The Forgotten Network: DuMont and the Birth of American Television [Paperback]

David Weinstein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 28, 2006

During the late 1940s and early 1950s, the name DuMont was synonymous with the new medium of television. Many people first watched TV on DuMont-brand sets, the best receivers money could buy. More viewers enjoyed their first programs on the DuMont network, which was established in 1946. Network founder Allen B. Du Mont became a folk hero for his entrepreneurial spirit in bringing television to the American people. Yet, by 1955, the DuMont network was out of business and its founder and namesake was forced to relinquish control of the company he had spent a quarter century building.The heart of David Weinstein's book examines DuMont's programs and personalities, including Dennis James, Captain Video, Morey Amsterdam, Jackie Gleason and The Honeymooners, Ernie Kovacs, and Rocky King, Detective. Weinstein uses rare kinescopes, archival photographs, exclusive interviews, trade journal articles, and corporate documents to tell the story of a 'forgotten network' that helped invent the very business of network television. An original and important contribution to the history of television, "The Forgotten Network" provides a glimpse into the dawn of broadcasting and the growth of our most ubiquitous cultural medium.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"It is ironic that the most short-lived of the early American television networks should receive the first scholarly treatment, rather than NBC, CBS, or ABC." Technology and Culture "engaging...Weinstein makes effective use of corporate records and oral histories in a study that is both good business and cultural history." The American Historical Review "In The Forgotten Network, David Weinstein performs a singular task of historical recovery, using archival materials and recollections of surviving DuMont employees to bring to life the story of this maverick network... Weinstein's book is elegantly written, richly detailed. and offers the reader a glimpse into an era that has all but vanished." Wheeler Winston Dixon, Quarterly Review of Film and Video "Readers will thank David Weinstein for this tribute to DuMont, who is no longer a forgotten hero in television history." Donna L. Harper, Journal of Popular Culture "In The Forgotten Network, David Weinstein moves with sure mastery and ready wit through the technological issues, political machinations, and blurry kinescopes that tell the story of the ill-starred DuMont network. Sharply insightful and smartly written, Weinstein's TV guidebook to a lost chapter in American broadcasting is a major contribution to both television studies and Cold War history. He answers a question that has bedevilled media scholars for decades: how did four networks become three?" Thomas Doherty, Brandeis University, and author of Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, McCarthyism, and American Culture "Television has changed the way we live in ways most of us take for granted. In a well researched, informative, and entertaining book, David Weinstein looks at the history of the DuMont network. During its nine-year run beginning in 1946, DuMont created a legacy that included The Honeymooners, Captain Video, Sid Caesar's The Admiral Broadway Review, and Ernie Kovacs. DuMont laid the foundation for a medium that continues to enlighten, inform, educate, and entertain us." Eddy Friedfeld, WOR Radio, and co-author, Caesar's Hours "Thankfully, David Weinstein allows us to rediscover DuMont in the first comprehensive history, an outstanding institutional history of American television, of the network. Weinstein's accomplishment in piecing together the network's history from its few surviving traces deserves the attention of anyone interested in the history of post-war American culture and the respect of all who recognize the dedication and imagination that has gone into this research." Film Quarterly

From the Publisher

A history of "the forgotten network," as seen through its own programs and personalities --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Temple University Press (March 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592134998
• ISBN-13: 978-1592134991
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,429,607 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dying at dawn..., June 16, 2004

By 

Rory Coker (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Forgotten Network: Dumont and the Birth of American Television (Hardcover)

At the dawning age of network television, DuMont was at least a player in the struggle to create programming that America's households would tune their newly purchased TVs into, in 1949, but by 1953 they were pretty much licked, and by the spring of 1955 they were out of the picture completely and literally.

Based on Weinstein's carefully researched and well-organized recounting of the history of DuMont, it is amazing that the network lasted as long as it did. The two major networks, NBC and CBS, had powerful lobbyists who would walk right into the offices of the FCC or the halls of Congress and unashamedly dictate regulations or rulings or legislation that openly favored
NBC and CBS, while making it difficult for ABC and impossible for DuMont to expand. ABC survived by forging strong ties to Hollywood studios, but an earlier alliance between DuMont and Paramount was nothing but complete disaster for DuMont. In fact, just about everything was a disaster for DuMont... they were even screwed horrendously by AT&T on coax cable rental fees.

