By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Remote inventor kept us from touching that dial
0527HARRIS.RemoteControl
This 1955 photo provided by LG Electronics, shows a Zenith "Flash-Matic," the first wireless TV remote control. Zenith engineer Eugene Polley, the inventor of the device, died May 20 of natural causes in Downers Grove, Ill. He was 96. Polley and fellow Zenith engineer Robert Adler were honored in 1997 with an Emmy for their work in pioneering TV remotes.
A few years ago, the TV Land cable channel erected several statues around the country of such legends as Bob Newhart, Andy Griffith, Mary Tyler Moore and Jackie Gleason. Someone should build a statue of Eugene Polley, who died recently at the age of 96. Back in the 1950s, Polley, an engineer for Zenith, invented the first wireless TV remote control.