Homer E. Capehart was born 6 June 1897 in Algiers, Indiana, and he grew up on a farm. After high school he enlisted in the U.S. Army from 1917 to 1919 and advanced to the rank of sergeant. He joined the J.I. Case Corporation as a salesman and soon earned a reputation as a man who could sell anything. He moved from sales to entrepreneurship, at first manufacturing and selling popcorn poppers. In 1928 he established the Automatic Phonograph Corporation; by 1929 the company was manufacturing "talking machines" and was known as the Capehart Automatic Phonograph Corporation. Cape­ hart served as founder and president from 1927 to 19 32. During the 1930s Depression era, when other companies such as Philco and the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) were developing low-priced consumer radio sets to encourage sales, Capehart stood stubbornly behind the company's high-quality, expensive receivers. This decision led the company to the brink of bankruptcy. In the early 1930s, at the height of the Depression, Capehart joined Wurlitzer, a producer of jukeboxes, and as a result the Capehart Corporation was saved.

     Capehart himself served as vice president of the Wurlitzer Company from 1933 to 1938. The joining of the two companies was a complementary success: Wurlitzer sold jukeboxes, which in turn sold records, which in turn created a demand for the Capehart phonograph. The investment helped make Capehart a wealthy man. Despite success with Wurlitzer, Homer Capehart was forever the adventurer and entrepreneur, and by the end of the 1930s he was ready to move into real estate.

     In 1938 the Capehart Company and all its "real estate, plants, factories ... all patents, patent licenses and patent application rights, and trademarks" were sold to the Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation. Farnsworth kept the name Capehart because of its reputation for quality radio and phonograph manufacturing. The Capehart manufacturing entities were retooled to manufacture both Farnsworth and Capehart brand-name radio and television receivers intended for consumer sale. The Farnsworth Corporation was banking on the Capehart organization's reputation for quality to launch its entrance into the manufacturing business. However, World War II intervened, and the plants were converted a second time, this time for the manufacturing of armed forces communication equipment.

     Following the war, the name Capehart surfaced again. By 1949 the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (ITT) had purchased the Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation, and the Capehart-Farnsworth division of the company was returned to consumer manufacturing. However, even with the financial backing of ITT, the Capehart-Farn­sworth sets were never able to capture a significant share of the radio and television manufacturing market. They were competing against the giants of radio manufacturing at the time­ RCA, General Electric, Philco, and Westinghouse. By 1954 the Capehart-Farnsworth division of ITT was split. The Farn­sworth Electronic division continued as a wholly owned subsidiary of ITT, but the Capehart manufacturing was sold in 1956 to the Ben Gross Corporation, a holding company. The manufacturing properties in Fort Wayne were retained by ITT, the remaining assets were sold, and the Capehart name disappeared from the history of radio and television.