The trailblazing late-night show host Johnny Carson's life is pieced together in a new biography "Carson the Magnificent."
For decades, Carson dominated late-night television with "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson" on NBC. Carson would go on to win six Emmys, the Television Academy's 1980 Governor's Award and a Peabody Award. He ruled late night for 30 years, ending his long-running show in 1992. He died in 2005 at 79 from emphysema.
Despite the success, much of the television personality's personal life was tightly guarded from the public. "Carson the Magnificent" written by Bill Zehme (who passed while writing the book, which was later taken on by Mike Thomas) sheds light on Carson's personal life and relationships with his ex-wives.
The book dives into the inner world of one of the most famous talk show hosts in American history:
According to a review of "Carson the Magnificent" by The New York Times, before Carson became the notable late-night show host, he was drafted into the U.S. Navy during World War II. He was only 18. The Times reported that Carson narrowly missed serving on the U.S.S. Pennsylvania. In an unpublished transcript for a Time article, Carson "told of having to bring up the decomposing bodies of felled soldiers."
During the '50s and '60s, Carson was married to Jody Wolcott, with whom he had three children. According to the biography, the pair reportedly had a very volatile relationship. An excerpt published from Page Six reveals that Carson and Wolcott's marriage was littered with infidelities.
“There would be boozy rows aplenty — some in front of other couples — or long silent stews of resentment or recrimination or shame,” wrote Zehme. “Alcohol (while hardly a constant in their early years) was a friend to neither man nor wife; whenever lit, they would both act out, very badly.”
Zehme explained that if Carson was under the influence, he would go on a “rampage, and whomever he had been only moments prior would be instantly displaced by an unrecognizable hellion . . . Occasionally he would wake the next day to discover that some such havoc had bruised the flesh of his sons’ mother.”
Carson would face other challenges in his life. In 1991, his middle child with Wolcott, Richard Carson tragically died in a car accident after his vehicle tumbled down an embankment during a nature photography session. Richard was only 39.
In the biography, it is detailed that Carson is a long-time avoider of funerals. He did not attend his son's memorial because “I don’t want it to turn into a circus,” he said.
Carson's second marriage to Joanne Copeland lasted nine years, ending in 1972. However, similar issues noted in Carson's marriage with Wolcott seemingly were apparent in his marriage to Copeland. According to Zehme, Copeland shared that Carson became "two different people" when he would drink.
“He became a tiger. He went over to beer for a while, thinking it wouldn’t happen, and it was just as bad. It didn’t make a difference. He had a low tolerance. He had blackouts,” she said.
Copeland recalled an instance where Carson ripped off bed sheets from a sleeping Copeland when he came home.
“He’d say, ‘I’m working my a** off and you’re sleeping in bed.’ This is three in the morning. I was dealing with two people. He had a tremendous anger about women that would come out,” she said. She recalled that Carson would feel apologetic for his behavior but would never change.
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After his divorce from Copeland in 1972, Carson married his third wife Joanna Holland the same year. The late-night personality still struggled with his drinking but it would soon come to a breaking point.
Holland shared in an interview, "During that black drunk phase, I was scared. Sometimes anything could set him off. Those were the scary times.”
In 1982, Carson would plead no contest to a misdemeanor count for driving over the legal limit. He was fined $600 and placed on probation for three years. The pair got a divorce in 1985.
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