Lee de Forest, Yale doctorate and Oscar winner, gave voice to the radio and the motion picture. Yet by the 1930s, after the radio and the Talkies were regular features of American life, Lee de Forest had seemingly lost everything. Why? Why didn't he receive the recognition and acclaim he sought his entire life until years later in 1959, when he was awarded an Oscar?

Chapter 1 Born to Invent.- The Century of the Inventor.- Toward Communication Without Wires.- Inventing the Motion Picture.- Enter Lee de Forest.- Toward the New Century.- Chapter 2 The Race for Wireless.- The Significance of Marconi.- De Forest's Early Career.- Seeking a Better Detector.- The Complex Wireless Business.- A Silent Film Industry Emerges.- Chapter 3 The Meaning of the Audion.- The Dawn of Modern Electronics.- De Forest Creates the Audion.- Broadcasting's Pioneers.- De Forest as an Early Broadcaster.- De Forest's Complex Love Lives.- Chapter 4 California Days.- Film Finds Language and Locations.- De Forest and the Law.- Selling the Audion.- The High Bridge Broadcasts.- The Watershed Year 1920.- Chapter 5 Radio's Arrival.- The RCA Agreements.- Defining American Radio Broadcasting.- Hugo Gernsback and Radio News.- Creating a Radio Audience.- Radio Technology Matures.- Chapter 6 Phonofilm, the Promise.- De Forest's Inspiration.- Inventing Phonofilm.- The Case Connection.- The Arc of Family.- The Silent Film as Mature Medium.- Chapter 7 Phonofilm, the Realization.- Case is Impatient.- De Forest Introduces Phonofilm.- The Business of Phonofilm.- De Forest Diversions.- What the Phonofilms Say.- Chapter 8 Phonofilm, the Rejection.- A Deaf Ear to Phonofilm.- Death by Vitaphone.- The End of Mary.- The Industry and the Public Adapt.- Sound-On-Film Technology Wars.- Chapter 9 Phonofilm, the Lawyers.- The Fox-Case Suit.- The Final Days of Phonofilm.- The Loneliness of Lee.- Hollywood Happiness.- Old Patents and New Awards.- Chapter 10 Lesson and Legacy.- The Father of Radio.- Awards and Accolades.- Other Opinions.- And In The End.- The Significance of Lee De Forest.