
Carson the Magnificent
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Narrated by:
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Johnny Heller
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.
©2024 Bill Zehme (P)2024 Simon & Schuster AudioListeners also enjoyed...




















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Good story and great material.
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the completeness
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Magnificent
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Young people have no idea of the staggering talent of Johnny Carson.
What I miss the most is Johnny Carson‘s ability to interview a young child. And his opening monologue.
The Gutfeld show has opened the door for a possible new Johnny Carson show on network TV. He has two of the things I like the most about Johnny Carson show. Sometimes all the people on the couch on the Johnny Carson show would join in and it would be a comedy riff of jokes. Johnny Carson was not afraid to be politically incorrect. The current nighttime comedy shows have to compromise and hire someone who is less talented and woke.
A new Johnny Carson is possible
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Meh
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Heeeeeeere’a Johnny!
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A money grab?
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Hate the voice of that reader.
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Nothing new regarding “Here’s Johnny”!
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When this is in its 100th printing decades from now, there still won’t have been another like him.
An inside look at a man we all thought we knew
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