Posted on 05/10/2015 10:35:09 AM PDT by EveningStar
She was a struggling model and he was the host of a TV game show who shyly asked her if she wanted to watch some film clips of his comedy.
It was the first date in 1960 in New York City for the future Joanne Carson and Johnny Carson, long before he became the king of late-night television ...
Joanne Carson, 83, who later in life became a close confidant of Truman Capote, died Friday at home in Los Angeles. She had been in declining health and was in hospice care ...
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
New York Daily News article with more pictures: Joanne Carson, second wife of 'Tonight Show' host Johnny Carson, dead at 84
What we have here.... the man just wont go for new towels
I recall an article on Johnny Carson. All of his wives looked pretty much alike, among other things. Joanne, Joanna, J something.
Johnny was hard to be married to, he drank like a fish, was a mean drunk and had numerous affairs.
Jody, 1st wife, mother of his 3 children.
Specifically, Joan Morrill (Jody) Wolcott
Except for his last wife which her name was Alexis.
Another article I remember is that Carson got rid of his long time producer Freddy something, because Freddy didn’t want Carson to dwell too long on air about the death of Carson’s son.
When Johnny divorced her, she cleaned out his bank account.
Then National Enquirer did one of their commercials with the animated cover story photos, and a smiling Carson was turned into a crosseyed money machine with stacks of greenbacks flying out of his mouth.
Belongs to another time....
In July 1991, Carson paid tribute at the end of a show to his son Ricky Carson, who had died the month before in an automobile accident. De Cordova was aware that the show was going long and gave Carson the "wrap it up sign." This infuriated Carson, and from that point forward de Cordova was no longer permitted to be in the studio during the taping of the show, although he remained the show's executive producer.Source
Author Bill Zehme, who is at work on a book titled Carson the Magnificent, says, “It was when Johnny returned to the air after his son Ricky died. I’ve studied that tape like the Zapruder film, where Carson did this tribute at the end of the show, talking about his son, a nature photographer, who had died when he was shooting on a mountain and his car rolled over him and took him down the mountain. So Carson goes through a normal show with no mention until the very end. He’s clearly going a little bit long with the tribute, but there are all these majestic nature shots, and Carson is talking about his son—heart-wrenching. Carson was never so naked on the air. And then his eyes start darting over to where Freddie is, and you can see a little register of annoyance. I learned later that Fred was over there actually giving him the ‘Wrap it up’ sign [to indicate that the show was running over]. That was July 1991, so what happened next was Johnny exploded in the after-show meeting in his office. He took Freddie off the floor, and he was never allowed back on. That was the deathblow.Source
Forgiveness was never Johnny’s strong point. A few years ago, you could have asked Joan Rivers about that. He lived on top of the Hollywood game for decades, and for the things he wanted, power, respect, praise, he did not need to show humility or largeness of the heart.
I just remembered watching the show one night, and Doc Severinsen took time to ask for viewers help to find his daughter’s missing dog at some college in PA.
“May your only son be caught up in a gay swine stampede.”
I miss Carson.
| Alexandra (Alexis) Maas | (20 June 1987 - 23 January 2005) (his death) |
| Joanna Carson | (30 September 1972 - 30 August 1985) (divorced) |
| Joanne Carson | (17 August 1963 - 21 June 1972) (divorced) |
| Joan Morrill (Jody) Wolcott | (1 October 1949 - 25 May 1963) (divorced) (3 children) |
I remember a “Best of Carson” clip where a person who was a’foot-reader’ was on the Tonight Show in the early 60’s. Johnny took off his shoe & sock and let her read his foot. In one part of the reading, she said something like, “I see your marriage line. You’ll be married to four wives”. Johnny then cried out “Oh, sh*t!” (which was bleeped) and pretended to fall over in a faint. The audience roared, of course.
Turns out...she was right.
One of my best friend’s sister and her husband were best friends with Johnny Carson. She used to visit them out in LA and Carson would come over always in a tennis outfit as he was a tennis maniac and they had a court. He was very shy and introverted in real life. Nothing like when on screen.
RIP.
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