Passaic, NJ: Birthplace of Television

Du Mont is a pioneer in the television industry, with the first American TV sets on the market in 1938.  In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Du Mont was America’s fourth television network before Channel Five (Fox) proved that a fourth network was viable. Du Mont competed with CBS, NBC and ABC for a television audience. DuMont was second to enter the network TV business, establishing a link between its New York City and Washington, D.C. stations in 1945, ahead of both CBS and ABC, and not far behind the pioneering efforts of NBC. They operated out of Passaic, New Jersey.

Passaic: Birthplace of Television and the DuMont Story is a television play which aired on the Du Mont Television Network on November 14, 1951. The short tele-play was broadcast live about the rise of the Du Mont network developed in Du Mont Laboratories and its founder Allen Du Mont. Besides his early inventions of the “tuning eye” for television sets, DuMont referred as the “Father of Television” is best known for his work in improving the cathode ray tube, the basis of electronic television, and was first to offer a home television receiver to the public, exhibiting sets at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.