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Carson the Magnificent
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About This Book
A much-anticipated biography—twenty years in the making—of the entertainer who redefined late-night television and reshaped American culture. In 2002, Bill Zehme landed one of the most coveted assignments for a magazine writer: an interview with Johnny Carson—the only one he'd granted since retiring from hosting The Tonight Show a decade earlier. Zehme was tapped for the Esquire feature story thanks to his years of legendary celebrity profiles, and the resulting piece portrayed Carson as more human being than showbiz legend. Shortly after Carson's death in 2005 and urged on by many of those closest to Carson, Zehme signed a contract to do an expansive biography. He toiled on the book for nearly a decade—interviewing dozens of Carson's colleagues and friends and filling up a storage locker with his voluminous research—before a cancer diagnosis and ongoing treatments halted his progress. When he died in 2023 his obituaries mentioned the Carson book, with New York Times comedy critic Jason Zinoman calling it "one of the great unfinished biographies." Yet the hundreds of pages Zehme managed to complete are astounding both for the caliber of their writing and how they illuminate one of the most inscrutable figures in entertainment history: A man who brought so much joy and laughter to so many millions but was himself exceedingly shy and private. Zehme traces Carson's rise from a magic-obsessed Nebraska boy to a Navy ensign in World War II to a burgeoning radio and TV personality to, eventually, host of The Tonight Show—which he transformed, along with the entirety of American popular culture, over the next three decades. Without Carson, there would be no late-night television as we know it. On a much more intimate level, Zehme also captures the turmoil and anguish that accompanied the success: four marriages, troubles with alcohol, and the devastating loss of a child. In one passage, Zehme notes that when asked by an interviewer in the mid-80s for the secret to his success, Carson replied simply, "Be yourself and tell the truth." Completed with help from journalist and Zehme's former research assistant Mike Thomas, Carson the Magnificent offers just that: an honest assessment of who Johnny Carson really was.
Reviews
"Full of compelling vignettes."
"As much the definitive testimony of a Carson fan as it is a definitive biography, a decades-long labor of love ..."
"The book's title, and its light glide over his womanizing and sometimes violent alcoholism, suggest that in real life, too, he was a master of disguise and escape."
"Few people could truly know Carson; Zehme came closer than most."
"Filled with tidbits such as the origin of the famous golf swing and humanizing stories of regret over losing his first wife to divorce and his son to a car accident, Zehme expertly fully captures a full portrait of Carson."
"An impressionistic, besotted portrait that has the obsessiveness of your favorite deep-dive podcast ..."
"A fun if overly flamboyant appreciation of a TV giant."
"There is much to this entertaining and informative biography, including the analysis of this particular time and place in American life, as well as the history of television."
"Zehme opens the first chapters of his Carson biography in the style of comedic monologue, every sentence carrying some connotation of wink ..."
"Perhaps because Zehme's style cannot be imitated, or because Thomas had to work fast, or because he loved and idolized Zehme just as Zehme loved and idolized Johnny Carson, he appears to have left Zehme's work completely untouched, and focussed solely on writing the final chapters of the story ..."
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