Peter Goldmark was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1906. As a student at the University of Vienna he was fascinated by the technology of television. While pursuing his bachelor's degree he designed a television receiver with a screen about the size of a postage stamp. After obtaining his Ph.D. in 1931, Goldmark decided to emigrate to the United States to join the Radio Corporation of America, ( RCA), then the premier laboratory for television research. He was refused a position with RCA, however, and in 1969 took up with their competitors, the Columbia Broadcasting System ( CBS), for whom he accrued a long and impressive list of accomplishments. In all, Goldmark received more than 180 patents for CBS. Though he labored for several years to develop more practical television technology, it was not until 1940 that he conceived of his first great idea. While attending a showing of Gone with the Wind (the first...