Carol Burnett Interview: Overcoming Rejection, Finding Success & Becoming a Comedy Legend

can you see the site both of you oh love your nails marker so let's start with can you tell me about um where you grew up and what your family was like well I my first memories are being in Texas when I was a little bitty thing and I remember we lived in an old house kind of like a plantation house with a wrap around porch and the sidewalk in front of the house was cracked and it but was buckled and I used to roller skate on there and then on the sidewalk and I lived with my grandmother my folks had come out to California and uh so I was with my grand my maternal grandmother nanny I remember I would roller skate on that sidewalk and fall and you know bloody my knees and she'd take after me with the iodine and I'd be screaming and finally it was decided that I could roller skate in the house and so there was a hallway leading down to the front porch screen and it was a little bit slanted and so I'd kind of feel my way up to the top and then roll down and stop my self on the screen and I went back to the old house years later and visited it they let me come in and the family that was there and uh the skate marks were still there they said they'd tried to buff them out for a year and then they gave up and what's really nice is that that was in San Antonio and uh they moved the old house they were going to tear it down and build a parking lot or something but the mayor got in on it and some other people and they moved the old house and it's going to be an education facility for uh kids young young kids that might be at risk or have a problem or anything you know and they're going to dedicate it I think next next year in April or something and I'm going to go back I agree yeah um what were your parents expectations of you as I don't know that they had any expectations of me my mother was beautiful my dad was handsome he always reminded me of Jimmy Stewart but they came out to California when I was very little and left me with my grandmother because they had a Hollywood dream then they got divorced and then my grandmother and I followed my mother out here when I was seven out here to California and we moved into a building in Hollywood a block North of Hollywood Boulevard and my mother had a room down the hall and my grandmother and I had a room right adjacent to the lobby and it was one room with a Murphy pull-down bed and I slept on the couch so but my mother she had dreams of being a she wanted to interview and write stories about movie stars you know and she did do a couple of things a freelance for the magazines which are now extinct pick magazine and Colliers and she did a story on Bob Hope and another one on Rita Hayworth I don't know and so forth and but unfortunately my dad had the disease of alcoholism he was just sweet I mean it just but he he couldn't control it and then my mother became an alcoholic so my dreams or whatever I wanted to do she would encourage me to be a writer which I loved doing and I became editor of my junior high school and high school Hollywood High newspapers and I thought I would go into a career in journalism I was kind of I surprised myself when I didn't so where did these dreams come from that you had well I had dreams first about being a cartoonist and having my own comic strip I would draw at the drop of a hat then I thought well I'll be a journalist like my mother wants me to be and I we always sang my mother and grandmother and I around the kitchen table the linoleum cover on it and Mom would mama would play the ukulele and we would sing and so there was always music around the in the house and uh so I got to UCLA and I was going to major in journalism but duh they didn't have a school of Journal a major for journalism so I took the course but then I majored in Theater Arts English to take the playwriting courses but if you're in Theater Arts and you're a freshman you not only have to take you have to take acting you have to take scenery you have to take lighting sound and I learned how to build a flat and costuming and stuff like that well I got to have the acting class and I got up and did a couple of scenes and they laughed where they were supposed to and I thought this is really fun this is a lot more fun than what I had been thinking of doing at least and then a friend came up to me on campus I was a freshman at UCLA and he was in the music department and he asked if I could carry a tune and I said yeah you know so he put me in a scene that they were doing from South Pacific as one of the chorus nurse nurses I was so loud he took me out of it but then he and I did a scene together from Guys and Dolls so the first time I ever sang in public was Adelaide in Guys and Dolls but I I did it okay I mean I was I was pretty good at it because she the character when she sings Adelaide's Lament has a cold so I thought oh good if I hit a clam and it's bad I can always cough or sneeze and make it you know it would be because she had a cold that she sounds like that so I was very brave with that song and that got me going with musical comedy was that the first time at UCLA that you remember making someone laugh the first time I made someone laugh actually I was in a junior high school play that our Drama teacher wrote and I played a wisecracking gum chewing maid and I just had like one scene but it was kind of funny and but I still didn't cut into it that much it was until I got to UCLA that uh see I I was what one would call a nerd in high school and so here I was in the journalism class and the editor of the school paper and I got good grades and stuff but I was not one of the popular ones at all and so when I got to UCLA and some of the big people on campus came up and said we saw you in that Opera Workshop the musical comedy Workshop senior did and we saw you in this one act you did uh gosh will you come and have lunch with us and these were like seniors here I am a freshman you know whoa I like this I I started to get popular and I thought you know I I'm quoting Sally Field they like me they really like me and so I was hooked well let me ask you though because here you are you're growing up in you know um difficult circumstances and yet you go to UCLA how did that