C. Francis Jenkins, Pioneer of Film and Television

Chapter 11. The Jenkins Television Corporation

11 The Jenkins Television Corporation The years 1926 through 1930 were perhaps the best for Jenkins and his Jenkins Laboratories. Initially, he had all of the essentials for success—except investment capital to manufacture in quantity. The audience for his television station in Washington, D.C., was growing. He had a variety of televisionreceiver kits for sale. He enjoyed voluminous publicity from his experiments and demonstrations. He had aggressive plans for future growth. He still dominated the industry in terms of patents and saw significant potential from future licensing royalties. His position was dominant in synchronization, particularly the transmission of pictures and sound. He controlled patented technology for projecting and transmitting film. His new photo-cell receiver showed great promise for large-screen viewing and signal processing. These assets were expected to increase in value. Jenkins “will probably dominate . . . the television art progress,” claimed Delbert Replogle, assistant to De Forest president James W. Garside.1 The primary challenge remained that Jenkins lacked the capital to compete in full-scale manufacturing. This was soon to change. Jenkins reported that so much press attention was given to W3XK programming that it attracted investors from New York City and Palm Beach, Florida. The result was the genesis of the Jenkins Television Corporation, organized on November 16, 1928, under the laws of the State of Delaware.2 It was designed for manufacturing and selling equipment created by the Jenkins Laboratories, and it enjoyed substantial backing.3 It was financed to meet the demands for receivers, a demand that Jenkins had largely created from his experiments and promotions over the years. The new firm combined Jenkins’ LC 150 . chapter 11 television and de Forest’s radio patents, their technology, and their salable names. Sadly, these esteemed values would be cut short by the Depression. Significantly consequential in the organization of the new corporation, JenkinsanddeForestsignedoverthepatentsfromtheirradioandtelevisionwork , aswellasthosepatentsassignedtoJenkinsLaboratories.Ininexchange,Jenkins received $250,000 ($3,311,594) in cash and stock in the company.4 The establishment of the new corporation embodied all of Jenkins’ past electronic-media assets from the sale of receivers and transmitters; wireand facsimile-transmission apparatus; machinery for transmission of visuals and weather maps for ships at sea; royalties from licensing and “benefitted organizations; broadcasting of visual entertainment, information and instructions ; sales of motion picture prism disks, ultra-speed camera and other products.”5 Although he was undoubtedly happy with the arrangement, this event marked a turning point in this independent inventor’s life. No longer were his patents his own; they belonged to the corporation. He and every member of the lab signed an agreement with the new company, assigning to the company all patents, past and future. And the company provided their salary and support for their research. They further agreed not to publish or authorize publication of any information related to their patents without corporate approval.6 One can only speculate as to Jenkins’ feelings at this time. He had been well paid for his patent rights, and now he would have a salary and the capital to launch into full-scale television manufacturing. He had been instrumental in creating the consumer demand for entertainment television for a decade, and now he was preparing to fulfill it. The new Jenkins corporation was announced as a “$10,000,000 [$132,463,775] company to sell television.” The president and vice president came from the recently reorganized De Forest Radio Corporation: James W. Garside came in as president; and A. J. Drexel Biddle, chair of the board of directors for De Forest, was the first vice president of Jenkins Television.”7 Jenkins was also vice president in charge of research as well as a member of the board. However, he remained largely with the laboratory, where he had another title, president of Jenkins Laboratories. Garside indicated that the goal of the corporation was manufacturing and selling home-movie sets, duplicating “the grandeur of the Radio Corporation of America.”8 Who specifically approached Jenkins with this financing scheme was initially unclear. The New York Times generically labeled them “Wall Street Bankers” but did not identify anyone.9 Time magazine later reported that “C. C. Kerr and Company, of the New York Curb Market, was offering the Jenkins teleVision corporation · 151 250,000 shares of common stock priced at $10 [$132] per share,” with public shares opening as well for total capitalization of the ten million dollars.10 Interest was aroused as far away...