1. Pat Weaver has been credited with reshaping the format and philosophy of commercial broadcasting as radio gave way to television as America's dominant home entertainment medium.
21 Facts About Pat Weaver
1. 2.
Pat Weaver was of English descent and Scottish descent, as well as of Ulster-Scots, Dutch and early New England ancestry.
3.
Pat Weaver was related to Matthew Laflin, an American manufacturer of gunpowder, businessman, philanthropist, and an early pioneer of Chicago.
4.
Pat Weaver graduated from Dartmouth College in 1930, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.
5.
Pat Weaver served in the United States Navy during World War II from 1942 to 1945.
6.
At NBC, Pat Weaver established many operating practices that became standard for network television.
7.
Pat Weaver introduced the practice of networks producing their own television programming, then selling advertising time during the broadcasts.
8.
Pat Weaver created Today in 1952, followed by Tonight Starring Steve Allen, Home with Arlene Francis and Wide Wide World, hosted by Dave Garroway.
9.
Pat Weaver believed that broadcasting should educate as well as entertain.
10.
In 1955, as network radio was dying, Pat Weaver helped revive it with NBC Monitor, a weekend-long magazine-style programming block that featured an array of news, music, comedy, drama, sports, and anything that could be broadcast within magazine style, with rotating advertisers and some of the most memorable names in broadcast journalism, entertainment and sports.
11.
Pat Weaver was the developer of the magazine style of advertising whereby sponsors would purchase blocks of time in a show, rather than sponsor an entire show.
12.
Pat Weaver believed that ratings for radio had declined because listeners were tired of predictable, regularly scheduled shows.
13.
In November 1960, years after leaving NBC, Pat Weaver displayed his frustration with the network in an article in the Sunday edition of The Denver Post.
14.
Pat Weaver lent his talents as a consultant for radio and television activities to Freedomland USA, a New York City theme park, during its 1960 debut.
15.
Pat Weaver is featured in the book Freedomland USA: The Definitive History.
16.
In 1985, Pat Weaver was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame.
17.
Pat Weaver was born Desiree Mary Lucy Hawkins on July 10,1913, in Colchester, Essex, England; and died on August 25,2007, in Santa Barbara, California.
18.
Pat Weaver made her screen debut in Borrowed Clothes as well as a number of small parts in some of Alfred Hitchcock's early movies.
19.
Pat Weaver reached the high point of her career when she co-starred with Bette Davis in William Wyler's movie The Letter.
20.
Pat Weaver retired from acting when she married in 1942.
21.
Pat Weaver died in 2002 of natural causes at his home in Santa Barbara at age 93.