William Samuel Paley (September 28, 1901 – October 26, 1990) was an American businessman, primarily involved in the media, and best known as the chief executive who built the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) from a small radio network into one of the foremost radio and television network operations in the United States.
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Early life and education
Paley was born on September 28, 1901, in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Goldie (née Drell) and Samuel Paley. His family was Jewish, and his father was an immigrant from Ukraine who ran a cigar company. As the company became increasingly successful, Samuel Paley became a millionaire, and moved his family to Philadelphia in the early 1920s.
William Paley attended the Western Military Academy in Alton, Illinois, then graduated from, the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a member of the Theta chapter of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity. He was expecting to take an increasingly active role running the family cigar business after college.
In 1927, Samuel Paley, Leon Levy (who was married to Paley's sister, Blanche), and some business partners bought a struggling Philadelphia-based radio network of 16 stations called the Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System. Samuel Paley's intention was to use his acquisition as an advertising medium for promoting the family's cigar business, which included the La Palina brand. Within a year, under William's leadership, cigar sales had more than doubled, and, in 1928, the Paley family secured majority ownership of the network from their partners. Within a decade, William S. Paley had expanded the network to 114 affiliate stations.
Career
Broadcasting
Paley quickly grasped the earnings potential of radio and recognized that good programming was the key to selling advertising time and, in turn, bringing in profits to the network and to affiliate owners. Before Paley, most businessmen viewed stations as stand-alone local outlets, as the broadcast equivalent of local newspapers. Individual stations originally bought programming from the network and, thus, were considered the network's clients.
Paley changed broadcasting's business model not only by developing successful and lucrative broadcast programming but also by viewing advertisers and sponsors as the most significant element of the broadcasting equation. Paley provided network programming to affiliate stations at a nominal cost, thereby ensuring the widest possible distribution for both the programming and the advertising. The advertisers then became the network's primary clients and, because of the wider distribution brought by the growing network, Paley was able to charge more for the ad time. Affiliates were required to carry programming offered by the network for part of the broadcast day, receiving a portion of the network's fees from advertising revenue. At other times in the broadcast day, affiliates were free to offer local programming and sell advertising time locally.
Paley's recognition of how to harness the potential reach of broadcasting was the key to his growing CBS from a tiny chain of stations into what was eventually one of the world's dominant communication empires. During his prime, Paley was described as having an uncanny sense for popular taste and exploiting that insight to build the CBS network. As war clouds darkened over Europe in the late 1930s, Paley recognized Americans' desire for news coverage of the coming war and built the CBS news division into a dominant force just as he had previously built the network's entertainment division.
As early as 1940 Paley envisioned the creation of a network division within CBS tasked with serving much of South America. In collaboration with his news director Paul White and his director of short wave operations Edmund Chester, Paley laid the foundation for a chain of sixty-four stations in eighteen countries which would subsequently be known as La Cadena de las Americas (The Network of the Americas). By 1942, Paley's innovative network was broadcasting both news and cultural programming live from CBS in New York City in cooperation with the government's Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs under the direction of a young Nelson Rockefeller. During World War II, these broadcasts played a central role in promoting cultural diplomacy and Pan Americanism as part of President Franklin Roosevelt's Good Neighbor Policy. In 1943, Paley and Chester were awarded the Carlos Manuel de Cespedes National Order of Merit by the Cuban government in recognition of his efforts to foster greater understanding between the peoples of Cuba and the United States of America, in recognition of services performed by the Columbia Broadcasting System's Latin-American shortwave radio network.
Art collection
Paley acquired an art collection consisting of approximately forty works, many of which are today in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. Paley's collection included works by Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso, Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas, Derain, Bonnard, Gauguin, and Rouault. He acquired Picasso's Boy Leading a Horse in 1936 and donated it to the MoMA in 1964 however its Nazi-era provenance turned out to be problematic and resulted in a claim for restitution filed by the heirs of Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy who said it had been sold under duress. The lawsuit, known as Schoeps v. The Museum of Modern Art, was about to go to trial when a settlement between the parties was announced.
Other works from the Paley collection include Paul Cézanne L'Estaque which he acquired in 1935, Henri Matisse's Woman with a Veil, which he acquired in 1936, Paul Gauguin's Washerwomen, which he acquired in 1958, and Paul Cézanne's Milk Can and Apples.
The MoMA organized a special exhibition of the William Paley Collection in 1992.
In 2022, twenty-nine artworks from the Paley collection, including five on long term loan to the MoMA, were auctioned at Sothebys on consignment from the William S. Paley Foundation.
Philanthropy
Encouraged by Paley's avid interest in modern art and his outstanding collection, the Rockefeller family supported Museum of Modern Art made Paley a trustee in the 1930s; in 1962 he was tapped by then-chairman David Rockefeller to be its president. In 1968, he joined a syndicate with Rockefeller and others to buy six works by Picasso for the museum from the notable Gertrude Stein collection. He subsequently became chairman, stepping down from the museum post in 1985.
