Mr. Paley also extended the reach of CBS beyond broadcasting. The company revolutionized the recording industry with the introduction of the long-playing record in 1948; Vladimir Horowitz, Leonard Bernstein, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen were CBS artists. The company later moved into film making, publishing, Broadway musicals and for several years even owned the New York Yankees.
But the transformation was personal, as well, for Mr. Paley, the Chicago-born son of successful Ukrainian Jewish immigrants who moved to Philadelphia and made their fortune manufacturing cigars. While he foresaw the immeasurable impact that radio and television would have on the world, he had the tenacity and charisma of an empire builder, attracting the best people to work for him and holding onto power until the final days of his life.
An Uncanny Instinct For Popular Culture
At 12, Mr. Paley added a middle initial to his name (the "S." stood for nothing, though he didn't mind people thinking it was for his father, Samuel). Later, he would thrust himself into New York society and in the process become a philanthropist, art collector and unflagging denizen of the city's night life.
Handsome and ever rakish, Mr. Paley had a lifelong passion for the company of beautiful and accomplished women. He wed two of the most dazzling. His 1932 marriage to Dorothy Hart Hearst ended in divorce in 1947. Later that year, he married Barbara Cushing Mortimer, known as Babe. She came from a prominent Boston family, seemed to glide effortlessly through social circles and was described by some as the most beautiful woman in the world.
When she developed lung cancer, Mr. Paley used the full extent of his wealth and influence to fight the disease until her death in 1978. Others also benefitted from his loyalty. For years, he secretly supported the actress Louise Brooks, with whom he had a liaison during the 30's.
Mr. Paley, a brilliant executive who could also be an unforgiving tyrant, had a genius for detecting trends in the popular culture. He was an enthusiast, whether over the purchase of a hot dog from a sidewalk vendor, a Picasso for his apartment or a sitcom for his network. He cared little for the details of corporate management, but never lost his love of programming, suggesting schedule changes and offering his opinions of CBS shows until the last months of his life.
"I think I was born with a sense of what was important to the American public," Mr. Paley once said.
"He had an enormous feel for two infant mediums -- radio and television -- that was generated by his own confidence," said David Harris, a journalist who spent several years working with Mr. Paley on his biography. "He knew what he liked, and that was most important. He took his dominance matter-of-factly."
A Deal Is Refused; A Network Is Born
William Paley was born in the Jewish section of Chicago's West Side on Sept. 28, 1901. His parents, Samuel and Goldie, had emigrated from the Ukraine in the 1880's. As a teen-ager, Samuel apprenticed with a cigar maker; by 1896, he had his own factory. In 1905 a sister, Blanche, was born.
The parents doted on their younger child and William never got over his jealousy. Years later he would recall how much he hated having to accompany her on the piano while she played the violin. Blanche died early this year.
By the mid-1920's, having moved his family and business to Philadelphia, Samuel Paley was a multimillionaire. William, having graduated from the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania was earning $50,000 a year in the family business.
CBS was founded in 1926 by George Coats and Arthur Judson, two talent promoters who had been associated with the fledgling National Broadcasting Company. When David Sarnoff, the founder of NBC, turned down their request for an exclusive contract to supply performers to the network, the promoters organized their own network, United Independent Broadcasters. The first affiliate was WCAU, a struggling Philadelphia radio station. Within a year, 15 more stations had affiliated with United Independent, which paid each of them $500 a week to take 10 hours of programming.
Because of the cash they were paying the growing number of stations, United Independent lost huge sums. In 1927, the Columbia Phonographic Company invested $163,000 in United, with the proviso that the network be renamed the Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System. Mr. Judson also turned to Isaac and Leon Levy, who owned WCAU.
The Paleys were by now related to the Levys, Blanche having married Leon. They, too, decided to invest, and for good reason: their cigar commercials on WCAU had increased sales by 150 percent in six months. William got his first radio experience supervising a program sponsored by the family cigar company.
On Sept. 26, 1928 -- two days before his 27th birthday -- William Paley became the president of Columbia, chosen because of his understanding of radio as a powerful advertising medium. He owned 41 percent of the company on an investment of $417,000 raised from his shares in the cigar company.
"My friends thought I was crazy to quit a sure-fire thing with my father," Mr. Paley would say later. But the family invested $86,000 for an additional 9.3 percent of the company, giving the Paleys more than half of Columbia.
Last year, Mr. Paley's CBS fortune was estimated at $356 million.
Mr. Paley moved to New York, and quickly signed up 49 radio stations, offering them 20 hours of network programs instead of 10. But in a master stroke, he effectively eliminated the compensation fee. CBS would pay the $50-an-hour fee only after the first five hours of commercially sponsored programs. At the time, only four or five hours of programs were sponsored.
