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Audition: A Memoir | 
 enlarge | Author: Barbara Walters
Publisher: Knopf
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  27 reviews
Sales Rank: 2
Media: Roughcut
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 624
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.3
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.5 x 1.7
ISBN: 030726646X
Dewey Decimal Number: 070.92
EAN: 9780307266460
ASIN: 030726646X
Publication Date: May 6, 2008 (New: Last 30 Days)
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Product Description
Young people starting out in television sometimes say to me: “I want to be you.” My stock reply is always: “Then you have to take the whole package.”
And now, at last, the most important woman in the history of television journalism gives us that “whole package,” in her inspiring and riveting memoir. After more than forty years of interviewing heads of state, world leaders, movie stars, criminals, murderers, inspirational figures, and celebrities of all kinds, Barbara Walters has turned her gift for examination onto herself to reveal the forces that shaped her extraordinary life.
Barbara Walters’s perception of the world was formed at a very early age. Her father, Lou Walters, was the owner and creative mind behind the legendary Latin Quarter nightclub, and it was his risk-taking lifestyle that gave Barbara her first taste of glamour. It also made her aware of the ups and downs, the insecurities, and even the tragedies that can occur when someone is willing to take great risks, for Lou Walters didn’t just make several fortunes—he also lost them. Barbara learned early about the damage that such an existence can do to relationships—between husband and wife as well as between parent and child. Through her roller-coaster ride of a childhood, Barbara had a close companion, her mentally challenged sister, Jackie. True, Jackie taught her younger sister much about patience and compassion, but Barbara also writes honestly about the resentment she often felt having a sister who was so “different” and the guilt that still haunts her.
All of this—the financial responsibility for her family, the fear, the love—played a large part in the choices she made as she grew up: the friendships she developed, the relationships she had, the marriages she tried to make work. Ultimately, thanks to her drive, combined with a decent amount of luck, she began a career in television. And what a career it has been! Against great odds, Barbara has made it to the top of a male-dominated industry. She was the first woman cohost of the Today show, the first female network news coanchor, the host and producer of countless top-rated Specials, the star of 20/20, and the creator and cohost of The View. She has not just interviewed the world’s most fascinating figures, she has become a part of their world. These are just a few of the names that play a key role in Barbara’s life, career, and book: Yasir Arafat, Warren Beatty, Menachem Begin, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Roy Cohn, the Dalai Lama, Princess Diana, Katharine Hepburn, King Hussein, Angelina Jolie, Henry Kissinger, Monica Lewinsky, Richard Nixon, Rosie O’Donnell, Christopher Reeve, Anwar Sadat, John Wayne . . . the list goes on and on.
Barbara Walters has spent a lifetime auditioning: for her bosses at the TV networks, for millions of viewers, for the most famous people in the world, and even for her own daughter, with whom she has had a difficult but ultimately quite wonderful and moving relationship. This book, in some ways, is her final audition, as she fully opens up both her private and public lives. In doing so, she has given us a story that is heartbreaking and honest, surprising and fun, sometimes startling, and always fascinating.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 22 more reviews...
 Walters is a Trailblazer for Women in the Media May 15, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Mary Greenwood, author ofHow to Mediate Like a Pro: 42 Rules for Mediating Disputes
Barbar Walters is a trail blazer for women in the media. Audition is a fascinating ride from the 40's to the present showing women's role in journalism. On the early days of the Today Show there was the Today Girl, the one "girl" allowed to do special segments on the Today Show. Walters was never a Today Girl, but when there were three women doing women's segments, one was considered too caustic and the other too elegant, so Walters got to do live advertisements for sponsors such as Alpo Dogfood, where she would feed hungry dogs on the air. When it was her turn, they stopped using the Today Girl moniker. OF course, she was the first to co-anchor the nightly news which she did with Harry Reasoner in the 70's.
She was the first to interview many famous politicians, celebrities, and entertainers. The inside cover lists all her interviews from A-King Abdullah to Z-Catherine Zeta Jones. It is in very small print and there are thousands of names. Castro, the Shah of Iran, Truman Capote, the Dalai Lama, Hugo Chavez, Moshe Dyan, a joint interview with Anwar Sadat and Meachem Begin, and all the presidents and their wives. In the 90's instead of retiring, she started a new Women's Daytime program called the View. She also did 20/20 for over twenty years.
In addition to all the firsts, we learn a lot about Walter' early days in Boston, New York and Miami Beach. We learn about the ups and down of her father's career, who was the impressario of the Latin Quarter in New York but had many business failures and successes. Barbara knew from an early age that she would probably need to support her family, including her "mentally retarded" (the term used then) sister and therefore, Barbara was always worried about money so she could help her parents and sister financially.
