Stephen Paley
Encyclopedia
Stephen Drew Paley is an American
photographer, radio producer
, television producer
, music supervisor and actor
.
His photographs have appeared in Life
, Look
, Vogue
, Newsweek
, Rolling Stone
, The New York Times
and Vanity Fair
, and in the books The Rolling Stone History of Rock & Roll. and Shooting Stars (edited by Annie Leibovitz) and Wild: Fashion Untamed (published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press). Paley has shot album covers for (among others) The Allman Brothers
, Cher
, Aretha Franklin
, Cream
, Sly & the Family Stone
, Laura Nyro
, Wilson Pickett
, Lulu
, MC5
, J. Geils Band
, Iron Butterfly
, Memphis Horns and The Sweet Inspirations. Paley was one of the “special magazine photographers” on the films, Midnight Cowboy
and Paint Your Wagon
.
Paley’s many arts and entertainment pieces were broadcast on National Public Radio (1984–91). Callas In Her Own Words, the four-hour radio documentary Paley produced and edited about the life and career of the soprano Maria Callas
was broadcast on WFMT
in Chicago (2002) and an earlier version was heard on KUSC
in Los Angeles (1988), and on many other stations around the country and the world. For KCRW, Santa Monica's Public Radio Station, Paley produced three-hour radio programs on David Raksin
(2004), Nelson Riddle
(1986) and Atlantic Records
’s years as a rhythm and blues label (1987).
For KCET
, Los Angeles’s public television station, Paley produced a series of programs on 1950s Googie architecture
with the writer Alan Hess (1986).
At Warner Bros.
studios, Paley was head of music for Orion Pictures
and The Ladd Company
(1979–1983), supervising music for the films Arthur, Excalibur
, Caddyshack
, Wolfen
, Night Shift
, Chariots of Fire
, Blade Runner
, and The Right Stuff. He executive produced the Academy Award-winning song, "Arthur's Theme," and then commissioned Burt Bacharach and Carol Bayer Sager to write "That's What Friends Are For" for the Night Shift soundtrack where it was introduced by Rod Stewart. (Five years later, in 1986, the song went on to win the Grammy as "Best Song of the Year" when it was covered by Dionne Warwick with her friends, Gladys Knight, Elton John and Stevie Wonder - with the proceeds going to AMFAR, an AIDS charity.) Paley gave composer Thomas Newman his first theatrical movie to score (Reckless) and hired James Horner to compose his first important film score for Oliver Stone's first directorial effort (The Hand).
For ten years (1974–1984), Paley compiled and edited the music that accompanied Diana Vreeland's exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute. (Romantic & Glamorous Hollywood, American Woman of Style, The Glory of Russian Costume, Diaghilev, Fashions of the Hapsburg Era, The Manchu Dragon, The 18th Century Woman, La Belle Epoque and YSL, Mrs. Vreeland's show on Yves St. Laurent.) When Vreeland died, in 1989, Paley was asked by the Met to produce the music for her memorial service in the museum’s Medieval Sculpture Hall.
Paley was Director of Talent Acquisition for Epic Records
(1970–1975) where he was the A & R (Artists and Repertoire) liaison to Sly & The Family Stone., Jeff Beck
and Rupert Holmes
. Among the gold records Paley worked on were Sly and the Family Stone's "Family Affair" and "If You Want Me to Stay," The Looking Glass's "Brandy" and "Jimmy Loves Mary-ann," along with "Superstition," which Paley hired Stevie Wonder to write and produce for guitarist Jeff Beck, but the record turned out so well that Stevie Wonder kept it for himself!
For CBS
’s Camera Three
(1976), Paley produced and co-wrote, with Frank Rich
, Anatomy of a Song, a television program that examined Stephen Sondheim
’s creative process of writing a song (1976) and Paley produced the first television biography of composer Bernard Herrmann
. (1976). Paley was also a segment producer for the ABC
News television magazine program 20/20 (1979–1980).
At nineteen, Paley was directed by George Abbott
on Broadway
in a featured role in Hal Prince
’s production of Take Her, She's Mine
with Art Carney
, Phyllis Thaxter
and Elizabeth Ashley
(1961–1962).
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
photographer, radio producer
Radio producer
A radio producer oversees the making of a radio show. There are two main types of producer. An audio or creative producer and a content producer. Audio producers create sounds and audio specifically, content producers oversee and orchestrate a radio show or feature...
