What is public history but a register of the successes and disappointments, the vices, the follies and the quarrels of those who engage in contention for power.

Paley formed a modern art collection with as many as 40 major works and he enjoyed photographing Picasso in Cap d'Antibes. Like Picasso Paley drove an exotic French Facel Vega Facel II the fastest four-seater car in the world in the early 1960s. "Bill Paley erected two towers of power: one for entertainment and one for news" 60 Minutes creator Don Hewitt claimed in his autobiography Tell Me a Story.

Paley (September 28 1901 – October 26 1990) was the chief executive who built Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) from a small radio network into one of the foremost radio and television network operations in the United States.