We learn about the rr's in Barbar's speech and how that is a result of being brought up in Boston. We learn that she went to a speech therapist and even tried to speak with words without r's and then how she decided to just speak naturally. We find out that Gilda Radner's skits on Saturday Night Live initially hurt her feelings, but that one night when she saw Gilda, she had her do her impression especially for her.
We learn about her fertility treatments; her adoption of her daughter, Jackie; her daughter's rebellious teenage years, her husbands and divorces, her love affairs, and her endless travel all over the globe to get the story.
I am an Art Deco Tour Guide in Miami Beach and was particularly interested in the days in the 40's when Barbara was a girl and her father ran the Lou Walters Miami Beach Latin Quarter on Palm Island where Al Capone lived just down the street. People like Milton Berle, Sophie Tucker, and Jimmy Durante entertained there and people like Jack Kennedy and Howard Hughes went to the show. The Walters also bought the pistachio house next door to the club. Apparently both were previously owned by Bill Dwyer, a notorious bootlegger and the owner of Tropical Park Race Track. Mr Dwyer thought he had some claim on the house and arrived with his henchman to live there. Mr. Walters took a gamble and and allowed Mr. Dwyer to live in the same house with his family. Mr. Dwyer took a shine to Barbara, who was in elementary school, and took her to the track. She was too young to go in, but Mr. Dwyer parked so she could see the horses. Barbara would give him a few bucks to bet and "miraculously" she always won. Barbara said these were some of the happiest times for the Walters family.
The book is long, but I appreciated the fact that she wrote a complete memoir in one volume. I loved this book. First I loved it because Walters was a trail-blazer for women. I have seen her pave the way for other women in so many ways and I am not sure she has gotten all the credit she deserves. Secondly, it has been an interesting life from her days when she lived down the street from Al Capone in Miami Beach to the famous people she has interviewed. With all the fascinating people mentioned, I did not get the feeling that she was name-dropping. She was writing as a journalist and giving us some background on some heady times. I recommend this to all women, especially younger women, who may not appreciate the trials and tribulations of the women who have gone before them. I recommend to anyone who is interested in show business from the early days of Milton Berle and Martha Raye to the Academy Award Winners of today. I would also recommend to anyone who wants to read a good book.
Quite a Life May 15, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Walters, Barbara. "Audition: A Memoir", Alfred Knopf, 2008.
Quite a Life
Amos Lassen
I have always loved Barbara Walters but I must admit that I really did not want to read her book because of all the hype. Nevertheless, when my copy came I sat down with it and found myself enjoying every word. It's over 600 pages long so there was no way I would get through it in one sitting; I do have a life and I had to prepare for my summer school classes.
Walters has lived quite a life both personally and professionally and she comes across as a compassionate woman and an inspiration. She exudes class and humanity. She can interview people like no one else can and has done so. Her list ranges from Monica Lewinsky to Elizabeth Taylor to presidents, world leaders, disgraced public figures and just anyone else that has affected our lives.
Her childhood was fascinating. Her father ran the nightclubs known as the Latin Quarter so she grew up around celebrities. She went where women had not been before and became a co-host of a major American news show and when she went onto 20/20 with Hugh Downs her star rose and she became one of the most famous women in the world.
Much has been said about her "adulterous" affair with the American senator but the book is so much more than that. Barbara Walters is an ambitious and tenacious women and even though she says that her life has been one large audition, there is no question that she "got the job".
If anything really characterizes the book, I think it is Walters' style and class. Sure Barbara Walters had an affair with a married man and sure, she has guilt feelings about not always being there for her sister but all of us must remember and consider how life would be without someone like Barbara Walters. She takes the opportunity in her book to let us into her life and even though she has not done everything the way some of his might have wanted, Barbara Walters, to me, at least, remains a major figure in our lives. She is an extraordinary woman and has led an extraordinary life.
Changing the World for Female Journalists May 15, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Barbara Walters who has spent more than five decades shattering the glass ceiling for female journalists has delivered a candid new memoir, "Audition," looking back on her extraordinary life. "Audition" begins in Boston where she was born and concludes in New York where she continues to work at age 78 on her ABC specials and "The View." She provides the kind of personal glimpses and secrets she tries to extract from her many high-profile interviews.
