ABC Founder Leonard H. Goldenson Honored With Star and Retrospective

ABC Founder Leonard H. Goldenson Honored With Star and Retrospective

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Leonard H. Goldenson, Founder and Chairman of The American Broadcasting Company, was honored posthumously, Thursday, August 23rd with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His daughters, Loreen Arbus and Maxine Goldenson accepted the award on the family's behalf.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060828/LAM032 )

Additionally, Mr. Goldenson's contributions to the world of broadcasting have been chronicled in The Museum of Television and Radio retrospective, Leonard H. Goldenson: The Gentleman Giant. The exhibit, which opened August 23rd at the museum's Beverly Hills, CA. location, will run through October 22nd. After that, it will move to the Museum's New York City headquarters and remain on display from November 28th through December 31st.

A civic-minded visionary and activist, Mr. Goldenson was responsible for many television firsts. These include hiring Max Robinson, first African American prime-time network news anchor, hiring Barbara Walters as the first prime-time female news anchor, integrating the daytime soap "One Life to Live", devoting eight nights of primetime television to the groundbreaking mini-series "Roots" and broadcasting "Brian's Song", the first made-for TV movie starring an African American actor. He was also responsible for making ABC the first network to open a Middle East news bureau, to distribute exit polls on election day and to broadcast the Olympics internationally.

"My father had a rock solid sense of ethics that led him to view ABC as a public trust" said his daughter, Loreen Arbus. "His conviction that a broadcast network was something a step removed from a regular moneymaking venture was not just talk. He felt that the network had an unwritten contract with the audience, and he felt the pressure to live up to it."

Mr. Goldenson's proudest achievement in the public sector was the establishment of United Cerebral Palsy, the fifth largest health agency in the United States. This organization has brought desperately needed attention to the needs of the disabled, the largest minority in the world.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of Mr. Goldenson's birth.

Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060828/LAM032
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
Source: Andrew Freedman Public Relations, for the Leonard H. Goldenson family

CONTACT: Andrew Freedman, +1-310-271-0011, andrew@aefpr.com, for the
Leonard H. Goldenson family

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