Podcast Episode Details

Johnny Carson, The King Of Comedy (Part Two)

The dark reality behind the persona of one of America’s most beloved public figures.

On August 17, 1963, Carson, possibly feeling more secure professionally with more than a year under his belt at the new show, married his longtime girlfriend, Joanne Carson.  This despite years of fighting publicly, acrimonious vacations in which one of them left and went home early and numerous friends and acquaintances advising them not to tie the knot.  Even the ceremony and reception were odd.  Only a tiny number of participants witnessed the actual marriage, the couple’s parents not even invited.  The reception included only a few more individuals and was held at Johnny’s apartment, the guests mostly Tonight Show related staff like bandleader Skitch Henderson and producer Art Stark. 

Joanna Carson was a former fashion model who had spent much of her life in the rarified company of extremely wealthy, sophisticated, older men.  Her companion before Johnny was the CEO and chairman of the Hertz Rent a Car corporation.  Johnny, still essentially a scotch drinking steak and potatoes Midwesterner, began to acquire a more diverse outlook courtesy of his latest wife.  Completely uninterested up to that point in travel, he began his annual pilgrimage to the Wimbledon tennis championships, featured prominently on the NBC broadcast back to the US.  He typically followed that up with several weeks on the Cap D’Antibes along the French Riviera, enjoying the fact that he went mostly unrecognized.  Instead of hard liquor he began to temper his alcohol intake with a fine Bordeaux or Montrachet.  But one constant, despite a well appointed Bel Air residence on St. Cloud Road, the Carsons never threw parties and were rarely seen socially, their house again a secluded refuge to escape from public exposure.

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Published on 2 years, 3 months ago