Leonard Goldenson
Goldenson orchestrated the merger of United Paramount Theatres with ABC in 1953 (after Paramount was ordered to spin it off in the wake of "United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc.", a 1948 decree of the U.S. Supreme Court). ABC was originally formed in 1943 in the wake of an earlier Supreme Court decree effectively ordering the spinoff of the largely secondary-status "Blue Network" from its then-parent, NBC; its buyer, industrialist Edward J. Noble, tried to build ABC into a competitive Broadcasting company, but by 1951 was rumored to be on the verge of selling the nearly bankrupt operation to CBS, whose management apparently wanted ABC's critically important owned-and-operated television stations.
American Broadcasting Company
In 1965, the corporate entity, American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres, was renamed as the American Broadcasting Companies, while its cinema division became ABC Theatres; its recording division was renamed ABC Records in 1966. In December of that year, the ABC television network premiered "The Dating Game", a pioneer series in its genre, which was a reworking of the blind date concept in which a suitor selected one of three contestants sight unseen based on the answers to selected questions. This was followed up in July 1966 by "The Newlywed Game", featuring three recently married couples who guessed the responses to their partner's questions (some of which were fairly risque). As ABC began to outgrow its facilities at 7 West 66th Street, Goldenson found a new headquarters for ABC in a 44-story building located at 1330 Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan, at the corner of 54th Street (now occupied by "The Financial Times"s New York office). This operation allowed for the conversion of the premises at 66th Street into production facilities for television and radio programs.