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To record his accomplishments more fully, Sarnoff keeps a man working on the history of RCA and his life & times (unpublished, it is now in its twelfth volume). He is proudest of the fact that President Roosevelt made him a brigadier general for his work in organizing communications for SHAEF, and he wears a gold ring with SHAEF's flaming sword insignia. He likes to be called "General," and everybody at RCA does so. Even his wife & sons Robert, an NBC vice president, Edward, an electric-appliance distributor, and Thomas, an ABC employee, so refer to him.
Again & again, he makes two points about his own personality: 1) he loves music, 2) he does not love money.
In the teeth of the realities of commercial radio and TV, he tries sincerely to hang on to his dream of the "music box." Sarnoff gets much of the credit for the fact that radio has helped to change America from musical illiteracy to a nation where millions know and love good music. Sarnoff's original idea was that makers of radio sets would sponsor cultural programs. To this day, he has little knowledge of radio advertising, and he despises cheap radio entertainment.
Sharps & Flats. Sarnoff's closest friends are from the musical world. Occasionally, such friends as NBC Music Director Sam Chotzinoff, Jascha Heifetz, Vladimir Horowitz, etc., stage elaborate costume parties at Sarnoff's home. At a surprise party for Toscanini, the Maestro was shown to the sixth floor when he arrived, asked if he had a reservation, was finally led into what seemed to be a nightclub. A blare of jazz assailed the conductor's ears. Sarnoff acted as ringmaster in a circus act while Elza Heifetz Behrman, sister of Jascha Heifetz and wife of Playwright S. N. Behrman, rode a make-believe horse. Toscanini sat with his head in his hands all evening, would not look at the show, and was not amused.
Last year, for Sarnoff's birthday, the group staged a satire. Chotzinoff, impersonating Sarnoff, sat at a breakfast table, surrounded by telephones, talked into all of them at once, pounded the table, chewed up cigars. Sarnoff was amused.
Sarnoff likes to tell people that he is not a man of big wealth. Considering that he has been for 20 years at or near the top of an expanding industry, this is a sensational statement—and people who ought to know believe it. He has 5,000 shares of RCA stock and a $200,000-a-year salary.
His home life is as elegantly comfortable as that of any non-millionaire in the world. The Sarnoff home in Manhattan has six floors, 30 rooms, two patios, a barbershop and a projection room. In almost every room, including the servants', are radio and TV sets, with tuning gadgets concealed among the furnishings.
This menage is presided over by his French-born wife, Lizette, whom he met and married 34 years ago in The Bronx. Sarnoff explains the courtship: "I could speak no French. She could speak no English. So what else could we do?"