BRIGADIER GENERAL DAVID SARNOFF - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 06/20/1941 - HFSID 48391

DAVID SARNOFF
The founder of NBC congratulates a portrait artist S. J. Woolf in this typed letter.
Typed Letter signed: "David Sarnoff" as President of RCA, 1 page, 8½x11. New York, N.Y., 1941 June 20. On letterhead of the Radio Corporation of America to S. J. Woolf, New York, N.Y. In full: "It was really good to read in the news this morning that the Board of Higher Education is to have a noted artist and author on its roster. Congratulations, not only to you for what your talents will bring to the Board, but to the Mayor for his splendid appointment. With kind regards, Sincerely yours". DAVID SARNOFF (1891-1971, born in Minsk, Russia) was an American radio and television executive and pioneer. He studied to be a Jewish Talmudic scholar in Russia, but left school in 1906, after moving with his family to Albany, New York, to be a messenger for a telegraph company. He became proficient enough at Morse code that he was hired as a radio operator for the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co. On April 14, 1912, the 21-year-old Sarnoff was the first to pick up distress signals from the sinking Titanic; he remained at his post for 72 hours, receiving and passing along news, and was hailed for his dedication. In 1921, he became general manager of the newly-formed Radio Corporation of America, and attracted national interest when he broadcast a bout between Jack Dempsey and Georges Carpentier on July 2, 1921. In 1926, Sarnoff founded the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) and established an experimental television station two years later; his television was demonstrated at the New York World's Fair in 1939. During World War II, Sarnoff, who had been made President of RCA in 1930, served as a communications consultant to General Dwight D. Eisenhower and was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General. He was Chairman of the Board of RCA from 1947 until his retirement in 1970. SAMUEL JOHNSON WOOLF (1880-1948), the addressee, was a noted portraitist who worked in paint and also charcoal. He often interviewed his subjects for the New York Times while they posed for him. The Mayor of New York praised here for his appointment was the colorful 3-term Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, in office 1935-1947. Mailing folds, not touching signature. Lightly stained. Otherwise, fine condition.