Leonard H. Goldenson (December 7, 1905 – December 27, 1999) was President of the U.S. television and radio broadcaster ABC. He orchestrated the merger of his United Paramount Theatres with ABC in 1953 (after Paramount Pictures was ordered to spin it off in the wake of United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc., a decree of the U.S. Supreme Court).
ABC was formed in 1943 in the wake of another Supreme Court decree effectively ordering the spinoff of the largely secondary-status Blue Network from its then-parent, NBC; its buyer, industrialist Edward J. Noble, tried valiantly to build ABC into an innovative and competitive broadcaster, but by 1953 was rumored to be on the verge of selling the nearly bankrupt operation to CBS.[1] After Goldenson rescued ABC with a $25 million cash infusion, he became the founding chairman of the merged company called American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres. The modern ABC dates its history from the effective date of the Goldenson transaction, and not the Blue Network spinoff.
Although he focused chiefly on ABC Television, Goldenson oversaw all areas of ABC-Paramount's entertainment/media operations for over thirty years, from 1951 to 1986, including the creation of the AmPar Record Corporation in 1955 and the 'rebadging' of the ABC-Paramount group as the American Broadcasting Company in 1968[2]. Goldenson also was instrumental in the sale of ABC to Capital Cities Communications in 1986.
Goldenson, whose first-born daughter was born with cerebral palsy, co-founded United Cerebral Palsy in 1949 and used station WBKB (at the time owned by United Paramount Theatres) to be the flagship station for the inauguaral UCP telethon that year.
In 1974, Mr. Goldenson received The Hundred Year Association of New York's Gold Medal Award "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the City of New York."
The Leonard H. Goldenson Theater at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences building in North Hollywood, California is named in his honor.
References
- ^ Murray, Michael D.; Godfrey, Donald G. (eds.) (1997). Television in America: Local Station History from Across the Nation. Ames, IA: Iowa State Press. p. 11. ISBN 0813829690.
- ^ Ashley Kahn; The House That Coltrane Built (Granta Books, London, 2006), p.284
External links
- Leonard Goldenson at the Museum of Broadcast Communications
- Leonard Goldenson Official Website
- Leonard H. Goldenson at the Internet Movie Database
- Disney Legends profile
- Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre
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