Audition: A Memoir Paperback - 2009

Excerpt

Excerpt from the Prologue
Back in the sixties, when I was appearing daily on NBC’s Today show, I was living on Seventh Avenue and Fifty-seventh Street. My apartment was across from Carnegie Hall and on the corner of a very busy street. It was also near several large hotels that catered to businessmen. Perhaps because of this, the corner was the gathering place for some of the most attractive “ladies of the evening.” Each morning at five o’clock I would emerge from my building wearing dark glasses, as I hadn’t yet had my makeup done, and I was usually carrying a garment bag. It seemed obvious to the “ladies” that there was some big “number” I had just left. Now, bear in mind that, even then, I wasn’t exactly a spring chicken. But I would emerge and look at the young ladies, some of whom were still teenagers. “Good morning,” I would say. “Good morning,” they would answer. And then I would get into this long black limousine with its uniformed driver, and we would glide off into the early morning light. And you know what effect all this had on the ladies?
  
 I gave them hope.
 Perhaps this book may do that for you.
 So here it is, the whole package, from the beginning.


From the Hardcover edition.

Media reviews

“The crowning glory of a remarkable career.” —Liz Smith, New York Post“An ambitious and successful book. . . . .Suffused with an emotional intensity. . . . It belongs to a part of American culture that Walters helped invent.” —The New Yorker“Walters doesn’t shy from the tough stuff.... Nor does she, an entertainer as much as a groundbreaking journalist, skimp on the fun bits.”—People“A frank, graceful memoir of a...groundbreaking career in television.” —O, The Oprah Magazine“Walters’ heartfelt candor lifts this book above mere titillation.... Blended with this personal drama is a delightful tale of the golden age of television.... She regales you with the juicy behind-thescenes details of the celebrities she’s interviewed, mixed in with stories of her own trials and tribulations. In the end, you envy her a little less and admire her more.” —The Washington Post“Audition contains some fascinating stories (Walters censoring her interview with a sloshed Betty Ford), a good deal of frankness (defending her friendship with GOP power broker Roy Cohn), and grand old war stories from her groundbreaking stints with Today and ABC News.” —Entertainment Weekly“Compulsively entertaining.” —Salon“Witty, candid and full of history, both her own and of the events of the past five decades, Walters’s memoir is a fascinating look at the life of a groundbreaking journalist.”—The Post and Courier (Charleston)“Audition is brutally honest, both about Walters and those she's worked with. Readers won't be left wondering what she thinks of anything, or anyone, for that matter. . . . It's a fascinating look at a woman who has lived a fascinating life.”—Laura L. Hutchison, The Free Lance-Star “…the book is a triumph!”—Caitlin Flanagan, The Atlantic “…the grande dame of TV news has written a blockbuster. . . . Readers will gobble up the excerpts from scores of interviews with world leaders, politicians, celebrities and murderers.”—Kathleen Daley, New York Sun“an indispensable book along with a surefire monster best seller…intensely readable…She’s TV’s original monarch and superstar where power, show business and journalism converge. It’s Barbara Walters’ world, and the rest of us just live in it. [Her] mammoth memoir, doesn’t just touch chords, it’s a 600-plus page oratorio.”—Jeff Simon, The Buffalo News“Ms. Walters’s story is greatly humanized by the family memoir that colors her long litany of professional successes.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times“…the crowning glory of a remarkable career…”—Liz Smith, New York Post“…sizzling…”—Jo Piazza, New York Daily News“…compulsively readable… [Walters] gives us an entertaining panorama of a full life lived and recounted with humor and bracing honesty. Alternating between tales of her personal struggles, professional achievements and insider anecdotes about the celebrities and world leaders she's interviewed, this mammoth memoir's energy never flags.” —Publishers Weekly (starred) “A smart, funny, fascinating book in which Walters captures possibly her most elusive subject: herself.”  —Ilene Cooper, Booklist (starred)

Citations

• New York Times Book Review, 06/07/2009, Page 20