Allen B. DuMont

Early life

DuMont was born in Brooklyn, New York City, the son of Lillian Felton (Balcom) and William Henry Beaman DuMont. At the age of 10, he was stricken with polio and was quarantined at his family's Eastern Parkway apartment for nearly a year. During his quarantine, his father brought home books and magazines for the young DuMont to read while bedridden. DuMont developed an interest in science, wireless radio communication, and taught himself Morse code.

His father bought him a crystal radio receiver which he assembled, took apart, reassembled and rebuilt several times. He improved his set each time he rebuilt it and later built a transmitter, while his father obtained the landlord's permission to erect a 30-foot-high (9.1 m) transceiving antenna on the roof.

While recuperating from polio, DuMont was advised to swim to regain the use of his legs. In 1914, the family moved to Montclair, New Jersey, where there was an indoor year-round pool available at the local YMCA. He graduated from Montclair High School in 1919, and went to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, where he was part of the Alpha chapter of the Theta Xi fraternity.

The DuMont Television Network was not an unqualified success, being faced with the major problem of how to make a profit without the benefit of an already established radio network as a base. After ten years, DuMont shuttered the network and sold what remained of his television operations to John Kluge in 1956, which Kluge renamed Metromedia. DuMont's partner, Thomas T. Goldsmith (for whom the Washington, D.C. station WTTG was named), remained on Metromedia's board of directors from this time all the way until Kluge sold the stations to the Fox Television Stations Group in 1986, when the Fox network was formed.

DuMont was the first to provide funding for educational television broadcasting. He was the recipient of numerous honorary degrees and awards, among them the Cross of Knight awarded by the French Government, the Horatio Alger Award, the Westinghouse Award, and the DeForest Medal. He is also a holder of over 30 patents in cathode-ray tubes and other television equipment.

DuMont enjoyed sailing. He owned a cruiser, the Hurricane III. He would participate in boat races and compete in navigation skills competition, winning three national championships. He died in 1965 and is buried in Mount Hebron Cemetery in Montclair, New Jersey. He was survived by his wife Ethel and their two children, Allen Jr. and Yvonne. The television center at Montclair State University bears his name and produces programs for the NJTV system (formerly New Jersey Network, now NJ PBS).