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Johnny Carson: the story on HearLore | HearLore
Johnny Carson
John William Carson was born on the 23rd of October 1925 in Corning, Iowa, but his life took a dramatic turn when he joined the United States Navy on the 8th of June 1943. While serving in the Pacific theater, he arrived on the battleship Pennsylvania on the 14th of August 1945, the exact day Imperial Japan announced its surrender. The ship had been damaged by a torpedo bomber attack prior to his arrival, and Carson was assigned to damage control with a grim task: supervising the removal of the bodies of 20 servicemen who had been dead for eighteen days. He later recounted this experience as an awful job that left a lasting impression on him. Despite the somber reality of war, Carson found a way to entertain, performing magic tricks for high-ranking officials including Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal. During a conversation with the Secretary, Carson revealed his desire to become a magician after the war, and when asked to perform, he executed a card trick that amused the sophisticated official. This period also saw Carson post a 15-0-1 amateur boxing record, with most of his bouts fought on board the Pennsylvania, showcasing a duality of violence and entertainment that would define his future career.
From Magic to Monologue
After his military service, Carson attended the University of Nebraska, where he majored in journalism before switching to speech and drama to pursue a career in radio. His college thesis, titled How to Write Comedy for Radio, was a compilation of taped skits and jokes from popular radio shows with Carson explaining the comedic technique in a voice-over, allowing him to graduate in three years. He began his broadcasting career in 1950 at WOW-AM and WOW-TV in Omaha, Nebraska, hosting a morning television program called The Squirrel's Nest. One of his routines involved interviewing pigeons on the roof of the local courthouse that would report on political corruption they had seen. Carson supplemented his income by serving as master of ceremonies at local church dinners, attended by some of the same politicians and civic leaders he had lampooned on the radio. In 1953, comic Red Skelton asked Carson to join his show as a writer, and the following year, Skelton accidentally knocked himself unconscious during rehearsal, an hour before his live show began. Carson successfully filled in for him, marking a pivotal moment in his transition from a local magician to a national television personality.
The Tonight Show Takeover
Carson's success on Who Do You Trust? led NBC to invite him to take over Tonight a few months before Jack Paar's departure in 1962. Carson initially declined the offer because he feared the difficulty of interviewing celebrities for 105 minutes each day, and other comedians like Bob Newhart, Jackie Gleason, Groucho Marx, and Joey Bishop also declined. NBC finally convinced Carson to sign by early February 1962, and he became the host of Tonight on the 1st of October 1962. After a difficult first year, he overcame his fears, and his version of the show eventually did very well in the ratings. McMahon followed Carson from Who Do You Trust? as his announcer and sidekick, and Skitch Henderson was installed as the maestro of the NBC Orchestra. McMahon's famous introduction, Heeeeere's Johnny, was followed by a brief monologue by Carson. This was often followed by comedy sketches, interviews, and live music. Carson's trademark was a phantom golf swing at the end of his monologues, aimed stage left toward the orchestra, a gesture that guest hosts sometimes parodied. Paul Anka wrote The Tonight Show's theme song, Johnny's Theme, a reworking of his Toot Sweet, and Carson claimed fifty percent of the song's performance royalties, though the lyrics were never used.
When was Johnny Carson born and where did he grow up?
John William Carson was born on the 23rd of October 1925 in Corning, Iowa. He later attended the University of Nebraska where he majored in journalism before switching to speech and drama.
What happened to Johnny Carson when he served in the United States Navy?
Johnny Carson joined the United States Navy on the 8th of June 1943 and arrived on the battleship Pennsylvania on the 14th of August 1945. He was assigned to damage control and supervised the removal of the bodies of 20 servicemen who had been dead for eighteen days.
When did Johnny Carson start hosting The Tonight Show?
Johnny Carson became the host of The Tonight Show on the 1st of October 1962 after NBC convinced him to sign by early February 1962. He initially declined the offer because he feared the difficulty of interviewing celebrities for 105 minutes each day.
How much money did Johnny Carson earn by the mid-1970s?
By the mid-1970s, Johnny Carson had become the highest-paid personality on television, earning about $4 million a year. This amount did not include his nightclub appearances and other businesses.
What happened when Uri Geller appeared on The Tonight Show in 1973?
Johnny Carson and magician James Randi orchestrated an appearance for Uri Geller on the 1st of May 1972 to debunk his claimed paranormal powers. The attempt backfired and made Geller a household name according to an article by Adam Higginbotham on the 7th of November 2014.
When did Johnny Carson retire and when did he die?
Johnny Carson retired from show business on the 22nd of May 1992 at age 66 when he stepped down as host of The Tonight Show. He died on the 23rd of January 2005 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles of respiratory failure arising from emphysema.
