A closer look
The DuMont Network was an absolute pioneer of early television, but if you want to watch their archive today, you'll need scuba gear. In the 1970s, the legal successors to the defunct network were tired of paying storage fees for a warehouse full of heavy kinescope film reels. In a spectacular display of corporate vandalism, lawyers backed massive transport trucks up to the East River in New York and systematically chucked the entire broadcast library into the murky water, legally destroying irreplaceable pop culture to save a few bucks on rent.
