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The effects of the Hoover Dike were seen immediately . An extended drought occurred in the 1930s , and with the wall preventing water leaving Lake Okeechobee and canals and ditches removing other water , the Everglades became parched . Peat turned to dust , and salty ocean water entered Miami 's wells . When the city ... |
= = = Conservation attempts = = =
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Conservationists concerned about the Everglades have been a vocal minority ever since Miami was a young city . South Florida 's first and perhaps most enthusiastic naturalist was Charles Torrey Simpson , who retired from the Smithsonian Institution to Miami in 1905 when he was 53 . Nicknamed " the Sage of Biscayne Bay... |
Although the idea of protecting a portion of the Everglades arose in 1905 , a crystallized effort was formed in 1928 when Miami landscape designer Ernest F. Coe established the Everglades Tropical National Park Association . It had enough support to be declared a national park by Congress in 1934 , but there was not e... |
= = Flood control = =
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Coinciding with the dedication of Everglades National Park , 1947 in south Florida saw two hurricanes and a wet season responsible for 100 inches ( 250 cm ) of rain , ending the decade @-@ long drought . Although there were no human casualties , cattle and deer were drowned and standing water was left in suburban area... |
= = = Central and Southern Florida Flood Control Project = = =
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In 1948 Congress approved the Central and Southern Florida Project for Flood Control and Other Purposes ( C & SF ) and consolidated the Everglades Drainage District and the Okeechobee Flood Control District under this . The C & SF used four methods in flood management : levees , water storage areas , canal improvement... |
During the 1950s and 1960s the South Florida metropolitan area grew four times as fast as the rest of the nation . Between 1940 and 1965 , 6 million people moved to south Florida : 1 @,@ 000 people moved to Miami every week . Urban development between the mid @-@ 1950s and the late 1960s quadrupled . Much of the water... |
The C & SF constructed over 1 @,@ 000 miles ( 1 @,@ 600 km ) of canals , and hundreds of pumping stations and levees within three decades . It produced a film , Waters of Destiny , characterized by author Michael Grunwald as propaganda , that likened nature to a villainous , shrieking force of rage and declared the C ... |
Establishment of the C & SF made Everglades National Park completely dependent upon another political entity for its survival . One of the C & SF 's projects was Levee 29 , laid along the Tamiami Trail on the northern border of the park . Levee 29 featured four flood control gates that controlled all the water enterin... |
= = = Everglades Agricultural Area = = =
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The C & SF established 470 @,@ 000 acres ( 1 @,@ 900 km2 ) for the Everglades Agricultural Area β 27 percent of the Everglades before development . In the late 1920s , agricultural experiments indicated that adding large amounts of manganese sulfate to Everglades muck produced profitable vegetable harvests . Adding 10... |
Fields in the EAA are typically 40 acres ( 16 ha ) , on two sides bordered by canals that are connected to larger ones by which water is pumped in or out depending on the needs of the crops . The water level for sugarcane is ideally maintained at 20 inches ( 51 cm ) below the surface soil , and after the cane is harve... |
= = Turning point = =
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A turning point for development in the Everglades came in 1969 when a replacement airport was proposed as Miami International Airport outgrew its capacities . Developers began acquiring land , paying $ 180 an acre in 1968 , and the Dade County Port Authority ( DCPA ) bought 39 square miles ( 100 km2 ) in the Big Cypre... |
The C & SF brought the jetport proposal to national attention by mailing letters about it to 100 conservation groups in the U.S. Initial local press reaction condemned conservation groups who immediately opposed the project . Business Week reported real estate prices jumped from $ 200 to $ 800 an acre surrounding the ... |
When studies indicated the proposed jetport would create 4 @,@ 000 @,@ 000 US gallons ( 15 @,@ 000 @,@ 000 L ) of raw sewage a day and 10 @,@ 000 short tons ( 9 @,@ 100 t ) of jet engine pollutants a year , the national media snapped to attention . Science magazine wrote , in a series on environmental protection highl... |
= DuMont Television Network =
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The DuMont Television Network ( also known as the DuMont Network , simply DuMont / Du Mont , or ( incorrectly ) Dumont / duΛmΙnt / ) was one of the world 's pioneer commercial television networks , rivalling NBC and CBS for the distinction of being first overall in the USA . It began operation in the United States in ... |
DuMont 's latter @-@ day obscurity , caused mainly by the destruction of its extensive program archive by the 1970s , has prompted TV historian David Weinstein to refer to it as the " Forgotten Network " or " Network Is Long Gone " . A few popular DuMont programs , such as Cavalcade of Stars and Emmy Award winner Life... |
= = History = =
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= = = Origins = = =
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DuMont Laboratories was founded in 1931 by Dr. Allen B. DuMont with only $ 1 @,@ 000 , and a laboratory in his basement . He and his staff were responsible for many early technical innovations , including the first consumer all @-@ electronic television set in 1938 . The company 's television sets soon became the gold... |
