One - Henry Salomon, NBC, the US Navy, and Victory's Genesis

Summary

It was WWII Navy veteran and former National Broadcasting Corporation producer Henry “Pete” Salomon who conceived Victory at Sea and proposed it to NBC early in America's postwar television boom. Later, as Victory's producer, he was in remarkable measure able to bring his personal vision to the series. Today, Salomon (1917–58) remains a vaguely drawn character in accounts of Victory's creation, often identified by his associations as either Robert Sarnoff's schoolmate or as historian Samuel Morison's assistant. His Navy service and his other NBC efforts—pre- and post-Victory—are usually overlooked.

Salomon was born in Providence, Rhode Island. Private schooling at Phillips Academy preceded studies at Harvard, and upon his 1939 graduation he took a position in New York with NBC's Script Division. Upon joining the Navy in 1942, Salomon became producer of The Victory Hour, a weekly NBC broadcast. It was the official radio program of America's High School Victory Corps, federally established in September 1942. The Corps’ high school upper-class members would get “immediate, accelerated, and special training … for that war service they will be expected to perform after leaving school” and “active participation … while still in school in the community's war effort.” Salomon's broadcasts kept the millions of Victory Corps members informed about war issues, and special guests included Eleanor Roosevelt and Vice President Wallace. By 1943, The Victory Hour was carried by 100-plus stations and upcoming topics included “What can a high school student do this summer?,” “Youth under fire” (teenagers in Axis-occupied countries), and “Precision wins wars: mathematics and science join the armed forces.”

Salomon's Victory Hour was one early facet of his Navy service. The esteemed historian Samuel Eliot Morison had been commissioned by President Roosevelt in 1942 to prepare his History of United States Naval Operations in World War II (HUSNO) and in February 1943 Morison took on Salomon—among his prize history students at Harvard—as first-chosen of his several assistants. Salomon did background research for HUSNO while also first-drafting numerous chapters. Morison and Salomon, too, participated in many of the major Pacific theater offensives they chronicled in HUSNO, with Salomon moving to the Atlantic in mid-1943 as the Allies turned the tide in battling Germany's U-boats. Following his visits to Bermuda, the West Indies, and Brazil, as well as interviews with officers from Atlantic convoy vessels, Salomon returned to the Pacific.