DuMont Television Network

The DuMont Television Network was a pioneer American television network, beginning operation in 1946; when DuMont began operations, rivals CBS and NBC had not revived their pre-war experimental efforts, and ABC had no television plans. DuMont was controlled by DuMont Labratories, Inc., a broadcasting-equipment and set manufacturer started by inventor Dr. Allen B. DuMont. A minority shareholder in DuMont was Paramount Pictures, an early investor in television broadcasting with station interests of its own. DuMont owned and operated three television stations, WABD (named for Allen B. DuMont) in New York City (now WNYW), WDTV in Pittsburgh (now KDKA-TV), and WTTG (named for Dr. Thomas T. Goldsmith, DuMont's Vice-President of Research, and his best friend) in Washington, D.C.

Programming

With no history of radio programming to draw on, and always strapped for cash, DuMont was an innovative and creative network. Without radio revenues, which supported mighty NBC and CBS, DuMont programmers had to rely on their wits and connections in New York's theatrical community to provide original programs still remembered fifty-plus years later.

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The first broadcasts came from DuMont's Madison Avenue headquarters, but it soon found additional space (including a fully-functioning theater) in the New York branch of Wanamaker's department store. Still later, a lease on the Adelphi theater on Fifty-fourth street gave the network a site for variety shows.

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Among some of DuMont's better-remembered programs:

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• Mary Kay and Johnny, the first television situation comedy
• Faraway Hill, the first network-televised soap opera
• The Cavalcade of Stars, a variety show hosted initially by Jackie Gleason
• Life is Worth Living, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen's devotional program
• Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour
• Broadway Open House, a late-night variety and talk show hosted by Morey Amsterdam
• The Arthur Murray Party, a dance program
• With This Ring, a panel show on marriage
• Live coverage of boxing and professional wrestling

In addition, DuMont also offered

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• Captain Video, the hugely popular children's science fiction series
• Rocky King, Inside Detective, a private eye series starring Roscoe Karns.
• The Plainclothesman, a camera's-eye-view detective series
• Big Town.

Although DuMont's programming pre-dated videotape, many of DuMont offerings were caught on kinescopes, films shot directly from live television screens. These kinescopes were reportedly stored in an ABC network 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 of the Library of Congress on the preservation of television and video. Adams claimed that so little value was given to these films that in the early 1970s the kinescopes were removed from ABC's warehouse and dumped into Upper New York Bay.

Related Topics:
Kinescope - 1970s - Edie Adams - Ernie Kovacs - 1996 - Library of Congress - Upper New York Bay

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