Klaus Landsberg (July 7, 1916 – September 16, 1956) was a pioneering German-American electrical engineer who made history with early telecasts, and after emigrating to the United States helped pave the way for today's television networks. He appeared in many plays during his childhood. In his early teens he combined his technical skill and expressed desire to pursue his strong artistic inclination, setting out to prove that the two could be successfully blended. In 1936 he was called upon to assist in the history-making telecast of the Berlin Olympic Games. In 1937 Klaus was appointed laboratory engineer and assistant to Dr. Arthur Korn, the inventor of picture telegraphy. During this association, Landsberg created many new electronic devices. The most outstanding of these achievements was the invention of an electronic aid to navigation and blind landings, considered so vital to the

Third Reich Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

that upon being patented it was declared a military secret, which Landsberg was determined to destroy as a Nazi weapon (he was successful). This basic

radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...

principle later became Landsberg's passport to America. Following his arrival in the United States, Farnsworth Television, Inc. hired Landsberg as Television Development Engineer in Philadelphia in 1938. In 1939 he went to New York for the National Broadcasting Company television division. During this period, Landsberg helped NBC make the first public demonstrations of electronic television in America, at the April 30, 1939 opening of the New York World's Fair. Allen B. DuMont recognized Landsberg's qualifications, and signed him as television design and development engineer for the New York-based DuMont Laboratories, a pioneer United States television organization. There he supervised technical operations of the television unit at the U.S. Army Maneuvers in Cantons, New York, developing automatic synchronizing circuits. In 1939 he was contracted to build DuMont's station WABD, as well as produce the station's first shows. In 1941 Klaus was sent by

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

to Los Angeles to build W6XYZ, an experimental television station. He ran the experimental station from 1942 to 1947, during which time he produced Paramount's first kinescope. Also in 1947,

KTLA KTLA (channel 5) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship station of The CW. It is the largest directly owned property of the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, and is ...

(Channel 5), a Los Angeles Television station funded by Paramount and helmed by Klaus Landsberg, began regular commercial broadcasts, with the first such KTLA commercial broadcast was January 22, 1947, hosted by

Bob Hope Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was an American comedian, actor, entertainer and producer with a career that spanned nearly 80 years and achievements in vaudeville, network radio, television, and USO Tours. He appeared ...

. By 1948, KTLA boasted a show lineup that included Spade Cooley, '' The Ina Ray Hutton Show'', ''The Continental Lover'', '' Time for Beany'', '' Korla Pandit's Adventures in Music'' and '' Hollywood Wrestling''. Landsberg died of cancer in 1956 in Los Angeles.

References

Biography at TechNotes.tv
{{DEFAULTSORT:Landsberg, Klaus 1916 births 1956 deaths Emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States Television pioneers