Roone: A Memoir - Hardcover

Arledge, Roone

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060197331 ISBN 13: 9780060197339

Publisher: Harper, 2003

Synopsis

"He makes you see things differently. He makes you think differently. He makes you dream that you can do things you didn't know you could do. And he is the first person there when you have done something that honors the profession."

This was Roone Arledge as seen by one of his more illustrious contemporaries, Diane Sawyer. His great career of more than a half century mirrored the history of the television industry he helped create, and now, in Roone, he has left us his pungent, up-close-and-personal account of both stories, of his own rise to fame and power as the head of ABC Sports and News -- Life magazine would call him one of the "100 Most Important Americans of the 20th Century" -- and of the many people, foes as well as friends, whose paths he crossed.

On Howard Cosell: "In hindsight, I couldn't say which of them was the more insecure -- Richard Nixon, president of the United States, or Howard Cosell!"

On Barbara Walters and the invention of 20/20: "I thought the program needed Barbara Walters. I also thought Barbara needed the program."

On Peter Jennings: "The whole world was his beat. He roamed the planet on the trail of great stories."

Here are the celebrated figures of Roone's era, the famous and infamous whom he encountered, from Nixon to Boris Yeltsin to Muhammed Ali.

Seen too are the lesser-known figures who made television what it is at the production end, like the man who invented Instant Replay. And the "founders" themselves who made the networks: the "General," David Sarnoff, at NBC; the legendary Bill Paley at CBS; and even the bespectacled lawyer, Leonard Goldenson, who led a struggling distant-third network called ABC but had the nerve to give unknown youngsters their chance at the big time, young producers like . . . Roone Arledge.

But, underlying all the anecdotes and the behind-the-scenes tales from the control room is the often poignant story of a changing industry, of what happened in the boardrooms of the 1980s and '90s when the era of the founders came to a close and corporate interests took over the networks, including ABC, and when the freewheeling, free-spending era of growth gave way to the far less glamorous struggle to make the business profitable. Roone Arledge himself never resorted to the cheap fix of tabloid journalism, and his visionary approach to television programming (which led, among other things, to his receiving more than thirty Emmy Awards), raised him head and shoulders above his competitors, but his assessment of what happened to the industry he loved is as nuanced and fascinating as it is trenchant. Roone Arledge had the keenest sense of story, of color, image, incident, humanity, and of what it took to bring millions of viewers to his programs -- and to hold them riveted to his screen. That same keen sense makes Roone a memorable reading experience.

Roone Arledge lived in New York City until his death on December 5, 2002, at the age of seventy-one.

About this title

About the Author

Roone Arledge began his career at WRCA in New York City, an NBC affiliate, and rose to become head of ABC News and one of the shining lights in television programming. He lived in New York City. He died on December 5, 2002 at the age of 71.

Reviews

In his long career as an executive at ABC-TV, Roone Arledge revolutionized sports and news broadcasting by emphasizing entertainment-and his posthumous memoir (he died in December at age 71), entertains as well. Arledge, who created The Wide World of Sports and Nightline, among other shows, was known as a creative but difficult genius, and no one who reads this book will have trouble understanding why he gained that reputation. He delights in telling how people opposed his innovations-such as introducing slow-motion replays and putting three men in a broadcasting booth for Monday Night Football-only later to be proven wrong. He also relishes telling war stories of his life at the network-from Jim McKay broadcasting live at the 1972 Munich Olympics to a debate between South Africa's foreign minister and Archbishop Desmond Tutu during the peak of the battle over apartheid. He also provides a behind-the scenes look at his four decades of wheeling and dealing with top executives and on-air personalities: Howard Cosell, Barbara Walters, Peter Jennings and Diane Sawyer all trace much of their stardom to Arledge's tutelage and backing. Nor is Arledge afraid to shovel some dirt. Former ABC news anchor Max Robinson is depicted as a drunk who made accusations of racism to cover up his own shortcomings. Arledge laments corporatization of the networks and the resulting decline in the quality of their news broadcasts. Anyone interested in sports, news or television in general will have difficulty putting this valuable book down.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

It's hard to believe that someone actually invented the slow-motion replay—it's as if someone had invented butter—but this was just one of many techniques by which the television producer Roone Arledge revolutionized sports coverage, from the nineteen-sixties onward. Having brought the imperatives of show business to sports, he moved on to news, creating several landmark shows, such as "20/20" and "Nightline." Arledge, who died last December, seems to have had little interest in his personal life (one wife divorced him after he bagged a Hawaiian vacation to orchestrate coverage of a college football game), and most of his memoir is an insider's account of ABC's ramshackle beginnings, its innovations as an up-and-coming network, and the difficulties brought on by corporate ownership. Not above a little score-settling but full of love for his work, Arledge is an infectious raconteur, capable of narrating even the most labyrinthine boardroom maneuvering as if it were as exciting as a sports event.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

Sports hounds and news junkies are the obvious target audience for this posthumously published autobiography, but anyone who has watched television for the last 30 or so years will also find it a remarkable memoir. Arledge not only changed the face of television sports but also revamped the TV news business. Readers will be impressed with the shows and events that are associated with his name: Wide World of Sports, Monday Night Football, Olympic coverage (including the deadly Munich Olympics), World News Tonight, 20/20, Nightline, This Week with David Brinkley, and Prime Time Live. And then there are all the familiar names whose careers Arledge helped make: Cosell, Gifford, Jennings, Walters, Sawyer, and more. Arledge either had a remarkable memory or kept copious diaries. He remembers all the inner workings and the details of every argument; perhaps guessing that he'd be gone before the book came out, he also has no problem naming names. (A fellow named Weiswasser, who tried to hijack ABC news from Arledge, comes out looking particularly bad.) Even favorites like Jennings are presented warts and all. Not only is the book full of fascinating information, it's written in an immensely readable style (although a flow chart might have helped to keep track of the players and their switching allegiances). It's impossible not to come away from this memoir impressed with Arledge; no doubt he would have liked that. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From the man Sports Illustrated places third in its list of most influential sports figures.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harper
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0060197331
• ISBN 13: 9780060197339
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 432