In 1974, Paley dedicated the second building at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. He also personally dedicated the Samuel L. Paley library at Temple University named in honor of his father.
The Paley Center for Media was founded by Paley in New York City in 1976 as the Museum of Broadcasting. From 1991 to 2007, it was known as The Museum of Television and Radio; its new location was known as the Paley Building. An L.A. branch opened in 1996, and closed in 2020.
In 1947 William S. Paley was named chairman of the advisory council of the United Jewish Appeal for Refugees, Overseas Needs and Palestine.
Other interests
In the 1940s, William Paley and his brother-in-law Leon Levy formed Jaclyn Stable, which owned and raced a string of thoroughbred race horses. He enjoyed photographing Picasso in Cap d'Antibes. Like Picasso, Paley drove an exotic French Facel Vega Facel II, the fastest four-seater car in the world in the early 1960s.
In 1964, CBS purchased the New York Yankees from Del Webb and Dan Topping. Subsequently, the storied baseball team fell into mediocrity, not making the postseason for the next ten years. In 1973, Paley sold the team at its low ebb for $8.7 million to Cleveland shipbuilder George Steinbrenner and a group of investors. Under the Steinbrenner regime, the Yankees grew in value to what, in April 2006, Forbes magazine estimated was $1.26 billion, or about $280 million in 1973 dollars.
Personal life
Marriage to Dorothy Hart Hearst
Paley met Dorothy Hart Hearst (1908–1998) while she was married to John Randolph Hearst, the third son of William Randolph Hearst. Paley fell in love with her, and, after her Las Vegas divorce from Hearst, she and Paley married on May 12, 1932, in Kingman, Arizona.
Dorothy called on her extensive social connections acquired during her previous marriage to introduce Paley to several top members of President Franklin Roosevelt's government. She also exerted a considerable influence over Paley's political views. She later said: "I can't believe he would have voted Democrat without me."
Dorothy began to become estranged from Paley during the early 1940s because of his infidelity. They divorced on July 24, 1947, in Reno, Nevada. She retained custody of their two adopted children, Jeffrey Paley and Hilary Paley. In 1953, Dorothy married stockbroker Walter Hirshon; they divorced in 1961.
Marriage to Barbara Cushing Mortimer
Paley married divorcée, socialite and fashion icon Barbara Cushing Mortimer (1915–1978) affectionally referred to as "Babe" on July 28, 1947 and they remained married until her death. She was the daughter of renowned neurosurgeon Harvey Cushing. William and Babe Paley, in spite of their successes and social standing, were barred from being members of country clubs on Long Island because he was Jewish. As an alternative, the Paleys built a summer home, "Kiluna North," on Squam Lake in New Hampshire and spent the summers there for many years, routinely entertaining their many friends, including Lucille Ball, Grace Kelly, and David O. Selznick. The couple had two children, William and Kate.
Other affairs
Paley was a notorious womanizer his entire life. His first marriage to Dorothy ended when a newspaper published a suicide note written to Paley by a former girlfriend. He provided a small stipend to a former lover, actress Louise Brooks, for the rest of her life. In his later years he enjoyed keeping company with several women. Paley was included in a list of the ten most eligible bachelors compiled by Cosmopolitan magazine in 1985; the irony of the octogenarian Paley being on the list was an inspiration for Late Night with David Letterman's nightly Top Ten lists.
Death
Paley died of kidney failure on October 26, 1990, less than a month after his 89th birthday. He was buried at the Memorial Cemetery of St. John's Episcopal Church beside his second wife Babe.
Works
As It Happened: A Memoir (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1979)
Awards and honors
Carlos Manuel de Cespedes National Order of Merit by the Cuban government, 1943
Croix de Guerre with Palm, 1946
Legion of Honor
Legion of Merit, 1946
Peabody Award, 1958 and 1961
Inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame, 1984
Inducted into the Television Hall of Fame, 1984
Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism, 1984.
In popular culture
In the 1986 television movie Murrow, Paley is played by Dabney Coleman, while in the 2005 film Good Night, and Good Luck, he is played by Frank Langella. In the 2006 film Infamous, Paley is played by Lee Ritchey. Paley is also portrayed by Shawn Lawrence in the 2002 television film Gleason.
The philandering character Sidney Dillon in Truman Capote's unfinished novel Answered Prayers is based on Paley.
In "We Shall Overcome," an episode of the NBC series Dark Skies Paley (played by radio talk show host Art Bell) is presented as a member of the MJ-12 Committee.
On AMC's series Mad Men, Harry Crane names Paley as the "most important" person he could ever bring into the office.
The Museum of Television and Radio in New York City and Los Angeles were renamed the Paley Center for Media.
Paley is portrayed by Treat Williams (his final role before his death) alongside Naomi Watts's portrayal of Babe Paley in the 2024 limited series FX/Ryan Murphy Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, which recounts the turmoil surrounding the writing of the Truman Capote novel Answered Prayers.