Audition: A Memoir ebook

by Barbara Walters

Barbara Walters Arts and Literature English

Barbara has spent a lifetime auditioning: for the networks, for the viewers, for the most famous people in the world, and even for her own daughter, with whom she has had a difficult relationship

Barbara has spent a lifetime auditioning: for the networks, for the viewers, for the most famous people in the world, and even for her own daughter, with whom she has had a difficult relationship. This book is her final audition, as she opens up both her private and public lives. From publisher description.

Barbara Walters’s Audition: A Memoir is a legitimately star-studded .

Barbara Walters’s Audition: A Memoir is a legitimately star-studded autobiography. On the same page in Barbara Walters’s big, bean-spilling memoir there are photographs of Ms. Walters, the undisputed queen of the television interview, and Cha Cha Walters, her dog. One of them looks businesslike. She wears glasses and sits perched at a computer keyboard. And this book is very much about her private life too. When she recalls her work, Ms. Walters presents herself as someone who thrives on competition.

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 Walters, arguably the most important woman in the history of television, has had an amazingly full life. NATIONAL BESTSELLER The most important woman in the history of television journalism gives us her inspiring and riveting memoir.

Barbara learned early about the damage that such an existence can do to n husband and wife as well as between parent and child

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. Barbara learned early about the damage that such an existence can do to n 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.

I finally got around to reading Barbara Walters's book AUDITION: A MEMOIR and I really enjoyed it. Not only does Walters go into her personal life history as she deals with a mentally handicapped sister. Not only does Walters go into her personal life history as she deals with a mentally handicapped sister, her father's constant gambling with the family's finances, making a fortune at first and then losing and regaining it over and over until his luck finally runs out, but she also goes into how she got her start in journalism and what i.

Barbara Walters's Audition is a massive, entertaining memoir that chronicles her troubled family life as she became one of television's most respected journalists. My draw to the book was its focus on a television journalist who hob-knobs with celebrities, heads of state and American politicians while she juggles a career and a family life

Listen to Audition: A Memoir audiobook by Barbara Walters. She has spent a lifetime auditioning, and this book, in some ways, is her final audition, as she fully opens up both her private and public lives.

Listen to Audition: A Memoir audiobook by Barbara Walters. Stream and download audiobooks to your computer, tablet or mobile phone. Bestsellers and latest releases. 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 made Barbara aware of the ups and downs that can occur when someone is willing to take great risks.

Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin.

Listen to unlimited audiobooks on the web, iPad, iPhone and Android. Barbara Walters's perception of the world was formed at a very early age. Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin.

Аудиокнига "Audition: A Memoir", Barbara Walters. Читает Barbara Walters. Мгновенный доступ к вашим любимым книгам без обязательной ежемесячной платы

Аудиокнига "Audition: A Memoir", Barbara Walters. Мгновенный доступ к вашим любимым книгам без обязательной ежемесячной платы. Слушайте книги через Интернет и в офлайн-режиме на устройствах Android, iOS, Chromecast, а также с помощью Google Ассистента. Скачайте Google Play Аудиокниги сегодня!

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLERThe most important woman in the history of television journalism gives us her inspiring and riveting memoir. After more than fifty 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 Chávez, 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.

Arar

I finally got around to reading Barbara Walters's book AUDITION: A MEMOIR and I really enjoyed it.

Not only does Walters go into her personal life history as she deals with a mentally handicapped sister, her father's constant gambling with the family's finances, making a fortune at first and then losing and regaining it over and over until his luck finally runs out, but she also goes into how she got her start in journalism and what it was like being a woman, forging ahead, in what was a very male-dominated industry.

She goes into her time beginning as a script writer and then "weather girl" and finally offered a small on-screen position at NBC. It took quite awhile before she was allowed the title of "co-host" even though technically she was doing the same amount of work (if not more so) as her male counterparts, and even when she got the title it was only in name alone: no pay raise, no fringe benefits, nothing special. It would take more time, not to mention hosting, writing and producing a separate TV show in addition to her co-hosting news duties (at NBC), before Walters would make the move to ABC and the $1-Million contract, which wasn't just for her co-hosting the ABC NIGHTLY NEWS program, and how she met resistance every step of the way.

It comes up to the present day and also discusses the very well publicized issues that happened on "The View," with co-hosts Star Jones sudden on-air speech about quitting, and the very public feud between Rosie O'Donnell and Elisabeth Hasslebeck.

Another great thing about the book is Walters recounts many of the things she found fascinating about the people she has interviewed over the years, including politicians and celebrities. And even though there are interesting tidbits of information it isn't anything that would come off as rabid gossip or blabber-mouthing or even character assassination. Walters keeps it dignified and classy.

The book has a very strong conversational tone, which I'm sure comes from her background of writing news-script copy, so it's as if someone is telling you a story that has digressions, jokes, etc., and I never found it boring.

