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Contact information: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm2008085394
Collection material in English
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
The papers of Frank Stanton, broadcast executive, were given to the Library of Congress by the inheritor and co-executor of his estate, Elisabeth Allison, and by Andrew H. Weiss, estate co-executor and trustee of the Frank and Ruth Stanton Fund, 2007-2008.
The papers of Frank Stanton were arranged and described in 2011 by Michael McElderry with the assistance of Chanté Wilson-Flowers.
Items have been transferred from the Manuscript Division to other custodial divisions of the Library. Some photographs and drawings have been transferred to the Prints and Photographs Division. Audiotapes, videotapes, phonograph records, film reels, and compact disks have been transferred to the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division. All transfers are identified in these divisions as part of the Frank Stanton Papers.
Copyright in the unpublished writings of Frank Stanton in these papers and in other collections in the custody of the Library of Congress is reserved. Consult reference staff in the Manuscript Division for further information.
The papers of Frank Stanton are open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Manuscript Reading Room prior to visiting. Many collections are stored off-site and advance notice is needed to retrieve these items for research use.
Government regulations control the use of security classified items in this collection. Manuscript Division staff can furnish information concerning access to and use of classified material.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Frank Stanton Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of Frank Nicholas Stanton (1908-2006) span the years 1908-2006, with the bulk of the material dating from his matriculation at Ohio Wesleyan University in 1926 to his departure as chairman of the American National Red Cross in 1979. Following the completion of his doctoral research into the habits of radio listeners in 1935 for the psychology department at Ohio State University, the Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc. (CBS Inc.) offered Stanton a position in its research department. Stanton was promoted to vice president in 1942 and selected president of the network in 1946 at the age of thirty-eight. Upon his retirement from CBS Inc. in 1973, Stanton was appointed chairman of the American National Red Cross by President Richard M. Nixon, serving in that capacity until 1979. While the collection explores Stanton's legacy as the broadcast executive who, along with colleague Chairman William S. Paley, is credited with molding CBS Inc. into a national network empire, the documentation is often uneven, containing a limited number of fully developed files and few references to his personal life. The papers contain correspondence, memoranda, speeches and writings, subject files, reports and studies, transcripts, testimony, drafts and typescripts, press clippings and releases, printed matter, and miscellaneous material and are organized into the following series: Executive Files , Subject File , Speeches and Writings , Miscellany , Classified , and Oversize .
In 1973, Stanton left CBS Inc. at the mandatory retirement age of sixty-five and became chairman of the American National Red Cross. The Executive Files consist largely of papers and records created and received by Stanton as corporate executive during this transition, primarily for the years from 1970 to 1973. In addition to the American National Red Cross, Stanton pursued multiple opportunities in business, education, government, and the arts upon his retirement and served on the boards and advisory councils of a variety of private corporations, foundations, and nonprofit organizations. The Executive Files pertain chiefly to these organizations, the most prominent of which include the American National Red Cross, Business Committee for the Arts, Business Council, Carnegie Institution of Washington, and Harvard University. The series sheds light on the operations and policy decisions of these and other organizations and the role played by Stanton as director and advocate. Typescripts and transcripts from speaking engagements and congressional testimony supplement similar material arranged in the Speeches and Writings series.
The United States Advisory Commission on Information, established in 1948, is composed of five representatives from business, public service, and the communications media appointed by the president for three-year terms. It functions as an advisory body and recommends policies and programs to the United States Information Agency for broadcasting information about the United States to foreign countries. Stanton served as chairman of the commission, 1964-1973, and the Executive Files contain material relevant to both organizations. In addition, the series also includes a file regarding William F. Buckley (1925-2008), Stanton's colleague and fellow board member on the commission. A staunch proponent of broadcast journalism and defender of First Amendment rights, Stanton testified often before Congress on freedom of the press issues and sought, on behalf of the broadcast industry, protections equal to that of the printed press. Subject headings located in the Executive Files address these concerns.
While the Subject File is largely devoted to Stanton's corporate career with CBS Inc., papers relating to his research projects are also of interest. In 1937, Stanton began a collaboration with Paul Felix Lazarsfeld resulting in the invention of the program analyzer, an audience measuring device that could determine the probability of a radio program's public appeal and advertising potential that was later expanded for television and used by CBS Inc. for several decades. As network president, Stanton focused on organizational and policy issues, leaving entertainment programming to Chairman William S. Paley. As early as 1948, he fought for the right of broadcasters to present editorials and to be accorded the same rights as print journalists. An advocate for technological improvements, he championed the development of color television. Stanton reorganized the company in 1951 and directed CBS Inc. through a period of diversification and corporate expansion by decentralizing its administration and acquiring new business investments, including the New York Yankees in 1964, to create a media conglomerate. While all of these topics are touched on in the Subject File, none are covered in great depth. Limited correspondence exchanged with popular show host Arthur Godfrey and with William S. Paley is also contained in the network's files.
