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The DuMont Television Network ( also known as the DuMont Network , simply DuMont / Du Mont , or ( incorrectly ) Dumont / duːmɒnt / ) was one of the world 's pioneer commercial television networks , rivalling NBC and CBS for the distinction of being first overall in the USA . It began operation in the United States in ... |
DuMont 's latter @-@ day obscurity , caused mainly by the destruction of its extensive program archive by the 1970s , has prompted TV historian David Weinstein to refer to it as the " Forgotten Network " or " Network Is Long Gone " . A few popular DuMont programs , such as Cavalcade of Stars and Emmy Award winner Life... |
= = History = = |
= = = Origins = = = |
DuMont Laboratories was founded in 1931 by Dr. Allen B. DuMont with only $ 1 @,@ 000 , and a laboratory in his basement . He and his staff were responsible for many early technical innovations , including the first consumer all @-@ electronic television set in 1938 . The company 's television sets soon became the gold... |
Early sales of television sets were hampered by the lack of regularly scheduled programming being broadcast . A few months after selling his first set in 1938 , DuMont opened his own New York area experimental television station ( W2XVT ) in Passaic , New Jersey . In 1940 , the station moved to Manhattan as W2XWV on c... |
Soon after his experimental Washington station signed on , DuMont began experimental coaxial cable hookups between his laboratories in Passaic , New Jersey , and his two stations . It is said that one of those broadcasts on the hookup announced that the U.S. had dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki , Japan , on August 9... |
Although NBC in New York was known to have station @-@ to @-@ station television links as early as 1940 with WPTZ ( now KYW ) in Philadelphia and WRGB Schenectady , NY , DuMont received its station licenses before NBC resumed its previously sporadic network broadcasts after the war . ABC had just come into existence a... |
= = = Programming = = = |
Despite no history of radio programming or stable of radio stars to draw on and perennial cash shortages , DuMont was an innovative and creative network . Without the radio revenues that supported mighty NBC and CBS , DuMont programmers relied on their wits and on connections with Broadway . Eventually , the network p... |
The network largely ignored the standard business model of 1950s TV , in which one advertiser sponsored an entire show , enabling it to have complete control over its content . Instead , DuMont sold commercials to many different advertisers , freeing producers of its shows from the veto power held by sole sponsors . T... |
DuMont also holds another important place in American TV history . WDTV 's sign @-@ on made it possible for stations in the Midwest to receive live network programming from stations on the East Coast , and vice versa . Before then , the networks relied on separate regional networks in the two time zones for live progr... |
The first broadcasts came from DuMont 's 515 Madison Avenue headquarters , and it soon found additional space , including a fully functioning theater , in the New York branch of Wanamaker 's department store at Ninth Street and Broadway . Later , a lease on the Adelphi Theatre on 54th Street and the Ambassador Theatre... |
DuMont was the first network to broadcast a film production for TV : Talk Fast , Mister , produced by RKO in 1944 . DuMont also aired the first TV situation comedy , Mary Kay and Johnny , as well as the first network @-@ televised soap opera , Faraway Hill . Cavalcade of Stars , a variety show hosted by Jackie Gleason... |
Ted Mack 's The Original Amateur Hour , which began on radio in the 1930s under original host Edward Bowes |
The Morey Amsterdam Show , a comedy / variety show hosted by Morey Amsterdam , which started on CBS before moving to DuMont in 1949 |
Captain Video and His Video Rangers , a hugely popular kids ' science fiction series |
The Arthur Murray Party , a dance program |
Down You Go , a popular panel show |
Rocky King , Inside Detective , a private eye series starring Roscoe Karns |
The Plainclothesman , a camera 's @-@ eye @-@ view detective series |
Live coverage of boxing and professional wrestling , the latter featuring matches staged by the Capitol Wrestling Corporation , the predecessor to WWE |
The Johns Hopkins Science Review , a Peabody Award @-@ winning education program |
Cash and Carry , the first network @-@ televised game show |
The Ernie Kovacs Show , the first truly innovative show in what was then visual radio , not television . |
The network was a pioneer in TV programming aimed at minority audiences and featuring minority performers , at a time when the other American networks aired few television series for non @-@ whites . Among DuMont 's minority programs were The Gallery of Madame Liu @-@ Tsong , starring Asian American film actress Anna ... |
Although DuMont 's programming pre @-@ dated videotape , many DuMont offerings were recorded on kinescopes . These kinescopes were said to be stored in a warehouse until the 1970s . Actress Edie Adams , the wife of comedian Ernie Kovacs ( both regular performers on early television ) testified in 1996 before a panel o... |
Although nearly the entire DuMont film archive was destroyed , several surviving DuMont shows have been released on DVD . A large number of episodes of Life Is Worth Living have been saved , and they are now aired weekly on Catholic @-@ oriented cable network , the Eternal Word Television Network , which also makes a ... |
