"People have confidence in the dog."

Named for his tendency to bite guests in the leg, Nipper was a real dog who lived in England in the late 19^th century. The iconic image of Nipper listening to “His Master’s Voice” was originally a photograph of Nipper and a rare (even for its time) Edison-Bell cylinder phonograph. A British artist replaced the unusual cylinder machine with a more common wind-up gramophone and tried to sell his painting for advertising purposes. He was rejected by Edison-Bell (supposedly told “dogs don’t listen to phonographs”) but later sold a modified version of his painting to England’s The Gramophone Company.

The American Victor company acquired the use of the trademarked image in the early 20^th century, and RCA picked it up with its acquisition of Victor in 1929. Today, the trademark's ownership is divided among different companies in different countries. Global electronics giant JVC, for example, is actually the Victor Company of Japan and still uses Nipper in its logo and advertising, but only in Japan.

The original title of the painting was “His Late Master’s Voice”, but that was quickly determined to be a bit morbid as an advertising campaign.

In the 1990s, RCA produced a series of commercials featuring Nipper played by a real dog. Those ads also introduced a puppy, “Chipper”.

The Gramophone Company became so associated with the logo and slogan that around 1908 the company was renamed HMV. Today, more than a hundred years later, HMV is a popular global retail chain which continues to use the Nipper logo.

FARNSWORTH CAST ANNOUNCED

The Farnsworth Invention CAST ANNOUNCED
Sorry about the format; I can't seem to fix it

SARNOFF Doak Bloss
PHILO Joseph Baumann
PEM Kat Cooper
LIZETTE/PICKFORD Veronica Gracia-Wing
STAN Joseph Quick
CLIFF Simon Tower
EVERSON Darrin Fowler
GORRELL Mark Bethea
ZWORYKIN Roger Nowland
TOLMAN Ron Lott
BETTY Sarah Sonnenberg
AGNES Erin Hoffman
MINA Charlotte Rupert
CROCKER Michael Ewine
HARLAN William Beam
WACHTEL/FAIRBANKS Scott Larson
HARBORD John Donohoe
SIMMS Greg Pratt
ATKINS/GIFFORD Gary Mitchell
WILKINS Jim Murphy
RIDLEY Brian Stratton
PHILO (boy) Reese Brockhaus
SARNOFF (boy) Danny Bethea

Information Please

FIRST REHEARSAL- Tuesday, September 7

CONFLICTS- Conflicts will be a factor in casting this show. Because of the interwoven nature of scenes, characters, and actors playing multiple roles, scheduling around frequent conflicts will be difficult. Please look at your schedules now. It is inevitable that sometimes we have to work around conflicts but ones that involve long periods of time, recurring weekly conflicts, or many absences during the course of the rehearsal period will be problematic.

ALL HANDS ON DECK...LITERALLY. The structure of this show is fluid and seamless. One scene runs into another into another etc. There are no scene breaks or blackouts during the acts. It is an extremely exciting paradigm. The ENSEMBLE of actors will be executing all scene shifts. This show will not be using a traditional running crew.

A FEW GOOD WOMEN

(Photo from Chicago's TimeLine Theatre production)

Yes!! Absolutely!! There ARE Women in The Farnsworth Invention....5 of them.

PEM FARNSWORTH 20-40's Philos wife

LIZETTE SARNOFF 30-40's Sarnoff's elegant French wife

BETTY 20-35 Sarnoff's secretary

AGNES FARNSWORTH 20-35 Philos sister and
lab partner

MINA EDISON 40-60 Edison's widow

In addition most of the women play an additional 10 roles

An Abuse of Power

"It will be admitted by all that so good a scientific invention (TV) for the purpose and pursuit of entertainment alone would be a prostitution of its powers and an insult to the character and intelligence of people."
-President of the BBC, 1925

The Woman Behind the Man

My husband invented the ignition lock, which may not sound like much, except he was twelve years old at the time. What were you doing when you were twelve, Mr. Sarnoff?

"What is fair for one is not fair for all."

Sarnoff: I don't think I stole television - if I did, I did it fair and square.
But he deserved better in my hands. He was gonna do a lot more, but I burned his house down so he wouldn't burn mine down first.