happen or how did you even know or dream of that I dreamed about going to UCLA from the time I was a junior at Hollywood High and uh we couldn't afford it because it was 43 dollars for a semester and our rent was a dollar a day thirty dollars a month and we were on welfare and my grandmother said you're crazy you can't we don't have that money go to Woodbury uh Woodbury college for whatever and learn to be a secretary and then you can NAB the boss that's my grandmother she was married six times she was always trying to NAB somebody you know and but I wanted to go to UCLA and the weirdest thing is this happened to me a couple of times in my life since I knew I would go uh it wasn't I was wishing that I had faith it was a known fact I visualized myself on campus and it hadn't happened yet but I was not fearful and one morning our door was right facing the lobby and there was a pigeonhole mailbox above the manager's desk where we could I'd look out and see if we had any letters in our slot so this one morning I saw a letter and I ran across and got it and came back into the apartment or the room and opened it up oh it had my name and address type on the envelope and a stamp but it hadn't been canceled by the post office so it was stamped and somebody just put it in the slot I opened it up and out came a 50 dollar bill swear to God to this day I do not know who put that in there none of our friends had that kind of money the it was a poor neighborhood my girl my best girlfriend was living with her grandmother they were on welfare everybody was struggling and there was this and there there it was that was my ticket to UCLA where did your obsession with Hollywood and Broadway come from well my grandmother and I lived a block North of Hollywood Boulevard and when she could save up enough to go to the movies we would go and we would go to the second runs which were double features and sometimes we went as many uh times as four times a week which meant I saw eight movies a week at times growing up so I fell in love with Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney and Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth and uh Gene Kelly and Fred all you know all of them just uh and uh I would sometimes come home and my girlfriend Isla May and I would act out the movie that we might have seen and so I was always Betty Grable and she was always June Haver you know they were they were stars of a movie called the dolly sisters and so we would do that sometimes I'd be Mickey and she'd be Judy and so that's where I expressed myself but I certainly didn't do it in front of my mother my grandmother it was really with the Kids on the Block and uh so I got hooked on that and then when I went to UCLA I tried out for the varsity show and got the lead in that it was an original and but then we would do scenes in our musical comedy class from Broadway musicals so it was kind of a cross-section and so it was great for me when I got my own show because that's exactly what I wanted to do Musical takeoffs and movie takeoffs perfect um the odds were so stacked against you there where did that fire in the belly come from that made you so successful the fire in the belly has to be there I've known so many wonderfully talented people and I wondered I used to wonder why why didn't they go any farther some of these that I went to school with some I was in a class with um uh in New York they didn't have they took the rejection uh I was rejected a lot but I always thought and felt that okay if this girl in the blue dress gets it and I'm in my pink dress or whatever and she gets it and I don't it's because it's her turn so I knew when it's my turn it would happen I so I was never uh upset about it I knew something good would come I didn't know when or what although I did when my classmates at UCLA gave me a party a going away party when I was going to go to New York and they said okay Carol tell us what you're going to do and I said well my first professional job will be in a Broadway musical and it will be directed by George Abbott who was the top musical comedy director at that time and that's what happened and that was this another time when I had seen myself on campus at UCLA and that happened I saw myself talking with Mr Abbott and he was giving me a direction and I I knew that would happen now how did you get though once again here you are at UCLA you're a struggling student you come up with this idea of going to New York how do you make that happen I got to New York uh in it was the summer of 1954. and I'd always said I wanted to go to New York because that's where the musicals were I wanted to be Ethel Merman or Mary Martin or that kind of person you know and uh but we had no money and uh so I was in this musical comedy workshop and I was doing a scene from Annie Get Your Gun and our professor there were nine of us in the class and our professor excuse me my nose age and our professor said that they were going to a black tie party in San Diego a big Gala thing and that if we could get down there the class and do our scenes as entertainment for the party he would grade us then so we had a caravan of course going down to San Diego and I did my scene from Annie Get Your Gun and then I went to the hors d'oeuvre table and I remember they had lovely hors d'oeuvres and I put a napkin there and I was stealing hors d'oeuvres to take home to my grandmother and I was wrapping them in the napkin I was going to put them in my purse and there's a tap on my shoulder and I said oh my God I'm busted and turned around and it was a gentleman and his wife Black Tie all very nice and he said we really enjoyed you and I said thank you very much he said so what do you want to do with your life I said well someday I want to be able to go to New York and be in musical comedy and shows on Broadway he said March in New York now and I said I yeah I'd love to but I I have to save up to go and he said I'll lend you the money Adam blue and uh he said be in my office he gave me his card a week from Monday and I'll lend you the money to go so I thought maybe he'd had a little too much champagne but I called him that Monday and he said yes I remember come down come on down so I went and he had this huge office in La Jolla California