2 TALES OF A CITY - WALSON,JOHN, SR, MAHANOY-CITY, AND THE FOUNDING OF CABLE-TV

For the last 20 years, scholarly and popular accounts of the developme nt of cable television have recounted the story of John Walson, Sr., w ho claimed to have started the first CATV system in lune of 1948 in Ma hanoy City, Pennsylvania. When Walson died in March of 1993, newspaper s around the country credited him with starting the nation's first cab le system and even ''founding'' the industry. The claim, however, has always been clouded by questions and a lack of documentation. This pap er reports the results of an investigation of the Walson story. It con cludes that, as bright and promising as the Walson tale may be, it pro bably is not true. At the very least, the preponderance of evidence su ggests that Walson got his start in the community antenna television b usiness in late 1950, about the same time as many others around the co untry and, importantly, probably after another group of businessmen al ready had begun a system in Mahanoy City itself.