James T. Aubrey
James T. Aubrey | |
---|---|
Los Angeles, California, U.S. | |
Alma mater | Princeton University |
Occupation(s) | Television and film executive |
Spouse | |
Children | 2 |
James Thomas Aubrey Jr. (December 14, 1918 – September 3, 1994) was an American television and film executive. As president of the CBS television network from 1959 to 1965, with his "smell for the blue-collar,"[1] he produced some of television's most enduring series on the air, including Gilligan's Island and The Beverly Hillbillies.
Under Aubrey's leadership, CBS dominated American television, leading the other networks
Despite his success in television, Aubrey's abrasive personality and ego led to his firing from CBS, amid charges of misconduct. Aubrey offered no explanation following his dismissal, nor did CBS President Frank Stanton or Board Chairman William Paley. "The circumstances rivaled the best of CBS adventure or mystery shows," declared The New York Times in its front-page story on his firing, which came on "the sunniest Sunday in February" 1965.
After four years as an independent producer, Aubrey was hired by financier Kirk Kerkorian in 1969 to preside over Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's (MGM) near-total shutdown, during which he cut the budget and alienated producers and directors, but brought profits to a company that had suffered huge losses. In 1973, Aubrey resigned from MGM, declaring his job was done, and then kept a low profile for the last two decades of his life.
Early life and career
Born in LaSalle, Illinois, James Thomas Steven Aubrey was the eldest of four sons of James Thomas Aubrey Sr., an advertising executive with the Chicago firm of Aubrey, Moore, and Wallace Inc., and his wife, the former Mildred Stever. He grew up in the affluent Chicago suburb of Lake Forest and attended Lake Forest Academy, Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, and Princeton University.[2] All four boys, James, Stever, David, and George, went to the same schools; his brother Stever became a successful advertiser at J. Walter Thompson before heading the F. William Free agency. While at Princeton, all four brothers were members of the Tiger Inn eating club. "My father insisted on accomplishment," Aubrey recalled in 1986.[3]
At Princeton, Aubrey was on the football team, playing left end. The New York Times Magazine described Aubrey as "6-foot 2-inch with an incandescent smile", with "unrevealing polar blue eyes".[4] Life magazine described him as "youthful, handsome, brainy, with an incandescent smile, a quiet, somewhat salty wit, and when he cared to turn it on, considerable charm. He was always fastidiously turned out, from his Jerry the Barber haircut to his CBS-eye cufflinks."[1] One producer said, "Aubrey is one of the most insatiably curious guys I know."[1] He graduated in 1941 with honors in English and entered the United States Army Air Forces.[5] As part of his degree, Aubrey completed a 196-page long senior thesis titled "Fielding's Debt to Cervantes and the Picaresque Tradition."[6]
During his service in World War II, Aubrey rose to the rank of major and taught military flying to actor
After being discharged from the Air Force, Aubrey stayed in Southern California; before his marriage, he intended to return to Chicago. In
On December 16, 1956,
Oulahan and Lambert said that Aubrey scheduled "one lucrative show after another [...] and for the first time, the third network became a serious challenge to NBC and CBS."[1] Among the successes he scheduled were: The Donna Reed Show, a domestic comedy; The Rifleman, a Western with Chuck Connors, and The Real McCoys, a rural comedy with Walter Brennan and Richard Crenna.[14]
President of CBS Television (1959–1965)
Despite his success at ABC, Aubrey saw a limited future at the network and asked to return to CBS. He returned on April 28, 1958,[15] initially as an assistant to Frank Stanton, the president of CBS Inc., which owned the network. Thomas W. Moore would later replace Aubrey at ABC. At CBS, Aubrey was appointed as vice president for creative services in April 1959, replacing Louis G. Cowan, whom CBS promoted to network president.[16]
Aubrey was named executive vice president on June 1, 1959, a newly created position that was the number-two official at the network. His responsibilities involved general supervision of all departments of the CBS Television Network.[17] On December 8, 1959, Cowan resigned, having been damaged from his connection to the quiz-show scandals.[1] Cowan had created the show The $64,000 Question, and owned the company that produced it for the network, although Cowan denied he knew anything about the rigging of the program.[18] Cowan's letter of resignation to Stanton declared, "you have made it impossible for me to continue." Aubrey was appointed president the same day and elected to the board of directors on December 9, 1959.[19]
