Frank M. Freimann — the chief who came with Magnavox

president of Magnavox 1950 – 1968

Frank Freimann was not a Magnavox founder — the Business record is plain on it — he was the man who saved the company and then ran it for eighteen years. Born in Austria-Hungary — the record gives his birth year as 1904 in the Consumer Technology Association's Hall of Fame list, as 1905 in the Browning-Day history of Freimann Square, which has him coming to the United States at nine, and as 1909 in reference headers — he was fascinated with wireless by twelve and working for Zenith Radio in Chicago by seventeen. He first came to Fort Wayne in 1924, to engineer the city's first commercial radio station. In 1930 he founded the Electro-Acoustic Products Company in Chicago; Magnavox acquired an interest in it in 1934 and formally merged it in 1938. Rather than repay a Magnavox loan, Freimann joined the company, bought its stock and became its largest stockholder; he is credited with resurrecting a nearly bankrupt Magnavox, which had passed through voluntary bankruptcy in 1938. He came with the headquarters to Fort Wayne as executive vice president and served as president and chief executive from 1950 until his death in 1968 — one reference's body text says "died in 1967 in Manhattan," against its own header dates and the obituary record, and 1968 stands here. He created Magnavox's selective distribution policy and was inducted into the Consumer Technology Association's Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame. The Frank Freimann Charitable Trust funded Freimann Square — dedicated 27 September 1973, five years after his death — and endows the Freimann chairs at Notre Dame.

Sources:

1. Businesses — "Magnavox" (the Electro-Acoustic merger path, the largest-stockholder standing, the express statement that Freimann was not a founder); the New York Times obituary and the Notre Dame Observer — "President Since 1950," the 1968 death.
2. Browning-Day, history of Freimann Square — the 1905 birth year, the arrival at nine and the 1924 Fort Wayne radio engineering; the Consumer Technology Association, Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame — the 1904 birth year and the induction; ACGSI timeline — Freimann Square's dedication, 27 September 1973.