In 1960, Stanton aided in initiating the first televised presidential debate between candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon by persuading Congress to suspend the “equal time” provision of section 315 of the Federal Communications Act, which requires networks to grant equal time to all political candidates. Material concerning the 1960 telecast, for which Stanton won the second of his three personal George Foster Peabody Awards, and subsequent unsuccessful efforts to televise debates in the 1964, 1968, and 1972 presidential campaigns is arranged within the CBS Inc. files.
Stanton's primary interest was centered on promoting and protecting the network's news division. In the late 1960s he withstood pressure from the Johnson administration for allowing CBS News to air critical reports on the Vietnam War. In 1971, Stanton risked the threat of jail defending the CBS documentary
Displaying a wide range of interests and possessing broad artistic and conceptual abilities, Stanton was known for his sense of corporate style and often became involved in the creation and development of the company's imagery from the construction of network headquarters in New York (“Black Rock”) to the design of the company's iconic eye logo. “Black Rock,” designed by Eero Saarinen, was opened to acclaim in 1964 and received several architectural awards that are referenced in the Subject File along with Stanton's drawings for the building's interior design.
Due to his position as a broadcasting executive and his many appearances before Congress, Stanton was known to major political figures, and the Subject File contains letters to him from presidents Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, and Gerald R. Ford. Papers relating to Lyndon B. Johnson, who shared a long, and at times adversarial, relationship with Stanton, are the largest of the presidential files. Copies of transcripts of Stanton's interviews recorded as part of the oral history program conducted under the auspices of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library are included here and provide insight into their personal association and the interplay between the media and the White House. In addition, material concerning a controversial three-year contract between Johnson and CBS Inc. that gave the company the exclusive rights to a series of interviews with the former president is also located in the Subject File.
Stanton lectured widely on freedom of the press issues and the First Amendment, government and the media, television journalism, and politics and kept a full schedule of speaking engagements and radio and television appearances as well as appearing as a participant on numerous discussion panels and in seminars. Because Stanton was recognized as a major spokesperson for the broadcasting industry, his opinions were often sought, his speeches frequently quoted, and his testimony in many appearances before Congress part of the public record. The Speeches and Writings series is the largest and most comprehensive in the collection consisting largely of the drafts, typescripts, and printed copies of his speeches, statements, and testimony before Congress and the Federal Communications Commission.
Stanton was recognized with awards and tributes from many organizations and received honorary degrees from various colleges and universities as listed in the Miscellany series. The series also contains juvenile memorabilia and school records as well as journals, scrapbooks, and photographs composed as travelogues from two trips to Europe taken by Stanton as a young man. Occasional letters exchanged with Harold E. Burtt and Hadley Cantril, early mentors of Stanton, and with Thomas E. Dewey are contained in the Miscellany series as well.
The collection is arranged in six series:
Correspondence, memoranda, agenda and minutes of meetings, telegrams, drafts, typescripts, reports and studies, financial records, testimony, speeches and statements, notes, printed matter, and miscellaneous items maintained by Stanton relating primarily to his service on the boards and advisory councils of various private corporations, foundations, and nonprofit organizations, and as chairman of the American National Red Cross.
Arranged alphabetically by name of organization, person, or subject.
Correspondence, memoranda, transcripts, statements and remarks, testimony, reports and studies, financial and legal records, press clippings and releases, newsletters, diagrams, notes, printed matter, and miscellaneous items.
Arranged alphabetically by subject or topic.
Correspondence, drafts, typescripts, printed copies, notes, transcripts, printed matter, and miscellaneous items relating to Stanton's articles, interviews, radio and television broadcasts and editorials, speeches and statements, and speeches and writings by others.
Arranged alphabetically by subject or type of material and therein chronologically.
Correspondence, family papers, journals and scrapbooks, appointment books, awards and citations, biographical material, school records, cards and invitations, press clippings and releases, government service records, printed matter, and other items.
Arranged alphabetically by subject or type of material.
Memoranda of conversations, correspondence, governmental memoranda, background and policy papers, testimony, and reports.
Arranged and described according to the series, containers, and folders from which the items were removed
Certificates of awards and honorary degrees.
Arranged and described according to the series, containers, and folders from which the items were removed.