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Baba Wawa
“Audition — A Memoir,” by Barbara Walters (Knopf, 609 pages, $30)
Barbara Walters is a television legend. Her image has been beaming into American living rooms for 44 years and counting. Over the course of her long career she has shattered one glass ceiling after another.
She tells her story in “Audition — A Memoir.”
Her dad made and lost several fortunes, first as a vaudeville promoter, then as the operator of glitzy nightclubs in Boston, New York and Miami. Financial problems and his habitual absenteeism were hard on the family.
Walters had a tough time growing up. She says that “looking back now, I realize that I was never young.”
Her childhood was muted by the strains in her family.
“Audition” traces the steps that led her to the fledgling medium of television. She got her big break on “Today” on NBC when they offered her a 13-week contract. They hired her because “she’ll work cheap.” She stayed for 13 years. “Today” gave her the boost that made her a force in broadcasting, and by the time she left the program she was the first woman co-host of a network news show.
Walters interviewed almost every famous politician and movie star. “Audition” enumerates the amazing circumstances that surrounded some of these interviews. She snagged, for example, a five-hour interview with the Cuban dictator Fidel Castro at the site of the Bay of Pigs invasion. The next day he picked her up in a jeep and took her through the mountains of Cuba for six hours. “He drove with one hand, waving his cigar with the other.”
She interviewed Yasser Arafat when he was considered the leading Palestinian terrorist. Walters wasn’t intimidated. But the interview that meant the most to her was the one she had with the Egyptian president Anwar Sadat.
Walters’ anecdotes about her guests are marvelous. Mamie Eisenhower told her that the success of her 50 years of marriage to president Dwight Eisenhower was due to the fact that “we have absolutely nothing in common.” Barbra Streisand was such a control freak that Walters never again allowed a guest to dictate conditions for an interview.
When Gilda Radner began doing a characterization of Walters for “Saturday Night Live,” Walters was devastated. She didn’t appreciate the humor of it until she found out that her daughter thought it was hilarious. One of the highlights of the audiobook version of “Audition” is when Walters does her own imitation of Gilda imitating her as “Baba Wawa” from “SNL.”
Walters doesn’t hold back. She describes her love affairs and divorces. Her career has made her personal life a challenge. Relationships have suffered. Her daughter became involved with drugs. Walters admits her failures. “I’m sick of telling you how guilty I feel.”
This is a courageous book.
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Comments
By victor mickunas
May 13, 2008 8:28 PM | Link to this
Oh yeah, Barbara Walters should be wearing that Scarlet Letter. Give me a break!By Rick
May 13, 2008 6:49 PM | Link to this
Sexual promiscuity is one of the things tearing apart our society. The devastation of many families without a dad, is not some religious dogma but rather a well known sociological fact. Now here is woman who has revealed she had an affair with a married man and several others. She does not sound courageous to me.By lmj
May 13, 2008 10:30 AM | Link to this
Yes, Vick, I noticed that you hadn’t brought up the over emphasized. I appreciated your review, as I did Janet Maslin’s (she being one I always look forward to reading). I was more trying to question a concept I have of Walters as of the age when women didn’t kiss and tell. She has always seemed to me to walk the tightrope of not giving opinions, not endorsing, not talking ill of others. I need to realize she changed her hats in writing this book. She didn’t write it as a journalist; she wrote it as a woman who has lived a remarkable life.By Riverdale Ghost
May 12, 2008 11:41 PM | Link to this
Baba Yaga, Russian witch (for those who think it sounds familiar but can’t place it).By beastmomma
May 12, 2008 5:45 PM | Link to this
I think you did a good job in bringing out points that have not gotten much attention by others who reviewed the book. I did not know about the SNL bit.By victor mickunas
May 12, 2008 10:36 AM | Link to this
LMJ, I think the book is courageous. Books are products of their authors. She could have written a pompous book…a cowardly book…a deceitful book…a funny book. While I think that Walters showed courage in writing this courageous book I would not go so far as to say that she is courageous because that is a blanket statement and I think she is a lot of other things…by the same token, I would not call her pompous, cowardly, deceitful, etc. In regard to her affair with a US senator; I think she showed courage in writing about that but as you probably noticed, I did not mention it in my review other than alluding to her “love affairs.” That subject has been beaten to death by Oprah and everybody else. Everybody already knows about it. I tried to mention some things that have not gotten as much attention.By lmj
May 11, 2008 10:56 PM | Link to this
This will seem nitpicky, but I’m going to ask anyway. Can the book really be courageous? Isn’t the author the courageous? That aside, what, Vick, are your thoughts about her revelation of the affair with Senator Brooke. Did it serve a purpose in the book (other than selling the book)? I haven’t read it yet, but do intend to.