Genius on Hold Page #3

He'd say it to me

as a kid,

my mother, too, he'd say,

"If I can draw it,

it'll work when I make it."

I said,

"Why do you say that, Dad?"

He said,"Because my circuitry

doesn't lie."

And neither did Shaw.

He isn't shy about impressing

the executives at Bell

with his new invention.

Oh, he told 'em.

He says "This is just one

of many I can..."

But, you- He'd say things like

"I've drawn it, I've seen it."

"I've got it on paper."

And-and they saw

what he could build

when it came from paper

into a demonstration,

and they says, "This guy

is somebody to reckon with."

They knew it.

Over the next few years,

Walter continues

to produce designs

of advanced technology.

He designs systems

for burglar alarms,

touch-tone phones,

and conference calling.

Bell management

is becoming worried.

Shaw is prolific.

He was a spiritual man.

He had to be,

because he knew

that this was a gift.

What was coming

through his hands, I'm sure,

and his mind,

amazed him...

...more than it amazed

most people

that didn't understand it.

But Walter Shaw

has become a threat.

Bell executives

call a meeting.

It's time to reign him in.

They praise

his inventive work,

and they make him an offer.

They tell him,

"We'll give you a raise."

"We'll put you in charge

of a section, a department."

"You'll be a department head,"

you know, all this...

"We'll give you a white coat,"

you know...

You know, that kinda nonsense,

and, uh...

They made it appealing,

as far as the status,

but they didn't

make it appealing

as far as paying him.

...royalties,

and things like that.

So, he-he just told 'em,

he says, uh...

"No, I'm not gonna let you

own my mind."

...so they won't steal

his inventions.

They wanted him to sign

a piece of paper

that said

everything he invented

belonged to them.

...said with the knowledge

you've developed,

you can't get into business,

uh, competing with us.

My own personal opinion,

it's kinda stretching it

a little far,

like putting a harness

on one's mind.

1952...

The wheels of fate and history

are set in motion.

Walter Shaw resigns

from Bell.

Bell Labs executives

press him to remain,

but Shaw is certain

the federal lawsuit

against them

will have

the desired effect,

paving the way

for him to pursue ownership

of his own

communications company.

He'll wait for Bell

to be unwound

for anti-trust violations.

But in an

eleventh hour negotiation

with the Justice Department,

the lawsuit filed against Bell

was settled

with a consent decree.

AT&T, and its subsidiary,

Bell Telephone,

will control the entire

U.S. telephone system

for another thirty years.

Walter Shaw

is devastated.

At a time in history

when American artists

are being blacklisted

by Senator Joseph McCarthy,

Shaw is as good as blacklisted

from using

Bell Telephone lines.

While Bell controls

the phone system,

Shaw has no place

to practice his craft,

no way to make a living.

Walter continues his quest

to find financial backers.

He finds one con man

after another.

No amount

of knocking on doors

will yield Shaw results.

The Shaw family

begins to suffer.

The family

is forced to live

in an impoverished

neighborhood,

and use food stamps

to supplement

their meager monthly income.

In my child-like observation,

I noticed...

...that even though

that love was there,

there was a new constant,

and that was preoccupation

with getting money

to keep our h-

...our home life going.

My brother and I

were in the same bed

with measles.

Two sick little cookies,

and, uh...

I was woken up with...

...loud voices, about,

"We don't have enough food."

"You need to go

do something."

"We've got

two sick children."

That's scary

for a kid to hear.

Walter requests a meeting

with Bell Lab executives.

He appeals to Bell

to allow him

to use their lines

to hook up his speakerphones.

He, um, showed it to them,

and they says, "Well,

how many you got

of these things?"

He says, "Well,

we've made 200."

He had a very wealthy

investor at that time

who didn't care.

He was a real...

A real chance taker.

And he says,

"Well, that's good."

"You've got the invention,

and it looks beautiful,"

"it works, but how are you

gonna hook it up, Mr. Shaw?"

And my dad said,

"What do you mean, how am I

going to hook it up?"

"I'm gonna... I'm gonna

put it on your lines."

He says, "Can't."

"It's an unauthorized

attachment to our lines."

"We'll never get permission

to market this."

And he came home,

and I was listening

to the argument,

and he says,

"They're not gonna let me

market this."

"I'll never be able

to hook it up."

According to Bell,

it is a crime to compete

against the company,

or even to attempt

to innovate around it.

Shaw is despondent.

He returns to Bell

with a plan.

They would partner

and give him credit,

but he'd have to sign

the rights over to him,

and he wouldn't do it.

They argued about it,

and it was a lot of arguments,

and, uh...

He, uh, found a way

to get around it.

He said, "Well, I'll tell you

what I'll do, then."

He says,

"Then I'll donate them

to the Iron Lung foundation."

So, he donated to them,

and he told them

to tell these people

they can't have the phone.

So, of course,

they made the exception,

and they didn't want

to have that come out

in the newspaper,

so they-

they hooked them up.

There's only 200

of them, though.

And he donated them, too,

and of course,

there was bad blood

with the investor,

he lost his money,

and he didn't make a dollar.

There are no other

telecommunications companies

in America,

and Walter Shaw

needs a job.

He goes to work

for Philco Television.

However, Shaw does not own

the Philco Television store

where he works,

he is a repair man.

The pay is abysmal,

and the work, demeaning.

He was trying to work,

and then do this

on the side,

and it was really hard.

And, uh, I remember that

he was gone quite a bit.

It started out,

just little jaunts,

and then it seemed to me

like he was gone

every other day.

Trying to, after work-

Trying to promote

his inventions.

Meanwhile, the Cold War

is in full swing,

and the Soviet arms buildup

simmers behind

the Iron Curtain.

That's when they asked him

to go to Anchorage

Elmendorf Air Force base

to work on the alert system

for the government.

Bell Labs is a major provider

of scientific talent

for the Cold War effort.

While they were unhappy

with Shaw's exit,

they could not deny

his talents.

Walter joins forces

with a team of America's

most brilliant scientists

and engineers,

most of whom

were taken from Bell.

For one year,

Lieutenant Shaw

works on top-secret

military projects.

Were a nuclear war

to have broken out

between the Soviets

and America,

the most effective route

for missiles from Russia

was directly over Alaska.

Shaw and Bell Lab recruits

were assigned

to design a missile-tracking

radar system,

which would later be called

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