In All His Glory: The Life and Times of William S. Paley and the Birth of Modern Broadcasting [Paperback]

Sally Bedell Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 5, 2002

The Life and Times of William S. Paley and the Birth of Modern Broadcasting

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

CBS television tycoon Paley is portrayed as a narcissist, womanizer and tyrannical father in this well-documented biography, which is packed with TV and radio anecdotes and high-level intrigue. According to PW , this "often unflattering but never malicious portrait . . . . tears away the layers of self-aggrandizing mythology Paley wove about himself." Photos.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Critics always claimed that former CBS Chairman William S. Paley's As it Happened ( LJ 3/15/79) wasn't how it happened. Here Smith, author of Up the Tube: Prime-Time TV and the Silverman Years ( LJ 7/81), offers an objective discussion of the creation of the "Tiffany Network." Paley, Smith asserts, was often resistant to change; newsman Edward R. Murrow and "power behind the throne" Frank Stanton may have molded the media company more than Paley did. Still, Smith also pays tribute to Paley's shrewd, strong personality, even though it sometimes resulted in megalomania and compulsive womanizing. With its mix of business reportage and gossip about a "brilliant circle" that included wife Babe, Truman Capote, Slim Keith, and David O. Selznick, this book should have wide appeal in public libraries. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 7/90 as Paley: A Life. --Judy Quinn, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 740 pages
• Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks (November 5, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812967763
• ISBN-13: 978-0812967760
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.5 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #617,815 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Man With All The Toys, April 2, 2007

By 

Bill Slocum (Norwalk, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In All His Glory: The Life and Times of William S. Paley and the Birth of Modern Broadcasting (Paperback)

There was little in life William Paley wanted and didn't get, with the notable exception of a laudatory and readable biography. Sally Bedell Smith performed half that service with "In All His Glory," published the same year Paley died (1990); you will be hard-pressed to find as juicy a book on a hundred more engaging personalities.

Paley built a radio-television empire with CBS, "the Tiffany Network" known for its much-touted commitment to quality broadcasting. While acquiring markets and talents was Paley's contribution to CBS's glory, it was secondary by Bedell Smith's reckoning to his more material passions for lucre, women, and fame. He got most of what he wanted, but as we watch him on his deathbed, it's hard not to feel a Calvinistic twinge of regret for his limited vision.

"Bill Paley wanted every last minute from life," Bedell Smith writes.

It's about the most positive thing she has to say about Paley, who otherwise doesn't come off either as visionary or a leader. He failed to see the promise of innovations like television, color television, and the long-playing record, and had to be coaxed to letting his subordinates take up these and other ideas for building his empire. Then when they achieved success, Paley swooped in and took credit. "The convenient amnesia of the powerful," Bedell Smith calls it.

Where Paley excelled was in the art of interpersonal relations, which contributed to some major deals for CBS and very few lonely evenings for Paley himself, even if his wives couldn't say the same.

Bedell Smith writes an engaging story about Paley's years at CBS, but it is in recounting his social life where the book excels. Paley was born Jewish, and spent the rest of his life trying to pretend otherwise. Even as other Jews formed their own high-level Manhattan social circle, "Our Crowd, " Paley preferred to court the Mayflower set, a fast-dying clique of Long Island dinosaurs who imagined themselves better than the rest of mankind for the money they inherited.

One British noblewoman who ran with this set described Paley as "100 percent Jew but looking more like good news from Tartary," nicely encapsulating the jaded, facile, anti-Semitic waters Paley willingly navigated.

Readers looking for more of a history of CBS may be vaguely disappointed. Paley was seen as an "absentee landlord" by network insiders, leaning on Frank Stanton and other executives to run the shop while he globetrotted. Bedell Smith leaves the trail of the network for many long chapters at a stretch, to focus on Paley's marriages and affairs.

The problem with this shows with her loving depiction of wife number two, Babe Cushing, a glamorous clotheshorse. Bedell Smith describes Babe's look and surroundings in overrich detail, at one point itemizing the contents of her closets for half a page. Bedell Smith obviously treasures Babe more than Paley himself ever did, an imbalance that threatens to lose the reader from time to time.

But Babe is an interesting mirror to view Paley from, an empire builder in her own right who left nothing in the way of a legacy but gaudy baubles and mixed memories about what it all meant. As she lay dying of cancer, an unnamed intimate tells Bedell Smith: "She had not a glimmer of having a soul." It's a comment with more than religious meaning.

For Paley, too, the world was all there was, and immortality something only worth having if he was around to enjoy it. He built an empire, only to hang on too long and preside over its crumbling, even facilitate it when his hand-picked successor failed to show him the proper deference. Ephemerality is the nature of mass media, and in that way at least, Paley proved its perfect embodiment.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thorough Inspection of a Fascinating Man, August 16, 2003

By 

HeyJudy "heyjudy" (East Hampton, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: In All His Glory: The Life and Times of William S. Paley and the Birth of Modern Broadcasting (Paperback)

Author Sally Bedell Smith does her typically excellent job with IN ALL HIS GLORY, her biography of William Paley. Smith is known for her scholarship and her research, and it shows in this book.

Like many self-made successful people, Paley led an interesting life. Smith chronicles his original involvement with the nascent television industry as his interest grew into the empire he built surrounding CBS.

This is an important book for anyone interested in the development of that industry. As well, it is a fascinating peek into Paley's life. Here was a man who moved from the ghetto life of a child of 19th century European immigrants to becoming one of America's power elite. Once he was rich, he lived his life accordingly.

His journey makes for fascinating reading.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Upclose Look at Media Giant, July 26, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: In All His Glory: The Life and Times of William S. Paley and the Birth of Modern Broadcasting (Paperback)

This book has been out for as long as it has, and no reviews? It's been about five or six years since I've read it, but this volume is a must-read for anyone considering a career in broadcasting, or if you're interested in the building of a corporate empire.
The book takes us from Paley's somewhat well-to-do background and takes us, in all his glory, (which the book's author uses sarcastically), from cigar maker to the head of one of the most powerful corporations in American history, what used to be CBS, Inc.
The book doesn't necessarily portray Paley as a sympathetic character, but more of a small man who made it big. There's a heavy emphasis on the warts of the man, which may be somewhat understandable, since prior to this book's release, he was always presented as a man to be totally revered. But here he's portrayed as someone who likes to take credit for other's doings, as someone who plays petty head games with people such as Frank Stanton, and uses his on-air talent (Ed Murrow, for one) while it's convenient, and then when they're of no use to him anymore, casts them aside.
Despite the type of man Paley is presented as, this book is a very good chronicle of his career, which means it also is one of the definitive books on the creation of CBS. No matter what his personal flaws were, this is a man who did the impossible by challenging NBC to create the even more successful CBS radio network and then dominated television for roughly 20 years. The building of that empire with the "talent raids" of Amos 'n' Andy, Jack Benny, and others is vital reading for anyone who is in the broadcasting industry. What's even more essential, however, is watching the ideas and motivations that took the Columbia Broadcasting System to CBS, Inc, and how it lost focus as it became a corporate behemoth.
Paley's death came several years before Westinghouse, and then Viacom, would acquire CBS, and having read this book, you can only imagine what he would have thought about how that played out.
One final note, while the book is lengthy, it's a breeze-through read. Once you get started, you won't put it down.