Carson the Magnificent, Bill Zehme

 I read the book review in the NY Times Sunday book review and knew it was a book I needed to read. For millions of Americans, Johnny Carson’s steadiness brought solace, his humor buoyancy, his presence assurance that the world will keep turning. He delivered hope and perspective. His second feat after The Tonight Show was that he stayed gone, shielding himself from public view. He vanished. He intended to do projects after he retired, yet nothing was good enough. He was right. In his private life, Johnny was a mystery man; agreeable and withdrawn, good company and intensely alone; attractive yet really cold… he stayed unknowable.

We come to find growing up he was an amateur magician; we learn how Ed McMahon came up from Phili to got the job with Carson in NYC; how Carson got the Tonight Show gig; the music behind the show; Ed’s famous introduction night after night; how Doc Severinson became band leder; Carson’s 4 marriages; how work was so easy for him, family was not; the weekly death threats he received; in the later years the constant 4 month vacation stints…. All of this, and he remained the ratings God of late-night.

Carson wanted to quit while he was ahead (a very rare quality these days). Why? He wanted to leave the impression that he’s been the best of late-night. The best at doing that type of show. And he succeeded.