Mr. Paley got the stations to adhere to a network schedule in which the commercially sponsored programs were broadcast during peak listening hours, allowing Columbia to sell time to advertisers with the assurance that their commercials would be heard by the most people.
Stations in Hand, Talent Comes Next
With the stations in place, Mr. Paley began the talent searches that became his hallmark, recruiting relatively unknown performers, including Bing Crosby, Kate Smith and the Mills Brothers. His greatest coups, however, known as the Paley Raids, came in the 1940's, at the expense of NBC.
By offering performers huge sums for the rights to their shows, with the money taxable as capital gains instead of as income, CBS was able to sign up Jack Benny, Burns and Allen, Edgar Bergen, Red Skelton and other tars of the 30's and 40's. For years, CBS consistently had 9 or even all of the 10 top-rated shows in each broadcasting period. It took him 19 years to hire Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll -- the two white actors who created and played "Amos 'n' Andy," the most popular radio program and a cornerstone of NBC's schedule -- but in 1948 they signed with Columbia, where the show was turned into an equally successful television series. Fifteen years later, responding to complaints that "Amos 'n' Andy" promoted racial stereotypes, CBS withdrew it.
To balance the low-brow soap operas and thrillers that were radio staples, Mr. Paley began to present New York Philharmonic concerts on Saturday afternoons in 1930 and the "Lux Radio Theater" and the "School of the Air" in 1935. At one point, he bragged that 75 percent of CBS's time was devoted to public-service programs. But as the fiscal realities of the Depression set in, public service gave way to more profitable entertainment and sports programs.
Also in 1935, Frank N. Stanton became head of research after working in Columbia's unmatched promotions department, which developed an early system for measuring audiences. Dr. Stanton's relationship with CBS would span four decades as Mr. Paley's point man, turning the chairman's creative notions into realities. Often at odds and never personally close, they were still an extraordinary pair, united in their devotion to CBS.
Entertainment, Yes, But Also the News
Mr. Paley's success in entertainment was equaled by a fierce commitment to news. When newspaper publishers, worried by competition, barred the wire services from supplying news to broadcasters, CBS responded in 1933 by setting up its own news-gathering unit. CBS News reports during World War II established the network -- and Edward R. Murrow -- as the voice of broadcast journalism.
In London during the war, Mr. Paley served in the Office of War Information and as a colonel in the army. He became friendly there with Mr. Murrow, and the two men began to build a news staff. They hired Elmer Davis, William L. Shirer, Charles Collingwood, Howard K. Smith and Eric Sevareid, all of whom would rank among the most influential figures in the profession.
Cementing the relationship, Mr. Murrow, CBS's news star, escorted his boss around London, making sure that he was seen in the right places and that he dined with the right people. After the war, Mr. Murrow was named CBS News chief. Later -- and not without some unease on Mr. Paley's part -- Mr. Murrow's television broadcasts would unalterably change the way Americans got their news, as his descriptions of daily events were brought into the living room. But unlike Mr. Paley, Mr. Murrow never could reconcile the CBS of mass entertainment with the nobler goals of CBS News. The two men had a falling out that Mr. Paley never entirely resolved despite several attempts before Mr. Murrow's death in 1965.
Almost from its inception, CBS was researching television and preparing for the new medium. Mr. Paley built studios on both coasts and produced game shows, comedies and westerns for a growing audience. Early CBS hits included "I Love Lucy," "Gunsmoke" and Arthur Godfrey's and Ed Sullivan's variety shows. The CBS president took a personal hand in the major programming decisions and CBS solidly dominated television entertainment for more than two decades, moving from the era of westerns, dramas and variety prorgams in the 1950's to rural comedies in the 60's to the sophisticated urban comedies of the 70's.
Mr. Paley was quick to cancel shows whose popularity sagged and equally quick to anticipate changes in the public taste, signing up socially conscious producers such as Grant Tinker ("The Mary Tyler Moore Show"), Norman Lear ("All in the Family") and Larry Gelbart ("M*A*S*H").
During those years, Bill and Babe Paley were the cream of New York society. They gave lavish parties and held important philanthropic positions. Mr. Paley was especially close to his brother-in-law and Manhasset, L.I., neighbor, John Hay (Jock) Whitney, the chairman of The International Herald Tribune. When Mr. Whitney died in 1982, Mr. Paley paid $14 million for his interest in the company that publishes The Herald Tribune in Paris in conjunction with The New York Times Company and The Washington Post Company, and he became a co-chairman.
His Interests Beyond His Work
The Paleys held court at the best restaurants, often accompanied by the writer Truman Capote. It was a close friendship, particularly between Mrs. Paley and Mr. Capote, that lasted until 1975, when Esquire published Mr. Capote's "Cote Basque, 1965," a gossipy, thinly veiled fiction based on the writer's friendships with society women that proved embarrassing to the Paleys.
