William S.
Paley developed the CBS radio and television networks, and ran them
for more than a half century. "A 20th-century visionary with the
ambitions of a 19th-century robber baron," as The New
York Times described him, Paley took over a tiny failing network
with only 16 affiliate stations and developed it into a world-class
communications empire. Delegating management details to others,
he had a seemingly unfailing sense of popular taste and a resultant
flair for programming.
Radio's commercial
potential came to fascinate Paley early on. Using funds from his
father's cigar company shares, Paley purchased working control of
the struggling CBS network in September 1928. He was just turning
27. A year later, family purchase of additional shares gave him
majority control.
Paley's insights
helped to define commercial network operations. At the start of
his CBS stewardship, he transformed the network's financial relationship
with its affiliates so that the latter agreed to carry sustaining
programs free, receiving network payments only for commercially-supported
programs. Paley enjoyed socializing and negotiating with broadcast
stars. In the late 1940s, his "talent raids" hired top radio stars
(chiefly away from NBC) by offering huge prices for rights to their
programs and giving them, in return, lucrative capital gains tax
options. The talent pool thus developed helped to boost CBS radio
ratings just as network television was beginning. At the same time,
he encouraged development of CBS News before and during the war
as it developed a stable of stars soon headed by Edward R. Murrow.
During World
War II, he served as deputy chief of the psychological warfare branch
of General Dwight Eisenhower's staff. Paley became chair of the
CBS board in 1946, turning the network's presidency over to Frank
Stanton who held the post until his own retirement in 1973. The
television network first showed a profit in 1953 and from 1955 through
1976, CBS television consistently led in prime-time network ratings.
Network profits helped expand CBS into many other lines of entertainment
and education--including the Broadway musical "My Fair Lady" in
1956--as Paley acquired other businesses.
There were technical
opportunities as well. CBS Laboratories' Peter C. Goldmark developed
a mechanical system of color television that was briefly (1950-53)
the nation's first standard before being pushed aside by a superior
all-electronic RCA system. By then, CBS had traded a quarter of
its stock to buy Hytron, a TV receiver manufacturer later sold for
a huge loss. More successfully, Goldmark also pioneered the long
playing (LP) record, introduced in 1948, which revolutionized the
recording industry and made CBS Records (sold in 1987 to Sony for
$2 billion) the leading record company in America for both classical
and popular records.
As he stayed
beyond CBS' compulsory (for others) retirement age of 65, Paley
sought to delay his inevitable passing of control to others. Paley
worked through several short-lived potential heirs in the late 1970s:
he stepped down as chief executive officer in 1977, but retained
the powerful chairmanship. Finally, he hired Pillsbury's Thomas
H. Wyman to become president in 1980. Wyman succeeded Paley as the
network's second chairman in 1983. Concerned with some of Wyman's
decisions in the aftermath of an unsuccessful attempt by Ted Turner
to acquire CBS in 1985, Paley allied himself with Lawrence Tisch
(by then holding the largest single block of company shares) to
oust Wyman and install Tisch as chief executive officer in 1986.
Paley returned as a figurehead chair until his death in late 1990.
Paley is important
for having assembled the brilliant team that built and expanded
the CBS "Tiffany Network" image over several decades. For many years
he had an innate programming touch which helped keep the network
on top in annual ratings wars. He blew hot and cold on network news,
helping to found and develop it, but willing to cast much of that
work aside to avoid controversy or to increase profits. Like many
founders, however, he stayed too long and unwittingly helped weaken
his company.
Paley was very
active in New York art and social circles throughout his life. He
was a key figure in the Museum of Modern Art from its founding in
1929. He prompted construction of the Eero Saarinen-designed "Black
Rock" headquarters into which the network moved in 1965. His was
the primary donation that helped to create what is now the Museum
of Television and Radio in New York City in 1976. The middle "S"
in his name stood for nothing--Paley added it in his early business
years. He had no formal middle name.
