Search | FAQ | US Titles | UK Titles | Memories | VaporWare | Digest | ||||||||
GuestBook | Classified | Chat | Products | Featured | Technical | Museum | ||||||||
Downloads | Production | Fanfares | Music | Misc | Related | Contact | ||||||||
Memories of VideoDisc - Who's Who in VideoDisc |
Thomas Warren Sarnoff, President of Sarnoff Entertainment Corporation, is the youngest son of the late Brig. General David Sarnoff and the late Lizette H. Sarnoff. He is brother to Robert Sarnoff, former NBC President and RCA CEO.
Until July 1, 1977, Mr. Sarnoff served as Staff Executive Vice President, West Coast, of the National Broadcasting Company, Inc., as well as President of NBC Entertainment Corporation, which was responsible for the production and worldwide touring of live, all-family, Arena Shows. These included PETER PAN and DISNEY ON PARADE, the latter in partnership with Walt Disney Entertainment Corporation.
Mr. Sarnoff began his career in Television with the American Broadcasting Company in Los Angeles in 1949. Starting as a Floor Manager, he advanced to Assistant Director and Assistant to the Production Manager. He rounded out his training at ABC by serving as Supervisor of Sales Operations.
Aware of the mounting importance of film techniques to Television, he then moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in 1951 to obtain film production experience as an Assistant Director and a Unit Manager.
Mr. Sarnoff joined NBC's West Coast operation in late 1952 as Assistant to the Director of Finance and Operations. He subsequently became Director of Production and Business Affairs.
In 1957, Mr. Sarnoff was elected an NBC Vice President. He was elevated to Vice President, Administration, West Coast in 1960, and two years later, on January 1 1962, Mr. Sarnoff was put in charge of NBC, West Coast, including responsibility for NBC's own film productions produced by NBC Productions and California National Productions. He was elected Staff Executive Vice President, West Coast, reporting to the President of NBC, on October 4, 1965.
Mr. Sarnoff was born in New York City on February 23, 1927. He attended Columbia Grammar School, New York City, and Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts. His studies at Princeton University were interrupted in 1944 by military service as a Combat Engineer and subsequently as a Signal Corps instructor at the U. S. Military Academy at West Point with the rank of T/4.
After military service, he returned to Princeton briefly, then transferred to Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, where he received a degree of B. S. in Electrical Engineering in 1948 and then studied for a year at Stanford's Graduate School of Business Administration.
Mr. Sarnoff has been an interested participant in many activities within the Television Industry as well as taking an active leadership in many civic and community affairs.
He has been Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and Chairman of the Past Presidents Council of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, and currently serves as a member of the Executive Committee and of the Board of Governors of ATAS as well as a member of the Board of Directors and President of the ATAS Foundation. He is also a member of the Caucus for Producers, Writers & Directors.
He has also been a member of the American Film Institute Board; President of the Permanent Charities Committee of the Entertainment Industries; President of the Research Foundation at Saint Joseph Hospital of Burbank and a member of the Hospital Advisory Board; a member of the Advisory Council of the Radio-TV Department of the University of Judaism; a member of the Board of Hope Enterprises; a Vice President of California National Productions; a Director of NABCAT, Inc. and Valley County Cable, Inc.; and a member of the California Commission for the Reform of Intermediate/Secondary Education.
Mr. Sarnoff also was a member of the National Board of Trustees of the National Conference of Christians and Jews as well as its Regional Board of Directors and was honored by the NCCJ's Broadcast Motion Picture Recording Division with its Humanitarian Award for 1966. He was cited "for his humanitarian work within the community, for the work he has done in other important groups, and for the example he has been for other people". He was also awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters by Columbia College.
Mr. Sarnoff married the former Janyce Lundon of Dubuque, lowa, in 1955. They have two sons, Daniel Jay, President, American Gaming Network, and Timothy Glenn, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Sony Pictures Imageworks, and a daughter, Cynthia Dawn, a Marriage and Family Counselor. The Sarnoff's have four grandchildren.