Aubrey served as a successful president of the CBS Network for the next five years,, the first color one hour Western ranked number two. Oulahan and Lambert would later write in Life magazine:
In the long history of human communications, from
Aubrey's formula
I'd become convinced Beverly Hillbillies was going to work. Bill Paley wasn't convinced. Bill has this great sense of propriety. Putting aside the Sarnoffs and all the other great names of broadcasting, Paley [...] had this blasting genius of instinctively looking at a show and knowing if it should be on the air. He could also be ruthless and distant [...] But Bill was intuitive about both the business and creative sides of TV. And he genuinely disliked Beverly Hillbillies. I put it on the schedule anyway.[3]
—Aubrey on Paley and his programming choices, 1986
His formula was characterized by a CBS executive as "broads, bosoms, and fun,"[14] resulting in such shows as The Beverly Hillbillies and Gilligan's Island,[20] despised by the critics and by CBS chairman William S. Paley, but extremely popular with viewers.[21] His former manager at ABC, Oliver Treyz, said of his programming: "Jim Aubrey was one of the most effective ever, from the standpoint of delivering what the public wanted and making money. He was the best program judge in the business."[1] While Aubrey had great sense for what would be popular with viewers, he also showed contempt for them. "The American public is something I fly over," he once said.[22]
Author
Another part of Aubrey's formula was ensuring that the commercial interests of CBS's sponsors were kept foremost in their minds. In 1960, he elaborated on this idea more when he told the Office of Network Study:
There is relatively little that is incompatible between our objectives and the objectives of the advertisers... Before sponsorship of a program series commences there is often a meeting between production personnel and representatives of the advertiser at which time the general areas of the advertiser's interest and general attitudes are discussed. A breakfast food advertiser may, for example, wish to make sure the programs do not contain elements that make breakfast distasteful. A cigarette manufacturer would not wish to have cigarette smoking depicted in an unattractive manner. Normally, as long as these considerations do not limit creativity, they will be adhered to.[25]
Dominance and controversy
CBS became so influential that when the fall schedules were announced, ABC and NBC would wait until CBS announced its rota before making plans to keep up, effectively making Aubrey programmer for all three networks.[26] CBS enjoyed success with rural-themed sitcoms such as the Hillbillies, The Andy Griffith Show, Mister Ed, Green Acres, and Petticoat Junction.[5] Paley highly disliked the CBS hit The Munsters, part of a trend of fantasy shows at the time that included CBS's My Favorite Martian and Gilligan's Island.[27] Aubrey's "unwritten code" for programs was described in Life magazine:
Feed the public little more than rural comedies, fast-moving detective dramas, and later, sexy dolls. No old people; the emphasis was on youth. No domestic servants, the mass audience wouldn't identify with maids. No serious problems to cope with. Every script had to be full of action. No physical infirmities.[1]
Exceptions existed, such as
In 1962, a United States Senate committee investigating juvenile delinquency held hearings on sex on television and called executives from the three networks. The chairman, Senator Thomas J. Dodd, blasted "an unmistakable pattern", and informed the executives "you all seem to use the same terminology—to think alike—and to jam this stuff down the people's throat." Dodd accused Aubrey of putting "prurient sex" in the program Route 66 to boost ratings, and confronted him with the "bosoms, broads, and fun" quotation from a memorandum by CBS executive Howard G. Barnes following a meeting with the program's producers. Aubrey denied saying the phrase.[29] He said that people in the business often shorthanded "wholesome, pretty girls" as "broads", and "attractive" as "bosoms".[30] Another memorandum summarizing the same meeting, written by Screen Gems executive William Dozier, wrote: "There is not enough sex in the programs. Neither lead has gotten involved even for a single episode with the normal wants of a young man, namely to get involved with a girl or even to kiss her."[30]
Management style
Aubrey was known for his fast decision-making, controlling and workaholic tendencies, putting in 12-hour days, six days a week.[5] He endlessly read scripts, screened episodes, and ordered reshoots or changes made in the furniture and dressing of a set. Author Murray Kempton wrote that he would see six films every weekend and read three books on transcontinental flights. Kempton quoted a CBS executive, saying:
He read everything. Like he saw every movie. But he had the smallest world there could be. He'd watch a movie, and while everyone else was involved in the story, he'd say out loud "that kid could be the lead in a television program." He read everything sure. All the new fiction. What he didn't like was Bellow, Updike, Cheever, Salinger, Capote, and Mailer. He didn't know how to use them.[23]
Oulahan and Lambert claimed, "Aubrey exercised his tremendous power with the canny skill and the ruthlessness of a
[Aubrey] was the fourth president of CBS-TV as Caligula was the fourth of the 12 Caesars. Each carried the logic of his imperial authority as far as it could go. Each was deposed and disappeared suddenly, leaving bad press behind him.[23]
—Author Murray Kempton on Aubrey
In his book Only You, Dick Daring!,
Aubrey's success caused him instability and he became more arrogant.[5] He was abusive to the network's affiliates, advertisers, producers, and talent. Friends including producers Dick Dorso of United Artists, Martin Ransohoff of Filmways, and David Susskind, who had each sold several series to CBS, found themselves excluded. "He's a friend of mine, but he cut me stone cold last year," Susskind said. "I was hanging there with my pants down, wondering what I'd tell the stockholders."[1] Gossip columnist Liz Smith, who worked at CBS, called him a "a mean, hateful, truly scary, bad, outré guy."[35] Studio executive Sherry Lansing, a close friend of Aubrey's for two decades, told the Los Angeles Times in 1986:
Jim is different. He does his own dirty work. Jim is one of those people who are willing to say, "I didn't like your movie." Directness is disarming to people who are used to sugar-coating. It's tough for people who need approval to see somebody who doesn't. Myths and legends begin to surround that kind of person.[3]
In the 1950s, entertainer Garry Moore wanted to make a comeback on CBS but Aubrey told him "not a chance." However, long after Aubrey left the company, in the fall of 1966, Moore did get a chance with a short-lived revival of his weekly variety series. John Frankenheimer, critically acclaimed as the number-one director of live TV dramas during the 1950s,[36] was forced out by Aubrey in 1960. Frankenheimer found a new career as a film director, for which he is now arguably best known,[36] although he had wanted to continue in television. Frankenheimer once publicly called Aubrey a "barbarian".[37]
The star of CBS's The Lucy Show had disputes with Aubrey. "Lucille Ball couldn't say his name without calling him an S.O.B.," Stanton said, though Kempton quoted her after Aubrey's firing as saying "he was the smartest one up there."[23] Aubrey also rescheduled Jack Benny's long-running series without consulting him. Benny, a friend of Paley's since luring the comedian to CBS in 1948, objected to his new lead-in on Tuesdays for the 1963–64 season, Petticoat Junction, instead of the previous season's The Red Skelton Hour. Then in the summer of 1963, Aubrey told Benny his show would not be renewed at the end of the forthcoming season; Aubrey thought Benny was no longer current. "You're through, old man", Aubrey told him.[38] Benny took his show back to NBC, but ended the show after only one season, proving Aubrey's point if not his tactics.[39] Aubrey also had disagreements with Red Skelton, Danny Thomas, Judy Garland, and Arthur Godfrey.[40]
Alleged favoritism
Allegations of favoritism in purchasing programs were made against Aubrey. His friend
In his book The Other Glass Teat, media critic Harlan Ellison alleges that a Mafia don had put out a contract on Aubrey for beating his daughter during consensual sex at a Las Vegas hotel, and that Brasselle demanded the shows in exchange for his using his own Mafia connections to smooth things over.[42] Aubrey's critics acknowledged that he could be charming and went to great lengths to please performers. To keep Jackie Gleason happy when he moved his show from New York City to Miami Beach in 1963, Aubrey had CBS buy Gleason's $350,000 futuristic home in Peekskill, New York; The New York Times called it "a flying saucer-like cabana". The network was still trying to sell it years later.[43]
News and sports
Aubrey fought constantly with officials of CBS News, especially its chief, Fred W. Friendly, who was just as demanding and controlling as Aubrey. Friendly felt Aubrey was unconcerned with public affairs; in his memoir, Due to Circumstances Beyond Our Control, Friendly recounts one budget meeting in which Aubrey talked at length about the high costs of airing news, which could be cheaply replaced with entertainment programs.[44] However, Paley supported the news and protected Friendly's division from Aubrey's proposed budget cuts. In 1962, Aubrey ordered that there would be fewer specials, entertainment and news, because he felt interruptions to the schedule alienated viewers by disrupting their routine viewing, sending them to the competition. Friendly resented this move.[45]
