Barb's Book Reviews: Review of "The Rulebreaker: The Life and Times of Barbara Walters" by Susan Page

Friday, October 20, 2023

Review of "The Rulebreaker: The Life and Times of Barbara Walters" by Susan Page

Barbara Walters was a ground-breaking American broadcast journalist and television personality. For this biography of Walters, journalist Susan Page conducted 150 interviews, did extensive archival research, and consulted Barbara's 2008 memoir 'Audition.'

Barbara Walters

Barbara Walters, born in 1929, is well known for her long and eventful career. Among many other things, Barbara was a cohost of the Today show; was the first woman to co-anchor the ABC Evening News; was a co-anchor of 20/20; created The View; hosted Oscar night specials; and interviewed the year's '10 Most Fascinating People' from 1993 to 2015. None of it came easy. Barbara came up before the women's movement, and her male colleagues - like Harry Reasoner and Walter Cronkite - viewed her with disdain and pulled for her to fail.

Barbara Walters early in her career

Barbara Walters and Harry Reasoner

Barbara Walters with the cohosts of The View (From left: Star Jones, Joy Behar, Meredith Vieira, Debbie Matenopoulos, Barbara Walters)

Over the course of her career, Barbara interviewed every sitting POTUS and FLOTUS from Nixon to Obama, as well as a smorgasbord of other newsmakers, including heads of state; Hollywood celebrities; presidential advisers; athletes; criminals; despots; and many more. Interestingly, Barbara was able to develop an on-air rapport with notorious figures like Fidel Castro and Muammar Qaddafi and fearlessly posed questions to other dictators and killers.

Barbara Walters and Fidel Castro

Barbara Walters and Muammar Qaddafi

Walters came by her passion for the limelight from her father Lou Walters, a Jewish immigrant from London who became an entertainment magnate. In the roaring twenties, Lou started his show business career by booking acts - singers, dancers, comedians, jugglers, magicians, musicians, acrobats, etc. - for speakeasies, cabarets, vaudeville halls and the like. In time Lou opened his own nightclubs, including the 'Latin Quarter' clubs in New York, Boston, and South Florida.

Latin Quarter Nightclub in New York

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Becauses of Lou's peripatetic work he moved his family - wife Dena and daughters Jackie and Barbara - from place to place, back and forth, over and over again.

Barbara Walters and her older sister Jackie

Young Barbara Walters with her parents, Dena and Lou Walters

Lou's career had ups and downs and he was a compulsive gambler, which resulted in the impresario making and losing fortunes time and time again. Thus the Walters family might live in a mansion one day, and a dreary crowded apartment the next. As an adult, Barbara often bailed out her dad, and took care of her mother and sister as needed.

Due to her father's work, Barbara grew up in nightclubs, watching glitzy shows and meeting gangsters who frequented the venues. Author Susan Page speculates this is what later made Barbara comfortable with men like Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, notorious lawyer Roy Cohn, and other persons of that ilk.

Barbara Walters and Vladmir Putin

Barbara Walters and Bashar al-Assad

As a child, Barbara's personal life was difficult, because her father strayed, her parents argued, her sister had special needs, and Barbara was frequently yanked from one school to another - which made it hard to make friends.

In time, Barbara graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and began her news career in the publicity department of an NBC affiliate. Barbara then moved on to produce a half-hour TV program, called 'The Eloise McElhone Show', which featured cooking lessons, fashion tips, exercise demonstrations, and so on.

Barbara Walters started her journalism career at NBC affiliate WNBT

Author Susan Page thoroughly documents the progress of Barbara's career, step by arduous step. Barbara had a hard climb against formidable odds that included sexual harassment; purposeful male roadblocks; policies that dictated only one woman in the newsroom; intense rivalry with other journalists; Barbara's slight speech impediment (which was the source of much merriment on SNL skits); and other obstacles.

Barbara Walters on the Today Show with Gene Shalit (left) and Frank McGee

Gilda Radnor playing Barbara Walters on SNL

Barbara was ambitious and relentless, however, and fought hard to get the best interviews, often purposely undercutting and outmaneuvering her colleages, and even 'stealing' interviews when she could. Once Barbara hid in a bathroom at Camp David when her fellow newspeople boarded a bus to leave; Barbara was hoping to corner Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan and Defense MInister Ezer Weizman for interviews.

Barbara Walters and Moshe Dayan

In Barbara's private life she had many romantic relationships and was married three times, to Robert Katz, Lee Guber, and Merv Adelson. Barbara tended to be attracted to assertive men and risk-takers like her father, which may have been a factor in her abbreviated unions. Barbara and her second husband Lee Guber adopted a daughter named Jacqueline (Jackie), a troubled girl with whom Barbara had a fractious relationship. Like many successful people, Barbara was inclined to put her career ahead of her personal affairs, and was she was willing to pay the price.

Barbara Walters' first husband Robert Katz

Barbara Walters with her second husband Lee Guber and their baby Jackie

Barbara Walters and her third husband Merv Adelson

Barbara paved the way for many women journalists, who laud Barbara for breaking the glass ceiling. Norah O'Donnell said "She inspired me." Katic Couric recalls, "For me, to see someone like that made me imagine the possibilities." Pat Mitchell remembers Barbara telling her, "Don't listen to anyone who gives you reasons you will fail. Just prove them wrong." Deborah Roberts observed, "She was a generous mentor-by-example." And long-time rival Diane Sawyer noted, "She was so brilliant. She had such a wonderful idea for creating a signature, just writing it aross the sky."

Barbara Walters and Norah O'Donnell

Barbara Walters and Katie Couric

Barbara Walters and Deborah Roberts

Barbara Walters and Diane Sawyer

Susan Page's biography is thorough, informative, and VERY gossipy. I was interested to learn that Barbara had a long-term affair with married African-American Senator Edward William Brooke III; that she sent her daughter Jackie to a program in Idaho for troubled teens; that she secretly conveyed a message from Iranian arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar to President Reagan; that she vacationed with Judith Sheindlin (Judge Judy) on Shendlin's private yacht; that she sat in the front row of Oscar de la Renta fashion shows with Vogue's Anna Wintour; that she regularly luncheoned with powerhouse women in New York media for gossip and laughs; that when Gilda Radner (who parodied Barbara on SNL) died, Barbara sent a sympathy note signed 'Baba Wawa'; that when male anchors gave Barbara a hard time, actor John Wayne sent her a telegram reading, 'Don't let the bastards get you down'; that lawyer Roy Cohn was secretly homosexual and Barbara was his 'beard'; that Barbara had a 'nose kiss' with the Dalai Lama; and much more.

Barbara Walters and Senator Edward Brooke

Barbara Walters and her daughter Jackie

Barbara Walters and Anna Wintour

Barbara Walters and Roy Cohn

Barbara Walters and the Dalai Lama

When Barbara died in 2022, at age ninety-three, her remains were cremated and buried next to her mother, father, and sister. Barbara's marker reads, "No regrets. I had a great life."

I enjoyed the book and highly recommend it.

Thanks to Netgalley, Susan Page, and Simon & Shuster for a copy of the book.

Rating: 4.5 stars

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Barb's Book Reviews

Friday, October 20, 2023

Review of "The Rulebreaker: The Life and Times of Barbara Walters" by Susan Page

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