Mei Man: I drew Superman during the Great Depression

Chapter 302 Television Industry
"On April 1933, 4, at 3 p.m., President Roosevelt visited the Messenger TV factory in Brooklyn... when he saw fragments of his speeches and fireside chats on the color TV in the factory's laboratory , couldn’t help sighing: “The future will be the era of TV!””

"He was in front of the color TV set, looking at his own TV clips for a long time, and then reluctantly left. It is said that when President Roosevelt left, Mr. Colin Luper specially presented President Roosevelt with a color TV set... President Roosevelt specially presented the It is placed in the office of the White House, and whenever I have spare time, I will turn on the TV to watch the clips inside...

The news of Roosevelt's visit to the Messenger TV factory was like a signal that promoted the development of the TV industry.

On the day that the "Courier Welt" published the report, the factory sold hundreds of TV sets, and the supply was in short supply.

Judging from the feedback from the market, the public still maintains great interest in the emerging machine of television, especially after Roosevelt's "promotion", many people who did not pay attention to this industry before have gradually become interested in it. However, limited by the limitations of purchase channels and financial resources, the main purchasers of TV sets in New York City are still those upper-class people who were not affected by the Great Depression.

"Mr. Colin Luper, you should see this..."

In the Pulitzer Building, Louise Walton handed a newspaper to Colin.

"The Radio Corporation of America, with the best televisions in the world."

Following the newspaper passed by Louise, the front page of the newspaper published a TV advertisement from Radio Corporation of America in huge fonts.

Although, in the TV patent lawsuit, the American radio company lost steadily in the evidence prepared by Dewey, but obviously this was not enough to make them give up in the TV patent battle.

In fact, since the initial patent lawsuit, Radio Corporation of America has filed various small lawsuits one after another. Law Farnsworth's patent litigation practice, using these large and small lawsuits to delay Colin's development in television.

At the same time, on the other hand, the radio companies are also constantly claiming that because the TV patent case has not yet been concluded, they also have the right to produce and develop the TV industry.

Unlike Ferro Farnsworth, Colin has enough capital to fight against RCA, and has no plans to be passively beaten.

In fact, after the patent lawsuit, Dewey also filed several lawsuits against the wireless company.

"do not worry about it."

Withdrawing his gaze from the newspaper, Colin told Louise in front of him: "Our priority at the moment is to produce enough TV sets for New York City and even the entire United States. As for Radio Corporation of America..."

Since they like to produce TV sets, let them produce them.

For others, the development of the TV industry may be for the huge interests behind it, but for Ke Lin, it is the least important part. From the very beginning, his focus in promoting the development of the TV industry was to value the behind the industry. The huge influence of the TV industry, through the development of the TV industry to gain more [faith].

Of course, it's one thing not to care, but another to suffer.

Radio Corporation of America has vowed to claim that it only charges patent fees and never pays patent fees.

Then Ke Lin asked them to pay back the TV patent fees they owed one by one. Every TV they produce now will represent a lot of patent fees in the future.

The production of TV sets is proceeding in an orderly manner, and the factory's assembly line has reached the stage of optimization after this period of deployment.

From the output value of only a few dozen sets a day at the beginning to about fifty or sixty sets, and even with the increase in sales of TV sets, Ke Lin intends to open a new production line.

It's just that TV is just a listening medium, just like a radio.

What is really attractive is the media behind the TV or radio that provides the program.

Compared with the booming radio programs, the development of TV programs is obviously much slower. Of course, this has a lot to do with the TV itself as a new industry, but one of the reasons is the cautiousness of the radio stations.

At present, the mainstream listening method in the market is still the radio.

This has a great relationship with the market share of the radio itself.

Because of the Great Depression, a large number of people gave up their past entertainment life and chose cheaper ways to pass the time.

The rise of radio programs was based on such a premise. According to statistics, after the Great Depression, more than 40% of American households had radios.

The number of television stations available for listening has also increased from 1924 in 500 to 1200.

Today, it is the golden age of booming radio, and the major radio stations have also developed rapidly by virtue of the popularity of radio and replaced the emerging entertainment industry of newspapers and books.Under such circumstances, it is unrealistic to ask the radio station to give up the radio programs that tell the development and instead invest in the TV industry whose prospects are not yet clear.

The prosperity of radio benefited from the turmoil of the Great Depression, which is an opportunity formed by history.

If the TV wants to replace the radio, the first thing to solve is its high price. This is a fact determined by the production cost, and even Colin cannot change it.The cost of materials required to assemble a TV in a factory is far more expensive than a radio.

Before the TV industry really flourishes, radio stations are destined not to invest too much in it.

Even CBS only regards television as a direction of development, and the vast majority of radio stations still focus on radio programs.

The development from radio to television will eventually take a long time to transition.

Even with the help of Ke Lin behind this, it will take at least two or three years to build a complete TV system research.

This is also one of the reasons why Colin did not stop it even though he knew that RCA had stolen patents to produce TV sets. He needed RCA to help him mature the TV system.

With the influence of RCA in the radio field, it can at least push the development of the TV market one step further.

……

In addition to promoting the improvement of the TV industry.

Colin has not forgotten the serialization of "Superman" in the newspaper. As the most popular superhero on the market, each issue of "Messenger World" can gain a certain degree of "faith" for him.

This is currently the most stable source of [faith] in Ke Lin's hands, so naturally he will not give up easily.

The latest issue of "Superman" was published just after Roosevelt visited the Messenger TV factory. The content of the story also returned to the earth from the previous Superman's wanderings in the universe.After the plot took over the Mongol "Wandering Star" incident, after realizing the threat of the universe, Superman returned to the earth to protect the world again, and the plot of the comics also returned to Superman's daily stories from the thrilling space battles in the past.