Mrs. Sarnoff is a Past President of the California Special Olympics, having served as President for twelve years. She also serves as a member of the United States Olympic Committee, Southern California Area, and on the Los Angeles Area Olympic Committee VIP and Visitors Relations Commission. Mrs. Sarnoff has served as a member of the Congress of United Way and is active in and a officer of SHARE, Inc., a pioneer group in charity work involving retarded children. In 1972, she was named SHARE "Member of the Year".
From 1977 to 1981 Mr. Sarnoff was President of Sarnoff International Enterprises, Inc., a Company formed for the purpose of producing and touring worldwide, YABBA DABBA DOO, a live Arena Show featuring Hanna-Barbera characters. The Company was also associated with the production and touring of the Broadway Stage Musical, TIMBUKTU.
In June of 1981, Mr. Sarnoff formed Sarnoff Entertainment Corporation which has been active in all phases of entertainment including international syndication of TV Specials. The Company was engaged in the production and touring of SHOWYOUR SPIRIT, a musical proscenium show for Southwest Airlines. The Company also represents several entertainment properties for Television and Merchandising.
During 1987, Mr. Sarnoff succeeded in reviving GUMBY, the popular clay-animated character. In association with Art Clokey, the creator of GUMBY, a new half-hour Series was produced for and distributed in first-run syndication by Lorimar Telepictures.
- 1997 Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Biography
AUSTIN, Texas --Dec. 9, 2003-- Multimedia Games, Inc. (Nasdaq: MGAM) announced today that Thomas W. Sarnoff has been appointed interim Chairman of Multimedia's Board of Directors, replacing Gordon T. Graves who resigned as Chairman to devote more time to outside business opportunities.
Mr. Graves will continue to serve as a Multimedia Director. Mr. Sarnoff, who has served as a Director since December 1997, currently serves on the Board's Nominating and Governance Committee, as well as on the Audit and Compensation Committees. As a result, the size of Multimedia's Board remains unchanged at six directors, including four independent directors.
Multimedia is reviewing opportunities to expand the size of the board and to increase the Board's number of independent directors. Mr. Sarnoff will serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors during this review period, with the intention that the Board, including any new directors who may be appointed, will name a new Chairman at a later date.
"On behalf of the entire Board of Directors, I want to thank Gordon both for his vision in founding the company and for his many years of service as Chairman of the Board and previously as the Company's Chief Executive Officer," said Mr. Sarnoff.
In making its determination to appoint Mr. Sarnoff as interim Chairman, the Board of Directors noted his six years of service as a director and his ongoing contributions to the Nominating and Governance, Audit and Compensation committees.
Mr. Sarnoff served in various capacities at the National Broadcasting Company, Inc. for over 25 years, holding positions including Vice President of Production and Business Affairs, Executive Vice President of West Coast Operations, and last serving as President of NBC Entertainment Corporation from 1969 to 1977. Since retiring from NBC in 1977, Mr. Sarnoff has been engaged in the production of television and film entertainment, primarily through Sarnoff Entertainment Corporation, which he formed in 1981. Mr. Sarnoff serves in leadership positions in many civic and charitable organizations, and is currently the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation.
- December 9, 2003 MGAM News Release
In 1945-46 I had the pleasure of serving with Tom at the U.S. Military Academy and taught him to drive. We buddied for awhile, and when his dad David bought him a 1946 Pontiac, he and I went on furlough. He dropped me off in Chicago and continued to Des Moines, Iowa to his brother Edward. I often think of him and sent cards when his dad and mom died.
In the above paragraph I forgot something very special about this man when I mentioned West Point Military Academy. It is to say we were instructors in the Signal Corp division. We taught the cadets of graduating class 1946. Unlike his brothers Robert and Edward, Tommy choose to enlist as a private in the Army Signal Corp. His Dad, David quipped to me one night in early May of 1946, that Tommy was too good to be an officer or at least Tommy thought so. (chuckle chuckle)
- Victor Marasa
If you have some additional information to supply on Tom Sarnoff, feel free to submit the form below, so your comments can be added to this page.
Send your comments in email via the Contact page