In the fall of 1962, CBS Reports, a news-documentary program on Wednesdays was blamed by the press for the sharp drop-off in the ratings of The Beverly Hillbillies, the comedy had been number one in its first two seasons, but dropped to 18th when CBS Reports became the Hillbillies lead-in for its third season. Hillbillies had aired at 9:00 before moving up a half hour in 1964; CBS responded by moving CBS Reports to Mondays.[45]
On May 9, 1963, Aubrey warned the network's affiliates the high cost of rights for professional sports could price them off television; nevertheless, in January 1964 CBS agreed to pay $28.2 million to air the games of the
Dismissal
On April 16, 1964, celebrity tabloid Close-Up reported that Aubrey was taking
There are at least 13,000 theories on why he [Aubrey] got the ax, some of them lurid, but none as obvious as the fact that CBS was starting to slip in the Nielsens. "And there was a basic dissatisfaction with me," as he put it. If Aubrey understood ratings and revenue, he also was no stranger to a kind of after-hours recklessness that mirrored the Camelot of its day. Nobody questions that Jungle Jim had a good time in the playgrounds of Manhattan and Hollywood.[3]
—Paul Rosenfield of the Los Angeles Times, 1986
In late 1964, Aubrey approached Stanton with a proposal. Claiming he had investors lined up and ready to buy the company, Aubrey said once in control, they would fire Paley, install Stanton as chairman, and promote Aubrey to Stanton's post, CBS corporate president. This did not come to pass, but Aubrey's contempt for Paley had no boundaries, with Aubrey even showing his disregard for Paley in public. The Internal Revenue Service tax lien against Aubrey for $38,047.93 was another irritant for Paley.[48] Aubrey seemed to have lost his touch; the early ratings for the 1964–65 season showed that new programs were flops.[5] Paley ordered Stanton to fire Aubrey, and he did so on February 27, 1965, though the announcement was delayed until the following Sunday afternoon. Stanton's statement read, "Jim Aubrey's outstanding accomplishment during his tenure as head of the C.B.S. television network need no elaboration. His extraordinary record speaks for itself."[49] Aubrey offered no explanation following his dismissal, nor did Stanton or Paley give an explicit reason.[1][50]
The New York Times Magazine wrote, "Aubrey was torpedoed at last [...] by a combination of his imperiousness, the ratings drop, and a vivid after-hours life culminating in a raucous Miami Beach party—details of which no one ever agrees on—the weekend he was fired." Aubrey had been in Florida for Jackie Gleason's 49th birthday party.[51] Aubrey said, "I don't pretend to be any saint. If anyone wants to indict me for liking pretty girls, I'm guilty."[52] After his divorce in 1962, he was able to "live the high life around New York, Hollywood, Miami, and in Europe with such companions as Judy Garland, Julie Newmar, Rhonda Fleming—and with other dolls who were only faces and figures, not names." His parties and dating history became a topic of discussion in several towns.[53] Paul Rosenfield of the Los Angeles Times described the temptation of gossip columnists to write about Aubrey, but the material about him could not be verified—"tempting, but mostly unprintable".[3]
Aubrey's successor was announced as John A. Schneider, the general manager of WCBS-TV in New York City, who had no experience in network television. Aubrey became depressed, and Stanton feared he was suicidal. Wall Street was also affected as CBS stock fell by nine points over the following week.[14] The stock tumble "puts my net value to the network at $20 million," Aubrey said. He continued to be a CBS employee until April 20.[51]
Following his dismissal, Jack Gould, television critic for The New York Times, opined:
[Aubrey] symbolized an era in television that has been and is too much rooted in calculated and insensitive preoccupation with making more money this year than last [...] Automated situation comedies that wooed the young and did not drive away the old were the mainstay of his philosophy and they paid off.[54]
Post-CBS career (1966–1968)
Aubrey left CBS with $2.5 million in network stock, and moved to the Sunset Strip and set up a production company, The Aubrey Company. His attorney, Gregson E. Bautzer, in 1967 tried to buy ABC for another client, the Las Vegas-based millionaire Howard Hughes. Aubrey was to run ABC after the takeover, but the reclusive Hughes refused to testify in person at hearings before the FCC, which had to approve the purchase, and the deal collapsed.[55]