Family friends described Mr. Paley's relationships with his six children -- two that he and Dorothy adopted, two from Babe's previous marriage and two from his marriage to Babe -- as cold and sometimes remote. They grew up on the family estate in Manhasset and saw their parents on weekends.
Mr. Paley frequently visited his estate in the Bahamas, kept up a lively social life and was active in civic roles, notably as longtime president and trustee of the Museum of Modern Art. He began collecting art in the 1930's and the walls of his Fifth Avenue apartment, his estate in Manhasset and his suite at Black Rock (as the CBS headquarters, designed by Eero Saarinen, is popularly known) were hung with the works of artists ranging from Cezanne to Pollock. One of the first sights a guest saw on entering the Paley apartment was Picasso's "Boy With Horse."
"It's got to be something that hits me," he said of his art collecting. "I used to say to myself, 'Don't buy it unless you can't live without it.' "
When he dismissed Bates Lowry as the Modern's director in 1969, another trustee, Ralph Colin, protested. Mr. Paley then discharged Mr. Colin as counsel to CBS and to himself, ending a 40-year relationship. Mr. Colin said that he had told Mr. Paley he hoped they would remain friends, and that Mr. Paley had replied, "I have never regarded you as a friend -- only as an employee."
Mr. Paley denied having said that, but added that he and Mr. Colin had "no personal relationship."
The 1940's and 50's were crucial to CBS's growth, but some of the company's ventures proved costly. CBS Records became an industry leader, although Mr. Paley grudgingly supported Peter Goldmark, the CBS staff inventor, in developing the long-playing record. Mr. Goldmark was also the leader in developing a color-television process. In 1949, his system was approved by the Federal Communications Commission for general use. But the CBS system was not compatible with black-and-white sets, a fact that Mr. Sarnoff used to press his own scientists to come up with a compatible system. Three years later they did, and the F.C.C. made the RCA system the industry standard.
The battle for dominance in color television was probably the most visible showdown in the long competition between the NBC and CBS chiefs, and it contributed to an even greater disaster for CBS.
In 1951, anticipating the need for a manufacturer of its ill-fated color televisions, CBS had acquired Hytron Radio and Electronics in exchange for one-fourth of the stock in CBS. But RCA flooded the market with its black-and-white televisions and eventually saw its compatible color system dominate. CBS liquidated the Hytron division at a huge financial loss. Other attempts to diversify also proved costly, though CBS successfully invested in dozens of Broadway shows, beginning with "My Fair Lady" in 1955.
Forcing Out Stars, Shedding Successors
For many years, Mr. Paley's leadership of CBS was unchallenged and he clung to power, outlasting or outmaneuvering a series of expected successors. He forced the departures of two of the people who had, along with him, come to epitomize CBS: Edward R. Murrow and Frank Stanton.
Mr. Paley had been an adviser to Harry S. Truman and friend of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Despite his deep friendship with Mr. Murrow, Mr. Paley was frequently discomfited by "See It Now," the powerful news program produced by Fred W. Friendly with Mr. Murrow as anchor, because of its toughness on matters of sensitivity to the Eisenhower Administration. There was also Mr. Murrow's courageous dissection of Senator Joseph McCarthy at a time when CBS employees had to sign a loyalty oath.
In the spring of 1958 Mr. Paley canceled "See It Now," and from then on, Mr. Murrow's influence at CBS diminished. In a speech the following October, Mr. Murrow excoriated the networks for what he termed their decadence and escapism.
Mr. Paley regarded the speech as a personal attack and tried to freeze Mr. Murrow out of CBS's news coverage, reducing him to regional election reports. Only the quiz show scandals of 1959 -- which were industrywide, but which centered on CBS's "$64,000 Question" -- changed the course of events, by forcing the networks to begin producing strong public service programs. Mr. Murrow returned on "CBS Reports," a documentary series that included, in May 1960, "Harvest of Shame," a program about migrant workers that ranks with Mr. Murrow's World War II and McCarthy reports as classics of broadcast journalism. Later that year, President-elect John F. Kennedy asked Mr. Murrow to head the United States Information Agency, and he accepted.
Eighteen months after his departure from CBS, Mr. Murrow began a fight with lung cancer that ended his life in April 1965. During those years, Mr. Paley visited Mr. Murrow frequently, trying to recapture the friendship that had begun during the London Blitz. He claimed that that they were close until the end.
Despite his insistence that the news division was independent, Mr. Paley always had powerful political connections. In 1973, Mr. Paley ordered the division to stop giving what Vice President Spiro T. Agnew had called instant analysis immediately after White House speeches. Soon afterward, a memorandum by Charles W. Colson, an aide to President Richard M. Nixon, was made public that described visits in 1970 to the heads of the three networks. Mr. Colson wrote that the networks "were very much afraid of us" and that Mr. Paley "went out of his way to say how much he supports the President."
