Roger Ailes: Off Camera (23 page)

Bob and Donna Ailes with their three children, Robert Jr. (Rob), Roger, and Donna Jean (Jeannie), at home in Warren.

Roger Ailes at sixteen. Despite suffering from hemophilia, his dream was to become a combat pilot.

Out of college, Ailes started working for
The Mike Douglas Show.
He became executive producer of the show at age twenty-five. From left to right: Roger Ailes, Mike Douglas, and Chet Collier.

In the 1970s, Ailes spent a few years as a Broadway producer. One of his plays,
The Hot l Baltimore
, won three Obies and a New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best American Play of 1973. Here, Roger is backstage at
The Night That Made America Famous
with composer Harry Chapin and actress Kelly Garrett.

Ailes and Richard Nixon met on the set of
The Mike Douglas Show.
Ailes later became Nixon’s TV campaign producer and changed the way presidential politics was televised.

Ailes was called in to coach Ronald Reagan for his crucial second debate in the 1984 presidential campaign.

In George H. W. Bush’s 1988 campaign, Roger Ailes was strategist, morale officer, and the producer of some of the most effective ads in political history.

Roger and Rupert, a partnership that revolutionized television news.

Ailes eased out Glenn Beck, replaced him with an amiable ensemble talk show, and kept control of the five o’clock slot. Here, Ailes is with members of Fox News’
The Five
. From left to right: Kimberly Guilfoyle, Bob Beckel, Andrea Tantaros, Eric Bolling, and Dana Perino.

Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly (here with pundit Monica Crowley). They turned the eight p.m. show slot into a goldmine.

Friendship before politics: Roger Ailes with Barbara Walters and columnist Liz Smith.

Former New York City mayor David Dinkins and Reverend Jesse Jackson at the 2012 graduation ceremony of the Ailes Apprentice Program. Jackson delivered the keynote address.

In 1998, Roger married Elizabeth Tilson. They met as colleagues at CNBC.