Lee Phillip Bell Donations Reach $500,000 to The Museum of Broadcast Communications

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 15, 2006

Media Contact:
Gina Doyle, MBC, 312-396-0103

Chicago -- Lee Phillip Bell has made a second donation of $250,000 to the new Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago. Phillip-Bell has now contributed $500,000 to America?s newest broadcast museum.

In appreciation for her continued generosity, the MBC will name one of its studios the Lee Phillip and Bill Bell Family Television Studio. The studio will introduce the magic of television to students and tourists alike and will provide an opportunity to appear in a simulated episode of "The Young and the Restless" or "The Bold and the Beautiful", television?s most popular daytime dramas. Visitors will be able to take home their screen test to share with friends and family.

?Lee Phillip and her late husband Bill Bell were Chicago television icons long before their move to Los Angeles many years ago,? said MBC Founder and President Bruce DuMont. ?Lee and Bill, along with their children William, Jr. Bradley and Lauralee - are the first family of American television. They represent quality television and hopefully will serve as an inspiration for others seeking careers in television, whose first experience before a camera could be in the Lee Phillip and Bill Bell Family Television Studio,? DuMont added.

?Chicago is a great city and one we will never forget,? said Lee Phillip Bell in making the announcement. ?I am pleased to honor my late husband Bill with this gift, which hopefully will inspire a new generation of writers, producers, directors and actors,? she added.

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 shows, Phillip Bell was a major television personality at WBBM/CBS Chicago. Mr. Bell passed away on April 29, 2005.

Known in the city as ?the first lady of Chicago television?, Phillip was the popular host of a noontime talk show for over 20 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 1950s, was a groundbreaking documentary that received a local Emmy Award, one of 15 that Phillip Bell 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, recently receiving a combined 27 Daytime Emmy nominations. 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 new Museum of Broadcast Communications, one of only three broadcast museums in the United States, is now under construction. The 70,000 square-foot home at State and Kinzie streets in downtown Chicago will re-open in the fall of 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.