and I went in and he had this huge sitting behind his huge desk and he said okay there I'm going to lend you a thousand dollars now our rent was thirty dollars a month so you can imagine what that number sounded like to me that that was like today giving me 10 million dollars you know and uh he said now there are stipulations to this you pay it back if you're successful within five five years no interest you'd use this money to go to New York on this is why I'm lending it to you you must promise never to reveal my name and also to help other people out in the business when you can if you can and okay so I went home and I showed my grandmother the money and she was having she was feeling her pulse having a heart attack and she said well you can't you're not gonna take this and go to New York you know what we can do with all this money I said nanny I I promised the gentleman that I was going to use this to go to New York that's what I I have to do so that was June and then July it took me all the time to kind of get prepared I used some of the money I had to have a wisdom tooth pulled so I used some of the money for that and I got a plane ticket and left in August of 1954. so take me on that first ride into New York City what are you think you've never been there before it's this overwhelming City but here it is at your feet and your dreams are there well I landed and got a bus to take me into the city now here's where I was so naive but the good Lord was looking out for me I didn't even have a plan of where I was going to stay but on the plane I was reading the New Yorker and I saw an ad for the Algonquin Hotel which was where the round table you know all those witty people sat and uh all those years ago and so I thought well I'll go to the Algonquin Hotel so I got I had a cardboard suitcase and I got out and walked from the bus Port Authority I think it was and walked to the Algonquin found it easily it was nine dollars a day for a room and I thought oh my God what am I gonna do but anyway I I checked in and uh I started to cry I thought you know we're and then I thought then I'm a nut for rain and every time I've had something that was going to be difficult to deal with and it rained uh I wasn't afraid anymore will the rain started coming and whipping around in the wind and da da da you know and I closed the window and it's really pelting and I turned on the hotel the radio in my room the name of the hurricane was Carol I'm gonna be okay I know I'm gonna be okay and I was going through my wallet and checking my money and I had a slip of paper with a girl's name on it that had been ahead of me at UCLA and she was in the musical comedy Department her name was Eleanor EBY and I had her phone number we hadn't been that close in college because she was four years older than I was and she was a senior when I was new and but I had her number she said if you ever get to New York call me and I called her and she said where are you I said I'm at the Algonquin Hotel she oh my God she said get out of there with it please come here I said where's here she lived at a in a townhouse called the rehearsal Club which housed young ladies interested in the theater and she said get get over here and I'll introduce you to the uh the lady who runs the house here and see if we can get you a bed and I went in and I met the lady her name was Miss Carlton she was very sweet she said that the rules are uh you know they're very strict and no gentleman passed the Parlor and you must be actively pursuing auditions and you know on your classes and stuff like that and she so I went into a big room with five five beds five Tots in it so there were five of us in this one room and it was caused a Transit room and if you would graduate you could go to another room on another floor where you may only have one roommate so there I was with these five girls and with four other girls and uh it was 18 a week room and board so that then I got a part-time job because I knew I had to earn some money to even pay 18 a week and I got a part-time job as a hat check girl in a ladies tea room well not too many women check their hats again not too bright but I checked packages and things like that and there was an oyster bar downstairs where the men would go eat and but they had hooks for their coats but I would try to grab them before they went downstairs take your coat sir take your coat and I remember uh I had a little bit of my grandmother and me uh when a man would leave me his coat you know the little thing in the back that you hang up well I had little pair of scissors and a thread you know a spool of thread I would clip it so it would be loose and then I would sew it with a different color and so when he came when the man would come up I'd say oh sir this was came apart and I fixed it for you I'd get an extra dime so I get 35 cents instead of a quarter so what was your first big break how did you find an agent for instance well I was living at the rehearsal club and I was going to different places and trying to get an agent and you can't get an agent unless you're in something you can't get in something it's a catch-22. so this one night it was raining and all my roommates were out on a date and it was raining and I was reading the paper on my cot and I saw an ad for the pajama game directed by George Abbott and in the pajama game one of the Stars was a man named Eddie Floyd Jr and in Hollywood there was a neighbor we had his name was Jack Shea who played extra bit Parts in movies and at one point he told me he was in a movie with Eddie Ford Jr and what a nice guy he was and so I remembered that I thought I'm just gonna walk down to that Theater tonight and I put on my raincoat and galoshes and went down to where pajama game was playing it was about quarter of 11 at night so it was they were getting into the finale and pouring down right I looked like a poor in Baxter in All About Eve and I knocked and knocked on the stage door and this old guy opened the door pops yeah they used to call him that in the movies he said yeah kid way to get it or you know what are you doing here I said well I'm here to see Eddie he said oh you know Eddie and I said well I'm from California you know so he said well wait a minute they're taking