LEONARD GOLDENSON. Born in Scottsdale, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.,
7 December 1905. Educated at Harvard College, B.S., 1927; Harvard Law School, LL.B., 1930. Married: Isabelle Weinstein, 1939; children: Genise Sandra, Loreen Jay, and Maxine Wynne. Served as law clerk to a railroad attorney, early 1930s; worked in reorganization of Paramount's New England theaters, 1933-37; assistant to the executive in charge of Paramount theater operations, 1937; head, Paramount theater operations, 1938; vice-president, Paramount Pictures, Inc., 1942; president and a director, Paramount Theatres Service Corporation, 1944; president, chief executive officer, and director, United Paramount Pictures, Inc., 1950, and American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres, Inc., 1953; chair of the board and chief executive officer, American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., until 1986; chair of the executive committee and director of Capital Cities/ABC, Inc., since 1972. Honorary chair of the Academy of TV Arts and Sciences. Member: International Radio and Television Society; National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences; Broadcast Pioneers; Motion Picture Pioneers; graduate director of the Advertising Council, Inc.; director, Research America; trustee emeritus of the Museum of Broadcasting.

PUBLICATION

Beating the Odds: The Untold Story Behind the Rise of ABC: The Stars, Struggles, and Egos That Transformed Network Television by the Man Who Made It Happen, with Marvin J. Wolf. New York: Scribner's, 1991.

As the founder of a major U.S. network, Leonard Goldenson is perhaps not as famous as David Sarnoff of NBC or William S. Paley of CBS. But he should be. Starting in 1951, over a thirty-year period, Goldenson created the modern ABC (American Broadcasting Company) television network. He did not have the advantage of an extraordinary talent pool, as CBS did from its radio contract. Yet Goldenson should be given credit as one of the modern corporate chieftains who shaped and led television in the United States into the network era--and beyond. The last of the old TV network tycoons, Leonard Goldenson snatched ABC from the brink of irrelevance as a minor radio network and by the 1980s had transformed the company into one of the top broadcasting networks and a leading site for advertising in the world. Three of Goldenson's considerable accomplishments: he lured the big Hollywood movie studios into the TV production business; he re-packaged sports and made it prime-time fare with Monday Night Football and Olympic coverage; he led the networks into the era of movies made for TV and miniseries.

After graduating from the Harvard Business School in 1933, Goldenson was hired to help reorganize the then near bankrupt theater chain of Hollywood's Paramount Pictures. So skillful was his work at this assignment that Paramount's chief executive officer Barney Balaban hired Goldenson to manage the entire Paramount chain. In 1948 when the U.S. Supreme Court forced Paramount to choose either the theater business or Hollywood production and distribution, Balaban selected the Hollywood side and handed over the newly independent United Paramount theater chain to Goldenson. Goldenson then sold a number of movie palaces. Looking for a growth business in which to invest these funds, he selected ABC.

Goldenson finalized the ABC takeover in 1953, which came with a minor network and five stations. Given the ownership restrictions defined by the Federal Communication Commission's Sixth Report and Order, Goldenson worked from the assumption that only three networks would survive. Only in 1955, with the failure of the DuMont television network, was ABC really off on what would become its successful quest to catch up with industry leaders, CBS and NBC.

As late as 1954 only 40 of the more than 300 television stations then on the air were primarily ABC-TV affiliates. More affiliates for ABC-TV were so-called secondary accounts, an arrangement through which an NBC or CBS affiliate agreed to broadcast a portion (usually small) of the ABC-TV schedule. When DuMont went under, ABC-TV could claim only a tenth of network advertising billings; NBC and CBS split the rest.

Goldenson developed a specific tactic: find a programming niche not well served by the bigger rivals and take it over. Thus, for a youth market abandoned by NBC and CBS, ABC set in motion American Bandstand, Maverick, and The Mickey Mouse Club. Goldenson found early ABC stars in Edd "Kookie" Byrnes, James Garner, and Ricky Nelson. Controversy came with the premiere of The Untouchables, as critics jumped on an apparent celebration of violence, but Goldenson rode out the criticism and lauded the high ratings to potential advertisers.

When necessary, Goldenson would also copy his competition. In the 1950s there was no greater hit than CBS' sit-com I Love Lucy. Goldenson signed up Ozzie Nelson and Danny Thomas, and in time The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet would run 435 episodes on ABC, and Danny Thomas' Make Room for Daddy would air 336.

Goldenson was able to convince Hollywood, in the form of Walt Disney and Warner Brothers, to produce shows for ABC. A turning point--for the network and for all of television--came when Walt Disney agreed to supply ABC with TV shows. In exchange ABC sold its movie palaces and loaned the money to Disney to build a new type of amusement park. Disney had approached any number of banks, but could not convince their conservative officers that he really did not want to build another "Coney Island." Repeatedly, the financial institutions passed on "Disneyland." So, too, did NBC and CBS, thus missing out on the opportunity to program The Mickey Mouse Club and The Wonderful World of Disney.

ABC's first Disney show went on the air on Wednesday nights beginning in October 1954; it moved to Sunday nights in 1960, and would remain a Sunday night fixture for more than two decades. ABC-TV had its first top-twenty ratings hit, and made millions from its investment in Disneyland. In particular a December 1954 episode entitled "Davy Crockett" created a national obsession, fostering a pop music hit, enticing baby boomers to beg their parents for coonskin caps, and making Fess Parker a TV star.

With the Warner Brothers shows--Cheyenne, 77 Sunset Strip, Surfside 6 and Maverick--the ABC television network began making a profit for the first time. By the early 1960s ABC was airing the top rated My Three Sons, The Real McCoys, and The Flintstones, which was television's first animated prime-time series. In the more turbulent late 1960s ABC-TV mixed the traditional (The FBI and Marcus Welby, M.D.) with the adventuresome (Mod Squad and Bewitched). But it was not until the 1976-77 season that ABC-TV finally rose to the top of the network ratings; its primetime hits that season were Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, and Monday Night Football.

In sports telecasting ABC-TV soon topped NBC and CBS as a pioneer. ABC led the way with not only its Monday night NFL football, but also with ABC Wide World of Sports and coverage of both the summer and winter Olympics. In the late 1970s ABC's mini-series Roots set ratings records, and acquired numerous awards for its 12 hours of dramatic history. The TV-movie was also innovated at ABC-TV and in time the "alphabet" network received top ratings for airing Brian's Song, The Thorn Birds, and The Winds of War.

But by the mid-1980s Leonard Goldenson had passed his 80th birthday and wanted out of the day-to-day grind of running a billion dollar corporation. In 1986 Capital Cities, Inc., backed by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway investment group, bought ABC for $3.5 billion. Capital Cities, Inc. had long been an award-winning owner of a group of the most profitable television stations in the U.S. "Cap Cities" chief executive officer Thomas Murphy inherited what Leonard Goldenson had wrought. Leonard Goldenson then gracefully retired.

Leonard Goldenson died on December 27th, 1999. He was 94.

-- Douglas Gomery .