Johnny Carson, The King Of Comedy (Part Two)

The dark reality behind the persona of one of America’s most beloved public figures.

On August 17, 1963, Carson, possibly feeling more secure professionally with more than a year under his belt at the new show, married his longtime girlfriend, Joanne Carson.  This despite years of fighting publicly, acrimonious vacations in which one of them left and went home early and numerous friends and acquaintances advising them not to tie the knot.  Even the ceremony and reception were odd.  Only a tiny number of participants witnessed the actual marriage, the couple’s parents not even invited.  The reception included only a few more individuals and was held at Johnny’s apartment, the guests mostly Tonight Show related staff like bandleader Skitch Henderson and producer Art Stark. 

Joanna Carson was a former fashion model who had spent much of her life in the rarified company of extremely wealthy, sophisticated, older men.  Her companion before Johnny was the CEO and chairman of the Hertz Rent a Car corporation.  Johnny, still essentially a scotch drinking steak and potatoes Midwesterner, began to acquire a more diverse outlook courtesy of his latest wife.  Completely uninterested up to that point in travel, he began his annual pilgrimage to the Wimbledon tennis championships, featured prominently on the NBC broadcast back to the US.  He typically followed that up with several weeks on the Cap D’Antibes along the French Riviera, enjoying the fact that he went mostly unrecognized.  Instead of hard liquor he began to temper his alcohol intake with a fine Bordeaux or Montrachet.  But one constant, despite a well appointed Bel Air residence on St. Cloud Road, the Carsons never threw parties and were rarely seen socially, their house again a secluded refuge to escape from public exposure.

It was hard to feel sorry for Carson, whose womanizing was so blatant that when Joanna convened a meeting in her home of the women’s Beverly Hills charity that she participated in, Johnny would single out at least one of the participants and strongly come on to them.  Upon signing the divorce papers, Johnny turned to his now ex-wife and said, “What I’ll miss most is not being able to talk to you.”  Carson certainly made good on his word, never speaking with Joanna Carson again.

Joan Rivers also was exiled when, in 1987, she accepted an offer from Fox Television to host a late night talk show that would compete with Johnny.  Rivers was already frustrated by NBC’s refusal to both offer her a contract as Johnny’s replacement host, and especially that she was not on an NBC list of stars to even be considered when and if Johnny retired.  Although other hosts and comedians attempted to compete with Johnny and still remained in Carson’s good graces, most notably Joey Bishop, Joan Rivers made the unforgivable sin of negotiating with Fox, putting together her show and never even telling Johnny about it in advance.  Her eleventh hour attempt to reach out to him on the eve of the program was rejected, assistants told that he would not take her call at any time in the future. 

Following his retirement, Johnny Carson became even more reclusive, spending most of his time behind the gates of his massive Malibu mansion that overlooked Point Dume.  He spent a great deal of time on his private tennis court, especially built for him by NBC, one of the few of its kind in the vicinity.  His only companion, his fourth wife, who he married in 1987, Alexis Maas, a stunning blue eyed blonde he met while she was walking by his other Malibu beach house, which he eventually sold to John McEnroe.