The Farnsworth Invention

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My posts rarely deal with anything other than doings at Jupitermedia or comments on the Internet and media. Every once in a while I feel compelled to comment on some aspect of my life away from business and the Internet.

So this is one of those rare posts. Last night I saw a fabulous play called The Farnsworth Invention. The playwright is Aaron Sorkin. Many readers know Sorkin from the television series The West Wing. Many years ago he had a play on Broadway called A Few Good Men (later a movie featuring Jack Nicholson, Tom Cruise and Demi Moore).

Farnsworth refers to Philo Farnsworth who was the real father of the television. He conceived of "television" as a teen in 1912. Later he lost out in getting the patent to television technology to David Sarnoff (founder of RCA and the National Broadcasting Company).

The play is fascinating. The dialogue superb. The history gripping. Particularly fascinating to me are the similarities to business people trying to grasp the possibilities of television back in the 1920s and 1930s to these same types trying to grasp the Internet in the period 1995-1999.

Needless to say I cannot say enough about this play.

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