Irving Berlin Kahn (September 30, 1917– January 22, 1994) was an American media proprietor. He was a founder of

TelePrompTer Corporation TelePrompTer Corporation was an American media company that existed from approximately 1950 until 1981. The company was named for its Teleprompter, eponymous primary product, a display device invented by Hubert Schlafly which scrolls Written lang ...

and an early proponent and developer of

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

.Barron, James
"Irving B. Kahn, 76, a Founder Of Teleprompter and Cable TV"
''The New York Times'', January 25, 1994

Life and work

Irving Berlin Kahn was born in 1917 in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, most populous City (New Jersey), city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, the county seat of Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, and a principal city of the New York metropolitan area. ...

. He was the

nephew In the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a niece or nephew is a child of an individual's sibling or sibling-in-law. A niece is female and a nephew is male, and they would call their parents' siblings aunt or uncle ...

of his

namesake A namesake is a person, place, or thing bearing the name of another. Most commonly, it refers to an individual who is purposely named after another (e.g. John F. Kennedy Jr would be the namesake of John F. Kennedy). In common parlance, it may ...

, popular composer

Irving Berlin Irving Berlin (born Israel Isidore Beilin; May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was a Russian-born American composer and songwriter. His music forms a large part of the Great American Songbook. Berlin received numerous honors including an Acade ...

, and graduated from the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, the Capstone, or Bama) is a Public university, public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of ...

, where he was a drum major. Kahn's first job was as a public relations agent for

Twentieth Century-Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film production and distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Com ...

where he pioneered radio advertising for movies. After serving as a lieutenant in the

United States Army Air Corps The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical ri ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he returned to his job and by 1950 was the vice president in charge of Fox's new radio and television subsidiary, TCF Television Productions, Inc. With colleagues from Fox Radio, Fred Barton, Jr., a Broadway theatre actor, and Hubert Schlafly, an electrical engineer, he founded TelePrompTer Corporation which, in the 1950s, invented the

teleprompter A teleprompter, also known as an autocue, is a display device that prompts the person speaking with an electronic visual text of a speech or script. Using a teleprompter is similar to using cue cards. The screen is in front of, and usually bel ...

, which scrolls

text Text may refer to: Written word * Text (literary theory) In literary theory, a text is any object that can be "read", whether this object is a work of literature, a street sign, an arrangement of buildings on a city block, or styles of clothi ...

to on-camera talent, in order to help a

soap opera A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term ''soap opera'' originat ...

actor who could not remember his lines. Hubert Schlafly unveiled the teleprompter on the set of the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

soap opera, ''

The First Hundred Years ''The First Hundred Years'' was the first ongoing TV soap opera in the United States that began as a daytime serial, airing on CBS from December 4, 1950 until June 27, 1952. A previous daytime drama on NBC, '' These Are My Children'', aired i ...

'', in 1950. PR men handled the teleprompters. Schlafly invented the idea of actors in soap operas reading their lines by prompters, not scripts as they had been. TelePrompTer itself sold its eponymous business in the 1960s and invested in cable and satellite broadcast services."1940s-1960s: Birth of an Industry: Monroe 'Monty' Rifkin"

"The Time Warner Story"
, Time Warner Cable website Kahn was a visionary who had optimistically predicted in the 1960s that cable would provide 85 percent of all television reception by the end of the 1970s. He was convicted in 1971 and federally imprisoned for 20 months for trying to bribe members of the

Johnstown, Pennsylvania Johnstown is the largest city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 18,411 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located east of Pittsburgh, it is the principal city of the Metropolitan statistical area ...

city council to award his company a local cable franchise. He was also convicted of perjury."472 F.2d 272: United States of America, Appellee, v. Irving B. Kahn and Teleprompter Corporation, Appellants : United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit. - 472 F.2d 272; Argued Oct. 18, 1972.Decided Jan. 9, 1973"
/ref>
/ref> Mr. Kahn had stepped down as chairman of TelePrompTer several months before his conviction. He maintained, before and after his 20-month prison term, that the issue was extortion by the officials and not bribery by Teleprompter. In 1974, Kahn was involved in a case that went before the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...

, regarding the application of

search and seizure Search and seizure is a procedure used in many Civil law (legal system), civil law and common law legal systems by which police or other authorities and their agents, who, suspecting that a crime has been committed, commence a search of a person ...

laws on

wiretaps Wiretapping, also known as wire tapping or telephone tapping, is the monitoring of telephone and Internet-based conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitoring connecti ...

. Soon after being released from federal prison, Kahn started a new cable television venture in 1974 when he bought a 55-franchise cable system in southern New Jersey. He later moved to

West Palm Beach West Palm Beach is a city in and the county seat of Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is located immediately to the west of the adjacent Palm Beach, Florida, Palm Beach, which is situated on a barrier island across the Lake Worth Lag ...

, Florida, and

Mamaroneck, New York Mamaroneck ( ), is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County, New York (state), New York, United States. The population was 31,758 at the 2020 United States census over 29,156 at the 2 ...

. He sold his company in 1981 to the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

(NYT) for $82.7 million. Kahn become a consultant for NYT and was paid six $4 million installments to work with them; he also agreed not to compete with them.

Death

Irving Berlin Kahn died in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. He was survived by his wife of 45 years, Elizabeth Heslin Kahn, his two daughters, Ruth (a painter and director of an arts center in Queens, NY) and Jean, of New York, and his sister, Mildred, of

, Florida.

References

External links

"Cable Hall of Fame Archives: Irving Berlin Kahn"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kahn, Irving B. 1917 births 1994 deaths American businesspeople convicted of crimes American mass media owners United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II American television executives Businesspeople from Newark, New Jersey The New York Times people United States Army Air Forces officers 20th-century American writers TelePrompTer Corporation people American cable television company founders

Life and work

Death

References

Further reading

External links