Irving B. Kahn
Irving Berlin Kahn (September 30, 1917– January 22, 1994) was an American media proprietor. He was a founder of TelePrompTer Corporation and an early proponent and developer of cable television.[1]
Life and work
Irving Berlin Kahn was born in 1917 in
Kahn's first job was as a public relations agent for
With colleagues from Fox Radio, Fred Barton, Jr., a Broadway theatre actor, and Hubert Schlafly, an electrical engineer,[2] he founded TelePrompTer Corporation which, in the 1950s, invented the teleprompter, which scrolls text to on-camera talent, in order to help a soap opera actor who could not remember his lines. Hubert Schlafly unveiled the teleprompter on the set of the CBS soap opera, The First Hundred Years, in 1950.[3] PR men handled the teleprompters. Schlafly invented the idea of actors in soap operas reading their lines by prompters, not scripts as they had been.
TelePrompTer itself sold its eponymous business in the 1960s and invested in cable and satellite broadcast services.[4]
Kahn was a visionary who had optimistically predicted in the 1960s that cable would provide 85 percent of all television reception by the end of the 1970s.[1]
He was convicted in 1971 and federally imprisoned for 20 months for trying to bribe members of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania city council to award his company a local cable franchise. He was also convicted of perjury.[1][5][6] Mr. Kahn had stepped down as chairman of TelePrompTer several months before his conviction. He maintained, before and after his 20-month prison term, that the issue was extortion by the officials and not bribery by Teleprompter.[1]
In 1974, Kahn was involved in a case that went before the
Soon after being released from federal prison, Kahn started a new cable television venture in 1974 when he bought a 55-franchise cable system in southern New Jersey.
He sold his company in 1981 to the
Death
Irving Berlin Kahn died in
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Barron, James, "Irving B. Kahn, 76, a Founder Of Teleprompter and Cable TV", The New York Times, January 25, 1994
- ^ Miller, Stephen, "Engineer's Device Eased Speechmakers' Minds", The Wall Street Journal, April 26, 2011, p.A6
- ^ "Teleprompter inventor Schlafly dies in Conn. at 91". CNBC. Associated Press. 26 April 2011. Archived from the original on 10 May 2011. Retrieved 10 May 2011.
- ^ "1940s-1960s: Birth of an Industry: Monroe 'Monty' Rifkin" Archived 2012-07-15 at archive.today, "The Time Warner Story" Archived 2012-07-11 at archive.today, Time Warner Cable website
- ^ a b "472 F.2d 272: United States of America, Appellee, v. Irving B. Kahn and Teleprompter Corporation, Appellants : United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit. - 472 F.2d 272; Argued Oct. 18, 1972.Decided Jan. 9, 1973"
- ^ a b 415 U.S. 143 United States v. Kahn : CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SEVENTH CIRCUIT No. 72-1328 Argued: December 11-12, 1973 --- Decided: February 20, 1974