James Lawrence Fly
American lawyer (1898-1966)
James Lawrence "Larry" Fly (February 22, 1898 – January 6, 1966) was an American lawyer, famous as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and, later, director of the American Civil Liberties Union. He helped inaugurate standards for commercial television broadcasting, and vigorously opposed wiretapping throughout his career.
Early life
Fly grew up in Texas and graduated from North Dallas High School in 1916. He then graduated from the United States Naval Academy before serving three years in the United States Navy. He resigned to earn a law degree from Harvard Law School. After a short time in private practice, Fly took a position prosecuting antitrust cases for the government. He joined the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1934, rising from solicitor general to general counsel. Fly married Mildred Marvin Jones in 1923, with whom he had two children, James Lawrence Jr., and Sara Virginia.
FCC chairmanship
When Fly was appointed to replace Frank McNinch as FCC chairman in 1939, commercial television had not yet begun in the U.S. In April of that year, RCA attempted to broadcast commercial content in New York City using standards set by the Radio Manufacturers Association (now the Electronic Industries Alliance), but these broadcasts were unauthorized and experimental. In December 1939 the FCC announced it would authorize limited commercial broadcasts, but it was not clear what standards should be used.
The public source identifies “James Lawrence Fly” as american lawyer (1898-1966). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around James, Lawrence and American.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6137851. VIAF identifies the subject as 51522711. The Library of Congress control number is no2009001708. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1898, 1966, 1916 and 1934.
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This entry incorporates text from “James Lawrence Fly” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.