Lee Phillip Bell Donates $250,000 to The Museum of Broadcast Communications

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 5, 2005

Media Contact:
Raissa Allaire, MBC, 312-396-0104

Chicago -- Lee Phillip Bell, the co-creator of The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful on the CBS television network, has donated $250,000 to the new Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago.

Prior to moving to Los Angeles along with her late-husband Bill Bell, the co-creator and head writer of the long running CBS daytime series, Phillip was a major television personality at WBBM/CBS Chicago. Mr. Bell died on April 29th.

Known in the city as ?the first lady of Chicago television," Phillip was the popular host of a noon time talk show for over twenty years and was a pioneer in local television documentaries, covering a wide range of social issues. The Rape of Paulette, which aired in the late 1950's, was a ground-breaking documentary that received a local Emmy Award, one of 15 that Phillip received during her long and respected on-air career.

The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful are mainstays of the CBS daytime schedule. The Phillip-Bell family team is key to the show?s success, with son William J. Bell, Jr. serving as Executive Producer of The Young and the Restless, son Bradley Bell serving as Executive Producer and head writer of The Bold and the Beautiful and daughter-actress Lauralee Bell, a co-star of The Young and the Restless.

?The generous donation from Lee Phillip Bell sets a level of support that will help us build a truly first class broadcast museum,? said Bruce DuMont MBC Founder and President. ?It is also personally rewarding to me that Lee has recognized our efforts in such a generous way, as she was there at the very beginning of the museum,? DuMont added. DuMont was producing Phillip?s daily Noonbreak show at WBBM, when he came up with the idea for the MBC.

The Lee Phillip Bell donation will be used for exhibit development. Other recent major donations from broadcasters have included $2-million from Paul and Angel Harvey, $500,000 from The Disney Foundation and $250,000 from The Oprah Winfrey Foundation.

The new Museum of Broadcast Communications, one of only three broadcast museums in the United States, is now under construction. The new 70,000 square foot home at State and Kinzie streets in downtown Chicago is scheduled to be completed in 2006. It will include interactive exhibit galleries, expanded archives, a media caf?, working radio and television studios, a gift shop and regularly scheduled public programs on historic and contemporary radio and television issues.

For more information, please visit Museum.TV.