Book Mark Book Review Club - March Meeting

The March meeting of the  Book Mark Book Review Club, featured book reviewer Nancy Ashley in a presentation highlighting the life story of renowned journalist Barbara Walters. Ms. Ashley's presentation was compiled from several biographies written about Barbara.

Barbara Walters

The story begins with Barbara's young life which was rather difficult.  Her father, Lou Walters, was a booking agent for vaudeville acts.  But then the silent movies came into vogue which were quickly followed by the talkies and vaudeville acts were suddenly out of business.  

Barbara was born in 1929.  Her older brother had died at a young age and then her older sister,Jackie, was born with mental and physical challenges. 

Lou had assembled a nest egg but lost it all so he had to reinvent himself.  In 1937, he opened the Latin Quarter in Boston.  He decided since it was so successful he would open another one in Florida.  Lou moved the family to Florida and opened a Latin Quarter on Miami Island.  The Latin Quarter in New York quickly followed.  But Lou was known to be a gambler, mostly gin rummy, and would often be on the losing side.

During this transition from Boston to Miami then back to New York, Barbara went to 3 different high schools in 4 years.  Also due to Jackie's medical issues, she never felt comfortable bringing friends home after school. After she graduated high school, Barbara was accepted at Sara Lawrence College with English being her major.  

Television was really taking off in 1951 and Barbara was able to obtain a job at NBC. She eventually gets a job on "The Today Show" with Dave Garroway.  Her big break came when the focus of "The Today Show" was changed to a news formant.  Barbara was sent to France to cover the fashion shows so she could describe the events on "The Today Show".  From there Barbara had major assignments such as covering Jackie Kennedy's trip to India in 1963.  She also covered the funeral of JFK.  

In 1976 Barbara was hired by ABC.  She was assigned to report on Nixon's historic trip to China.  But she was the only woman reporter on the trip and all the men totally shunned her.  After a time on the evening news desk, Barbara was moved to the news magazine show "20/20" with Hugh Downs.  During all this time she was supporting her parents and sister who were living in Florida.  

With the assignment to the "20/20" program. Barbara honed her compelling skills as a interviewer.  She did her homework on the person, including their interests and background.  She won her confidence and trust but always asked the difficult questions. She consistently received high ratings when she went for an interview in some jail.  

One of her biggest successes was her book "How To Talk With Practically Anyone About Practically Anything".  It was published in 1979.  However, Barbara was so busy, a ghostwriter had to do most of the work.

In 1997, she started "The View" talk show.  Then in May 2013, she announced her retirement.

What an interesting and insightful program about the life of Barbara Walters!