, television producer
Television producer
The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
, music supervisor and actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
.
His photographs have appeared in Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
, Look
Look (American magazine)
Look was a bi-weekly, general-interest magazine published in Des Moines, Iowa from 1937 to 1971, with more of an emphasis on photographs than articles...
, Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
, Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
, Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
and Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
, and in the books The Rolling Stone History of Rock & Roll. and Shooting Stars (edited by Annie Leibovitz) and Wild: Fashion Untamed (published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press). Paley has shot album covers for (among others) The Allman Brothers
The Allman Brothers Band
The Allman Brothers Band is an American rock/blues band once based in Macon, Georgia. The band was formed in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1969 by brothers Duane Allman and Gregg Allman , who were supported by Dickey Betts , Berry Oakley , Butch Trucks , and Jai Johanny "Jaimoe"...
, Cher
Cher
Cher is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes and a Cannes Film Festival Award among others for her work in...
, Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
, Cream
Cream (band)
Cream were a 1960s British rock supergroup consisting of bassist/vocalist Jack Bruce, guitarist/vocalist Eric Clapton, and drummer Ginger Baker...
, Sly & the Family Stone
Sly & the Family Stone
Sly and the Family Stone were an American rock, funk, and soul band from San Francisco, California. Active from 1966 to 1983, the band was pivotal in the development of soul, funk, and psychedelic music...
, Laura Nyro
Laura Nyro
Laura Nyro was an American songwriter, singer, and pianist. She achieved considerable critical acclaim with her own recordings, particularly the albums Eli and the Thirteenth Confession and New York Tendaberry, and had commercial success with artists such as Barbra Streisand and The 5th...
, Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett was an American R&B/Soul singer and songwriter.A major figure in the development of American soul music, Pickett recorded over 50 songs which made the US R&B charts, and frequently crossed over to the US Billboard Hot 100...
, Lulu
Lulu (singer)
Lulu Kennedy-Cairns, OBE , best known by her stage name Lulu, is a Scottish singer, actress, and television personality who has been successful in the entertainment business from the 1960s through to the present day...
, MC5
MC5
The MC5 is an American rock band formed in Lincoln Park, Michigan and originally active from 1964 to 1972. The original band line-up consisted of vocalist Rob Tyner, guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred "Sonic" Smith, bassist Michael Davis, and drummer Dennis Thompson...
, J. Geils Band
J. Geils Band
The J. Geils Band is an American rock band formed in 1967 in Worcester, Massachusetts, best known for its 1981 single, "Centerfold" which charted #1 in the U.S. in early 1982. The band played R&B-influenced blues-rock in the 1970s before moving towards a more pop-influenced sound in the 1980s...
, Iron Butterfly
Iron Butterfly
Iron Butterfly is a US psychedelic rock band best known for the 1968 hit "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida".Their heyday was the late 1960s, but the band has been reincarnated with various members. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida is the 31st best-selling album in the world, selling more than 25 million copies.-History:The...
, Memphis Horns and The Sweet Inspirations. Paley was one of the “special magazine photographers” on the films, Midnight Cowboy
Midnight Cowboy
Midnight Cowboy is a 1969 American drama film based on the 1965 novel of the same name by James Leo Herlihy. It was written by Waldo Salt, directed by John Schlesinger, and stars Dustin Hoffman and newcomer Jon Voight in the title role. Notable smaller roles are filled by Sylvia Miles, John...
and Paint Your Wagon
Paint Your Wagon (film)
Paint Your Wagon is a 1969 American musical film starring Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood. The movie was adapted by Paddy Chayefsky from the 1951 stage musical by Lerner and Loewe, set in a mining camp in Gold Rush-era California.-Plot:...
.
Paley’s many arts and entertainment pieces were broadcast on National Public Radio (1984–91). Callas In Her Own Words, the four-hour radio documentary Paley produced and edited about the life and career of the soprano Maria Callas
Maria Callas
Maria Callas was an American-born Greek soprano and one of the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century. She combined an impressive bel canto technique, a wide-ranging voice and great dramatic gifts...
was broadcast on WFMT
WFMT
WFMT is an FM radio station in Chicago, Illinois, featuring a format of fine arts, classical music programming, and shows exploring such genres as folk and jazz). The station is managed by Window To The World Communications, Inc., owner of WTTW, one of Chicago's two Public Broadcasting Service ...
in Chicago (2002) and an earlier version was heard on KUSC
KUSC
KUSC is a listener-supported classical music radio station broadcasting from downtown Los Angeles, California, USA. KUSC is owned and operated by the University of Southern California, which also operates student-run KXSC and San Francisco's classical station KDFC...
in Los Angeles (1988), and on many other stations around the country and the world. For KCRW, Santa Monica's Public Radio Station, Paley produced three-hour radio programs on David Raksin
David Raksin
David Raksin was an American composer born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. With over 100 film scores and 300 television scores to his credit, he became known as the "Grandfather of Film Music." One of his earliest film assignments was as assistant to Charlie Chaplin in the composition of the score...
