Dow Jones

[Cindy Hensley]

Of the 30 companies that make up the Dow Jones, what company originally started as an entertainment company? How did you find your answer?

[Tom Supergan]

A Google search on "dow components" brought up a Wikipedia entry that has the entire history of which components were part of the Dow throughout its history.

The original list from July 3, 1884 is:
Chicago & North Western
Missouri Pacific
St. Paul
Delaware, Lackawanna & Western
New York Central
Union Pacific
Lake Shore Railroad
Northern Pacific (Preferred)
Western Union
Louisville & Nashville
Pacific Mail

The current components (as of June 8, 2009) are:
3M Company
Dupont
McDonald's Corporation
Alcoa Incorporated
Exxon Mobil Corporation
Merck & Company, Incorporated
American Express Company
General Electric Company
Microsoft Corporation
AT&T Incorporated
Hewlett-Packard Company
Pfizer Incorporated
Bank of America Corporation
Home Depot Incorporated
Procter & Gamble Company
Boeing Corporation
Intel Corporation
Travelers Companies
Caterpillar Incorporated
International Business Machines
United Technologies Corporation
Chevron Corporation
Johnson & Johnson
Verizon Communications Inc.
Cisco Systems, Inc.
J.P. Morgan Chase & Company
Wal-Mart Stores Incorporated
Coca-Cola Company
Kraft Foods Inc.
Walt Disney Company

So my guess would be Walt Disney (which is still an entertainment company).