Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1959)

OUR RESPECTS TO . . . John Peter Cowden Just over a month ago John Peter Cowden quietly moved into an office on the 19th floor at 485 Madison Ave. in New York, charged by CBS-TV with the job of helping articulate the network s image — an image that had been tarnished along with the rest of the tv industry by 1959's quiz scandal and its aftermath. The formal announcement of his appointment as vice president of information services is likely to be the last public mention of his name for awhile. Jack Cowden is a man who puts himself behind the job, not in front of it. Specifically, Mr. Cowden's responsibilities in CBS-TV's new "image" job extend over three areas: advertising-sales promotion, research and press information. The mark he makes will be through the activities of these departments rather than through projects emanating directly from his office. He comes to the job primarily through the advertising-sales promotion area (he was until last month vice president for advertising and sales promotion for the CBS Television Stations Div.), but has worked closely with the other two areas in his long career with the network. Although Mr. Cowden's career in recent years has been in the wings rather than on stage, it was not always so. His professional experience with broadcasting dates to the age of 9 (in 1926) as a studio actor on the West Coast. Jack was "Joe Corntastle" for five years in Little Orphan Annie on the old NBC Blue network, and also had roles in such series as Death Valley Days, Memory Lane, One Man's Family and Pepper Young's Family. This career before the microphones lasted until 1938, when he joined CBS in New York. With the exception of a year with KSFO San Francisco and two years out for World War II, he's been with CBS since that time. Started in Promotion • That first association with CBS was as a copywriter in the promotion department of the owned & operated stations division, a job he held until March 1940. Then he went to KSFO as promotion manager, but returned to the network in station relations in 1941. In 1943 he was drafted. Mr. Cowden served principally in Army public information capacities during the war, participating in the campaigns through New Caledonia, the Philippines and into Japan. His last duty was as Pacific editor of Stars & Stripes, headquartered in Tokyo. He was discharged late in 1945 as a master sergeant. Following the war Mr. Cowden returned to the CBS o&o division, and in 1949 became general manager of the network promotion department. Then, in 1951, the network separated its radio and television networks and Mr. Cowden became co-director of the tv network's advertising and sales promotion. In 1958, when the tv side split again into network and stations divisions, Mr. Cowden became vice president and sales promotion director on the stations side. He was named to his present post Nov. 10. Tenacity • One aspect af Jack Cowden's personality threads through both his professional and personal life: the capacity to single out an objective and apply himself to obtaining it, with no diversion for frills or personal allowances. Take these examples: His career as a child actor was motivated not just for the fun of it but because he needed the money — or more specifically, his family did. Jack's father died in an accident that year, and Jack (then 9; he was born in Santa Barbara, Calif., March 12, 1917) was the oldest of three children. A friend's father was an NBC executive, and through him he tried out for and got his first acting assignment. The career turned out successfully, enough so to put himself and his younger brother and sister through college. College itself was for Jack Cowden a goal to be achieved, not something to play around with. He went through the U. of California (Berke CBS-TV's Cowden An old hand for a new job ley) in 2Vi years, graduating in 1938 with a major in economics. When that was behind him he decided the next move should be to New York. Not having enough money for a ticket proved no handicap: he hopped freights (it took eight days). Houses that Jack built • Or take the matter of housing his family in New York after the war. Houses were almost impossible to obtain, so Jack joined with four friends to build their own. They bought five acres in Westport, Conn., and after 2Vz years had five houses. It wasn't an easy thing to do: the five would drive out from the city in all spare moments, sometimes ringing a house with their cars and working by headlights into the night. (He lived in this house until five years ago. when he sold it "at a tidy profit.") In 1940 Mr. Cowden married Frances O'Keefe of Swampscott, Mass. They have four children: John Jr.. 15 (now in prep school at Andover) ; Sally, 12; Peggy, 8, and Edward, 3. They also have three sheep, two rabbits, three cats and a dog. The family lives in Westport in an 1819-vintage home he purchased after giving up his hand-made model. They also have a summer place in New Hampshire. Mr. Cowden has joined no organizations since he was a member of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity in college. He professes no sports interests, but if pressed for a hobby will name cabinet making. Considering this includes anything from a shelf to a house, "hobby" may seem a mild name for it. Rugged • Among Westport's commuters Mr. Cowden has a reputation as a rugged type. Until this year he made the run from his home to the station in an open jeep, rain or snow notwithstanding, and without benefit even of a topcoat. A bout with pneumonia last year put a stop to that, however, and the jeep has been retired for an Austin station wagon. Mr. Cowden does not shrink from the problem any "image maker" faces in times like these; neither does he glamorize it. He is loath to say what personal part he will play in the job; he is quick to point out that the three areas which report to him are staffed with the talent and the tools needed to execute it. He is aware that the job of "articulating" CBS-TV policies is a delicate one, for in doing it the articulator may almost set them. In his own mind Mr. Cowden has at least one thing going for him — the long association he's had with the CBS family since 1938, and a firstname familiarity with the people, policies and practices at the network. To management, at least another asset is Jack Cowden's own talent and his ability to get a job done. BROADCASTING, December 14, 1959 135