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David Sarnoff opened the RCA pavilion at the World's Fair on April 20, 1939, ten days before the Fair began. His speech, "The Birth of an Industry," was broadcast by mobile television cameras to the 62nd floor of the RCA Building eight miles away where the press had gathered to watch his speech via television.
"Today we are on the eve of launching a new industry, based on imagination, research and accomplishment. We are now ready to fulfill the promise made to the public last October, when, after years of research, laboratory experiments and tests in the field costing millions of dollars, the Radio corporation of America announced that television program service and commercial television receivers would be made available to the public with the opening of the New York World's Fair..." "And now we add radio sight to sound. It is with a feeling of humbleness that I come to this moment of announcing the birth in this country of a new art so important in its implications that it is bound to affect all society. It is an art which shines like a torch of hope in a troubled world. It is a creative force which we must learn to utilize for the benefit of all mankind." |