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Limping on Water: My 40-year adventure with one of America's outstanding communications companies.
PHIL BEUTH spent his entire broadcasting career with one company: Capital Cities/ABC-TV. As the first employee of a fledgling media startup in 1955, Phil worked his way up over a 40-year span, as Capital Cities grew to become one of America’s most influential and successful media companies.
A Dickensian rags-to-riches tale of a disadvantaged boy, born with cerebral palsy who, through luck, pluck, strength of character, skill, persistence and loyalty, rose to become a top executive at one of America’s most respected and successful media companies, Capital Cities Communications; “The minnow that swallowed the whale.”
PHIL BEUTH was born in a blue-collar neighborhood of Staten Island to parents of English and German stock in 1932. To state that his origins were humble is like saying the Yankees know a thing or two about baseball. The young struggling family was crushed by the tragic death of Phil’s father when Phil was just four, causing his mother to park her young, physically impaired son with her step-father, an embittered, war-wounded veteran (of the Spanish-American War!), who ran a ramshackle “Sanford and Son” junk business out of his backyard. What propelled this boy to raise himself by his orthopedic bootstraps to become a respected and honored leader in his field, a member of two Broadcasting Halls of Fame, head of Good Morning America and a Division President of ABC?
What comes through this very personal account - peppered with interesting and amusing anecdotes about his partners and celebrities like Ted Knight, Lowell Thomas, Charlie Gibson, Sir Paul McCartney, Frank Sinatra, Cher, Jackie Robinson,
Red Barber, Nelson Rockefeller, Barbara Walters, Warren Buffett, Sammy Davis Jr., Burt Reynolds, Red Skelton, Muhammad Ali, and many more - is Phil’s generosity, self-deprecating humor, unbound creativity and warm-hearted congenial talent.
More than simply recollections of a career at a celebrated company and the famous people encountered along his path, Phil’s story is a keen insider’s chronicle of that “Mad Men” golden era of television; a time when broadcasting as we know it came into being. It is also a powerful lesson in forging a career that is ethical and prosperous; “doing well and doing good.”
A Dickensian rags-to-riches tale of a disadvantaged boy, born with cerebral palsy who, through luck, pluck, strength of character, skill, persistence and loyalty, rose to become a top executive at one of America’s most respected and successful media companies, Capital Cities Communications; “The minnow that swallowed the whale.”
PHIL BEUTH was born in a blue-collar neighborhood of Staten Island to parents of English and German stock in 1932. To state that his origins were humble is like saying the Yankees know a thing or two about baseball. The young struggling family was crushed by the tragic death of Phil’s father when Phil was just four, causing his mother to park her young, physically impaired son with her step-father, an embittered, war-wounded veteran (of the Spanish-American War!), who ran a ramshackle “Sanford and Son” junk business out of his backyard. What propelled this boy to raise himself by his orthopedic bootstraps to become a respected and honored leader in his field, a member of two Broadcasting Halls of Fame, head of Good Morning America and a Division President of ABC?
What comes through this very personal account - peppered with interesting and amusing anecdotes about his partners and celebrities like Ted Knight, Lowell Thomas, Charlie Gibson, Sir Paul McCartney, Frank Sinatra, Cher, Jackie Robinson,
Red Barber, Nelson Rockefeller, Barbara Walters, Warren Buffett, Sammy Davis Jr., Burt Reynolds, Red Skelton, Muhammad Ali, and many more - is Phil’s generosity, self-deprecating humor, unbound creativity and warm-hearted congenial talent.
More than simply recollections of a career at a celebrated company and the famous people encountered along his path, Phil’s story is a keen insider’s chronicle of that “Mad Men” golden era of television; a time when broadcasting as we know it came into being. It is also a powerful lesson in forging a career that is ethical and prosperous; “doing well and doing good.”
257 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 10, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 27, 2023
Phil provides the reader with a front row seat to what Warren Buffett called the “greatest duo in corporate America the world has ever seen or maybe ever will see”.
From a bankrupt television company in Albany, New York to a giant broadcasting empire that was ultimately acquired by Disney in 1995 for $19 Billion.
Phil tells us not just his own inspiring life story but the story and management philosophy of Tom Murphy and his lieutenant, Dan Burke.
This book is full of awe inspiring lesson for anyone interested in the highest quality of management decision making and lessons in capital allocation.
From a bankrupt television company in Albany, New York to a giant broadcasting empire that was ultimately acquired by Disney in 1995 for $19 Billion.
Phil tells us not just his own inspiring life story but the story and management philosophy of Tom Murphy and his lieutenant, Dan Burke.
This book is full of awe inspiring lesson for anyone interested in the highest quality of management decision making and lessons in capital allocation.
November 4, 2018
Fascinating and enjoyable read.
A ‘tell it like it was’ autobiography, told in a humble manner, of Phil Beuth that shows it takes a mix of both good luck and hard work to overcome adversity, while living the ups and down that naturally come even to those who are blessed with a great life.
A ‘tell it like it was’ autobiography, told in a humble manner, of Phil Beuth that shows it takes a mix of both good luck and hard work to overcome adversity, while living the ups and down that naturally come even to those who are blessed with a great life.
Want to read
April 21, 2018Recommended by Warren E Buffett in his 2015 annual report - about Tom Murphy and his partner - how they were great managers
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews