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William S. Paley

The executive who turned CBS from a small radio chain into a broadcasting giant.

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William S. Paley

via Wikipedia: William S. Paley · see source

William Samuel Paley (September 28, 1901 – October 26, 1990) was an American businessman who built CBS from a small radio network into a leading television operation.[1] William Samuel Paley was born in Chicago, Illinois, on September 28, 1901, to Goldie and Samuel Paley, a Jewish family whose father had emigrated from Ukraine and operated a cigar company.[2][3]

Life and work

Paley's insight into popular taste and broadcasting's potential was key to growing CBS into a dominant communication empire.[4] CBS owned Columbia Records since 1939, and in 1948 introduced the 33-1/3-rpm LP record, which became a standard format.[5] In 1927, Samuel Paley, Leon Levy (married to Paley's sister Blanche), and additional business partners purchased a struggling 16-station radio network, the Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System, to advertise the family's La Palina cigars.[6] By 1940 Paley had begun planning a CBS network division focused on South America; he worked with Paul White and Edmund Chester to establish La Cadena de las Americas, a chain of sixty-four stations across eighteen countries.[7]

During World War II, that network aired news and cultural programs live from New York City, working with the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, which was led by Nelson Rockefeller.[7] In 1943, the Cuban government presented Paley and Chester with the Carlos Manuel de Cespedes National Order of Merit for their work in fostering understanding.[7] CBS Laboratories and Peter Goldmark created a color television method; the FCC initially approved the CBS system but later reversed that decision due to incompatibility with black-and-white receivers, ultimately selecting RCA's compatible color system as the standard.[5]

What the cited sources add

The 1990 biography by Sally Bedell Smith describes Paley's recognition of broadcasting's potential reach as key to his empire.[8][9] Dorothy claimed she influenced Paley's political views, saying she could not believe he would have voted Democrat without her.[4][9] The Museum of Modern Art published a 2012 catalog of Paley's art collection, which included works by Cezanne, Matisse, and Picasso.[10][11] According to Smith's book, Paley's first wife Dorothy leveraged the social connections she had from her prior marriage to introduce him to senior officials in Franklin Roosevelt's administration.[4][9]

Paley's 1979 memoir "As it happened" is referenced in the evidence for his Latin American network initiatives.[7][12]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "William S. Paley" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "William S. Paley Biography - Founder, The Paley Center for Media"; Gerard, "William S. Paley, Builder of CBS, Dies at 89.", New York Times, October 27, 1990 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "William S. Paley" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: See the 1942 draft registration card of William S. Paley, available at ancestry.com (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "William S. Paley" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bergreen, Laurence, (1980). Look Now, Pay Later: The Rise of Network Broadcasting. New York: Doubleday and Company. . p. 57. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "William S. Paley" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bedell Smith, Sally, "In All His Glory. The Life of William S. Paley", Simon & Schuster, 1990 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "William S. Paley" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Television cameras were the Eyes of a Generation; this is Television history the way they saw it"; "Television cameras were the Eyes of a Generation; this is Television history the way they saw it" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "William S. Paley" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Dr. Leon Levy", Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia Archives; Bergreen, p. 58. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "William S. Paley" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: In All His Glory: The Life and Times of William S. Paley and the Birth of Modern Broadcasting. Salley Bedell Smith. Random House Trade Publications, New York, U; Paley, "As it Happened", Doubleday Books, 1979; Time - Radio: La Cadena, June 1, 1942 William S. Paley, La Cadena de las Americas on Content.time.com; Paley, "As it Happened", Doubleday Books, 1979; In All His Glory: The Life and Times of William S. Paley and the Birth of Modern Broadcasting. Salley Bedell Smith. Random House Trade Publications, New York, U; Time - Radio: La C en.wikipedia.org
  8. Bedell Smith, Sally, "In All His Glory. The Life of William S. Paley", Simon & Schuster, 1990. facts only, no text reused. archive.org
  9. Open Library record, ISBN 0671617354 ("In all his glory"). CC0 (metadata); book content not read. openlibrary.org
  10. Wikipedia, "William S. Paley" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The William S. Paley collection: a taste for modernism; [in conjunction with an exhibition ... at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, February 2 - April 7, 1992]", Museum of Modern Art, 2012; "Boy Leading a Horse, MoMa", MoMa (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Open Library record, ISBN 9780870708404 ("William S. Paley Collection"). CC0 (metadata); book content not read. openlibrary.org
  12. Open Library record, ISBN 0385146396 ("As it happened"). CC0 (metadata); book content not read. openlibrary.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article William S. Paley (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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