Aubrey's outsized reputation, appearance and womanizing, and his dramatic exit from CBS inspired characters in three novels. His former friend Keefe Brasselle wrote The CanniBalS: A Novel About Television's Savage Chieftains (1968), the title of which had very unsubtle capitalization and was, in Nora Ephron's assessment, "unreadable." Harold Robbins's The Inheritors (1969) and Jacqueline Susann's The Love Machine (1969) also contained characters based on him.[38][56] In Susann's book, Aubrey is network executive Robin Stone. Paul Rosenfield said Aubrey had "quietly cooperated" with Susann, "giving her background on TV," although Susann's husband, Irving Mansfield, had been a busy TV producer himself, before switching to managing his wife's career full-time. Susann said Aubrey, her neighbor, was "one of those people who are born to run the works. A natural for a novel."[3] In a 1969 New York Times article, Ephron quotes Aubrey as instructing Susann to "make me mean. Make me a son-of-a-bitch."[57]
In June 1967, Aubrey signed a two-year contract to produce films for Columbia Pictures. Despite being rumored as a candidate for many posts in the entertainment industry, Aubrey told Vincent Canby of The New York Times he had "no desire ever again to become involved in the corporate side of the entertainment business",[58] and had been, in Canby's words, "dabbling in a number of enterprises, including the acquisition of films for TV, real estate, and cultured pearls."[58] In 1965, Oulahan and Lambert wrote he had "extensive investments in everything from copper mines to a chain of waffle shops."[1] His first project for Columbia was to be an adaptation of a Patricia Highsmith book, Those Who Walk Away. "The criterion is profitable entertainment," he told Canby.[58]
President of MGM (1969–1973)
Aubrey resurfaced in 1969 when Las Vegas businessman
Aubrey received a salary of $4,000 a week, but had no contract. He said in 1986, "I wanted Kirk to be able to say, 'Get lost, Jim,' without obligation if it didn't work."[3] Like most of the big studios in the 1960s, MGM was struggling and Kerkorian said his new president would bring the company back to its former glory.[61] Instead, Aubrey largely liquidated the company as Kerkorian transformed it into hospitality-oriented with construction of the MGM Grand Hotel. "We've been using old-fashioned methods here," Aubrey said. He later said in 1986, that the company was "total disarray. Until you were in a position to lift up the rug, there was no way to know how much disarray. The crown jewel of studios had become a shambles."[3]
Within days of Aubrey assuming the role, he cancelled 12 films to cut costs,
His actions had a positive effect on the company's finances. In his first nine months on the job, he cut MGM's debt by $27 million, nearly one-quarter of the total, and the company posted profits of $540,000 for those nine months compared to a $18.3 million loss in the preceding period.[64]
Streamlining
Losses were great because Polk wrote off as total losses many films made under his predecessors; the company posted a $35.4 million loss in the fiscal year ending August 31, 1969. "Basically what we're really concentrating on at the moment is to really streamline this operation. There isn't much else to do when you're losing as much money as we are",[65] Aubrey told The New York Times in December 1969. Aubrey said, "we have determined that we're not going to continue to produce on the basis of 40 acres and acres and acres of standing sets. Young people who are the major movie audience today, refer to that as the plastic world and that is almost a deterrent in the business today."[65][66]
Aubrey announced plans for rapid production of films that cost no more than $2 million each,[62] but many of these bombed with critics and audiences.[3][5] One success, however, was the Richard Roundtree film Shaft, which cost $1 million and grossed around $12 million at the box office.[67] Agent Sue Mengers said he was a very tough deal-maker; "I'd rather go to bed with him than negotiate with him."[38] Early in, Aubrey cancelled the production of two Julie Andrews films, She Loves Me and Say It With Music, citing that the fad for musicals had ended. He also unsuccessfully attempted to cancel or downsize David Lean's Ryan's Daughter in 1970, because it was over budget.[68]
In the first half of fiscal 1970, the company made $6.5 million profit despite sizable write-offs. The company had significantly cut its operating losses from $6.5 million to $1.6 million. Aubrey told the press in April 1970 that the company would have made money if not for four films: Herbert Ross's musical adaptation of James Hilton's novel Goodbye, Mr. Chips starring Peter O'Toole and Petula Clark; Michelangelo Antonioni's Zabriskie Point, a film Pauline Kael called "a huge, jerry-built crumbling ruin of a movie";[69] the adventure Captain Nemo and the Underwater City with Robert Ryan and Chuck Connors, and Sidney Lumet's The Appointment with Omar Sharif, Anouk Aimée, and Lotte Lenya. These four pictures cost almost $20 million to produce and failed to break even.[70] In that same month, Vincent Canby wrote in The New York Times, "the fickle tastes of the movie-going audience have made a large part of [studios' film] inventory obsolete."[71]
By the end of the fiscal year, the company made a profit of $1.5 million, a remarkable turnaround for a company which posted a $35 million loss one year before.