On the 1st of May 1972, The Tonight Show moved from 30 Rockefeller Plaza to the NBC Studios in Burbank, California, because of the studio's proximity to celebrities. From 1980, Carson stopped hosting five shows per week, leaving Mondays for a guest host, and reducing his workload from four to three nights each week. Shows were videotaped in Burbank at 5:30 pm, fed from there to the Central and Eastern Time Zone stations via cross-country television line at 8:30 pm Pacific time, and later sent from Burbank to the Pacific Time Zone stations at 11:30 pm Pacific time. Although Carson's work schedule became more abbreviated, The Tonight Show remained so successful that his compensation from NBC continued to rise; by the mid-1970s, he had become the highest-paid personality on television, earning about $4 million a year, not including nightclub appearances and his other businesses. Carson refused many offers to appear in films, including title roles in The Thomas Crown Affair and Gene Wilder's role in Blazing Saddles, and he also declined director Martin Scorsese's offer to co-star with Robert De Niro in the 1983 film The King of Comedy.
The Phantom Golf Swing and Satire
Carson played several continuing characters on sketches during the show, including Art Fern, the Tea Time Movie announcer, whose theme song was Hooray for Hollywood. Carson once admitted on camera that this was his favorite character, based on late-afternoon movie broadcasts and TV hosts who delivered live commercials throughout the movie. Each sketch usually featured three long commercials interrupted by four-second clips from old silent films. When the camera returned from each clip, Art was always caught off-guard and immediately reminded viewers that they were watching a film favorite. The movies always had unlikely casts and even less likely titles, such as Slim Pickens, Patti Page, Duke Wayne, and Charlton Heston in another classic Western: Kiss My Saddle Horn. Carson finally settled on a nasal, high-pitched, smarmy drone, reminiscent of Jackie Gleason's Reginald Van Gleason III character. The sketch was renamed Tea Time Movie and the host became Art Fern, wearing a lavish toupee, loud jackets, and a pencil mustache. Actress Carol Wayne became famous for her 100-plus appearances as Art's buxom assistant, the Matinée Lady, and Carson used these sketches to poke fun at the intricate Los Angeles interstate system, using a pointer and map to give confusing directions to shoppers, often including points where he would unfold the cardboard map to point out, via the appropriate picture, when the shopper would arrive at the fork in the road.
The Uri Geller Debacle
In 1973, television personality and self-proclaimed psychic Uri Geller appeared on The Tonight Show. In the NOVA documentary, James Randi , Secrets of the Psychics, magician and skeptical activist James Randi recalls that Carson had been a magician himself and was skeptical of Geller's claimed paranormal powers, and so, prior to the date of taping, Randi was personally asked to help prevent any trickery. Per Randi's advice, the show's staff prepared its own props without informing Geller and did not let Geller or his staff anywhere near them. When Geller joined Carson on stage, he appeared surprised that he was not going to be interviewed, but instead was expected to display his abilities using the provided articles. Geller was unable to display any paranormal abilities, saying, I don't feel strong and expressing displeasure at feeling like he was being pressed to perform by Carson. However, ironically, this appearance on The Tonight Show, which Carson and Randi had orchestrated to debunk Geller's claimed abilities, backfired. According to Adam Higginbotham's the 7th of November 2014, article in The New York Times, the incident became a classic study of how rumors spread, and Carson's attempt to expose a fraud ended up making Geller a household name.
The Private Man and Public Persona
Despite his on-camera demeanor, Carson was introverted off-camera. He avoided most parties and was called the most private public man who ever lived. Dick Cavett recalled, I felt sorry for Johnny in that he was so socially uncomfortable. I've hardly ever met anybody who had as hard a time as he did. In addition, George Axelrod once said of Carson, Socially, he doesn't exist. The reason is that there are no television cameras in living rooms. If human beings had little red lights in the middle of their foreheads, Carson would be the greatest conversationalist on Earth. Musician John Oates later similarly recalled that he was very subdued. But the moment the countdown started, three, two, one, and the lights came on the camera, he was Johnny Carson. He was like, boom. It was that pencil-tapping thing with the coffee mug. And then the moment they went to a commercial, it was like he just stopped. He normally refused to discuss politics, social controversies, his childhood, and his private life with interviewers, and offered a list of pre-written answers to inquiring journalists, suggesting that they append their own questions to them. Among the answers were Yes, I did, Not a bit of truth in that rumor, and No, kumquats.
The Final Curtain and Legacy
Carson retired from show business on the 22nd of May 1992, at age 66, when he stepped down as host of The Tonight Show. His farewell was a major media event, often emotional for Carson, his colleagues, and the audiences, and stretched over several nights. In tribute to Carson and his enormous influence, several networks that had late-night variety talk shows went dark for the entire hour he did the last show. After 13 tries, The Tonight Show finally won the Emmy for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series later that year, buoyed by the penultimate broadcast, which featured Johnny's final two guests, Robin Williams and Bette Midler. NBC gave the role of host to the show's then-current permanent guest host, Jay Leno. Leno and David Letterman were soon competing on separate networks. Carson died on the 23rd of January 2005, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles of respiratory failure arising from emphysema. His body was cremated, and the ashes were given to his wife, Alexis Maas. In accordance with his family's wishes, no public memorial service was held. Carson was also survived by his younger brother, Dick, who was an Emmy Award-winning director of, among other things, the competing Merv Griffin Show and Wheel of Fortune. Numerous tributes were paid to Carson upon his death, including a statement by then-president George W. Bush, all recognizing the deep and enduring affection held for him.