Early sales of television sets were hampered by the lack of regularly scheduled programming being broadcast . A few months after selling his first set in 1938 , DuMont opened his own New York area experimental television station ( W2XVT ) in Passaic , New Jersey . In 1940 , the station moved to Manhattan as W2XWV on c... |
Soon after his experimental Washington station signed on , DuMont began experimental coaxial cable hookups between his laboratories in Passaic , New Jersey , and his two stations . It is said that one of those broadcasts on the hookup announced that the U.S. had dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki , Japan , on August 9... |
Although NBC in New York was known to have station @-@ to @-@ station television links as early as 1940 with WPTZ ( now KYW ) in Philadelphia and WRGB Schenectady , NY , DuMont received its station licenses before NBC resumed its previously sporadic network broadcasts after the war . ABC had just come into existence a... |
= = = Programming = = =
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Despite no history of radio programming or stable of radio stars to draw on and perennial cash shortages , DuMont was an innovative and creative network . Without the radio revenues that supported mighty NBC and CBS , DuMont programmers relied on their wits and on connections with Broadway . Eventually , the network p... |
The network largely ignored the standard business model of 1950s TV , in which one advertiser sponsored an entire show , enabling it to have complete control over its content . Instead , DuMont sold commercials to many different advertisers , freeing producers of its shows from the veto power held by sole sponsors . T... |
DuMont also holds another important place in American TV history . WDTV 's sign @-@ on made it possible for stations in the Midwest to receive live network programming from stations on the East Coast , and vice versa . Before then , the networks relied on separate regional networks in the two time zones for live progr... |
The first broadcasts came from DuMont 's 515 Madison Avenue headquarters , and it soon found additional space , including a fully functioning theater , in the New York branch of Wanamaker 's department store at Ninth Street and Broadway . Later , a lease on the Adelphi Theatre on 54th Street and the Ambassador Theatre... |
DuMont was the first network to broadcast a film production for TV : Talk Fast , Mister , produced by RKO in 1944 . DuMont also aired the first TV situation comedy , Mary Kay and Johnny , as well as the first network @-@ televised soap opera , Faraway Hill . Cavalcade of Stars , a variety show hosted by Jackie Gleason... |
Ted Mack 's The Original Amateur Hour , which began on radio in the 1930s under original host Edward Bowes
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The Morey Amsterdam Show , a comedy / variety show hosted by Morey Amsterdam , which started on CBS before moving to DuMont in 1949
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Captain Video and His Video Rangers , a hugely popular kids ' science fiction series
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The Arthur Murray Party , a dance program
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Down You Go , a popular panel show
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Rocky King , Inside Detective , a private eye series starring Roscoe Karns
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The Plainclothesman , a camera 's @-@ eye @-@ view detective series
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Live coverage of boxing and professional wrestling , the latter featuring matches staged by the Capitol Wrestling Corporation , the predecessor to WWE
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The Johns Hopkins Science Review , a Peabody Award @-@ winning education program
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Cash and Carry , the first network @-@ televised game show
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The Ernie Kovacs Show , the first truly innovative show in what was then visual radio , not television .
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The network was a pioneer in TV programming aimed at minority audiences and featuring minority performers , at a time when the other American networks aired few television series for non @-@ whites . Among DuMont 's minority programs were The Gallery of Madame Liu @-@ Tsong , starring Asian American film actress Anna ... |
Although DuMont 's programming pre @-@ dated videotape , many DuMont offerings were recorded on kinescopes . These kinescopes were said to be stored in a warehouse until the 1970s . Actress Edie Adams , the wife of comedian Ernie Kovacs ( both regular performers on early television ) testified in 1996 before a panel o... |
Although nearly the entire DuMont film archive was destroyed , several surviving DuMont shows have been released on DVD . A large number of episodes of Life Is Worth Living have been saved , and they are now aired weekly on Catholic @-@ oriented cable network , the Eternal Word Television Network , which also makes a ... |
= = = = Awards = = = =
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DuMont programs were by necessity low @-@ budget affairs , and the network received relatively few awards from the TV industry . Most awards during the 1950s went to NBC and CBS , who were able to out @-@ spend other companies and draw on their extensive history of radio broadcasting in the relatively new television m... |
During the 1952 β 53 TV season , Bishop Fulton J. Sheen , host of Life Is Worth Living , won an Emmy Award for Most Outstanding Personality . Sheen beat out CBS 's Arthur Godfrey , Edward R. Murrow and Lucille Ball , who were also nominated for the same award . Sheen was also nominated for β but did not win β consecut... |
DuMont received an Emmy nomination for Down You Go , a popular game show during the 1952 β 53 television season ( in the category Best Audience Participation , Quiz , or Panel Program ) . The network was nominated twice for its coverage of professional football during the 1953 β 54 and 1954 β 55 television seasons .
