pops called him] rang him on the phone at the office with a request that he go check out an inventor who had a laboratory over on Green Street, there in San Francisco. The inventor, one Philo T. Farnsworth had an electrical device which, “he says can broadcast pictures through the air. He wants me to finance the further development and eventual commercial production of the thing. Litch,” [as Randy called my Pops] “go over there and take a look at this fellow and his gadget and tell me what you think, will you.” 

So my grandfather rounded up one of his associates who knew a little something about electricity and off they went. After the brief formal greetings, Philo asked the one man to stand next to a black box with a hole in the side in front of some extremely bright lights while he took my Pops into an adjacent area. There, on a little tiny glass screen, was an image of the other man standing nearby. Pops said the two of them looked the apparatus over very carefully and determined that there were no wires connecting the two devices.

Somebody Finally Speaks the Truth

Yeah, I'm pretty tired of beating up on Aaron Sorkin, and it's a drag when one of your heroes falls of his pedestal (or is "jumped" the right verb?). But we're going to be reading and hearing a lot about Mr. Sorkin in the weeks ahead, as we brace ourselves for the release of his latest work of half-fact, half fiction, the drama "The Social Network" (aka The Zuckerberg Invention?)

So it's nice to see somebody finally saying in print what we have known along about his approach the The Farnsworth Invention:

“I saw Farnsworth a few times,” says producer Scott Rudin, who was instrumental in pairing Sorkin with this material, “and one of the reasons I wanted Aaron to write this movie was, as much as he had found enormous pleasure in the Frank Capra story of Philo Farnsworth, it was clear to me that the person who wrote that play really had his heart with Sarnoff.”

via nymag.com

Worlds Collide: Topspin, Meet Philo

So, see if you can follow along as we connect the dots:

Peter Gotcher, the Chairman and co-founder of Santa Monica-based music startup Topspin Media, has scored an Emmy award, for his work in co-founding firm Digidesign. The Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Award was given over the weekend to the founders of Digidesign, by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

Mr. Gotcher was presented the Philo T. Farnsworth award for his role in the creation of the AVID digital video editor, now the non-linear gold standard for editing film and television.  Somewhere along the line, AVID was merged with Digidesign, the company that also produces ProTools, the gold standard for music and audio studio production software. 

Mr. Gotcher is also a principal in the a company called Topspin, which is the gold standard for "direct to fan" music merchandising and fan-base management.  I just started using Topspin for a new band I'm working with, The Waymores.

So, let's see... I write a book, the academy creates an award, and now the guy who created the web-platform I've been using has won the award.  

Glad I could make all those connections for you... 

Happy Birthday, Philo T. Farnsworth

Inventor and television pioneer Philo T. Farnsworth was born August 19, 1906 in Beaver County, Utah. The family moved to a farm near Rigby, Idaho during World War I. There, Philo set off on the path that would earn him the designation as “the father of television.

via sfcompanion.blogspot.com

I don't remember this date every year, but there's been enough in the wind this year that I managed to remember this time...

What the Hell Happened to Aaron Sorkin?

Finally, somebody comes right out and asks the question that I've been asking for like three years now:

What is going on with this man? Here's a guy who battled drug addiction and got busted at the Burbank Airport for holding. He's been in the tabloids himself. Now he takes on all these Perez Hilton stories. But instead of finding the good in people he goes for the bad. And he's not even truthful about it.

A good example is his recent play The Farnsworth Invention. The play, which was once in development as a feature film, has the big, bad corporation win the lawsuit against the actual inventor of TV, Philo Farnsworth. Farnsworth then dies a broken man in abject poverty.

Actually, Farnsworth won the lawsuit and lived a long and fruitful life. That's quite a difference, Mr. Sorkin. When called on it on Facebook of all things, Sorkin blew the question off claiming that there were many lawsuits and Farnsworth lost as many as he won. Yeah, but he won the big one Aaron. And he didn't die a broken man!

I meant it when I said to Aaron Sorkin - when I met him in La Jolla in April, 2007 during the pre-Broadway run of The Farnsworth Invention - that I would not have made it through the GWBush years without The West Wing there to offer a weekly reminder of how the country is supposed to work.  

But somewhere between The West Wing and The Farnsworth Invention, it seems to me that Aaron Sorkin was assimilated into the Borg.  I guess that's what happens when you get rich sucking in the giant corporate tit. 

