Allen B. DuMont and the New Dumont Studios
According to the Sunday Herald Tribune, the new DuMont television studio opening Monday in Wanamaker's department store was the first large scale TV studio in New York. Up until now the facilities had been closet sized. The three new studios had a combined space of about 1,000,000 cubic feet and included the largest studio then in existence. It had permanent seating for 400 and another 300 could be accomodated on the studio floor. Balconies overlooked three sides and nine viewing monitors allowed audiences to see how the pictures would appear on a receiver.
WABD would also broadcast programming to the DuMont experimental station in Washington DC via a station in Philadelphia owned by TV manufacturer Philco. The studio was being inaugurated with a special program. Secretary of State Byrnes, Dr. Quo Tai-Chi, president of the UN Security Council. and Mayor William O'Dwyer were expected to attend.
DuMont had started his firm in 1931 in a basement in Upper Montclair, NJ. It now had four plants in Passaic and Clifton, NJ. He had been a frail youth who developed an early interest in telegraphy. At 14 he began working as a radio operator in merchant ships. He later graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and went to work for Westinghouse Lamp Co. In 1928 he went to work for radio pioneer Lee DeForest at the DeForest Radio Company, which had bought some television interests. DuMont was put in charge of their development. In 1930 the company began broadcasts over station W2XCD in Passaic.
Seeing the commercial potential in the cathode ray tube, Du Mont set up his company with three assistants. In 1934 he partnered with Commander Mortimer W. Loewi to establish Allen B. DuMont Laboratories. The first plant was set up in a former pickle factory in Passaic. The company entered broadcasting in 1938 and saw rapid expansion until the war put a halt to commercial television operation. During the war, the company produced cathode ray tubes and other equipment for the government.