Walters got into television by accident and got her big break when she did Alpo dog food commercials as a "Today Girl" on NBC's Today Show. She then became the first woman cohost of the Today show, and after a difficult move to ABC, the first female network news co-anchor. "Audition" provides the behind the scenes stories we have come to expect in books like this, as she made history rising against all odds to the top of a male-dominated industry.
"Audition" is filled with star-studded stories about her famous and infamous interviewees including Richard Nixon, Anwar Sadat, Menachem Begin, Shah of Iran, Henry Fonda, John Wayne, Katherine Hepburn, Yasir Arafat, Warren Beatty, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Roy Cohn, the Dalai Lama, Princess Diana, King Hussein, Angelina Jolie, Henry Kissinger, Monica Lewinsky, Rosie O'Donnell, Christopher Reeve . . . the list goes on and on.
Walters weaves a very human narrative of her family throughout the book; a narrative that provides clues to where she got her drive, the choices she made, her three failed marriages, being attracted to older (and often married) men, and her willingness to take risk. There is her risk-taking father, Lou Walters, the mercurial nightclub impresario who made and lost several fortunes; her long suffering mother; the family's descent from the penthouse to rent-controlled apartments; her mentally disabled sister, Jackie, who taught her much about patience and compassion; and the troubled teen years of her adopted daughter, Jackie (named in honor of her sister) who got hooked on amphetamines.
"Audition" is a very readable portrait of a deftly calculating woman with an impeccable sense of timing and incredible luck. Walters has given us a story that is heartbreaking and honest, surprising and fun, sometimes startling, and always fascinating. This makes a great companion book to Katie Couric's recently published biography, "Katie: The Real Story."
 you've just entered a no spin zone May 13, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
I like Barbara Walters, I really do. But I'm not overly crazy about this book. And I've never been someone who sits by and gives (insincere) praise to someone no matter how much I like them.
Barbara totally played her "gender" card with this book, hoping to cash in on her fame as a female journalist. Think about it. If this were a man and he wrote a book about his affair 25 or 30 years ago how would he be received?
I also got incredibly sick of the redundancy in the book. She must have said at least 100 times "I am the first this and I am the first that..." Frankly, I don't believe Barbara Walters is anywhere close to being as influential or as important as she makes herself out to others. What exactly did she do to change American Media? What did any of the "female journalists" do to change American MSM? Not one thing. To quote the words of the Great Shakespeare: And therein lies the rub. Because our society sets such low standards for women. They see a woman who knows how to spin like Barbara Walters and all of a sudden everyone is flabbergasted.
In her book she briefly discusses Star Jones which I also found very foolish and rather sloppy on her part. Because let's assume that Star Jones was the fattest, laziest piece of work that ever crossed Waters' path, how exactly would that help her? Star Jones worked for her for nearly 10 years and all of a sudden now she's persona non grata just because Barbara Walters wants to push her book? I don't buy it.
My favorite parts of the book were about her family and daughter. Over the years Barbara has often been very private when it comes to discussing her non-professional life so some of this information was brand-new. I also enjoyed her writing style very much because it was not overbearing in these sections.
Did anyone see Barbara Walter on Larry King Live? You could tell that she was (at least mildly) ticked off for being bumped to the end of the program. And then when the interview ended it was so hilarious when they both went out of their ways to kiss each others bee-hinds. No, they are not "good friends" as they each purported in the interview. Barbara Walters has said many nasty things about Larry King over the years. I wonder why she didn't include that in her book?
At least with Bill O we all know exactly what we're getting. As far as Barbara is concerned, she's been pulling the wool over everyone's eyes for years and years and IMO it's rather tragic that this is how she is going to be remembered because this is how her career is ending. You know, my granny always said: if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck it's a duck.
 if you saw oprah, you read the book May 13, 2008
9 out of 32 found this review helpful
I bought this book because I was so impressed with everything she said on oprah. I thought there would be all this great gossip about fat lesbian rosie and fat ugly star jones. There was really nothing that was not discussed on Oprah. repreatedly on oprah and in the book she said that she was willing to lie for star or oprah. Heck if she was willing to lie for oprah or star, then she is willing to lie to us.
She had a sexual affair with a senator, but yet the details are sparse. She never talked about positions, she never talked about his shaft. She never had remorse about breaking up this dudes marriage and throwing him away like a piece of trash. she never mentions how old she was when she first had sex, she never told about the famous people she had sex with. She interviewed monica lewinski and she never really talked about the sex.
She talked about star and her "marriage" she never said anything about the fact athe hs is gay. What type of trash is this? If you want the book , I will sell it to you......if I don't use it as toilet paper.
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