Videoage International December 2020

12 December 2020 V I D E O A G E W hen Joseph “Joe” Wallach was working at Brazil’s Globo TV in the 1960s, he had a reputation for being unstoppable. Even now, before speaking to VideoAge, at the “mature” age of 97, he took a 1,000-kilometer road trip to Utah in the middle of a pandemic, driving with another couple from his Beverly Hills, California home. Although he was quick to point out that his “wife did most of the driving,” it’s clear that nothing can stop Joe, not old age and certainly not a pandemic. But then he was shaped by a former U.S. media giant, Time-Life, and worked under Globo’s founder, Roberto Pisani Marinho (1904-2003), a legend in Brazil and throughout the international TV industry, who was simply known as Dr. Roberto. That kind of legacy prepared him, in 1987, to help co-found Telemundo, one of the two major Spanish-language TVnetworks in theU.S. In 1991, he co-created Globosat, a satellite broadcasting service based in Rio de Janeiro. Throughout his life very few things stopped Joe, whether he was in his native U.S., Brazil, or Italy. In addition to endurance, perseverance and fiscal discipline, Wallach was known for being frugal, “but only when we were strapped for money at Globo,” he pointed out. The story, as related by José Roberto Filippelli, who for many years successfully sold Globo’s telenovelas internationally, was that Wallach’s division heads would first negotiate prices for programming and/or services, then, when the agreements would reach his desk, the cost would be cut drastically. “Wallach is credited with reassessing Globo’s finances. Hewas a goodmoneymanager,” added Filippelli. “Joe and I have about a 55-year friendship,” recalled former president of Warner Bros. TV Distribution, Michael J. Solomon, who now serves as CEO of Solomon International Enterprises. “I remember when, as the head of Latin America for MCA in 1970, I offered Joe a great package of features for Globo TV. He asked for a day to study the package and the license fees I was asking. We met inhis office (inRio) and startedarguing about the fee. It got so heated that after 30 minutes of not convincing him, I took the offer from his desk and tore it up in front of him and walked out. The next day he asked me to come back and we made the deal. From that time on, we became good friends — and still are,” concluded Solomon, who’s also Wallach’s neighbor in Beverly Hills. According to Filippelli, who’s now writing an autobiography about his experiences with Globo from 1977 until his departure in 1999, the deal that Wallach initially offered him to license Globo’s telenovelas internationally included a low salary and high sale commissions. However, when Filippelli started to sell Globo’s programs well, the Marinhos renegotiated his contract with a higher base salary and lower commissions. Filippelli refused to give a sales figure, but Wallach mentioned that, when he left Globo in 1980, international content sales were down to about U.S.$1 million. Over the phone, Wallach explained to VideoAge that, before joining the then three-year-old Time-Life (T-L) group in 1963, he was in the manufacturing business in Pennsylvania. Before that, he’d completed his post-graduate studies in Business at Boston University. His undergraduate studies were conducted at The City College in his native New York. Earlier, he’d served as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Infantry during World War II in Europe. Wallach managed KOGO, a TV outlet in San Diego, California, for T-L. It was part of its group of five local TV stations, which were all sold in 1972. T-L was also a financial backer for commercial TV broadcasting in South America. With a joint venture between U.S. TV network CBS and Argentina’s TV pioneer Goar Mestre, T-L backed Proartel (now Artear) in Buenos Aires, while in Venezuela, the company invested in Proventel (now state-owned TV network VTV), and in Peru, Panamericana Television. In Brazil, the firm backed Globo TV (Rede Globo in Portuguese). Wallach arrived in Brazil in July 1965 as a T-L executive tasked with checking in on the company’s investment in Rede Globo, a television network that had begun broadcasting in Rio de Janeiro three months earlier. The network had been founded by Roberto Marinho in 1963 (although its TV license was granted in 1957). Earlier, Dr. Roberto had taken over his father Irineu’s newspaper, O Globo, which was founded in 1925, after his death that same year. Recalled Wallach: “The network had 700 employees, counting 70 in the orchestra, and Brazil had just three million television sets. It was airing live programs — popular variety- show segments featured dancing girls and pie- eating contests — and U.S. shows like The Beverly Hillbillie s.” Then disaster struck. “On a Sunday night in 1969 in Rio,” recalled Wallach, “Dr. Roberto called me to say that their TV station in São Paulo was burned by revolutionaries together with two other TV stations. Fortunately, they did not get Globo’s transmitting tower, and we were insured. At that time Sao Paolo was Globo’s main production center. “We did not know what to do; there wasn’t yet a network system. We did not have a microwave system for interconnections. The networking was done through videotapes. I suggested moving everything to Rio and Dr. Roberto supported my decision.” He continued: “After the fire, Time Life called me back to New York. They complained that in four years they invested $5 million ($41 million in 2020money) into the venture and were upset that the investment did not produce any revenues. Globo didn’t have money, but in 1969 Dr. Roberto was able to buy out their stake for $3.850 million. It was paid off in four payments, the last one in 1972. It was awkward for me since I was the Time- Life man but I chose to work for Marinho.” WhenWallach left T-L to officially joinMarinho in 1969 his title was executive supervisor ( superintendente ) in charge of Administration for the Globo TV network. He shared his duties with Walter Clark Bueno (1936-1997), who was also head of Programming because the law prevented Wallach (who wasn’t yet a Brazilian citizen) from assuming managerial positions. In addition, they each received a $1 million a year salary ($4.5 million in 2020 money), which then represented the highest salary in the TV broadcasting sector worldwide. In 1977, Clark Bueno was fired because of his heavy drinking and his duties (and salary) were taken over by José Bonifacio de Oliveira Sobrinho (aka, Boni). Meanwhile, in 1970, Wallach was granted Brazilian citizenship, and became fluent in Portuguese, a language he had learned six months after arriving in Rio. He spoke it with a “gringo accent,” though, noted Filippelli. (In order to become a naturalized Brazilian he had Joseph Wallach: Political Intrigue Did Not Undermine His TV Challenges Int’l TV Distribution Hall of Fame By Dom Serafini Joe Wallach during a 2007 presentation at the University of California, Los Angeles Roberto Irineu Marinho, Joe Wallach, and VideoAge ’s Dom Serafini in 1980 (Continued on Page 14) (Continued from Cover)