(2004), Nelson Riddle
Nelson Riddle
Nelson Smock Riddle, Jr. was an American arranger, composer, bandleader and orchestrator whose career stretched from the late 1940s to the mid 1980s...
(1986) and Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
’s years as a rhythm and blues label (1987).
For KCET
KCET
KCET, channel 28, is an independent, non-commercial public television station licensed to Los Angeles, California, USA. KCET's studio is located on West Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, and its transmitter is atop Mount Wilson. Al Jerome is the current CEO and President, serving since 1996.KCET was...
, Los Angeles’s public television station, Paley produced a series of programs on 1950s Googie architecture
Googie architecture
Googie architecture is a form of modern architecture, a subdivision of futurist architecture influenced by car culture and the Space and Atomic Ages....
with the writer Alan Hess (1986).
At Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
studios, Paley was head of music for Orion Pictures
Orion Pictures
Orion Pictures Corporation was an American independent production company that produced movies from 1978 until 1998. It was formed in 1978 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and three former top-level executives of United Artists. Although it was never a large motion picture producer, Orion...
and The Ladd Company
The Ladd Company
The Ladd Company is a film production and distribution company founded by Alan Ladd, Jr. in 1979, after ending his job as President of 20th Century Fox. Under Warner Bros...
(1979–1983), supervising music for the films Arthur, Excalibur
Excalibur (film)
Excalibur is a 1981 dramatic fantasy film directed, produced and co-written by John Boorman that retells the legend of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table. Adapted from the 15th century Arthurian romance, Le Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Malory, Excalibur features the music of Richard Wagner...
, Caddyshack
Caddyshack
Caddyshack is a 1980 American comedy film directed by Harold Ramis and written by Brian Doyle-Murray, Ramis, and Douglas Kenney. It stars Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight, Michael O'Keefe, Cindy Morgan, and Bill Murray...
, Wolfen
Wolfen
Wolfen may refer to:In geography:* Wolfen, Germany, a town in Saxony-Anhalt, GermanyIn fiction:* The Wolfen, a 1978 horror novel by Whitley Strieber...
, Night Shift
Night Shift
A night shift is either a group of workers who work during the night, or the period in which they work. See shift work.Night Shift may also refer to:* Night Shift , a fictional team of supervillains in the Marvel Universe...
, Chariots of Fire
Chariots of Fire
Chariots of Fire is a 1981 British film. It tells the fact-based story of two athletes in the 1924 Olympics: Eric Liddell, a devout Scottish Christian who runs for the glory of God, and Harold Abrahams, an English Jew who runs to overcome prejudice....
, Blade Runner
Blade Runner
Blade Runner is a 1982 American science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is loosely based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K...
, and The Right Stuff. He executive produced the Academy Award-winning song, "Arthur's Theme," and then commissioned Burt Bacharach and Carol Bayer Sager to write "That's What Friends Are For" for the Night Shift soundtrack where it was introduced by Rod Stewart. (Five years later, in 1986, the song went on to win the Grammy as "Best Song of the Year" when it was covered by Dionne Warwick with her friends, Gladys Knight, Elton John and Stevie Wonder - with the proceeds going to AMFAR, an AIDS charity.) Paley gave composer Thomas Newman his first theatrical movie to score (Reckless) and hired James Horner to compose his first important film score for Oliver Stone's first directorial effort (The Hand).
For ten years (1974–1984), Paley compiled and edited the music that accompanied Diana Vreeland's exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute. (Romantic & Glamorous Hollywood, American Woman of Style, The Glory of Russian Costume, Diaghilev, Fashions of the Hapsburg Era, The Manchu Dragon, The 18th Century Woman, La Belle Epoque and YSL, Mrs. Vreeland's show on Yves St. Laurent.) When Vreeland died, in 1989, Paley was asked by the Met to produce the music for her memorial service in the museum’s Medieval Sculpture Hall.
