William S. Paley

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William S. Paley

William Samuel Paley (born September 28, 1901 in Chicago , Illinois , † October 26, 1990 in New York City ) was an American journalist and media officer.

Life

His father, Samuel Paley, a Ukrainian Jewish immigrant, owned a successful cigar manufacturing company and moved his family to Philadelphia in the early 1920s . Paley attended the Western Military Academy in Alton . He graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in economics. In 1927 his father and some business partners acquired a radio network in Philadelphia with 16 radio stations, the Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System (CBS). Under the direction of his son William Paley, the Paley family succeeded within a year, 1928, in attaining the entrepreneurial majority in the radio station network. The number of radio stations was increased to 114.

After the Second World War, CBS expanded into television entertainment from 1946 and focused on entertainment and news ( CBS News with news program 60 Minutes ) in the television station. With his endorsement, Frank Stanton became president in 1946, followed by James T. Aubrey, Jr. in 1959 .

In 1976 he founded the Paley Center for Media in Los Angeles and New York City. He was a sponsor of the Temple University library , which was named after his father. As a philanthropist , he also gave funds to the Museum of Modern Art in the 1930s. In 1968 he and a syndicate acquired six works by Pablo Picasso for the Museum of Modern Art from the collection of Gertrude Stein and took over the chairmanship of the museum, which he held until 1985. After his death, more than 80 works from his art collection were donated to the museum. These included works by Paul Cézanne , André Derain , Paul Gauguin , Henri Matisse and Picasso.

In his first marriage he was married to Dorothy Hart Hearst from 1932 to 1947. His second marriage was in 1947 with Barbara Cushing Mortimer, with whom he was married until her death in 1978. He had two adopted children from his first marriage and two more children from his second marriage.

Prizes and awards (selection)

Literature (selection)

  • As It Happened: A Memoir. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1979.
  • David Halberstam: The Powers that Be. New York: Knopf, 1979.
  • Robert Metz: CBS: Reflections in a Bloodshot Eye. Chicago: Playboy Press, 1983.
  • Lewis J. Paper: Empire: William S. Paley and the Making of CBS. New York: St. Martin's, 1987.
  • Robert Slater: This ... Is CBS: A Chronicle Of 60 Years. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1988.
  • Sally Bedell Smith: In All His Glory: The Life of William S. Paley, the Legendary Tycoon and His Brilliant Circle. Simon and Schuster, New York 1990.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ William Rubin, Matthew Armstrong: The William S. Paley Collection, A Taste for Modernism. Harry N Abrams, New York 1992, ISBN 0-8109-6101-6 .
personal data
SURNAME Paley, William S.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Paley, William Samuel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American journalist
DATE OF BIRTH September 28, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago , Illinois
DATE OF DEATH October 26, 1990
Place of death New York City