Emilio Jr.

"Azcárraga Vidaurreta was annoyed by his son’s recklessness. Although not too much; on second thought, he had good reasons to accept the boy’s decision. What he wanted most was for his son to become a businessman in his own image. It was not necessary for Emilio Jr. to have a graduation certificate; after all, he himself had not even finished high school. He also feared that if his son, an American by birth, stayed at Culver until graduation, he could be drafted by the United States Army, which maintained the selective draft system after the war. He was also worried about the economic crisis in Mexico. With a devaluation that seemed imminent, it was time to tighten belts, and Don Emilio was surely glad to be able to save the cost of another round trip to Indiana and the inevitable parents’ visit for the graduation ceremony."

"When the Azcárragas sold their holdings in radio, after leaving the film industry, the maneuvers were interpreted by some observers as a reduction of their presence in the media per se. They could not have been more wrong. The family business was simply concentrating on a single medium. In 1959 TSM invested $1.7 million in expanding the geographical reach of its network, and in 1960 it spent even more. Betting on the future, Azcárraga Vidaurreta made every effort to inject resources into the insatiable television business. As Emilio Jr. would recall years later: “My father always told me that television was the mistress and radio was his wife. You gave nothing to radio, and to television everything!”"

"Emilio Jr. made other loyal friends among the TSM executives, learning from his father what was required to establish himself as “the boss.” There was, for example, Aurelio Pérez, who came to TSM in 1955 after having been head of production at Channel 4. That year Pérez got married and felt flattered when Emilio, who was seven years younger, agreed to be his best man. When Pérez returned from his honeymoon, Emilio told him that he was aware that, since his father had died, Aurelio now had to support two households, his mother’s and his own. Therefore, Emilio had decided to grant him a raise. Anticipating his employees’ needs and showing them gestures of generosity, in private, was a gift that the young Azcárraga inherited and that he would practice throughout his life."

"Don Emilio’s favorite was Fernando Diez Barroso. Married to Laura Azcárraga, his eldest daughter, Diez Barroso served as the company’s chief administrator and chief financial officer. Since Othón Vélez Sr. had remained at XEW-Radio and because television had become Azcárraga’s main interest, Diez Barroso once again became Don Emilio’s right-hand man. This hierarchy, together with his undeniable professional talents and his close relationship with the Azcárraga family through his marriage to one of the daughters, made him the apparent heir to the leadership of TSM. In a bitter irony, Diez Barroso had a nickname that Emilio Jr. surely felt ought to be his: The Prince."

"Even though Don Emilio was promoting his son as an executive, he did not give him special treatment in day-to-day work. He was concerned about and disapproved of the playboy turn his son’s life had taken after Gina’s death. Don Emilio thought that the only way his son would mature would be if he put more energy behind the desk and less in bars and bedrooms. Emilio Jr. liked to argue about everything and often interrupted his father, so he was frequently reprimanded: “Don’t be stupid, this is a serious business!” or “Let’s see, Mr. Know-it-all!” On one occasion, Don Emilio explained this strict attitude to a friend: “I demand a lot from my son for two reasons: because he is Emilio and because he is an Azcárraga.”"

"However, differences in loyalties prevailed, and the existence of these power fiefdoms created a divide between TSM’s young executives and artists: their loyalty to Azcárraga Sr. or Azcárraga Jr. typically mirrored that of the executive to whom they reported. This contrast was accentuated by Azcárraga Milmo who, eager to differentiate himself from his father, tended to be tough on the people favored by don Emilio, and vice versa. Over the years, this division within TSM fed the perception that Azcárraga father and Azcárraga son were completely different. Depending on whom one spoke to, don Emilio was a saint, an intelligent and shrewd boss, while his son was a good-for-nothing playboy; or else don Emilio was impatient and intolerant and Emilio Jr. a brilliant but misunderstood young man who had to make immense efforts to free himself from his father’s shadow."

"But Anselmo did fall in love with Mexico. He and his wife Mary stayed for 12 years and had three children. Anselmo wrote copy for radio commercials for JWT, and in his free time directed plays for the English-speaking community theater group. He quickly built a network of contacts in the Mexican media and ventured into Spanish-language theater. Since at that time Emilio Jr. was also dabbling in theater, it was inevitable that their paths would cross. In 1954, Emilio and René became friends. Over the following years, together with Luis de Llano of TSM, they produced various Broadway musicals. Generally, Azcárraga provided the capital, Anselmo produced, and De Llano directed. For those who worked with the trio, René was the diplomat: if Emilio lost his temper with someone, René would smooth things over, waiting until his friend was out of earshot to say, “Don’t worry, what Emilio meant is…”"

"This kind of conflict was advantageous for Anselmo. The former Italian American artilleryman was a fighter by nature and an honorary Hispanic by virtue of the 12 years he lived in Mexico. Driven by an obsession with fairness, a disdain for the conventional, and a zeal against the establishment, Anselmo excelled when everything was against him. Energetic and shrewd, he was also a very persuasive salesman, and he used the high sales figures for UHF converters in San Antonio and Los Angeles as evidence of his stations’ popularity. Don Emilio and Emilio Jr. occasionally traveled to New York to help Anselmo persuade the advertising agents on Madison Avenue and to plan a SIN station to serve that city."

"It has not been clearly determined whether Azcárraga Vidaurreta used the blacklist directly or threatened to use it, and how many of his high-ranking executives, anticipating his wishes, took part in this practice. But in any company run by an autocrat, executives tend to try to reinforce their own sense of power by taking a hard line with their subordinates, emulating certain traits of their boss’s character. This was fully borne out with Emilio Jr. to the point that one day he came to be more feared than his father, and Don Emilio, by contrast, would be remembered as a much gentler boss than he actually was."

"Of all the friends Emilio Jr. made in the 1950s, perhaps the most extraordinary was Reynold Anselmo. Emilio met this American, a short but very energetic man who preferred to be called René, shortly after the creation of TSM. Over the next 30 years, Anselmo proved to be one of the brightest and most original-thinking executives in the Azcárraga empire. He also came to be known as the father of Spanish-language television in the United States and the pioneer of private satellite systems worldwide."