= = = = Awards = = = = |
DuMont programs were by necessity low @-@ budget affairs , and the network received relatively few awards from the TV industry . Most awards during the 1950s went to NBC and CBS , who were able to out @-@ spend other companies and draw on their extensive history of radio broadcasting in the relatively new television m... |
During the 1952 – 53 TV season , Bishop Fulton J. Sheen , host of Life Is Worth Living , won an Emmy Award for Most Outstanding Personality . Sheen beat out CBS 's Arthur Godfrey , Edward R. Murrow and Lucille Ball , who were also nominated for the same award . Sheen was also nominated for – but did not win – consecut... |
DuMont received an Emmy nomination for Down You Go , a popular game show during the 1952 – 53 television season ( in the category Best Audience Participation , Quiz , or Panel Program ) . The network was nominated twice for its coverage of professional football during the 1953 – 54 and 1954 – 55 television seasons . |
The Johns Hopkins Science Review , a DuMont public affairs program , was awarded a Peabody Award in 1952 in the Education category . Sheen 's Emmy and the Science Review Peabody were the only national awards the DuMont Network received . Though DuMont series and performers continued to win local TV awards , by the mid... |
= = = = Ratings = = = = |
The earliest measurements of TV audiences were performed by the C. E. Hooper company of New York . DuMont performed well in the Hooper ratings ; in fact , DuMont 's talent program , The Original Amateur Hour , was the most popular series of the 1947 – 48 season . Variety ranked DuMont 's popular variety series Cavalca... |
In February 1950 , Hooper 's competitor A. C. Nielsen bought out the Hooperatings system . DuMont did not fare well with the change : none of its shows appeared on Nielsen 's annual top 20 lists of the most popular series . One of the DuMont Network 's biggest hits of the 1950s , Life is Worth Living , received Nielse... |
Life is Worth Living was not the only DuMont program to achieve double @-@ digit ratings . In 1952 , Time magazine reported that popular DuMont game show Down You Go had attracted an audience estimated at 16 million viewers . Similarly , DuMont 's summer 1954 replacement series , The Goldbergs , achieved audiences est... |
Nielsen was not the only company to report TV ratings , however . Companies such as Trendex , Videodex and Arbitron had also measured TV viewership . The adjacent chart comes from Videodex 's August 1950 ratings breakdown , as reported in Billboard magazine . |
= = = Disputes with AT & T and Paramount = = = |
DuMont struggled to get its programs aired in many parts of the country , in part due to technical limitations of network lines maintained by the telephone company AT & T Corporation . During the 1940s and 1950s , television signals were sent between stations via coaxial cable and microwave links which were owned by A... |
DuMont 's biggest corporate hurdle , however , may have been with the company 's own partner , Paramount . Relations between the two companies were strained as early as 1939 , when Paramount opened experimental television stations in Los Angeles and Chicago without DuMont . Dr. DuMont claimed that the original 1937 ac... |
DuMont aspired to grow beyond its three stations , applying for new television station licenses in Cincinnati and Cleveland in 1947 . This would give the network five owned @-@ and @-@ operated stations ( O & Os ) , the maximum allowed by the FCC at the time . However , DuMont was hampered by Paramount 's two stations... |
In 1949 , Paramount Pictures launched the Paramount Television Network , a service which provided local television stations with filmed television programs ; Paramount 's network " undercut the company that it had invested in . " Paramount did not share its stars , big budgets or filmed programs with DuMont ; the comp... |
= = = Trouble from the start = = = |
DuMont began with one basic disadvantage : unlike NBC , CBS and ABC , it did not have a radio network from which to draw big @-@ name talent , affiliate loyalty or radio profits to underwrite television operations until the television medium itself became profitable . Most early television licenses were granted to est... |
Adding to DuMont 's troubles was the FCC 's 1948 " freeze " on television license applications . This was done to sort out the thousands of applications that had come streaming in , but also to rethink the allocation and technical standards laid down prior to World War II . It became clear soon after the war that 12 c... |
Forced to rely on UHF to expand , DuMont saw one station after another go dark due to dismal ratings . It bought small , distressed UHF station KCTY ( channel 50 ) in Kansas City , Missouri in 1954 , but ran it for just three months before shutting it down at a considerable loss after attempting to compete with three ... |
The FCC 's Dr. Hyman Goldin said in 1960 , " If there had been four VHF outlets in the top markets , there 's no question DuMont would have lived and would have eventually turned the corner in terms of profitability . " |
= = = The end = = = |
During the early years of television , there was some measure of cooperation among the four major U.S. television networks . However , as television grew into a profitable business , an intense rivalry developed between the networks , just as it had in radio . NBC and CBS competed fiercely for viewers and advertising ... |