their bows now so I saw Carol Haney Run by and John Wright run by and Janice page and then there was Eddie and he said pop said hey Eddie this kid wants to wants to talk to you so he said yeah kid and he had a towel around his neck and he said what can I do for you I said well Mr Floyd I Know Jack Shane he said that he was in a movie with you and that you were a really nice guy and I've been trying to get an agent but I can't get an agent unless I'm in something and I can't get in anything unless I have an age and I was just hoping that maybe you might have an idea he said well uh he said do you sing I said yeah but I can't read music he said do you dance I said I can jitterbug he said I was gonna hope that maybe I could get you an audition for the chorus here I said well I I'm I'm not good enough for the chorus I would have to have a featured role why he didn't last me right out onto the street I don't know see he was not a singer and he was kind of an eccentric dancer but he had a great featured role and so I was just thinking well I could do that and he said okay uh give me your phone number and I gave him the the rehearsal Club phone number and he said I'll call you tomorrow and he did and it was a phone on the wall in the club and uh he said okay here's where you go I to my agent and uh and so Lester sure was his agent and so now I could get past the receptionist because my name was on the books and I went into Mr sharer's office and I took my uh scrapbook College scrapbook full of good reviews you know imitation leather red scrapbook and he looked through and he said oh that's very nice he says so let me know when you're in something I said but I can't he said well go put on your own show that's it okay now I'm going back to Mickey and Judy movies they put on a show in the barn and went to Broadway you know so I went back to the club and called a meeting with all 25 girls and said gang let's put on a show I mean I was so naive but we did and we put on a show and we sent out invitations to every producer director agent in town on a penny postcard and that was their ticket to get in you know and we said you know we you always say let us know when you're in something well we we're we're in and we did the show for three nights at the Carl Fisher concert hall on 57th Street and they all came everybody came and I got an agent out of that so you had a lot of hoodsville where did that come from I think the the reason I was able to do all of this was because I was raised on movies that uh that everybody was so positive and there was always a happy ending and there was no cynicism really the heaviest you got was Warner Brothers movies with Joan Crawford and Betty Davis you know and uh so I it just occurred to me as I said it occurred to me that uh when this agent said put on your own show sure today I don't think anybody not too many people would take that advice seriously because everyone said oh that can't be done but so being naive I didn't know it couldn't be done and so it could be done now you do it on YouTube though right a little bit different yes so get an agent you start getting job after job how do you get a show when I was just starting out and I got an agent and I got jobs here and there I was on The Ed Sullivan Show and different shows like that and the Jack Parr show and I worked in at the Blue Angel nightclub and um so I then uh was offered by Gary Moore who had a variety show at the time to be a regular performer on his show Martha Ray the wonderful comedian was to be his guest one week and she got very sick laryngitis and everything and Gary knew my work and so they called me to come in and fill for Martha and I had only like two days to learn all of the stuff and so after that Gary decided to ask me to be a regular performer on his show that was a major major break for me and at the same time I was doubling in an Off-Broadway show directed by George Abbott called once upon a mattress so I had I was really going well it was going well and so when I left Gary's show um CBS wanted to sign me to a 10-year contract which would require my doing two guest appearances on one of their sitcoms or whatever and one special a year and so that was a 10-year contract but it also had the caveat that if I decided if I decided within the first five years of that contract that I wanted to do a one-hour show of my own they would have to put it on or they would have to pay me for 31 hour shows so I thought I'll never want to host my own show forget that you know so uh and my husband Joe and I moved out to California and I had two two kids and um so but we we weren't doing well it was as as if you want to say as hot as I was I was as cold as yesterday's mashed potatoes at this time so we had put a down payment on a house here in California and we weren't sure how we were going to make all the payments or anything and uh we were kind of sitting on packing boxes and it was December of the fifth year and Joe looked at me and he said you know maybe we better push that button and I said oh okay I called the CBS people in New York and they said hey Carol Merry Christmas how's it going it was just a week before that the year would Pat the fifth year I said oh great um you know I want to push that button that Clause that says it I have to I can do a variety show if I want to and there was this pause what I said yeah it's in the contract oh great um well we'll get back to you so I'm sure a lot of lawyers were called out of Christmas parties that week right and they went over the contract and sure enough and so uh the CBS executive called me back he said Carol you know uh the variety is not really a woman's game no woman has ever done a comedy variety show Dinah's did a variety show but that was all singing mostly and stuff you know we've got a great pilot for you to do called here's Agnes I could just say here's Agnes you know I want to do the same character week after week I said variety is my love that's what I did on Gary's show that's what I know the best to have dancers and singers and music and guest stars and do sketches and do all different things you know oh well so they had to put it on the air and I remember Joe my husband went back to New York to meet with the executive and behind the executive's