Now You, Too, Can Have A "Farnsworth"

You know, it's really a shame, in a way, the way all this is unfolding with "The Farnsworth" on "Warehouse 13" -- now that the producers have licensed their gizmos for commercial production: 

QMx will be pre-miering the first piece in the line, The Farnsworth, at San Diego Comic-Con this week. The Farnsworth is a video communicator that uses secure link that only another Farnsworth can decode. Two prototypes will be on display at San Diego Comic-Con: an exact replica of the hero prop with gray screen and an “idealized” version with more detailed weathering and a realistic, semi-transparent screen.  

When you look at product they've developed, this "Farnsworth" communicator (what is this, a 'steam punk' iPhone?), you'll see that it displays all the original graphic logo elements from Farnsworth Television and Radio Corp in the 1940s.

The script "F" - like you see at the top of the page here - and the name "Farnsworth" imbedded in the face of the device, are all taken directly from the corporate logo that first appeared in 1938. Of course, the company was folded into ITT in 1949 and never heard from again, so all the trademarks have all long since lapsed.  

If this was, say, General Electric, there's no way they could get away with that sort of trademark infringement.  But there is no longer any Farnsworth company to defend these IP assets. 

So in this 21s Century, Philo T. Farnsworth -- this  obscure, forgotten and neglected inventor-hero from the 20th Century -- has been consigned to the public domain.

Now screen writers like Aaron Sorkin can take all the creative license they want (to the point of changing indisputable historical facts). And TeeVee producers, while finally giving the man the credit he is due, are free to appropriate other aspects of his historic legacy -- in this case, the logo of his long-defunct company -- and exploit that asset entirely for their own benefit.  

Only in America.  What a country. 

So, sadly, the injustice continues.  Maybe it couldn't be any other way.  I know the family has waited a LONG time for this recognition.  It's just unfortunate that, like television itself, it has arrived in a way that provides no benefit whatsoever to the estate.  Philo belongs to the ages now. 

So yes, starting next week at the Comic-Con, you can order your own Farnsworth (I wonder if the lines will be anything like the lines for an iPhone?).  

But you still can't have a "Farnovision." I've got the only one of those. Well, one of the few, anyway.

Tonight on Warehouse 13: Philo, The Man Who Invented "The Farnsworth."

Of course, in these parts, we don't call it "The Farnsworth," we call it "The Farnovision." But close enough. At least there is one TeeVee show that recognizes its progenitors and gives credit where it is due. 

 Warehouse 13 Season 2 Episode 3 “Beyond Our Control”

Will be released on: 20 July, 2010
Synopsis: When an artifact meant for the Warehouse turns up in the small town next door, the team finds themselves in the middle of a B-movie meltdown complete with cowboys, gladiators, sci-fi robots and beach storming marines. Their only chance of survival rests with the man who invented television, Philo T. Farnsworth.

via today24news.com

Farnsworth Enters the Digital Era with "PHILO" iPhone App

 News started percolating last week of a new iPhone app named for Philo T. Farnsworth, the inventor of (modern, electronic) television.  

The app is called -- appropriately enough "PHILO", and professes to bring "social networking" -type interaction to TeeVee viewing. 

According to the app's website, 

Philo helps you enjoy TV with your friends and other viewers around the world. Just watch TV, tune-in on Philo, and join the conversation.

You'll see what all of your friends are watching and what they're saying. And, of course, you can contribute your own comments to the real time stream, which will update your status on your favorite social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

The very popular tech-and-social network monitoring blog Mashable describes the combination of check-in and commenting functions in the PHILO app as "Twitter + Foursquare for TV Fanatics." 

The app shows you what’s trending among your friends, and you can use it as a discovery engine to find new shows. You can then determine when those shows are playing on your local cable or satellite TV provider. When you do have something to watch, your updates can optionally be broadcast to Facebook and Twitter so your friends can see what you’re watching and what you think of it.

You know, I have thought for years that Philo T. Farnsworth is something of the 'proto-geek,' i.e. a tech icon whose standard should long ago have found a high among the modern digerati as a model of the kind of brilliance and determination it takes to transform the world.  It's nice to see somebody finally taking notice in a way that also finds some value in the TeeVee experience.