Barbara Walters, who is retiring after 50 years in television today, has had the kind of career that sends writers to their thesauruses, scrabbling around to find another synonym for "legendary" or "pioneering" or "iconic." The scope of her professional life is nearly impossible to sum up coherently. But let's try.
Television news looks the way it does today in large part because of her. She was one of the first people to so fully fuse journalism and celebrity, often looming larger in her interviews than the people she was talking to. And, most importantly, women are taken seriously on TV because people like her battled their way through a deeply sexist world. Walters was the first, and, because she triumphed, there will never be another like her.
Walters herself certainly never intended to make it in television, though she was born into a showbiz family. Her father, Lou, was a nightclub owner who, after several failures, finally managed to open a successful club called the Latin Quarter. Walters' mother was a housewife, and she had a sister, Jackie, who was mentally disabled. (She would later name her adopted daughter Jackie.)
After college, Walters managed to finagle a job at a local NBC station as a PR staffer, before being made a producer. She told an interviewer in 2000 that her first appearance on television came when a model dropped out and she had to fill in during a swimsuit demonstration.
Her career had one of its many strokes of luck when the sole female writer on "Today" left the show. (The thought of having more than one woman writer was anathema.) Walters was hired in her place in 1961, gradually moving to a more prominent on-camera reporting role. She did a segment dressed as a Playboy Bunny, among other things.
She joined the hosting crew on "Today" in 1964, when then-"Today Girl" (for that is what the female hosts on the show were called) Maureen O'Sullivan was deemed incapable of handling political material. From then on, Walters' fame soared.
None other than Gloria Steinem paid tribute to her in 1965: "The shift from the old 'Today Girl'—who was usually a coffee-server and amiable lightweight—to Barbara Walters is the television industry's change of attitude in microcosm."
Not everything had changed, though; the Boston Globe could still get away with calling her "the longest-running girl interviewer and story-getter the 'Today' show has ever had" in 1968. (She was 39.) For the majority of her time on "Today," Walters wasn't even called a co-host of the program; in the early 70s, the New York Times referred to her as "a prominent if supportive member of the 'Today' cast." But it also noted that she was "the only woman in television to occupy such an exalted position on a regular network program of news and commentary."
Her stature grew as the decade progressed, and by 1974, she became the first female co-host on "Today." She stayed until 1976, having interviewed everyone from Henry Kissinger to Judy Garland
Television news looks the way it does today in large part because of her. She was one of the first people to so fully fuse journalism and celebrity, often looming larger in her interviews than the people she was talking to. And, most importantly, women are taken seriously on TV because people like her battled their way through a deeply sexist world. Walters was the first, and, because she triumphed, there will never be another like her.
Walters herself certainly never intended to make it in television, though she was born into a showbiz family. Her father, Lou, was a nightclub owner who, after several failures, finally managed to open a successful club called the Latin Quarter. Walters' mother was a housewife, and she had a sister, Jackie, who was mentally disabled. (She would later name her adopted daughter Jackie.)
After college, Walters managed to finagle a job at a local NBC station as a PR staffer, before being made a producer. She told an interviewer in 2000 that her first appearance on television came when a model dropped out and she had to fill in during a swimsuit demonstration.
Her career had one of its many strokes of luck when the sole female writer on "Today" left the show. (The thought of having more than one woman writer was anathema.) Walters was hired in her place in 1961, gradually moving to a more prominent on-camera reporting role. She did a segment dressed as a Playboy Bunny, among other things.
She joined the hosting crew on "Today" in 1964, when then-"Today Girl" (for that is what the female hosts on the show were called) Maureen O'Sullivan was deemed incapable of handling political material. From then on, Walters' fame soared.
None other than Gloria Steinem paid tribute to her in 1965: "The shift from the old 'Today Girl'—who was usually a coffee-server and amiable lightweight—to Barbara Walters is the television industry's change of attitude in microcosm."
Not everything had changed, though; the Boston Globe could still get away with calling her "the longest-running girl interviewer and story-getter the 'Today' show has ever had" in 1968. (She was 39.) For the majority of her time on "Today," Walters wasn't even called a co-host of the program; in the early 70s, the New York Times referred to her as "a prominent if supportive member of the 'Today' cast." But it also noted that she was "the only woman in television to occupy such an exalted position on a regular network program of news and commentary."
Her stature grew as the decade progressed, and by 1974, she became the first female co-host on "Today." She stayed until 1976, having interviewed everyone from Henry Kissinger to Judy Garland
I guess she really is retiring. She sure interviewed some famous people. It became the status thing to do...be interviewed by Babs.
ReplyDeleteGood article PIC.
Luv, the gorgeous, Bad Genie
It's time , she needs to step down while she's still on top .
ReplyDeleteThank you .
Luv , the long-leg Witchy with the awesome butt ... B-Witchy
Hahahaha and it's all true .