Lunch at Michael's with Pat Mitchell: Carrying the Paley Torch

In 1970 after teaching at the University of Georgia for five years single mom Pat Mitchell moved to Manhattan Living in Chinatown and writing for Look Magazine Pat believed quotit would all just keep getting betterquot until Look ceased publication and she suddenly found herself alone with her five year old son with no clear plans few contacts and very little money Today she is president of the Paley Center for Media and one of the media community39s most popular executives successful documentary filmmakers and now a dynamic industry spokesperson and leaderI first met Pat in the early 1990s when as president of Turner Broadcasting39s film production unit she joined me to coproduce the Turner Broadcasting documentary Hank Aaron Chasing The Dream which won a Peabody Award won the Crystal Heart Award at the Heartland Film Festival and was nominated for both an Academy and EMMY Award Along with Turner Entertainment president Scott Sassa coproducers Denzel Washington and David Houle and filmmakers Brian Robbins and Michael Tollin Pat oversaw the early ad supported programming initiative and sold the project to Ted Turner in less than two minutes quotTed believed if I couldn39t explain a project to him and convince him why it was worthwhile in less than three sentences it wasn39t worth doingquot Pat shruggedquotI had wanted to come to New York since growing up on a farm in Georgiaquot she recalled as we chatted over Cobb Salads at Michael39s Restaurant quotSomething made me want to be here I had gotten all the degrees women were getting then First the BS then the Mrs followed by the MOM degreequot Pat laughed Shortly after graduating college Pat married and soon gave birth to a son Unfortunately in 1969 Pat also got the quotDivorce Degreequot and when the Look editorial opportunity came along she picked up and movedAlthough the Look article didn39t materialize into the job she hoped for Pat sold a story on Chinatown to the local NBC owned TV station and again thought she was on her way quotBut no such luckquot she frowns quotI soon figured out they weren39t going to hire me fulltime so I was waitressing and sending resumes and my tape to TV stationsquot While the tape didn39t get her a TV job it did land her a paid position with the John Lindsay presidential campaign David Garth was running the shortlived campaign of the former New York City mayor and Garth hired Pat forming a two person media team After a few months Lindsay withdrew from the race and Pat received an offer from the Boston Westinghouseowned NBC affiliate WBZTV which had turned her down six months earlier for being quottoo oldquot Pat39s colleague at Garth warned her quotTV will ruin your lifequot but she took the job anyway The colleague current CNN media guru Jeff Greenfield quotI sent him flowers when he got his first job in TVquot Pat smilesAs president of the Paley Center which earlier this year changed its name under Pat39s guidance from the Museum of Television and Radio Pat has moved quickly to bring it into the mainstream of 21st Century media Since joining the Center in March 2006 Pat has been dedicated to converting 150000 hours of materials into digital format making content available across multiple platforms overhauling the Center39s website wwwpaleycenterorg with interactive features and delivering more video including live video of much of the Center39s onsite programming The Paley Center now has a page on MySpace and FacebookPat arrived in Boston as a producer and was shifted three months later to onair film and theater critic for the 11 PM news soon she was hosting the morning show and coanchoring the 430 PM news staying at WBZ for six years In 1977 she moved to Washington39s WTTGTV quotI was the first woman to host a news talk program alone it was in Washington and I faced a lot of the same flack Katie Couric has faced Talk about hair and clothesquot she comments empathetically Doing two hours of live television per day Pat honed her interviewing and journalistic skills winning her first of multiple Emmy nominations and ultimately forming her own production company and syndicating Woman to Woman to 115 stations before NBC produced Woman to Woman with Pat Mitchell as a Today Show feature for five more years In 1989 Pat convinced NBC to allow her to travel to the Mideast for six months to produce a documentary film Women in War Voices from the Front Lines which was acquired by AampampE Thus began her passion for documentaries and in 1992 an invitation from Ted Turner to run his documentary unit quotTed was producing 100 hours of documentary programming a yearquot Pat recalls quotNo one was even coming close The experience changed my life I was full of passion for the documentary form of storytelling and had to keep doing thisquot After the Time Warner merger Pat became president of CNN ProductionsPat39s proudest achievements include AampampE39s Women in War series filmed in the MidEast El Salvador Ireland and other hot spots the 24hour production of The Cold War which was produced over a threeyear period and included more than 600 interviews and Century of Women a sixhour documentary about the history of women in America quotThe documentary genre today is very healthyquot Pat believes and while she is fully committed to the Paley Center she admits quotevery day I39m tempted to produce another documentary They have a lasting impact and are a record of time and events people will see and relate to for yearsquot Turner39s Century of Women series she points out stopped production in 1992 and needs to be updatedDuring the week of October 24 the Paley Center is hosting its eighth annual Docfest07 which includes the US premiere of Amazing Journey The Story of The Who about the rise of legendary British band The Who and the New York premiere of David Hoffmanamp8217s Sputnik Mania Pat is bringing together filmmakers with potential investors advancing a concept that AOL cofounder Ted Leonsis has described as quotfilmanthropyquot raising money around a charity and using the investments to make a film that can drive people to understand an issue Leonsis39 documentary film Nanking premieres in early December has already received multiple film festival awards and is an early favorite for an Academy Award nomination Pat recently participated in the Women39s Power and Peace Council meetings and she remains a proactive and outspoken global advocate for women39s rightsPat Edenfield was born in Swainsboro Georgia and spent her early childhood moving to different cities with her military dad until she was ten and settled back in Swainsboro near Savannah quotI was the new girl in school every yearquot she remembers quotIt wasn39t easy and I needed to understand how to be accepted quickly Needing to listen and understand people helped make me a good journalistquotUnder Pat39s aegis The Paley Center in New York and Los Angeles are expanding their member programs making collections more available to schools and universities to assure students have a historical perspective of media attracting new members building out digital assets and also planning to develop satellite extensions in a major university system It seems likely before too long Pat Mitchell and the Paley Center will also be producing documentaries that advance awareness of media and its role in societyTo contact Pat email contactjackmyerscomLunch at Michael39s is a registered trademark of Jack Myers

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Lunch at Michael's with Pat Mitchell: Carrying the Paley Torch

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Lunch at Michael's with Pat Mitchell: Carrying the Paley Torch

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