[78-L] It's not only Ken Burns who get it wrong, or what is the obsession with Dave Brubeck?

[Michael Biel]

From: agp <agp2176 at verizon.net>

At 17:51 08/10/2011, MB wrote:
>> Mentioning Tesla or Hertz, who were 19th century theorists on the
>> electrical background of what makes transmission possible, in a program
>> solely about those who built the EMPIRE -- read: business -- of
>> BROADCASTING, makes as much sense as mentioning the ancients who
>> developed paint in a documentary about Van Gough and other painters.

> So why was there mention of Marconi?

Marconi had a direct personal relationship with David Sarnoff and with
RCA.  Sarnoff started in the business working for the Marconi company,
and when the man himself visited the U.S., Sarnoff was his guide,
assistant, and his procurer of women.  The Marconi company was morphed
into RCA, and Sarnoff came along.  Marconi and Sarnoff continued the
personal relationship into the 30s right up to Marconi's death, and
Marconi probably had an influence on Sarnoff's way of running RCA. 

>By the way, radios used to have huge glowing dials.

> Indeed they did -- but to hear Keillor describe it, the dial was as 
> big as a 12 cut pizza from Dominos and were every bit as tasty. 

To a little kid, the dial WAS huge.  Zenith's round dials were as much
as 8-inches, and some of the rectangular dials were as much as 14-inches
wide by 4 or 5 inches high.  Pizza's weren't huge back in the 30s, and
to me, even large Dominos pizzas are tiny.  I am used to Brooklyn pizzas
which are 18-inch.  Dominos had a "Brooklyn Pizza" about 3 years ago,
but it was too expensive for them, and they reverted back to only
smaller ones and changed the formula of all of their stuff to almost
unpalatable.  

> But as I indicate, I consider Keillor to be a full of himself boring prat.  T

I guess it is all in the taste.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com