In an interview in 1977, Mr. Paley said that the Colson memorandums had been written "to impress his colleagues at the White House."
"We would not bow to the pressure of anybody," he said. "I used to say, 'Look here, I don't care if it was my brother in the White House, I would not slant the news.' " And in truth, the agitation to end the instant analyses had come from the news division, which felt that more time was needed to assess the importance of the speeches. The analyses were restored after influential friends complained to Mr. Paley that without them, the broadcasts lost their competitive edge and seemed dull.
It's His Rule And He Breaks It
Under the CBS rule of compulsory retirement at age 65, Mr. Paley should have stepped down as chairman in 1966. He was, however, the single exception to the rule that in 1973 he applied to Dr. Stanton, the vice chairman who had played so pivotal a role in the company's growth.
Dr. Stanton's successor, Charles T. Ireland, died after a year as CBS president. Amid rumors that Mr. Paley simply did not want a designated heir, he dismissed his third president, Arthur R. Taylor, in 1976. Mr. Taylor's successor as president was John D. Backe, who had recaptured CBS's lead in the prime-time ratings after a slump and restructured the broadcast divisions. Mr. Backe wanted to expand the company's involvement in the entertainment industry, and was dismissed in May 1980 after an angry confrontation with Mr. Paley.
But industrywide factors, as well as management changes at CBS, contributed to the further decline of CBS during the 1980's, as Mr. Paley's involvement in the day-to-day operations came to a close.
In 1980, he appointed Thomas H. Wyman, a former Pillsbury executive, to be president and chief executive. Mr. Wyman became the chairman in 1983, with Mr. Paley taking the title of founder chairman. But Mr. Paley grew increasingly disturbed by a turbulence throughout the company that was most dramatically underscored by the drop in ratings for the "CBS Evening News" after the retirement of Walter Cronkite in 1981.
In the years that followed, the news division was racked by a series of changes that successively undermined CBS's prominence. In 1985, the cable entrepreneur Ted Turner announced his intent to offer $5.4 billion for 67 percent of the CBS stock. CBS fended off the takeover attempt but was forced to increase its debt to $1 billion, leading to large layoffs in the news division and elsewhere. Several longtime CBS News staff members offered to buy the division and form a separate entity.
Dissatisfied with Mr. Wyman's leadership, Mr. Paley formed an alliance with Laurence A. Tisch, the head of Loews, which owned hotels, theaters and insurance concerns. In 1985, Mr. Tisch had become the major CBS stockholder. A year later he and Mr. Paley ousted Mr. Wyman; his settlement came to $3.8 million and $400,000 a year for life.
In January 1987, Mr. Paley returned as chairman and Mr. Tisch became the president and chief executive. Mr. Tisch was regarded within the company as the network's savior, and was at first welcomed by the news division.
But as Mr. Paley again receded from daily management of the company, Mr. Tisch continued the contraction of CBS, with further layoffs in the news division. He sold CBS Records to Sony for $2 billion, and then sold CBS Publishing to various buyers for $650 million. Mr. Tisch, now the biggest single stock holder, was charting the direction of CBS.
Active and Involved Until the End
Even as his health deteriorated, Mr. Paley held onto whatever threads of power were left to him. He never stopped traveling or attending meetings; he appeared at shareholders' meetings and at the ground breaking for the new headquarters of the Museum of Broadcasting, a project that remained close to his heart and that was heavily underwritten by CBS. He had an astonishing will to live: in February 1988, now 87 years old, he came close to death as his vital organs began to fail; after a month in the hospital, he returned home and, in a wheelchair, immediately resumed an active social and business schedule.
In 1979, Mr. Paley published his memoirs under the title "As It Happened" at virtually the same time as the publication of David Halberstam's "The Powers That Be," an authoritative account of CBS, Time Inc., The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times. Four years earlier, Robert Metz published "CBS: Reflections in a Bloodshot Eye" that captured Mr. Paley's dark as well as brilliant sides.
In 1986, Mr. Paley named David Harris as his biographer, but after more than four years and hundreds of hours of recorded interviews, Mr. Paley became nervous about the project and canceled it. A biography, "In All His Glory: The Life of William S. Paley," by Sally Bedell Smith, is to be published next month.
Mr. Paley is to American broadcasting "as Carnegie was to steel, Ford to automobiles, Luce to publishing and Ruth to baseball," wrote Donald West in The New York Times in 1976. "None has yet been succeeded in kind."
Mr. Paley is survived by two children from his first marriage, Jeffrey Paley and Hilary Paley Califano; two children by his second marriage. William Cushing Paley and Kate Cushing Paley; two stepchildren, Stanley G. Mortimer 3d and Amanda Burden, and eight grandchildren.
The funeral will be private, and a memorial service will be held on Nov. 12 at 11 A.M. at Temple Emanu-El, 1 East 65th Street.