The first short story mainly tells the story of a "Girl Who Doesn't Believe in Superman".

The "Messenger Daily" held a children's cover competition, and the winner was a girl named Alice.

However, when Superman and Louise went to her house to deliver the prize, they found that Alice couldn't see.

From the conversation with the girl's parents, the two learned that Alice was not blind at first, but was blind because of a car accident a few years ago. Even so, the little girl's stubborn nature has not changed at all, and what is even more surprising is that Alice does not believe in the existence of Superman.

Alice: "No, I don't think there is a Superman in this world, it's just an urban legend, maybe it's just an actor wearing a special costume."

Superman: "What?!"

Faced with the little girl's stubborn opinion, Superman was a little surprised. He was clearly standing in front of Alice, but she firmly refused to believe that there was a Superman in the world.

If seeing is believing, how can a blind man believe that he is real?

Alice's statement, on the contrary, aroused Superman's desire to win, but no matter how Superman tried, Alice always felt that it was a trick to deceive people.

In the comics, Superman takes the girl to the sky, but Alice thinks that the other party has already prepared the helicopter. Superman reveals the things behind the door through perspective, and Alice thinks it is the result of sneak peeking in advance. The dog was twisted and deformed, and Alice thought it was cheating.

For a while, Superman's proud superpowers became insignificant in front of Alice.

Superman: "Perhaps, I shouldn't just think about proving myself, I should use super vision to see the condition of Alice's eyes."

Although denied by the girl all the time, Superman was not discouraged by this. On the contrary, he let go of his desire to win and use super vision to discover the reason for Alice's blindness. It was because the optic nerve was injured by glass shards in a car accident, so he sent her immediately. Hospitals, but the medical equipment of this era can't even locate where the glass slag is, let alone such a difficult operation, it was impossible to complete at that time.

Doctor: "No, we can't do it, no one can do such a difficult operation."

Superman: "Then I'll do it."

Faced with the rejection of the doctors, Superman did not give up. On the contrary, he soaked in the hospital library and studied medical skills painstakingly. If super strength, flying, and clairvoyance are useless at this time, then let super brainpower and tenacious willpower play a role; With the ability of super brain power, in just one day, Superman learned medical books that ordinary people would need more than ten or twenty years to read.

Superman went to the operating table and successfully performed the operation. After the operation, Alice saw the light again. She saw, saw the sky, the sun, the world, and saw Superman...

And Superman also took Alice into the sky again, so that Alice, who had regained her sight, saw the real sky and Superman.

Although the content of "The Girl Who Doesn't Believe in Superman" is short, the core of the story is unexpectedly profound.

Therefore, once the comics were serialized, they were widely discussed. Readers expressed various views on whether you would still believe in the truth of your beliefs when Superman became an urban legend mentioned by Colin in the story.

And when the subject becomes a blind person, how to prove it.

In this story, Colin deliberately weakened the omnipotent image of Superman in the past, thus highlighting the warm core of Superman. The charm of Superman is not that he uses superpowers to express himself, but to help every ordinary and Weak and small, try to create miracles, so that those who have lost their faith can regain that hope.

At the same time, throughout the story, Colin did not weaken Superman's superpowers, but just kept them from being seen by the little girl. At the same time, at the end of the story, Superman solved the problem through his own super brainpower.

A person who has the ability to defeat others is not considered strong, but a person who allows a child to regain his dream is the real radiant superman at that moment.

It can be said that through the story of "The Girl Who Doesn't Believe in Superman", Colin added some humanized symbols to the omnipotent image of Superman, making this character closer to the existence of the savior in people's minds.

Of course, in addition to this, he also successfully unlocked [Super Brain Power] to the [Silver] level by virtue of the serialization of this comic.

[Ability - Super Brain Power (Silver)]

[Ability description: Superman has incredible intelligence and amazing calculation and learning ability. Superman can read all published medical books in one day, and master the knowledge that ordinary people need to learn in 10 years. 】

This issue of "Messenger World" has a total of two short comics related to Superman. In addition to "The Girl Who Doesn't Believe in Superman", the other is a story about Superman traveling around the world to take pictures.

The plot roughly describes the story of Superman traveling to five countries in just one day to perform stunts in front of the media under the request of the editor-in-chief of the "Messenger Daily".

In the comics, Superman first came to Paris. In order to show his astonishing power, he easily lifted the Eiffel Tower and turned it upside down in front of the Paris media. However, when the performance was over, Superman opened the newspaper of the day and found that Not a word was said about him lifting the Eiffel Tower.

Although Superman was puzzled by this, the tight itinerary prevented him from thinking about the reasons behind it. Then he went to Italy to subdue the lion with his bare hands in the Colosseum and pull the carriage with one hand. Still no news about him.

This time Superman went to the media in Rome, and the reason given by the local screenwriter made Superman a little helpless. It turned out that there were too many local news, and there was no section reporting Superman news.

Next, Superman went to various countries to try his best to show his abilities, but the local media in each country did not report news related to Superman.

Such a result made Superman a little disheartened.

After finishing the last country, Superman returned to Metropolis, and at the second day's editorial meeting, Superman learned the truth from the editor-in-chief of "Messenger Daily". It turned out that all these were surprises prepared by editors from various countries for Superman , They collected what Superman did in various countries and gave it to Superman as his gift to protect the earth.

Although the story of "Superman Around the World" is not as brilliant as "The Girl Who Doesn't Believe in Superman", the description of Superman flying across the earth in just one day also makes readers feel interesting.

At the same time, with the publication of this comic, Ke Lin also took advantage of the opportunity to upgrade the ability of [Super Speed] to the same level as [Super Brain Power].

　Happy New Year, finally find time to update a chapter.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)