What’s That Smell? Oh, Just Something Brewing Over at the Farnsworths’

Philo T. Farnsworth, considered by many to be the inventor of television, first tinkered with his gizmo in 1926 in the dining room of his apartment in Hollywood.

“Bang! Pop! Sizzle!” his wife said of one experiment that is recounted in Donald Godfrey’s new biography of Farnsworth.

“Then a terrible acidic smell filled the room,” she added.

Thus, Farnsworth’s wife became the first person to say that television stinks.

It’s that crazy couple next door again: Farnsworth kept the curtains drawn during the day “so that the experiments could be conducted under controlled light,” writes Godfrey, an Arizona State professor, in “Philo T. Farnsworth, the Father of Television.”

The cops paid a visit one day at noon.

“A neighbor had reported that the Farnsworths were brewing alcohol behind those curtains [these were the days of Prohibition],” Godfrey writes. “The police searched the house and left confused with the explanations they heard, but they were assured there was no brewery at the residence.”

Outmaneuvered over the years by RCA and others, Farnsworth never gained the riches or recognition he deserved. In 1957, he appeared as a mystery guest on “I’ve Got a Secret.” None of the panelists on the TV show guessed Farnsworth’s role in developing TV.

Was Sylvester involved? While staying at Clint Eastwood’s Mission Ranch Hotel in Carmel, Paul Rutan of Tujunga noticed an odd spelling on an ice machine (see photo). Rutan wonders if Clint spent too much time around a Warner Bros. colleague--that annoying bird that was always seeing a “puddy tat.”

Excuse me, but this latte is cold--and very thick! L.A. County’s latest list of restaurants closed for health reasons included two Starbucks. The violations: “No potable water supply or no hot water.”

Just checking: Rick Dees of KISS-FM (102.7) went back to North Carolina to visit his mom, who is in an assisted living home. “I rushed there,” Dees said on the laradio.com Web site. “She is 82 and supposedly was having some serious medical problems. I called in a specialist and he examined her very thoroughly from stem to stern.

“After he left, my mom asked, ‘Who was that?’ I told her it was the best doctor in North Carolina. ‘Good,’ she said. ‘I thought they took too many liberties to be the minister.’ ”

Each to his own: In Sedona, Ariz., Bob Elliott of Newport Beach happened upon a sign that could be misinterpreted (see photo).

miscelLAny: The police log of the Irvine World News carried this incident: “2:14 a.m. Disturbance; loud party notice issued; Claret.”

Not sure whether Claret was the street or the beverage involved, or both.

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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LA-TIMES, Ext. 77083, by fax at (213) 237-4712, by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A., 90012 and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.