Some would criticize Barbara Walters as being a "fluff" piece interviewer, asking softball questions, but I disagree. She has been able to (even to this day) secure interviews with people others cannot AND she's able to ask -- and get answered -- the questions that are the most personal of her subjects, but that the audience wants to know. And she does it without being overtly confrontational, condescending, or un-natural. This talent is what allowed her to climb to the position that she's in and why so many tuned in to watch her be it on "Today," "ABC Nightly News," "20/20" etc., and why many people come to her wanting to tell their stories.

The book has black & white photos.

I do hope that someday many of her TV interviews would be made available on DVD/Blu-Rays. There's one out titled "25 ON 20/20" and another bio DVD called "Driving Force," but I would like to see a box set along the lines of the "Oprah Winfrey 20th Anniversary" Box Set DVDs. This might not ever happen since it is the respective networks that would own the rights to the Walters interviews and specials (Winfrey owns the rights to "The Oprah Winfrey Show") and so those would probably have to be renegotiated to be commercially available (since Walters -- like all news anchors/reporters -- don't get residual payments from re-runs).

I'm sure the master tapes of these interviews still exist (I hope). It would be hard to believe that the original master tapes from her countless interviews haven't been kept in good condition because Walters has interviewed every major celebrity, politician, and infamous person for the past 40-years!

Anyway, I'd like to see some of these interviews especially after reading about them in the book (and yes, I have heard of Youtube).

If you're a fan of Walters or journalism in general, I would definitely recommend AUDITION.

Tejar

An avid book reader friend recommended this book to me saying he really had known little of Barbara Walters personal history, but that he enjoyed the book and had passed it on to his daughter. I do not consider myself an avid reader. I bought the book soon after it was first published and just now read it. Certainly Ms. Walters is an American Institution and a Trailblazer for women in journalism. Even though the book is rather long, I finished reading it in no time. I have lived through the times written about in the book and found revisiting the happenings fascinating. Her descriptions of the people she interviewed were refreshing. I have already recommended this book to friends. I do so without reservations - if you like history, a little show biz mixed in along with "admissions" by the author, read this book.

Arcanefire

What a remarkable woman, and what an amazing career and life she has had! When you first open this book of almost 600 pages, the very first thing that grabs you is the flyleaf--before you even turn a page of the book, there begins an alphabetical listing (continued on the inside back cover) of the many famous interviews she has had, with names so big that a meeting with any one of them would be a lifetime event for most of us. And she lists at least 600 of them! Everyone knows about her chats with the presidents and their wives, other heads of state, and celebrities of all kinds. But Walters reminds us that she went on to develop more personal ties with some of them: Richard Nixon, Fidel Castro, and Sadat and Begin during the peace process, for example. During a few of her chapters, you can see where she crossed the line from being simply a journalist to being someone who actively helped to shape events herself. At a minimum, she was certainly instrumental in crafting how the public saw the major stories and players of her day, and there is always an intricate dance between an emerging public perception and what happens subsequently. Walters chased down, for months and if need be for years, the interviews she wanted to land--and there was always fierce competition to snare what she calls these "gets." In the long run, it was one of the things that burned her out on network journalism and caused her to turn more toward her top-rated Specials and The View. Along the way, however, I think she earned a Ph.D. in history and another one in political science.

But no doubt this book will be best remembered for the candor with which Walters speaks of her own personal issues. We hear all about her engaging father (whose many brilliant show businesses successes each ultimately ended in failure), her depressed and insecure mother (who suffered from the blows of fate until her death at 91), her mentally retarded sister Jackie (whom Walters both loved and hated), and her three marriages and numerous affairs (causing her to say that she will never marry again). But Walters' greatest love is for her adopted daughter Jackie, who moved from a teenage rebellion involving drugs and running away to a successful later career running a residential therapy facility for girls. Secondarily, we hear about the frosty on-camera relationships she had with her male colleagues Frank McGee and Harry Reasoner. Sexism was alive and well in the television field as Walters began and advanced her career, and it is stinging to be reminded of just how blatant and cruel it was. Any reader approaching a "tell all" memoir of this scope will want to know if the author was honest in telling her story and, as far as I can tell, Walters pulled no punches and held little back. The writing is good, the short chapters are easy to read, and this is the kind of book that you want to go on and on.

As a final note, the photos Walters provides are a delicious meal in their own right. Although not arranged in chronological order, they are an important counterpoint to the text. Many depict individuals not much discussed in the book, so they provide an amplification of her story. And, yes, perhaps Walters did not start out as the prettiest face in the business, but with great care she has grown more beautiful through the years. She now appears quite lovely. Though she is coy about her age, you can infer that she is breathing upon 80. We should all look so good! I started this read as a mild fan, and now I truly admire her. Hats off to you, Barbara!