TelePrompTer Corporation (c.1950-1981) was a cable corporation started by Irving B. Kahn, Fred Barton, Jr (a Broadway theatre actor) and Hubert Schlafly.[1] During the course of the corporation, in the 50's TelePrompTer invented the idea of actors in soap operas reading their lines by prompters, not scripts as they had been. The first such use of a teleprompter was in the short-lived CBS soap opera "The First Hundred Years." PR men handled the teleprompters. TeleprompTer itself sold its eponymous business in the 1960s and invested in cable and satellite broadcast services; Schafly cooperated with Hughes Aircraft Company to develop microwave video transmission services. TeleprompTer's Kahn was imprisoned for trying to bribe members of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania city council to award his company a local cable franchise. The company was revitalized in 1974; in 1981 it was sold to The New York Times Company, which then eventually sold it in 1989.[2]