The Boy Genius and the Mogul: The Untold Story of Television (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "By the spring of 1923, the Radio Corporation of America had put the finishing touches on a magnificent broadcasting tower on the roof of a..." (more)
Key Phrases: royalty partners, image dissector, mechanical television, New York, Green Street, San Francisco (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

American culture celebrates inventors as heroes: Alexander Graham Bell, Edison, Henry Ford. In the fascinating The Boy Genius and the Mogul, Daniel Stashower adds a new name to the pantheon: Philo T. Farnsworth, inventor of TV. "The general public has only the vaguest notion of how--or by whom--television was created," writes Stashower, who feels the story has been mistold, depriving the boy genius from rural Idaho of due credit. Stashower, a mystery novelist and biographer of Arthur Conan Doyle, uncovers the hidden history of Farnsworth's "image dissector." If RCA's David Sarnoff (the "mogul" of the title) had chosen to work with Farnsworth, the young man would have become a household name. But Farnsworth lost his chance at fame, mentally collapsed, and spent his last years bitterly disappointed. Watching the moon landing on a picture tube less than two years before his death, however, he turned to his wife and said, "This has made it all worthwhile." --John Miller

From Publishers Weekly

The book jacket asserts that it will tell the story of television's "real" inventor, Philo T. Farnsworth, a 14-year-old Idaho farm boy. It's a clever and accurate hook, since no one inventor can take credit for the magic black box. What makes Farnsworth unique aside from an intuitive leap while mowing a hayfield in 1922 is that he outlasted everyone else in his patent battle against RCA's David Sarnoff, who famously said, "RCA doesn't pay royalties. It collects them." Sarnoff makes a good foil: both men struggled up from poverty, Sarnoff by climbing the corporate ladder and Farnsworth by convincing financial backers to fund his research. Unfortunately for Farnsworth, "the era of the solitary inventor was quickly fading." Large, well-funded corporate laboratories were taking their place in the 1930s and reducing the inventor to a contract engineer. Stashower, a journalist and Edgar Award-winning biographer (for Teller of Tales), is also the author of three murder mysteries. He ends every chapter with a cliffhanger, which gets monotonous. However, his flair for storytelling does help move the book along through the necessary passages of technical jargon. Instilled with the glories of Edison, Ford and Gates, the public still romanticizes the genius in the attic, while recognizing that the spoils generally go to the rich and powerful.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Broadway; 1st edition (April 9, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767907590
• ISBN-13: 978-0767907590
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #597,175 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Mythic Inventor, October 29, 2002

By	Gary Schroeder "GS23" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I had an impulse to pick this book up after seeing a documentary on Philo T. Farnsworth on PBS's "the American Experience" about four years ago. The account on the show was somewhat breezy owing to the hour long format. I was hoping to find more detail in Stashower's book. I was both satisifed and maybe just a little disappointed. Part of me wished that more technical detail had been covered in the book, though the other part of me realizes that this is primarily a dramatic story of an individual's struggle to bring a new technology to market while being raced and opposed by a capitalist juggernaut (David Sarnoff and RCA). This book is more of a showcase for drama, not for technology.

If you're looking for a quick read on the trials and tribulations of one of the key inventors of television, this is a good book. If you're looking for either a primer on early television technology or an extremely detailed account of Farnsworth's battle with Sarnoff, you may be a bit disappointed.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Boy Genius and the Mogul SMECC Recommends!, May 25, 2002

By	Ed Sharpe Archivist for SMECC (glendale, AZ USA www.smecc.org) - See all my reviews

If you have any interest in the history of radio and television from the lay person to the engineer you will desire to read a copy of "The Boy Genius and the Mogul" by Daniel Stashower. The hero that we root for of course is Philo T. Farnsworth, one of the inventors of Television technology.
Daniel Stashower, a mystery novelist and biographer of Arthur Conan Doyle, discusses the history and development of Farnsworth's "image dissector." RCA's David Sarnoff (the "mogul" of the title) of course is portrayed as Farnsworth's nemesis. There is a fantastic amount of information on both of these brilliant people and the folk that surrounded them including a good background on Sarnof's TV developers Alexanderson (RCA Mechanical TV system) and Zworykin (Iconoscope <electronic system>). There is also interesting history on Jenkins(US) and Baird (UK), both being developers of mechanical television fame...

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Complicated History of Television, June 29, 2002

By	Ricky Hunter (New York City, NY United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The Boy Genius and the Mogul (The Untold Story of Television) is not quite an untold story but it is still one worth repeating and Daniel Stashower does a good job of taking the reader easily through a story that could be much more complicated in other hands (it does after all touch on both science and the legal system, never friendly topics for the casual readers of history). Farnsworth and Sarnoff of the title make interesting protanganists and steep this book in human interest. The story droops at times but it still generally makes for a fascinating read.