Sumner Redstone is one of the most powerful media moguls of the late 20th century. In his capacity as owner and chief executive officer of Viacom, Inc., Redstone lords over Hollywood's Paramount Pictures television and motion picture factory; a handful of cable TV networks including MTV, The Movie Channel, Showtime, Nickelodeon, and VH1; several radio and TV stations; and a TV production and syndication business that owns the lucrative syndication rights to Roseanne, A Different World, I Love Lucy, Perry Mason, The Twilight Zone, and The Cosby Show. Viacom also has produced such prime time fare as Matlock and Jake and the Fatman.

Redstone's father Michael first sold linoleum from the back of a truck, then later became a liquor wholesaler, and finally purchased two nightclubs and set up one of the first drive-in movie operations in the United States. By the time Sumner graduated from Harvard in 1943, his father was concentrating on the movie industry. One of a number of struggling owners in the fledgling drive-in business, he was unable to book first run films because the vertically integrated Hollywood giants favored their own theaters.

Redstone graduated first in his class from the prestigious Boston Latin School, and then finished Harvard in less than three years. Upon graduation, he was recruited by Edwin Reischauer, a future United States ambassador to Japan, for an ace United States Army intelligence unit that would become famous for cracking Japan's military codes. After three years of service, during which he received two Army commendations, Redstone entered the Harvard Law School.

Upon graduation from Harvard Law in 1947, he began to practice law, first in Washington, D.C. and then in Boston, but soon was lured into the family movie theater business. Two decades later, Redstone was president and chief executive officer of the family firm. Indeed, even with his move to Viacom, Redstone has continued in the movie exhibition business. At the end of the 20th century, National Amusements operates more than 800 screens in a dozen states across the United States.

Redstone is a physically tough individual. In 1979, he survived a Boston hotel fire by clinging to a third-floor window with one severely burned hand. Doctors never expected him to live through 60 hours of surgery, but he did. Medical experts told him he would never walk again, yet in time Redstone began to exercise daily on a treadmill and to play tennis regularly, wearing a leather strap that enabled him to grip his racquet. Those who know the Boston tycoon say that his recovery spurred on his ambition to succeed in the motion picture and later television business.

As he recovered from his burns, Redstone used his knowledge of the movie business to begin selectively buying stock in Hollywood studios. In a relatively short time he made millions of dollars buying and selling stakes in 20th Century-Fox, Columbia Pictures Entertainment, MGM/UA Entertainment, and Orion. At first, Viacom represented simply another stock market investment, but soon Redstone realized that this company needed new management and in 1987 he resolved to take over and run the operation.

Redstone's acquisition proved difficult. The company had rebuffed an earlier takeover attempt by financier Carl Icahn, and Viacom executives sought to buy and protect their company. Redstone became embroiled in a bitter, six-month corporate raid which forced him to raise his offer three times. Upon the formal merger, rather than break up Viacom and sell off divisions to pay for the deal as his bankers advised, Redstone slowly and quietly built Viacom into one of the world's top TV corporations.

Redstone hired former Home Box Office chief executive Frank Biondi to build on Viacom's diversity. For example, by the mid-1990s Viacom had expanded its MTV music network far beyond its original base in the United States to reach more than 200 million households in some 80 countries in Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Redstone felt that his networks needed a Hollywood studio to make new products, and in 1993 he decided to acquire Paramount. He soon found himself in a battle with QVC Network, Inc. and in time joined forces with video rental empire Blockbuster Entertainment to cement the deal.

Owning more than two thirds of Viacom's voting stock in 1995 meant that Sumner Redstone controlled a vast media empire second only to that of Rupert Murdoch. Through the mid-1990s Forbes ranked Redstone among the richest persons in the United States, with a net worth in excess of $4 billion. Yet Redstone has never "gone Hollywood." As the 20th century ends he continues to operate his collection of enterprises, not from Paramount's sprawling studio on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, but from his longtime National Amusements, Inc. headquarters in Dedham, Massachusetts.

