the life of Philo T Farnsworth - Early Television Foundation

102 THE STORY OF TELEVISION
disposed
of all his
Farnsworth holdings at what appeared to
him to be attractive prices.
In the meantime Phil had taken advantage of the situation
and sold enough of his holdings to purchase a very comfortable
house on the Marina facing the Presidio and to furnish it quite
handsomely. From this time on Phil supplemented his modest
salary by additional funds realized from small sales of his capital
holdings. This was Phil's first opportunity to have anything
beyond the simple necessities of decent living.
When he first
started work in the laboratory on Green Street he had found a
modest place in Berkeley, where he and Pern stayed for a while.
Then he moved to a rather bleak apartment in the Hyde Street
area of San Francisco. My most vivid memory of the place was
that it had a fireplace that smoked outrageously whenever Phil
and Pern tried to use it.
When a little more money was available, Phil arranged for
his mother to come and live with him in the new house in the
Marina. Later she acquired an establishment of her own. Phil
was always thoughtful of his family's welfare, and in due course
all of his immediate family were established near him in San
Francisco. He was reticent about the extent of financial help
he gave them, but it was generally presumed that it was considerable.
Pern particularly enjoyed having a home of which she could
be proud and a few of the simple luxuries and niceties in dress
that she had longed
for. She was a lovely girl
and is now a
beautiful woman. She had instinctive good taste and fine feelings
for gracious living. Phil was inordinately proud of her and
was happy to give her the means to dress well and have a fine
home.
When word got to Mr. Bishop, who was acting for the financing
group in their relations with Farnsworth, Gorrell, and me,