Practical approach
Aubrey was hands-on with MGM's work, personally making edits to films. The New York Times Magazine wrote, "Aubrey's heavy involvement with every creative detail of MGM's pictures far surpassed his immersal in CBS's scripts."[38] After making edits to the film Going Home starring Robert Mitchum, director Herbert B. Leonard publicly protested. "He unilaterally and arbitrarily raped the picture", he told Time magazine in 1971. Director Blake Edwards was angry with changes Aubrey made to the film Wild Rovers with William Holden,[77] telling The New York Times Magazine, "Cuts? He doesn't know as much as a first-year cinema student. He cut the heart right out of it." Television producer Bruce Geller, who created the Mission: Impossible series, had his name removed from the credits of his first film, Corky, because of Aubrey's edits.[78] The producer of the film Chandler, Michael S. Laughlin, and its director, Paul Magwood, took out a full-page advert in the trade papers declaring:
Regarding what was our film Chandler, let's give credit where credit is due. We sadly acknowledge that all editing, post-production as well as additional scenes were executed by James T. Aubrey Jr. We are sorry.[38][79]
Laughlin told Time magazine, "You just can't deal with Aubrey. He realizes that litigation can be a great expense, and that because of legal delays, the film will have disappeared long before your case comes to court."[79] Aubrey engaged in another infamous feud with Sam Peckinpah, who in 1973 began work on the Western Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Aubrey cut Peckinpah's budget early in production, disallowing him to reshoot crucial footage, pushing back the release date to Memorial Day, and cutting nearly 20 minutes of the film. Editor Roger Spottiswoode said, "Aubrey was ordering scenes cut out for no other reason except he knew Sam didn't want them cut."[80] Film critic John Simon wrote Aubrey "deserves to be made a honorary or, rather, dishonorable member of the film editor's union."[81]
MGM had disagreements with the
After four years at MGM, Aubrey announced his resignation, declaring, "The job I agreed to undertake has been accomplished."[86] Kerkorian was named as his successor on October 31, 1973. Time magazine declared, "Under Aubrey, MGM churned out profitable, medium-budget schlock like Skyjacked and Black Belly of the Tarantula; directors often charged him with philistine meddling, and he alienated many of them",[86] but "as a financial auteur, Aubrey may have deserved an Oscar."[86]
Final years (1974–1994)
In the mid-1970s, Aubrey and Sherry Lansing were struck by a car while crossing Wilshire Boulevard. The pair sustained injuries; Lansing was on crutches for a year and a half, and Aubrey nursed her back to health. "He came every day. He would say, 'You're not going to limp.' My own mother and father couldn't give me more support," Lansing told Variety magazine in 2004.[14]
Aubrey became an independent producer after leaving MGM, producing ten unmemorable films. His biggest success was a 1979 television film about the Paul Rosenfield found him unrepentant:
Aubrey doesn't deny that he shoots from the hip, in a style that can unhinge the fragile egos of show business. "If I was in the tire business," reasoned Aubrey, "I wouldn't be hurt if the customer didn't buy my tires. I'd think, 'So what?' But in my business, if I don't buy the script, then the writer kicks the dog and beats his wife. So you learn to pay attention to personal relationships. But that doesn't mean you lie to people. I've been the screwer and the screwee, and I know which is better. It's better to be the screwer, and it's very difficult to do that with honesty, but it's how I prefer to be treated. I don't want power now, or authority, so I suppose my candor can't hurt me.[3]
Gossip columnist Liz Smith reported this profile of Aubrey had led to rumors he would again return to head CBS after Paley was forced out in 1986 when Laurence Tisch acquired the network.[87] Aubrey worked as a consultant for Brandon Tartikoff during the 1980s and early 1990s, while Tartikoff worked to restore the reputation of NBC.[14] Aubrey died of a heart attack in 1994.[5][88]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oulahan & Lambert 1965, p. 90.
- ^ a b "James T. Aubrey Jr. '41". Princeton Alumni Weekly. June 18, 2018. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Rosenfield, Paul. Aubrey: A Lion in Winter. Los Angeles Times. April 27, 1986. Calendar section, 1.
- ^ a b c Robinson, Leonard Wallace (November 15, 1964). "After the Yankees What?: A TV Drama". The New York Times Magazine.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Erickson 2017, p. 38.
- ^ Aubrey, Jr., James Thomas. Fielding's Debt to Cervantes and the Picaresque Tradition (Thesis). Princeton University.
{{cite thesis}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Smith, Starr (1998). "Jimmy Stewart: His Most Demanding Role". The Retired Officer Magazine. Archived from the original on February 7, 2006. Retrieved December 7, 2021 – via jimmy.org.
- ^ "Dethroned King of Air; James Thomas Aubrey Jr". The New York Times. March 1, 1965. p. 52.
- ^ "Princeton Confers 624 Degrees Today." The New York Times. June 17, 1941. 19.
- ^ Barnes, Mike (December 18, 2020). "Skye Aubrey, Actress in 'The Carey Treatment' and 'Batman,' Dies at 74". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
- Time Magazine. March 12, 1965. Archivedfrom the original on May 1, 2008. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
- ^ a b Adams, Val (December 17, 1956). "Second Sponsor to Drop Winchell". The New York Times. p. 42.
- ^ Edgerton 2007, p. 191.
- ^ a b c d e Grossman, Andrew. "The Smiling Cobra." Variety VLife. June–July 2004. 68–73, 78. (Profile of Aubrey)
- ^ a b Edgerton 2007, p. 192.
- ^ a b Oulahan & Lambert 1965, p. 92.
- ^ Shepard, Richard F. "C.B.S.-TV Names No. 2 Executive." The New York Times. May 23, 1959. 49.