- Douglas Gomery

Sumner Redstone
Photo courtesy of Broadcasting and Cable

SUMNER MURRAY REDSTONE. Born Sumner Murray Rothstein in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A., 27 May 1923. Harvard University, B.A., 1944, LLB., 1947. Married: Phyllis Gloria Raphael, 1947; children: Brent Dale and Shari Ellin. Served as 1st Lt., U.S. Army, 1943-45. Admitted to the Massachusetts Bar, 1947; instructor of law and labor management at the University of San Francisco, 1947; law secretary, U.S. Court of Appeals for 9th Circuit, San Francisco, 1947-48; admitted to U.S. Court of Appeals (1st circuit), 1948; admitted to U.S. Court of Appeals (1st and 9th circuits), 1948; special assistant to U.S. Attorney General, Washington, D.C., 1948-51; admitted to U.S. Court of Appeals (8th circuit), 1950; admitted to Washington, D.C. Bar, 1951; partner in firm of Ford, Bergson, Adams, Borkland & Redstone, Washington, D.C., 1951-54; admitted to U.S. Supreme Court, 1952; executive vice-president, Northeast Drive-In Theatre Corporation, 1954-68; president Northeast Theatre Corporation; assistant president of Theatre Owners of America, 1960-63; president, 1964-65; chair of the board of National Association of Theatre Owners, 1965-66; chair of the board, president, and chief executive officer, National Amusements, Inc., Dedham, Massachusetts, from 1967; chairman of the board from 1986; chair of the board, Viacom International, Inc. and Viacom, Inc., New York City; Professor, Boston University Law School, 1982, 1985-86. Charitable work includes: chair, metropolitan division North East Combined Jewish Philanthropies, Boston, 1963; trustee, Children's Cancer Research Foundation; chair, American Cancer Crusade, State of Massachusetts, 1984-86; vice-president and member of executive committee of Will Rogers Memorial Fund; board of directors, Boston Arts Festival; board of overseers Dana Farber Cancer Center and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts; member, presidential advisory committee on arts, John F.Kennedy Center for Performing Arts; board of directors, John F.Kennedy Library Foundation, 1984-86. Member: American Bar Association; National Association of Theatre Owners; Theatre Owners of America; board of directors, Motion Picture Pioneers; Boston Bar Association; Massachusetts Bar Association; Harvard Law School Association; American Judicature Society. Recipient: Army Commendation Medal; William J. German Human Relations Award American Jewish Com. Entertainment and Communication Division, 1977; Communicator of the Year, B'nai B'rith Communications and Cinema Lodge, 1980; Silver Shingle Award, Boston University Law School, 1985; Man of the Year, Entertainment Industries Division of United Jewish Appeal Federation, 1988; Variety New England Humanitarian Award, 1989; Pioneer of the Year, Motion Picture Pioneers, 1991. Home address: 98 Baldpate Hill Rd, Newton, MA 02159-2825, U.S.A. Office address: National Amusements, Inc., 200 Elm St., Dedham, Massachusetts 02026-4536, U.S.A.

FURTHER READING

Auletta, Ken. "The Last Studio in Play." The New Yorker, 4 October 1993.

Bart, Peter. "Owners Take Over the Asylum: Murdochian Moguls Become Hands-on." Variety (Los Angeles), 26 February 1995.

Gallese, Liz Roman. "'I Get Exhilarated by It.'" Forbes (New York), 22 October 1990.

Greenwald, John. "The Man with the Iron Grasp." Time (New York), 27 September 1993.

Landler, Mark. "The MTV Tycoon: Sumner Redstone is Turning Viacom Into the Hottest Global TV Network." Business Week (New York), 21 September 1992.

_______________. "Sumner at the Summit." Business Week (New York), 28 February 1994.

Lenzer, Robert. "Late Bloomer." Forbes (New York), 17 October 1994.

Matzer, Marla. "Winning is the Only Thing." Forbes (New York), 17 October 1994.

Stern, Christopher. "Ready to Take on the World" (interview). Broadcasting & Cable (Washington, D.C.), 20 September 1993.

"Sumner Redstone: A Drive to Win." Broadcasting (Washington, D.C.), 14 November 1988.

See also Cable Networks; Music Television (MTV); Syndication