desk was a big board with cards uh on it about the future shows and what was going to happen in February or March or what was going on you know and in our time slot come February there was a question mark which meant they had no faith they had no faith in us and I've well you know we've got what I wanted and now what I need is a rep company and that's when we went on the search for Harvey and got him he had been on the Danny K show he was the second banana on that and I just thought he was brilliant and so we were able to get him and Vicky and Lyle is a handsome announcer and then we started having Tim Conway as a frequent guest and then finally the penny dropped and we signed him on as a regular weekly but so this was a big risk for you I mean here you are you're a woman you're heading up your own show you must have been nervous as hell I was very nervous at first but not so much so that I would have thought oh gosh we're going to fail or anything like that it was like how to get it going uh and uh I I knew I'd be accepted I knew that because uh Gary show uh being on that show so everybody knew me and so and then uh our producer Bob Banner uh said Carol you know what you have to do is you've got to let the audience know you personally before you get into the show and with all the wigs and the changes and different characters and I said well how do I do what do you mean he said well now Gary Moore used to go out in front of his audience and have them asking questions he didn't want a warm-up person he said sometimes those jokes are risque or they're funnier than what we're going to be doing so he would but they never taped it it was he was the warm-up guy on his own show and I used to sit backstage and listen to him back back those answers and he was just so so on the on the money you know and I I was amazed at how he could do that so Bob said this is what you should do only we'll tape it I said oh my God I can't do oh no and he said well just try it a couple of weeks we'll try it and see how it goes so I remember that first time I went out and I was really you know I was afraid nobody would ask me a question and then I was afraid they would but it went okay and then after it was on the air and we would come out and I'd start to do that more people who'd seen it started raising their hand and I started to have fun with it and we had some and I never knew what they were going to ask there was no there were no plants in the audience I didn't want that so if they asked me something that would stump me so be it and at least the audience would know it's for real you know so what was the secret to the success of that show because it went on for 11 years I think the secret to Our Success was that it showed the audience how much fun we were having and we were because I'm just blessed we laughed for 11 years and it was my choice to end the show uh I figured and CBS wanted us back for a 12th year but Harvey had left after the 10th and I started to think during the 11th year and there were some good shows on in the 11th year but I started to see sometimes that we would be repeating ourselves and I didn't want that I I thought well it's classier to leave before the network goes by you know stop doing this so I wanted to leave while we were ahead so tell me about doing that last show that must have been pretty Bittersweet the last show we did was very Bittersweet a lot of Tears uh but laughter and we showed some a little bit of reruns and outtakes and things like that and my thrill was that I didn't know this was going to happen my idol in the movies Jimmy Stewart came on the show and surprised me and gave me a hug and said we just my family we love you and you know you've been part of our family for 11 years and he I was just I was crying and I didn't even introduce him just yeah that was so sweet he was hiding in the dressing room the whole time and haven't seen that song for the last time singing the song for the last time yeah I started a weeps you know because it's it was a family we've been through marriages divorces births deaths you know as it was a whole school schedule but uh you know everything has to come to an end and uh we were able to also do a final show as opposed to a network coming in and saying you know don't come back next week so we were able to really plan it and and give ourselves a good send-off I know this is probably a hard question but do you have a favorite skit from this 10 11 years uh I I have favorite genres of the show that we did I don't have one particular favorite skit sketch actually I prefer that word it was whenever we did the movie takeoffs and of course in that there's the iconic Gone With the Wind which Bob Mackey thought up you know the writers had originally written that uh Scarlet Starlet we called it would run up the stairs with the draperies and then just come down with them hanging and when I went into costume fitting that week Bob said I have an idea and I said what come here we went into the next room and he pulled up the curtain rod with the dress on it I fell on the floor and that's one of the longest laughs we ever got uh on the show and it was hard for me not to laugh coming down the stairs I did show the outfit to Harvey because he's at the foot of the stairs as Rhett Butler but nobody else the crew or anything I hadn't worn it until we were going to tape it and the crew was hysterical everybody you know in the audience just exploded um I love doing Mrs Wiggins and Mr tudball two characters that Tim Conway wrote Tim's a good writer and he's written some very good sketches for our show uh I love doing Eunice the family that was a very interesting one because we only thought it was going to be a one-time sketch and so at first they thought I would play Eunice and we would hire an older lady to play mama and then Eunice spoke to me I felt I could really actually she reminded me a little of my mother uh not with not the Shrew or anything but the fact that she had all these pipe dreams all these dreams of being bigger and better and all of this you know and and being frustrated and that was my mama and I thought that's it I can do that and then I think it was Bob Mackey who said well then let's just put a fat suit on Vicki and take the eyelashes