| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 111.1

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 111.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

David Weinstein. The Forgotten Network: DuMont and the Birth of American Television. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 2004. Pp. xi, 228. $24.50.
David Weinstein has aptly named his engaging new book about DuMont The Forgotten Network. In 1946, DuMont Laboratories created one of the nation's first television networks. This pioneering enterprise, which has been largely forgotten by audiences and scholars alike, broke new ground in advertising and offered innovative and popular shows. Some of television's early stars, directors, and producers gained valuable experience at DuMont before moving on to other more prosperous networks. Jackie Gleason's Honeymooners sketch, for instance, originated in the Cavalcade of Stars program. DuMont's history, however, has been overshadowed by the histories of NBC and CBS. Although the network only operated for nine years, Weinstein argues that it had continuing influence on the television industry and its programming.	1
Weinstein makes effective use of corporate records and oral histories in a study that is both good business and cultural history. The first third of the book sketches the company's corporate history, its difficult relationship with government regulators, and its ultimately futile struggle for survival. Its founder, Allen B. DuMont was a radio engineer, who in the height of the depression established DuMont Laboratories to manufacture cathode-ray tubes. In the late 1930s, short on cash, DuMont gave partial control of the firm to Paramount Pictures, a move the entrepreneur later regretted. At the end of World War II, financially invigorated by wartime contracts, DuMont moved into broadcasting, initially acquiring stations in Washington, D.C. and New York.	. . .

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