CBS TV pioneer Frank Stanton dies at 98
Steve Safran December 26th, 2006
William S. Paley usually gets the credit but it was his partner, Frank Stanton, who was also responsible for starting up the CBS television network. Stanton died in Boston Sunday at age 98. He was president of the network in 1946 when it was primarily a radio operation. Paley didn’t want to get into TV initially, worried it would hurt his radio efforts. (Does that sound familiar?) Stanton pushed The Tiffany Network forward, signing Jackie Gleason for “The Honeymooners” and Lucille Ball for “I Love Lucy.” From Variety: “The long duet of Stanton and Paley was both richly fruitful and problematical. Never friends, the two titans were polar opposites in many ways, with Paley the charming dreamer, while Stanton was the thinker and doer.”
4 Comments Add your own
1. KirkV | December 26th, 2006 at 9:51 am
If there is one part of the Frank Stanton legacy that should be added to the many epitaphs that will be written about the man, including his devotion to statistics and audience research, it is Stanton’s fastidious attention to design as an element of visual branding, long before anyone had coined that term in the consultant-speak dictionary.
Dr. Stanton’s zeal for CBS to have a distinctive look was evident in every aspect of the corporation and his use of designers such as William Golden and Lou Dorfsman. It should not be forgotten by the generations who may not quite understand why having something called “The CBS Office Practices Guide” (which literally dictated how every piece of correspondence on the austere and classy CBS letterhead was supposed to look) was such a big deal.
One reason the whole “Tiffany network” idea actually worked was that CBS always looked classier in the Stanton era than its competitors. A lesson that shouldn’t be lost in any media, no matter what form it takes.
2. Lucretia Higgins | December 26th, 2006 at 6:28 pm
Nice commentary on Dr. S’s passing from a TV blogger.
3. thedetroitchannel | December 27th, 2006 at 9:00 am
also, you might want to clickon “lucretia” and read don’s post and the link to osu found in the comments.
4. Ratboy | January 19th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Wow, thanks for the excellent information!
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