off and a wig on her and let her do that and so okay and Roddy McDowell was a guest and he was going to play one of Mama's Sons and uh Harvey was Eunice's husband Ed and uh we read it at the table on Monday and for some reason I just started talking like this you know because it reminded me of Texas and Arkansas and that kind of thing you know Mama that and Vicki picked up on it right away and Harvey and all and the writers were stunned because they had written about their mothers whom they didn't like and they're from Chicago they were from Chicago and they were absolutely stunned on the run-through day when we we did the whole show in front of the crew and the writers but they were afraid we were going to alienate the South completely but we got such positive feedback that it became a running kind of a thing not every week but at least once a month I think we did all in all about 35 of those of the mama and Yuna sketches how do you develop a character you said that it came from your mom did it come from people that you would see was it from costuming actually uh you know there are two ways to do there are two ways if the method way is to go way deep into the character and all of that and uh the non-method way is to just kind of figure out what they're going to look like that's me I um I sometimes didn't know how I was going to do something till Bob put me in the outfit and it just kind of happened it's like you look at a little kid say you know who dresses up as a pirate there's no better actor than a little kid in a pirate outfit they become that character or a little girl dressed up as a princess or a tomboy or any you know you become the character and I remember I did meet Morris sir Lawrence Olivier Lord Laura and uh I was asking him about it he said I don't know exactly what I'm going to do until I know what my nose will look like he would put a bump on his nose or elongate it or do something like that and and his character would come so you went back to being with your girlfriend in the Hills I went back to being with my best girlfriend Isla May when we would act out those movies and the wonderful part of it I mean it's really if my grandmother had been alive it might have killed her when I had Betty Grable as a guest on my show and Rita Hayworth as a guest on my show and even Gloria Swanson with my grandmother grew up watching in the Sci-Fi she called us and wanted to come on the show because we were doing a takeoff on Sunset Boulevard quite often and to have these icons come on and they're my guest and I get to play with them and sing with them and dance with them oh my it was just the best time from I'm so glad you know everybody wants to be younger you know say wait a minute there's not that much time left and all but we all if we're lucky get older uh I am so glad I'm where I am today because if I were younger I couldn't ever have that kind of a platform that was a time when the networks were uh even though they didn't want us on it first but they did nurture and they did cost a lot of money today and they and you know now it's reality shows and what are they 1.98 so the networks like them so you've said that you were someone who avoided conflict most of your life and yet in the 80s you took on the National Enquirer and you were one of the first people to do so can you tell me a bit about that and why you did it I was uh in a show I was going to Washington DC to be in a show I was asked by Betty Ford to come back and do a show at the White House and I had a medley that I had done with Julie Andrews that I had also done with Helen Reddy and Helen could go and be with us and that the night before the show a bunch of us went to a restaurant a French kind of restaurant in DC and also at another table was uh Henry Kissinger and Lou Wasserman and his wife Edie and you know we kind of waved when we came in and we all sat down and it was a lovely evening and there was a booth behind us with a family from Vermont I think and we had ordered Baked Alaska you know for dessert and they looked at that and so we put some on plates and we handed them over to these people then there was a young couple sitting in the booth next to us and they had just gotten engaged so we gave them to Baked Alaska and it was all very nice and so on the way out I saw Dr Kissinger and he said I'm looking forward to seeing you tomorrow night at the White House I said well thank you so much we're looking forward to doing it you know so we went we did the show got back to New York and the next thing I know there is a column saying Carol Burnett in a drunken or in a row with Henry Kissinger in uh Washington restaurant and then it said I was traipsing around the tables and pouring wine on people and handing people across the booth wine and drinking and all and I thought I am not going to put up with that my parents were alcoholics and they died of the disease and I thought doggone it you know they shouldn't be able to do this and uh so I said I sued them and what was wonderful it took forever took five years to even get to to trial what was wonderful was that our lawyers found the family from Vermont actually they called when they read what was going on said we were there that night and you know none of that plus the young couple got in touch with us and they've been married and they had a kid you know and everything and they all testified plus there was a person who worked had worked for The Enquirer and was no longer working and she got up and said that they got a they they get calls from restaurants and the restaurant had called and said Carol Burnett was there tonight and with Dr Kissinger so she got a memo saying what can we make of this and she she said that so we couldn't prove malice of forethought but we did prove Reckless disregard for the truth now let's move on to the era stuff um you were not political on your show at all so how did you get involved in something like the Equal Rights Amendment and campaigning for the passage of that um I got involved with the Equal Rights Amendment actually through Alan Alda he's a good friend and we'd work together and we went out to dinner one night my husband and Alan and he started talking about it he's a feminist and he said you know it's just not right that