10 June 2017 V I D E O A G E Thiswriter’s first real encounterwithWilliam (Bill) John Peck occurred at MIPCOM 1993, when Peck asked him to send his photographer to take photos at his “surprise” 50th birthday party. VideoAge’s previous contact with Peck was three years earlier to coordinate taking a photo with his boss, Bert Cohen, for its MIPCOM Daily. At the time of the party, Peck was managing director of Worldvision Enterprises’ U.K. offices and, later, in 1997, he became vice president, European Sales, also in London. Worldvision was then the largest American independent distributor with offices in four U.S. cities and five countries. From almost its inception, Worldvision was also one of VideoAge’s (and other TV trade publications’) largest advertisers. For example, at that particular MIPCOM, Worldvision ran five ad pages inVideoAge Daily. Sowhen Peck “invited”VideoAgeto his birthday bash at Mekong — a restaurant near the Grand Hotel he stayed in when in Cannes (a hotel he continues to patronize) — it could not have been refused. Actually, the “invitation” was accepted with pleasure knowing that Worldvision’s brass would be in attendance, including Cohen, who among VideoAge’s journalists was known as “make me look good Bert,” for his traditional warnings after interviews. The birthday celebrationwas on aMonday night, after hours for VideoAge’s freelance photographer, so this writer had to “volunteer” to take the photos scheduled for the Wednesday Daily. Once the job was done, and just as the guests were ready for dinner, unceremoniously, Peck, with his trademark smile, asked him to leave. Subsequently, the VideoAge Daily report featured three photos of the evening and noted that “about 50 guests were present, mostly buyers from the U.K., Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.” This is how Peck described himself, when, for this feature 24 years after that birthday party, he was asked if there were any funny recollections in his 56-year career in the television business: “I doubt there are any funny anecdotes,” he said, “sorry, but I am not really a funny guy.” But even if he’s not “funny,” Peckhas ademeanor that renders him “simpatico,” and he’s always with a ready smile. And, even though he doesn’t smoke through an eccentrically Franklin D. Roosevelt-style long cigarette holder any longer, he still joyously plays piano at every occasion. “Who does anymore?” he said about no longer being a smoker, and added, “you remember my Korean ginseng cigarette holders?” As far as playing the piano, Peck started at age six. “I was very talented,” he commented, “but I gave it up as a teen. Fortunately, I can still fumble along. At the Grand Hotel they bought especially for me (I think) a Yamaha grand piano and with Marjie Woods as a singer, we’re now the number one late-night [event] on the Croisette.” In addition, looking through his extensive biography, one can’t help grinning, especially when picturing Peck attending his first MIP-TV in 1969. Here’s how he recalled it: “I drove to Cannes with Roy Gibbs (a colleague fromRichard Price Television Associates [RPTA]) in a London Weekend Television van stuffed to the brim with video equipment — TV monitors, film projectors, loudspeakers and hours and hours of programs on videocassettes and 16 mm film — [because] RPTA was the first exhibitor to have screening facilities on its own stand.” Another anecdote is recounted by Cohen, Peck’s former boss at Worldvision: “I remember visiting him in his hotel room one day, and found him standing on his head, which I eventually discovered, he did every day. Something about being healthy, he explained. Oh well...” How Peck ended up at RPTA is described in his resume: At age 18, in 1961, rather than going to college he found a job at the BBC as a film dispatcher, and soon after was promoted to film librarian. In 1964 he joined Granada’s program sales and four years later he went back to the BBC as program sales assistant. But the BBC was not in the cards, because just 10 months later he accepted an offer from the nascent London Weekend Television (LWT) as international program sales executive. This job lasted six years, until 1974 when he joined LWT’s exclusive program sales agent, RPTA, as general manager. Subsequently, and in the same year, starting in 1980, Peck jumped to Time-Life Television, Novacom and then to King Features, all as head of program sales and all in London. Here is how he explained it: “When Time-Life Television closed down (its film and TV catalog was sold to Columbia), two top Time-Life executives asked me to join Novacom, their new company dedicated to selling Boston’s WGBH TV product internationally, in particular the Nova documentary series. A couple of months later, Novacom was acquired by King Features.” In 1982 Peck joined Worldvision where he remained for 18 years until the company was taken over by Paramount Television. Here is how Cohen remembered offering him a job: “I first met Bill at the Caribbean FilmMarket, being held in Paramaribo, Suriname. I knew then that I would like to work with him.” However,Cohen’s recollectiondiffers somewhat from that of Peck, who also added a funny account. “Actually,” said Peck, “the first time Bert and I met was at the first Caribbean Film & TV Market, held the year before in Barbados in July 1975, but we didn’t really connect then. It was indeed in Suriname that we met properly, and a funny incident was at a dinner that some of the distributors went to at an Indonesian restaurant in downtown Paramaribo. “We had entrusted Bert with the task of paying the bill after we had all made our cash contributions to him. I remember Bert clutching a huge fistful of Suriname guilders in one hand, and the dinner bill for all of us in the other and looking totally bewildered. He started counting out the cash, note by note and was doing quite well until he got to a two and a half guilder note, which threw his calculations out, and he had to start again. The process went on for quite a while, as the rest of us were laughing until we had a stomach cramp.” Then Cohen continued: “When he came to Worldvision, he immediately became a major By Dom Serafini Bill Peck: A Serious Executive Who Inadvertently Brought Fun To TV Sales Int’ l TV Distribut ion Hal l of Fame Peck and Worldvision’s boss, Bert Cohen, in 1990 Peck’s 50th birthday was celebrated at MIPCOM 1993. Playing the piano at The Grand Hotel during MIP-TV 2017 (Continued on Page 12)
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