Edward Noble

Edward John Noble (1882 – 1958, aged 76) was an American broadcasting and candy industrialist originally from Gouverneur, New York. He co-founded the Life Savers Corporation in 1913. He founded the American Broadcasting Company when he purchased the Blue Network in 1943 following the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) decree that RCA divest itself of one of its two radio networks.

Edward Noble was born in Gouverneur, New York and educated in the public schools. He attended Syracuse University and graduated from Yale in 1905.

In 1912, chocolate manufacturer Clarence Crane of Cleveland, Ohio invented Life Savers as a "summer candy" that could withstand heat better than chocolate. Since the mints looked like miniature life preservers, he called them Life Savers. After registering the trademark, Crane sold the rights to the peppermint candy to Edward Noble for $2,900. Instead of using cardboard rolls, which were not very successful, Noble created tin-foil wrappers to keep the mints fresh. Pep-O-Mint was the first Life Savers flavor.

He was the first chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Authority. He also served as secretary of Commerce under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1939-1940. Following the Federal Communications Commission's order that RCA divest itself of one of its two radio networks, he founded the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) when he purchased the Blue Network (formerly part of NBC) on October 12, 1943. Noble tried valiantly to build ABC into an innovative and competitive broadcaster, but was hampered by financial problems and the pressure of competing with long-established NBC and CBS, and by 1951 was forced to enter negotiations to merge the network with United Paramount Theaters, headed by Leonard Goldenson; Goldenson would become chairman of the ABC network, while Noble remained on the ABC board of directors for the remainder of his life.

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