Here's a clip I can't embed but it's sure worth a trip over to YouTube to hear it. It's audio only of the first three minutes of Johnny Carson's first Tonight Show for October 1, 1962.
Quick explanation: At the time, the Tonight Show was an hour and forty-five minutes in some markets, 90 in others. This was because some stations ran a 15-minute late newscast before it and some had a half-hour. So the show would start at 11:15 (10:15 Central) and they'd do whatever they did, going to a commercial break at 11:28 or so. When they came back from that break, the show would have another opening billboard and it would more-or-less start over for those just joining it. Once Johnny was ensconced as host, he'd do his opening monologue in the first fifteen minutes and do some comedy bit or maybe even have on a first guest who was expendable for much of the country.
But Johnny felt his monologue wasn't expendable. Later on when he was successful and had some clout, he began to object to the arrangement. He stopped doing the first fifteen minutes of his own show, leaving that to Ed McMahon and bandleader Skitch Henderson. They'd host that part and then Johnny would appear at 11:30 and do his monologue for the full roster of stations. Eventually, the first fifteen went away completely.
On his first night, they wanted all of America to see his debut so Groucho Marx came in, did the first fifteen minutes and then introduced Johnny. And you'll hear that intro if you click here. I didn't know this still existed and I am, of course, curious if the rest of this episode does.
Why Actors, Writers and Other Creative Folks Don't Get Hired
The other day I wrote the following here: "Even if you constantly produce quality material on time, there's another very good reason why you might not get hired or be able to sell what you write or draw. It's the same reason good, reliable actors are often unemployed." And I promised to elaborate. This is that elaboration...
Basically, the reason is that the amount of opportunities is finite but the number of applicants is not.
For the purposes of this discussion, I'm going to lump together people who want to write, people who want to draw, people who want to act, people who want to play major league baseball...all those professions where in one way or another, you audition and if the right person says, "Hey, you're the one," you get paid to do what you want to do. There are obviously differences between those professions but they share this in common: Lots of people want to do them and there can never be enough opportunities for them all. The roster of a professional baseball team is limited to 25 players. Obviously, there are a lot more than 25 people who dream of playing for the Yankees. Some of them may be extremely skilled but they're going to get turned away because the team can only accommodate 25 of them.
People who aspire to such jobs often forget this. They think of it as a contest: Can they prove they're good enough to get the person or persons who makes/make the selection think they're good? Yes, that's the game but it's only part of it. Because most of the time when you succeed at that, others have as well. You're not the only victor. The hiring entity has ten or twenty good people and one job...and that's when it comes down to whims or going eenie-meenie-minie-mo. Too many people, not enough openings.
The system by which such jobs are awarded is a subjective, unpredictable one. You and/or your work are evaluated. Someone makes a judgment based on taste or hunches or whatever. But no matter what criteria they use, no matter how they go about deciding who they want, there are this many people and that many jobs, and at some level, there's nothing you can do about that. Each year, 53 beautiful women are finalists in the Miss America pageant. Each year, 52 beautiful women don't win and wonder, "Why couldn't it have been me?" And the answer is that it probably could have been but 52 had to lose. It's not like the one who won is the only good-looking one in the crowd. They're all gorgeous. They all pretty much fit the criteria via which the decision is made. But there can only be one Miss America per year, at least until the nude photos surface.
I occasionally find myself in a hiring position and I don't enjoy it. Actually, I enjoy the hiring part but I really, really hate the calls and e-mails and not-so-subtle hints from friends that result in me having to say, "Sorry, there's no opening." That is much more often the case than, "Sorry, you're not good enough." Usually, it doesn't even get as far as me deciding if the person can do the job. I've already filled it so I don't have to decide if each new applicant is the best choice. But I know that usually doesn't satisfy them...and some of them get very frustrated or even angry.
If you make the decision that your profession is going to be one of those where you have to keep auditioning, literally or implicitly, it sure helps to understand that it will involve this Luck of the Draw. Being great at what you do doesn't get you jobs. It puts you in the first tier for selection, along with a batch of other folks who are great, for when there are jobs. To get angry or frustrated at this system is silly. It's like an unemployed plumber getting mad because not enough people have dripping sinks this week. If you can't accept this, you're just going to make yourself unhappy...and/or spend a lot of time trying to change a situation that you're powerless to change.
Here's some footage I never thought I'd see...one of those things I assumed was long since lost to the world. In August of 1963, Allan Sherman guest-hosted Johnny Carson's show for a week. I loved Allan Sherman and begged my parents to allow me to stay up late enough to watch. They lovingly said no. Not on a school night...and for reasons I can't recall, I don't think I even saw him on Friday night, when there was no school the next day. Yet here's a few key minutes of that week on YouTube...
Mr. Sherman hosted from Monday, August 5 through Friday, August 9. On Monday's show, he came out and issued a challenge to Cary Grant, who at the time was about the handsomest, classiest man in the movie business...and someone who'd never really done television. Sherman explained that the short, pudgy guy we all saw on TV and on the covers of his record albums was a character he'd created; that he really looked just like Cary Grant but that the other look just seemed more fitting for a guy who sang quasi-Jewish song parodies. The challenge was to come on the program and allow America to make a side-by-side comparison and determine which of them was the more adorable.
That was on Monday. On Tuesday night's show, Sherman came out and announced he had not heard a peep from Cary Grant. This, of course, was an admission that Cary was afraid to let the public decide. And then on Wednesday afternoon, Sherman received a telegram of concession from Grant and on Thursday, an off-the-air phone call. I believe Grant apologized to him, explaining that he was shooting a movie (probably Charade) or he'd have flown back to New York and appeared on the show to properly button the gag. But Sherman had fun with it, anyway. The video below starts with the opening of the show from Wednesday night, then cuts to a statement he made on Friday night to sum up. My thanks and amazement to Barry Mitchell for digging this up...
September 6, 2010