DuMont had no money, but they did have creativity, born of genuinely bare necessity. Director of Programming James Caddigan and a bunch of people often literally hired off the street came up with innovative programming ideas which can now be seen to have shaped the direction of all network television programming in the decades to come. Yet even here, DuMont was doomed to lose. Once they had hold of a hot thing, they never had the money to develop it properly, or to retain the performers involved under contract.

Weinstein devotes the first three chapters of this roughly 220-page book to the rise and fall of Allan B. Du Mont as manufacturer and (disinterested) network head. He then turns to the areas in which DuMont's plow first broke the plains, with chapters on daytime TV programming aimed at housewives; on CAPTAIN VIDEO, the first and maybe the greatest of the live space adventure series of television's Golden Age; on DuMont's first successful variety host, Morey Amsterdam; and on its first superstar, Jackie Gleason. Also covered are DuMont's two popular and pioneering police procedural dramas; its surprisingly
successful venture into religious programming, with the charismatic and sinister Bishop Fulton J. Sheen; as well as an experiment with late-night programming guided by comic genius Ernie Kovacs.

Often in reading books on TV of the early 1950s one quickly realizes that the author's knowledge of the programs is entirely due to having read a few TV-Guide-type articles on the programs, from that era... in other words, he hasn't a clue. Weinstein, born in 1967, was well aware of this pitfall and he has made an energetic effort to locate and view kinescopes of presumably typical broadcasts of each of the programs he discusses. As a result, he can describe in detail the unique signatures that DuMont's always low budget and often great creativity brought to their successful series.

The book is carefully footnoted, nicely indexed, and professionally bound and printed. Misprints are very few. One of the strangest is the replacement of the word "sight" by "site" in a few inappropriate spots! Recommended to anyone who remembers the heady and heroic days of the Golden Age of Television, or is curious about it.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More than just Dumont, June 8, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Forgotten Network: Dumont and the Birth of American Television (Hardcover)

This book is a must-read for anyone interested in television and media history, for one, but also popular culture in general. It is well-written, accessible, interesting . . .every time i was thinking of a comment or question, the author seemed to read my mind and addressed my thoughts within a couple of paragraphs. I wish I still taught media studies--I would have my upper-level and grad students read this book, especially for its admirable avoidance of acadmic jargon. Weinstein finds a way to speak about the formation and growth of early television that is clear, informed and makes me think differently even about the television i watch today, even about contemporary media. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 5 Stars for the work, 3 stars overall, January 27, 2006

By 

Forznoles "forznoles" (Oxford, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Forgotten Network: Dumont and the Birth of American Television (Hardcover)

I've just completed reading this book, and I enjoyed it thoroughly! Well written and definitely well documented.

Why 3 stars? Well, excluding notes and so forth, this book comes in at less than 200 pages, and at the current price (as I write this) of over $37, the price for this book seems very steep. At this rate, you'd have to mortgage your house to buy a copy of "War and Peace"! Anyway, the book seems expensive for what you get.

Secondly, I think it's rather obvious that the writer is a big fan of the DuMont network, extolling it's virtues at every turn, noting they were the first to do this and that (and just about everything) in the pioneering days of television. It makes you wonder if the network would have cured the common cold if not for the budget-conscious Paramount (if you read the book, you'll understand that reference).

I'd also like to point out that the actual "history" of the network and it's creator really only takes up about the first 1/3 of the book or so - the remaining 2/3rds of the book are devoted mostly to the networks more notable programs - Morey Amsterdam, Captain Video, Ernie Kovacs, etc. I felt the actual history was rushed, but that may have to do with the scant actual "known" history of the network. And, to be fair, a lot of people may have found the actual history of the company dry, with class "A" and "B" shares, financing, etc., so this may actually be a positive for other readers.

Overall, a well-written and researched book, though a little expensive and (perhaps) positively biased for me to give it a better rating.