there don't get equal pay or equal rights under the law and it just doesn't make sense I said you're right you know and so I kind of started going to era meetings and stuff and it got the bad reputation that everybody thought women were going to run around smoking cigars and do it I mean how stupid well no and initially it passed in 30 States very quickly and then Phyllis schafly got on board and all of a sudden these stories started coming out you you know things like your life is going to change and it's going to give way to same-sex marriages and you're gonna you know like you said that your all of your other rights are going to be gone too you come up against this in Illinois can you tell me a little bit about that which is why I went to Illinois I went to Illinois When Alan was there and all and ah it's the first time I'd ever been yelled at and like we were going into a place that an auditorium or something there and they called me a carpetbagger because I was from California and there I was in Illinois trying to get this passed you know anybody who wasn't from their state was a carpet bagger and Holly all I want is to just you know help people I had three daughters I wanted them to have equal rights under the law that's all it was did you ever meet Phil schafley did were you ever encounter her no I never met Phyllis shaftly no what would you have said to her you think at the time why are you like this Phyllis that's what I would have said to her what is what's wrong with people getting equal pay and you know and of course I know she would have a stock answer so you know I wouldn't be preaching to the choir that's for sure you know but uh maybe someday were you disappointed when it didn't pass I was very disappointed when it didn't pass yes very did you consider yourself of the women's movement do you think I mean you you did break a lot of barriers having your own show being a female comedian at that time things like that I never thought I broke barriers or put myself in any kind of a position of the first woman to do this or that I never thought of that I was just a performer and I got involved with Equal Rights Amendment because I just felt it was I should and I had stepdaughters who were very into it and my husband got into it and uh so we all we all worked for it that was about as political as I get on a soapbox uh I do vote I do follow politics closely and um but I keep my uh views to myself were you at all influenced we heard about how Broadway and musicals and the movies influence you were you at all aware of things like the Feminine Mystique when it came out or any of that kind of literature I was not really involved with too much of that of the feminine mistake I'm more involved now as a matter of fact you know I was busy I was doing my show I was you know I had the like three girls and uh marriage and on and on so I the only thing is that that I did get heavily involved in was the era um so some polls now are showing that many women consider and ambition a dirty word or won't admit being ambitious do you think women avoid power oh I don't think women avoid power uh I I think they would welcome it if they feel that they're up to what it is up to what they want to do no I maybe women say I don't I want to avoid power because they don't feel they have it and they might risk something and fail but I don't I don't think that's the case I think powerful women are women who have the fire in the belly to do what they feel they can do best so when CBS said to you though oh I don't know about a variety show women don't front variety shows was there ever a moment where you thought I'm going out there and representing or was there or was it more I just want to get this show on I know it's going to be good I did not feel even when they said oh look Carol you can't host a variety show you're you know it's not a woman's game it's Gleason it's Sid Caesar it's uh Milton Berle it's Dean Martin it's all these guys but I it didn't I wasn't insulted nor did I think well I'm gonna be a Pioneer I just wanted to do the show and uh I remember saying to Harvey and Vicki and Lyle and the first taping I said you know what we must do let's not think about ratings let's not think about anything except going out there getting in the sandbox and playing and having fun and entertaining the 300 people in the studio that's what our goal is and to love each other and Harvey always talked about that you know that that we just put aside everything else and just put blinders on went out and Let it Fly and I think that's why it was successful so were you brought up so that marriage was a given and how did that all work out for you I was brought up in the era of the Eisenhower years and all you know when I was in college in the 50s the Betty Crocker era so that you had to be married you had to get married and you had to have children I don't feel that today uh I mean it was like it was a given that yeah you grew up you got we're in college even if you had a career you had to get married and you had to have a child and so that's what I did and um I'm glad I had the girls and uh Joe was a great producer and we worked we were together 19 years but then events took us apart and uh but and he died a few years later of cancer but we remained friends and um so and then I recent well 10 years ago remarried a much younger guy you're looking at a cougar but we he's a throwback he's terrific he's in got a wonderful sense of humor and a great career and uh we just we like did the same things and so it's a very happy relationship so you're like your grandmother that way too huh I'm like my grandmother that way she she buried a much younger man at one time maybe some others because I don't know who all she married but she'd only told me she'd been married three times and then I found out when I was writing my first Memoir she'd been married six but she was dead so I couldn't ask her about it if there is an afterlife that will be my first question to her can you talk about the roles that you and your husband played in your marriage and how that affected your roles in your career if at all Joe and I were never married when we were at work uh I would have my thing to do and my rehearsals and so forth he would work with the