Edward Bleier, Hamptons Native & Broadcast Pioneer, Dies at 94

Edward Bleier, a former chairman of the Academy of the Arts of East Hampton’s Guild Hall and Warner Bros. executive, died on October 17. He was 94.

Bleier is most famous for his tenure with Warner Bros. He joined the company in 1969 as president of Pay-TV, Cable and Network Features, a position he held for 35 years. He oversaw the merger of the company and Time Inc. in 1990.

He also worked as an advisor to CEO Steve Ross, and their partnership produced various cable networks, including Nickelodeon, MTV and The Movie Channel.

“He was someone who had an incredible awareness for what was happening in the world, how it was relevant to a small community like ours,” Andrea Grover, executive director of Guild Hall, said. “He was a smart, smart man.”

He began his career with Channel 5 New York, then moved to ABC and stayed for 14 years. He worked as a senior executive in Children’s Programming and Sales, General Sales Management and Marketing, Public Relations and Strategic Planning.

His time with ABC saw growth in various areas, including in sports, news documentaries and the first ever Saturday morning children’s programming block. He was also instrumental in distributing variations of Looney Tunes among ABC, Warner Bros. and others channels, allowing for the growth across various broadcast networks.

Bleier was born on October 16, 1929 in New York City. After beginning his studies in high school, he attended Syracuse University. The school’s Center for Television and Popular Culture bears his name for his donations to the school after his graduation.

“Edward Bleier was a titan of the communications industry, a visionary who helped build the foundation for so many of the platforms for consuming content that we take for granted today,” Mark Lodato, dean of Syracuse’s Newhouse School of Public Communications, said. “On behalf of the Newhouse community, I would like to extend our sincere condolences to the Bleier family. We are so thankful for his tremendous generosity to Syracuse University, where his legacy will live on at the Bleier Center.”

Bleier was buried at Shaarey Pardes Accabonac Grove Cemetery in East Hampton on October 22. He is survived by his wife, Magda Palacchi Bleier, nieces Julie Moise and Deborah Palacchi and nephews Phillip Edward Blechman and Henry Chase Blechman, who called him the “ultimate mentor” for him. “If there’s any theme to get across, besides being very accomplished and living a broadly encompassing life personally and professionally, he was selfless,” he said

His family requested that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Newhouse School in his honor.