--Christopher
H. Sterling
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William Paley
Photo courtesy of William Paley
WILLIAM
S. PALEY. Born in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A., 28 September
1901. Graduated from Western Military Academy, Alton, Illinois,
1918; studied at the University of Chicago, 1918-19; University
of Pennsylvania, B.S. 1922. Married: 1) Dorothy Hart Hearst, 1932
(divorced, 1947); one son and one daughter; 2) Barbara Cushing
Mortimer (died, 1978); one son, one daughter, one stepson, and
one stepdaughter. Served as colonel, United States Army, World
War II; deputy chief, psychological warfare division, Supreme
Headquarters, Allied Powers (Europe); deputy chief, information
control division, USGCC. Vice president, Congress Cigar Company,
Philadelphia, 1922-28; president, CBS, Inc., New York City, 1928-46,
chair of the board, 1946-83, founder and chair, 1983-86, acting
chair, 1986-87, chair and director, 1987-90; partner, Whitcom
Investment Company, 1982-90; founder, and member of board of directors,
Genetics Institute, 1980-90; Thinking Machines Corp., 1983-90;
co-chair, International Herald Tribune, 1983-1990; president
and director, William S. Paley Foundation, Greenpark Foundation,
Inc.
Trustee:
Museum of Modern Art, 1937-90, president, 1968-72, chair, 1972-85,
chair emeritus, 1985-90; life trustee, Columbia University, 1950-73,
trustee emeritus, 1973-90; North Shore University Hospital, 1949-57,
co-chair, board of trustees, 1954-73; life trustee, Federation
Jewish Philanthropies of New York. Member: board of directors,
W. Averill Harriman Institute for Advanced Study of Soviet Union,
Columbia University; Commission for White House Conference on
Education, 1954-56; chair, President's Materials for Policy Commission,
which produced "Resources for Freedom," 1951-52; executive committee,
Resources for the Future, 1952-69, chair, 1966-69, honorary member,
board of directors, 1969-90; chair, New York City Task Force on
Urban Design, which prepared "The Threatened City" report, 1967;
Urban Design Council City, New York, 1968-71; founding member,
Bedford-Stuyvesant D and S Corp., director, 1967-72; Commission
on Critical Choices for America, 1973-77, Commission for Cultural
Affairs, New York City, 1975-78; founder and chair of the board,
Museum of Broadcasting, from 1976; Council on Foreign Relations;
Academy of Political Sciences; National Institute for Social Sciences;
Royal Society of the Arts (fellow). Honorary degrees: LL.D.: Adelphi
University, 1957, Bates College, 1963, University of Pennsylvania,
1968, Columbia University, 1975, Brown University, 1975, Pratt
Institute, 1977, Dartmouth College, 1979; L.H.D.: Ithaca College,
1978, University of Southern California, 1985, Rutgers University,
1986; Long Island University: Southampton, 1987. Military honors:
Decorated Legion of Merit; Medal for Merit; officer, Legion of
Honor, France; Croix de Guerre with Palm, France; commander, Order
of Merit, Italy; associate commander, Order of St. John of Jerusalem.
Recipient: Gold Achievement Medal, Poor Richard Club; Keynote
Award, National Association of Broadcasters; George Foster Peabody
Awards, 1958 and 1961; Broadcast Pioneers, special award; Concert
Artists Guild Award, 1965; Skowhegan Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney
Award; National Planning Association, Gold Medal; David Sarnoff
Award, University of Arizona, 1979; Society of Family of Man Gold
Medallion, 1982; Joseph Wharton Award, Wharton School Club, New
York, 1983; TV Guide Life Achievement Award, 1984; Center for
Communications Award, 1985; co-recipient, Walter Cronkite Award,
Arizona State University, 1984; City of New York Medallion of
Honor; First Amendment Freedoms Award, Anti-Defamation League,
B'nai B'rith; Robert Eunson Distinguished Service Award, Association
of Press Broadcasters; named to Junior Achievement National Business
Hall of Fame, 1984. Died in Manhattan, New York, 26 October 1990.
PUBLICATION
Paley,
William S. As It Happened: A Memoir. Garden City, New York:
Doubleday, 1979.
FURTHER
READING
Halberstam,
David. The Powers that Be. New York: Knopf, 1979.
Metz, Robert. CBS: Reflections in a Bloodshot Eye. Chicago:
Playboy Press, 1983.
Paper,
Lewis J. Empire: William S. Paley and the Making of CBS.
New York: St. Martin's, 1987.
Slater,
Robert. This...Is CBS: A Chronicle Of 60 Years. Englewood
Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1988.
Smith,
Sally Bedell. In All His Glory: The Life of William S. Paley,
the Legendary Tycoon and His Brilliant Circle. New York: Simon
and Schuster, 1990.
See
also Columbia
Broadcasting System; Murrow,
Edward R.; Stanton,
Frank; United
States: Networks
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