DuMont survived the early 1950s only because of WDTV in Pittsburgh , the lone commercial VHF station in what was then the sixth @-@ largest market . WDTV 's only competition came from UHF stations and distant stations from Johnstown , Pennsylvania ; Youngstown , Ohio ; and Wheeling , West Virginia . No other commercia... |
Despite its severe financial straits , by 1953 , DuMont appeared to be on its way to establishing itself as the third national network . DuMont programs aired live on 16 stations , but it could count on only seven primary stations – its three owned @-@ and @-@ operated stations ( " O & Os " ) , plus WGN @-@ TV in Chic... |
By this time , DuMont had begun to differentiate itself from NBC and CBS . It allowed its advertisers to choose the locations where their advertising ran , potentially saving them millions of dollars . By contrast , ABC operated like CBS and NBC even though it was only a fourth as large , forcing advertisers to purcha... |
ABC 's fortunes were dramatically altered in February 1953 , when the FCC cleared the way for UPT to buy the network . The merger provided ABC with a badly needed cash infusion , giving it the resources to mount " top shelf " programming and to provide a national television service on a scale approaching that of CBS a... |
Realizing that the ABC @-@ UPT deal put DuMont near extinction , network officials were receptive to a merger offer from ABC . Goldenson quickly brokered a deal with Ted Bergmann , DuMont 's managing director , under which the merged network would have been called " ABC @-@ DuMont " until at least 1958 and would have ... |
However , Paramount vetoed the plan almost out of hand due to antitrust concerns . A few months earlier , the FCC had ruled that Paramount controlled DuMont , and there were still some questions about whether UPT had really separated from Paramount . |
With no other way to readily obtain cash , DuMont sold WDTV to Westinghouse Electric Corporation for $ 9 @.@ 75 million in late 1954 . While this gave DuMont a short @-@ term cash infusion , it eliminated the leverage the network had to get program clearances in other markets . Without its de facto monopoly in Pittsbu... |
In August , Paramount , with the help of other stockholders , seized full control of DuMont Laboratories . The last non @-@ sports program on DuMont , the game show What 's the Story , aired on September 23 , 1955 . After that , DuMont 's network feed was used only for occasional sporting events . DuMont 's last broad... |
DuMont spun off WABD and WTTG as the " DuMont Broadcasting Corporation " . The name was later changed to " Metropolitan Broadcasting Company " to distance the company from what was seen as a complete failure . In 1958 , John Kluge bought Paramount 's shares for $ 4 million , and renamed the company Metromedia in 1960 ... |
For 50 years , DuMont was the only major broadcast television network to cease operations , until CBS Corporation and Time Warner shut down two other struggling networks , UPN and The WB , in September 2006 to create The CW Television Network – whose schedule was originally composed largely of programs from both of it... |
= = Fate of the DuMont stations = = |
All three DuMont @-@ owned stations are still operating and coincidentally , all three are owned @-@ and @-@ operated stations of their respective networks , just as when they were part of DuMont . Of the three , only Washington 's WTTG still has its original call letters . |
WTTG and New York 's WABD ( later WNEW @-@ TV , and now WNYW ) survived as Metromedia @-@ owned independents until 1986 , when Metromedia was purchased by the News Corporation to form the nucleus of the new Fox Broadcasting Company . Clarke Ingram , who maintained a DuMont memorial site , has suggested that Fox can be... |
Westinghouse changed WDTV 's call letters to KDKA @-@ TV after the pioneering radio station of the same name , and switched its primary affiliation to CBS immediately after the sale . Westinghouse 's acquisition of CBS in 1995 made KDKA @-@ TV a CBS owned @-@ and @-@ operated station . |
= = DuMont programming library = = |
DuMont produced more than 20 @,@ 000 television episodes during the decade from 1946 to 1956 . Because the shows were created prior to the launch of Ampex 's electronic videotape recorder in late 1956 , all of them were initially broadcast live in black and white , then recorded on film kinescope for reruns and for We... |
= = Affiliates = = |
At its peak in 1954 , DuMont was affiliated with around 200 television stations . In those days , television stations were free to " cherry @-@ pick " which programs they would air , and many stations affiliated with multiple networks , depending mainly on the number of commercial television stations available in a ma... |
In its later years , DuMont was carried mostly on poorly watched UHF channels or had only secondary affiliations on VHF stations . DuMont ended most operations on April 1 , 1955 , but honored network commitments until August 1956 . |
= = = Kinescopes = = = |
Kinescopes of DuMont Network programs , from the Internet Archive : The Adventures of Ellery Queen , Captain Video and His Video Rangers , Cavalcade of Stars , Life Is Worth Living , Miss U.S. Television 1950 Contest , The Morey Amsterdam Show , The Old American Barn Dance , Okay Mother , On Your Way , Public Prosecut... |
= Bodyline = |
Bodyline , also known as fast leg theory bowling , was a cricketing tactic devised by the English cricket team for their 1932 – 33 Ashes tour of Australia , specifically to combat the extraordinary batting skill of Australia 's Don Bradman . A bodyline delivery was one where the cricket ball was bowled towards the bod... |
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