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The Johns Hopkins Science Review , a DuMont public affairs program , was awarded a Peabody Award in 1952 in the Education category . Sheen 's Emmy and the Science Review Peabody were the only national awards the DuMont Network received . Though DuMont series and performers continued to win local TV awards , by the mid... |
= = = = Ratings = = = =
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The earliest measurements of TV audiences were performed by the C. E. Hooper company of New York . DuMont performed well in the Hooper ratings ; in fact , DuMont 's talent program , The Original Amateur Hour , was the most popular series of the 1947 β 48 season . Variety ranked DuMont 's popular variety series Cavalca... |
In February 1950 , Hooper 's competitor A. C. Nielsen bought out the Hooperatings system . DuMont did not fare well with the change : none of its shows appeared on Nielsen 's annual top 20 lists of the most popular series . One of the DuMont Network 's biggest hits of the 1950s , Life is Worth Living , received Nielse... |
Life is Worth Living was not the only DuMont program to achieve double @-@ digit ratings . In 1952 , Time magazine reported that popular DuMont game show Down You Go had attracted an audience estimated at 16 million viewers . Similarly , DuMont 's summer 1954 replacement series , The Goldbergs , achieved audiences est... |
Nielsen was not the only company to report TV ratings , however . Companies such as Trendex , Videodex and Arbitron had also measured TV viewership . The adjacent chart comes from Videodex 's August 1950 ratings breakdown , as reported in Billboard magazine .
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= = = Disputes with AT & T and Paramount = = =
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DuMont struggled to get its programs aired in many parts of the country , in part due to technical limitations of network lines maintained by the telephone company AT & T Corporation . During the 1940s and 1950s , television signals were sent between stations via coaxial cable and microwave links which were owned by A... |
DuMont 's biggest corporate hurdle , however , may have been with the company 's own partner , Paramount . Relations between the two companies were strained as early as 1939 , when Paramount opened experimental television stations in Los Angeles and Chicago without DuMont . Dr. DuMont claimed that the original 1937 ac... |
DuMont aspired to grow beyond its three stations , applying for new television station licenses in Cincinnati and Cleveland in 1947 . This would give the network five owned @-@ and @-@ operated stations ( O & Os ) , the maximum allowed by the FCC at the time . However , DuMont was hampered by Paramount 's two stations... |
In 1949 , Paramount Pictures launched the Paramount Television Network , a service which provided local television stations with filmed television programs ; Paramount 's network " undercut the company that it had invested in . " Paramount did not share its stars , big budgets or filmed programs with DuMont ; the comp... |
= = = Trouble from the start = = =
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DuMont began with one basic disadvantage : unlike NBC , CBS and ABC , it did not have a radio network from which to draw big @-@ name talent , affiliate loyalty or radio profits to underwrite television operations until the television medium itself became profitable . Most early television licenses were granted to est... |
Adding to DuMont 's troubles was the FCC 's 1948 " freeze " on television license applications . This was done to sort out the thousands of applications that had come streaming in , but also to rethink the allocation and technical standards laid down prior to World War II . It became clear soon after the war that 12 c... |
Forced to rely on UHF to expand , DuMont saw one station after another go dark due to dismal ratings . It bought small , distressed UHF station KCTY ( channel 50 ) in Kansas City , Missouri in 1954 , but ran it for just three months before shutting it down at a considerable loss after attempting to compete with three ... |
The FCC 's Dr. Hyman Goldin said in 1960 , " If there had been four VHF outlets in the top markets , there 's no question DuMont would have lived and would have eventually turned the corner in terms of profitability . "
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= = = The end = = =
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During the early years of television , there was some measure of cooperation among the four major U.S. television networks . However , as television grew into a profitable business , an intense rivalry developed between the networks , just as it had in radio . NBC and CBS competed fiercely for viewers and advertising ... |
DuMont survived the early 1950s only because of WDTV in Pittsburgh , the lone commercial VHF station in what was then the sixth @-@ largest market . WDTV 's only competition came from UHF stations and distant stations from Johnstown , Pennsylvania ; Youngstown , Ohio ; and Wheeling , West Virginia . No other commercia... |
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