writers and he would work with the budget and all of that and uh so when we got where everything came together he would be in the booth with the director and the script woman and we would be out on stage doing our thing and where we really got together and talked about it was after the Friday taping and we'd go to dinner always at Jason's and take the guest star and it was just lovely you know and then on the weekends he would have two tapes of one from the dress rehearsal one from the air show that we did and he would look at the two and see which was the better cut or to do then he would give those notes to our assistant director who would edit the show in one day and boom We Were off and running for the next Monday rehearsal no but were you um because you had this working life with him were you more of a traditional marriage or did that um because you were working mother was that a little bit different as well I was uh I deferred to Joe because in those days if a woman said wait a minute we got to stop here or I don't like this sketch here or whatever she would be a if a man did it was Jackie Gleason did it he would be Jackie he would be that would be accepted so I never wanted people to think I was um forward you know and all that so I kind of took a back seat for instance if we were rehearsing A Sketch and it wasn't working I wouldn't I would call the Riders up and to say come down and you know watch this and then I would say guys you know I must be doing this wrong I'm just not feeling can you help me here can you kind of maybe give me a better line here or there whereas again I'll say Gleason would say hey wait a minute guys this stinks come and fix it you know I couldn't do that I and so I would kind of go in the back door and at one time we were going to we were doing a sketch with Tim and Vicki and Harvey gangster sketch or something and it was awful just the audience was looking at us like it they were an oil painting I mean there was no laughs no nothing we just kind of and it was just horrible but during the the week rehearsing it before we got in front of an audience I kept saying to you know this really can't we just forget this and do something else you know find another musical member or something to fill up the time or I'll do more questions and answers or whatever he said no it's funny it's gonna work it's going to work well we were in the dress rehearsal and we were doing it and as I say the audience was just staring at us no laughs nothing and we had flop sweat I mean we knew and right in about a little over halfway through the sketch I look over and Joe is coming towards us on the set and I I screamed and he's in front of the audience he came out from the booth walked on the stage and said you don't have to do this anymore hugged him and I told the audience I said you know what he just saved our marriage I said I hated the sketch all week the audience loved it the fact that we were that honest you know but I loved him when he came out he said you don't have to do this anymore but now you were such a powerful woman in television yet when I hear you speak of it you didn't think of yourself that way I never thought of myself as a powerful woman at all uh if I had that kind of experience today I might think that way but uh I never wanted to be too cocky about anything you know I remember I did a song in 1957 called I made a fool of myself over John Foster Dulles which was a comedy song written by my dear friend Ken Welch I sang that on the par show and I sang it on Ed Sullivan and I was working at this nightclub the Blue Angel and now I became the one that they all wanted to come and see there were and uh so I started to get a little full of myself right and uh cleared out all these people coming in and they're seeing me and I'm well I have the answer to show business I'm terrific it's going to be great and I went out this one night and started to sing that song which always got to laugh at the end of the first line nothing nothing and I kept going I had about 20 minutes to go in my set and it was like again they no response and I barely got off the stage to this kind of Applause where I usually have to come back for two or three bows and I started to cry and I had a dressing room at the end of a long haul now and that Hall was a men's room and a ladies room then my dressing room was down there so I'm headed down to my dressing room and I'm weeping because and I had another show to do it at midnight and this drunk is coming towards me and he's kind of bouncing off the walls and he's going to the men's room and he'd have to pass me and I'd kind of get my head down like this and he said hey hey aren't you a little lady I just saw downstairs and I said yes you know hoping for the best he says boy you stink you know that was the best thing that ever happened to me I never got cocky again because I guess the audience sensed that I thought I was a cat's pajamas as I used to say and uh never never again okay so my last question for you then about that is um did you find it difficult juggling your work life and your Fame and being a mom and being a wife and all of that at that time well we had uh our show was built around a school schedule we had all of our summers off when the kids had were off for the summer and we had two weeks at Christmas we had a week off at Easter and then we built it around their school schedule for instance somebody asked me once how many hours a week I worked it was about 29 hours a week because we were so organized I'd go in I take the kids to school on Monday and go into rehearsal at 10 o'clock I'd be home in time to pick them up from school we had dinner every night at six on the dot the only night we worked was Friday night and the kids would come to the dress rehearsal uh at five o'clock I would see them and then they'd go home and we do the show and then we'd be home all weekend so it was really a an ideal situation you know so I really it was almost like a part-time job it was not those hours that they put in today at all I wouldn't do it incredible

Channel: Life Stories

Views: 212,883

Keywords: Carol Burnett, Women Who Make America, The Carol Burnett Show, Acting

Id: myXJk0PiEPg

Length: 61min 15sec (3675 seconds)

Published: Fri May 12 2023