the inventer of the cell phone who is, we all know who the unventer of the wire line phone is, alexander graham bell -- [inaudible] >> guest: his name is marty cooper. 99.9% of america has never heard of him. he's the most influential person nobody's ever heard of, and he's in his 80s now, and you should have him on this program. >> host: and here he is. this is marty cooper on your screen. we're not sure whether tow curse you -- to curse you or thank you for inventing the cell phone;. >> guest: well, peter, would you give up your cell phone because of all these disadvantages? i don't think so. and that's true of most people. so the benefits, i think, outweigh the curses. >> host: could you briefly tell us what your role was or is in the invention of the cell phone? >> guest: well, it's a long story, and it has to do with the fact that at&t invented cellular telephoneny. as far as back as 1946, if you would imagine. and then in the 1960s they suggested they were prepared to commercialize it, and they had two conditions. one is that they were the only people technically and financially capable o

speaking to the inventor of the cell phone, lest we all know the inventor of the wireline phone as alexander grahambell. his name is martin cooper. 99.9% of americans have never heard of him. he is the host influential person no one has ever heard of. he is in his 80's now and you should have them on this program sometime. >> curious on your screen. mr. cooper, we're not sure whether to curse you or thank you for inventing the cell phone. >> guest: well, peter, would you give up your cell phone because of all these disadvantages? i don't think so. and that's true of most people. so the benefits i think alloway vickers says. >> host: did you briefly tell us what your role was or is in the invention of the cell phone? >> guest: well, it's a long story and it has to do with the fact that at&t invented cellular telemetry and as far back as 1946 if you would imagine. and in the early 1960's, they suggested that they were prepared to commercialize it and they had two conditions. one is that they were the only people technically and financially capable of creating this new concept of cellular telepathy an

they are thomas edison and alexander graham bell. they were living in america when i wrote this book and nobody had ever heard of them. and i thought, boy, here it is. everyone would want to know that we america gave this great creation to the world and it was two americans. one guy from iowa. one from kansas. nothing. the book got very good reviews. it made a bunch of those, you know, best 10 books of the year kind of thing. and didn't sell a whip. i thought i was going to get rich on this book. nothing. but very good reviews and everything. and that book came out around 1985 or '6. >> host: 1986. >> guest: '86. yeah, and my wife and i kept saying to each other well, you know, it was a decent book but it was ahead of its time. it was before most people had a computer so they weren't into microchips, you know? in 2000, i was living in london and my editor called me up from random house and said hey, this is amazing. that book is selling like mad. it's 14 years later and we're really going to get going on this book. it was basically t

they are thomas edison and alexander graham bell and they were living in america when i wrote this book and no one ever heard of them and i thought here it was everybody would want to know that we america gave this great creation to the world and was to americans, one from on yellow one from kansas. nothing. the book got good reviews. it made a bunch of the best ten books of the year and it didn't sell a whip. i felt i was going to get rich on this book, nothing. good reviews and the book came out around 1985 for 66 >> host: 1986. >> guest: and my wife and i kept saying to each other it was a decent book but i was and it's time. there was before most people had a computer so they were not into microchips and here's what happened. in 2000i was living in one blonden and my editor called me up from random house and says this is amazing. that book is selling like mad, it's 14 years later now and we are really going to get going on this book. it's basically the same book but all of a sudden people were interested what happened. well, one of the two inventors in the microchip won the nobel pr