Carson the Magnificent
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Carson the Magnificent
Narrated by:
Johnny Heller
Buy Now for $21.88
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Narrated by:
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Johnny Heller
Summary
In 2002, celebrated Esquire writer Bill Zehme landed one of journalism’s most coveted assignments: the first and only major interview Johnny Carson granted after retiring from The Tonight Show. The resulting piece portrayed Carson as more human being than showbiz legend, and after Carson’s death Zehme began work on this “immensely informative and insightful” (The Minnesota Star Tribune) biography. Though illness prevented him from completing the project before his death in 2023, the pages he left behind illuminate one of the most inscrutable figures in entertainment history, what New York Times comedy critic Jason Zinoman called “one of the great unfinished biographies.”
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. He also captures the turmoil, and anguish that accompanied the success: four marriages, trouble with alcohol, and the devastating loss of a child. Completed with help from journalist and Zehme’s former research assistant Mike Thomas, Carson the Magnificent is “perceptive and beautiful” (Library Journal), offering an honest assessment of who Johnny Carson really was.
Critic Reviews
"Johnny Heller delivers a consistently solid, dry, yet folksy newscaster performance of the audiobook."
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