- ^ Edgerton 2007, p. 198.
- ^ Adams, Val. "Head of C.B.S.-TV Quits in Dispute." The New York Times. December 9, 1959. 1.
- ^ ISBN 0-394-50381-3.
- ^ Edgerton 2007, p. 246.
- ^ Morrow, Lance (March 14, 1977). "Goodbye To 'Our Mary'". Time. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
- ^ a b c d e Kempton, Murray. "The Fall of a Television Czar." The New Republic. April 3, 1965. 9–10.
- ^ "Aubrey of C.B.S. Discounts Rumors He Will Head Fox". The New York Times. July 21, 1962. p. 11.
- ISBN 978-0-252-06299-5
- ^ Edgerton 2007, p. 244.
- ^ Edgerton 2007, p. 247.
- ^ Oulahan & Lambert 1965, p. 94.
- ^ Associated Press. "Networks Offer Definition of Sex." The New York Times. May 12, 1962. 51.
- ^ Schenectady Gazette, May 12, 1962, p. 18, page found August 20, 2011.
- ^ Erickson 2017, p. 37.
- ^ Adams, Val. "New C.B.S. Series to Lose Houseman." The New York Times. July 26, 1963. 53.
- ^ Gould, Jack. "A.BC. Plans New TV Format For Its 'Arrest and Trial' Show." The New York Times. December 26, 1962. 5.
- ^ a b Miller, Merle. Only You, Dick Daring! Or, How to Write One Television Script and Make $50,000,000: A True-life Adventure. New York: William Sloane Associates, 1964.
- ^ Amy Fine Collins, "Once Was Never Enough." Vanity Fair. January 2000.
- ^ a b Baxter, Brian (July 8, 2002). "Obituary: John Frankenheimer". The Guardian. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
- ^ a b Edgerton 2007, p. 249.
- ^ a b c d e Martin Kasindorf. "How now, Dick Daring?" The New York Times Magazine. September 10, 1972. 54+.
- ^ Adams, Val. "Benny to Return to NBC Network." The New York Times. September 26, 1963. 71.
- ^ a b Oulahan & Lambert 1965, p. 96.
- ^ a b Folkart, Burt A. "James Aubrey Jr., Former Head of CBS and MGM, Dies." Los Angeles Times. September 11, 1994. 1.
- ^ Harlan Ellison, "The New Season: Part 2", in The Other Glass Teat (Ace, 1983), p. 180.
- ^ Dallos, Robert E. "One-Bedroom House for Sale – Asking $350,000." The New York Times. August 25, 1968. R1.
- ^ Friendly 2013, p. 196.
- ^ a b Friendly 2013, p. 153.
- ^ Adams, Val. "C.B.S. Relents: Ignores Own Warning on Spiraling Costs." The New York Times. April 26, 1964. X17.
- ^ Adams, Val. "C.B.S.-TV to Pay $28.2 Million For 2-Year Pro Football Rights." The New York Times. January 25, 1964. 1.
- ^ Oulahan & Lambert 1965, p. 102.
- ^ Adams, Val (March 1, 1965). "C.B.S. Ousts Aubrey as TV President: Unexplained Move Stuns Industry – Post Goes to John A. Schneider". The New York Times. p. 1.
- ^ Sterling, C. H.; Kittross, J. M. (1990). Stay Tuned: A concise history of American broadcasting (2nd ed.). Belmont, California: Wadsworth.
- ^ a b Oulahan & Lambert 1965, p. 107.
- ^ ""Return of Smiling Jim". Time. October 31, 1969. p. 80. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
- ^ Oulahan & Lambert 1965, p. 97.
- ^ Gould, Jack (March 2, 1965). "TV: In the Wake of Aubrey's Dismissal by C.B.S.". The New York Times. p. 71.
- ^ a b Sloane, Leonard. "Lawyer Keeps Late Hours With Clients." The New York Times. December 14, 1969. F3.
- ^ a b Erickson 2017, p. 39.
- ^ Ephron, Nora (May 11, 1969). "The Love Machine". The New York Times. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
- ^ a b c Canby, Vincent. "Aubrey to Make Columbia Films: Ex-Head of C.B.S.-TV Signs as Producer for 2 Years." The New York Times. June 24, 1967. 18.
- ^ Sloane, Leonard. "Some New Teeth for M-G-M Lion." The New York Times. October 26, 1969. F1.
- ^ Sloane, Leonard. "Aubrey Named M-G-M President: Kerkorian Moves In as Bronfman and Forces Lose Out." The New York Times. October 22, 1969. 57.