Paley was Director of Talent Acquisition for Epic Records
Epic Records
Epic Records is an American record label, owned by Sony Music Entertainment. Though it was originally conceived as a jazz imprint, it has since expanded to represent various genres. L.A...
(1970–1975) where he was the A & R (Artists and Repertoire) liaison to Sly & The Family Stone., Jeff Beck
Jeff Beck
Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds...
and Rupert Holmes
Rupert Holmes
Rupert Holmes is an American-British composer, singer-songwriter, musician and author of plays, novels and stories. He is best known for his number one pop hit "Escape " and the song "Him", which reached the number 6 position on the Hot 100 U.S. pop chart in 1980...
. Among the gold records Paley worked on were Sly and the Family Stone's "Family Affair" and "If You Want Me to Stay," The Looking Glass's "Brandy" and "Jimmy Loves Mary-ann," along with "Superstition," which Paley hired Stevie Wonder to write and produce for guitarist Jeff Beck, but the record turned out so well that Stevie Wonder kept it for himself!
For CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
’s Camera Three
Camera Three
Camera Three was a Sunday morning program devoted to the arts. It ran on CBS from 22 January 1956 to 21 January 1979, and moved to PBS in its final year to make way for the then-new CBS News Sunday Morning...
(1976), Paley produced and co-wrote, with Frank Rich
Frank Rich
Frank Rich is an American essayist and op-ed columnist who wrote for The New York Times from 1980, when he was appointed its chief theatre critic, until 2011...
, Anatomy of a Song, a television program that examined Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...
’s creative process of writing a song (1976) and Paley produced the first television biography of composer Bernard Herrmann
Bernard Herrmann
Bernard Herrmann was an American composer noted for his work in motion pictures.An Academy Award-winner , Herrmann is particularly known for his collaborations with director Alfred Hitchcock, most famously Psycho, North by Northwest, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Vertigo...
. (1976). Paley was also a segment producer for the ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
News television magazine program 20/20 (1979–1980).
At nineteen, Paley was directed by George Abbott
George Abbott
George Francis Abbott was an American theater producer and director, playwright, screenwriter, and film director and producer whose career spanned more than nine decades.-Early years:...
on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
in a featured role in Hal Prince
Hal Prince
Harold Smith Prince is an American theatrical producer and director associated with many of the best-known Broadway musical productions of the past half-century...
’s production of Take Her, She's Mine
Take Her, She's Mine
Take Her, She's Mine is a 1963 comedy film starring James Stewart and Sandra Dee. The film was written by Henry Ephron, Phoebe Ephron, and Nunnally Johnson, with Dee's character based on the then 22-year-old Nora Ephron, and directed by Henry Koster...
with Art Carney
Art Carney
Arthur William Matthew “Art” Carney was an American actor in film, stage, television and radio. He is best known for playing Ed Norton, opposite Jackie Gleason's Ralph Kramden in the situation comedy The Honeymooners....
, Phyllis Thaxter
Phyllis Thaxter
-Early life and career:Born Phyllis St. Felix Thaxter, she was the daughter of Maine Supreme Court Justice Sidney Thaxter and his wife, a former actress. Thaxter worked on Broadway in the 1930s and signed an MGM contract in 1944...
and Elizabeth Ashley
Elizabeth Ashley
Elizabeth Ashley is an American actress who first came to prominence as the ingenue in the Broadway play Take Her, She's Mine, which earned her a Tony Award as Best Featured Actress in a Play.-Early life:...
(1961–1962).
External links
- http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=stephen%20Paley&w=all
- Camera Three: Hirshhorn, Man And Museum (TV) Still photographs by Stephen Paley
- http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB071EF83859137A93C1AB178CD85F478785F9&scp=3&sq=stephen%20paley&st=cse
- http://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/14/books/books-of-the-times-warhol-on-warhol-as-dictated-by-warhol.html?scp=6&sq=stephen%20paley&st=cse
- http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50E13FA3D5E11738DDDAF0894D8415B888AF1D3&scp=8&sq=stephen%20paley&st=cse
- http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0715FD3558167493C4AB1788D85F428785F9&scp=10&sq=stephen%20paley&st=cse
- http://www.discogs.com/search?q=Stephen+Paley&type=all&btn=Search
- http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=2906