- ^ Sloane, Leonard. "Film Makers Showing Bad Picture." The New York Times. April 26, 1970. F2.
- ^ a b c d Galloway, Stephen (June 16, 2015). "When Kirk Kerkorian Hired the Most Hated Man in Hollywood | Hollywood Reporter". www.hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
- ^ "M-G-M Is Planning Move." The New York Times. April 30, 1970. 55.
- ^ Sloane, Leonard. "Capital Gains Help." The New York Times. July 25, 1970. 30.
- ^ a b Leonard Sloane. "New M-G-M Chief Trims Expenses: Aubrey Says Headquarters May Move to California." The New York Times. December 12, 1969. 89.
- ^ Sloane, Leonard. "M-G-M Discloses $35-Million Loss: No Revenue Figure Is Given for Year Ended Aug 31." The New York Times. November 20, 1969. 69.
- ^ "Shaft (1971) - Financial Information". The Numbers. Retrieved October 27, 2020.
- ^ Kevin Brownlow, David Lean: A Biography, pp. 570-571.
- ^ Kael, Pauline, "The Current Cinema," The New Yorker, February 21, 1970, p. 95.
- ^ Sloane, Leonard. "Loss in Operations Is Listed by M-G-M." The New York Times. April 22, 1970. 82.
- ^ Canby, Vincent. "Is Hollywood in Hot Water?" The New York Times. November 9, 1969. D1.
- ^ Reckert, Claire M. "M-G-M Earnings Make Recovery: Year's Net Follows Loss 4th Quarter Shows Deficit." The New York Times. December 15, 1970. 68.
- ^ Reckert, Claire M. . "M-G-M Earnings Gain Ground For the Latest Fiscal Quarter." The New York Times. January 12, 1971. 45.
- Fox: Preliminary Terms Call for an Exchange of Shares." The New York Times. January 15, 1971. 27.
- ^ Associated Press. "U.S. Will Oppose White Motor Tie." The New York Times. January 27, 1971. 49.
- ^ Hammer, Alexander R. "White Motor Tie Put Off by Court." The New York Times. January 28, 1971. 47.
- ^ Brody, Richard (December 16, 2010). "Blake Edwards Out West". The New Yorker. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
- ^ Mavis, Paul (November 19, 2014). "Corky (Warner Archive Collection)". www.dvdtalk.com. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
- ^ Time Magazine, December 27, 1971, archived from the originalon September 22, 2005, retrieved January 24, 2008.
- ^ David Weddle, If They Move, Kill 'Em: The Life and Times of Sam Peckinpah, pp. 462-463, 481-488; Spottiswoode quoted on 486
- ISBN 9780517544716.
- ^ "'Ryan's Daughter' To Be Advertised Without a Rating." The New York Times. November 13, 1970. 25.
- ^ "M-G-M To Withdraw From a Film Group." The New York Times. March 20, 1971. 15.
- ^ "M-G-M Sets Move in Leisure Field: Hotel and Ships Planned – New Chairman Elected." The New York Times. October 15, 1971. 55.
- ^ Reckert, Claire M. "Revlon Reports Record Profits." The New York Times. November 3, 1971. 67, 71.
- ^ Time Magazine. November 12, 1973. 110+. Retrieved on January 24, 2008.
- ^ Smith, Liz. "Hot TV Rumor: Return of the 'Smiling Cobra'." San Francisco Chronicle. May 9, 1986. 81.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
Bibliography
- Edgerton, Gary R. (2007). The Columbia History of American Television. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231121644.
- Erickson, Hal (2017). Any Resemblance to Actual Persons: The Real People Behind 400+ Fictional Movie Characters. North Carolina: McFarland. ISBN 9781476629308.
- Friendly, Fred W. (2013). Due to Circumstances Beyond Our Control... New York: Random House. ISBN 9780307824400.
- Oulahan, Richard; Lambert, William (September 10, 1965). "The Tyrant's Fall That Rocked The TV World". Life Magazine. Vol. 59, no. 11.
Further reading
- ISBN 0-688-08460-5.
- "James T. Aubrey." Current Biography. March 1972.
- Metz, Robert. CBS: Reflections in a Bloodshot Eye. Chicago: Playboy Press, 1975. ISBN 0-87223-407-X
- Slater, Robert. This ... Is CBS: A Chronicle of Sixty Years. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1988. ISBN 0-13-919234-4
- Smith, Sally Bedell. In All His Glory: The Life of William S. Paley, the Legendary Tycoon and His Brilliant Circle. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990. ISBN 0-671-61735-4
External links
- James T. Aubrey at IMDb
- Biography at the Museum of Broadcast Communications site
- James T. Aubrey at Find a Grave