Small town woman worked with big time stars
By Bill Vossler
Of the many famous television personalities Carole Wendt of Litchfield worked with, like David Frost, Jack Paar, Barbara Walters, David Brinkley, Bryant Gumbel, and Tom Brokaw, her favorite was Brokaw.
“Working with Tom Brokaw on the Today Show was a pleasure. He was respectful and polite. My job was to write the script for the show, pre-interview the guests, and stand ready to make changes as the show aired. If Tom wanted to change the wording before air, he would tell me so, politely.”
When NBC did a program in the Twin Cities, at a publicity party, Carole said, “Brokaw singled me out as one of the best writers on the show and I was from Minnesota to boot. We teased each other about being the bigger hick – he from Yankton, South Dakota, or me from Litchfield, Minnesota.
Background
In 1964, when Carole’s job at the United States Steel Hour was going off the air, she asked an old friend if she knew of any jobs. “Yes,” the friend said, “My boy friend is an executive at NBC, and is here at the party.” The boy friend introduced Carole to the producer of Monitor, NBC’s popular radio program. Carole was hired as his secretary.
After a couple of years, Carole told her boss she wanted a promotion. He said, “Don’t you like being my secretary?” She did, but wanted more. He promoted her to Production Assistant, choosing the records, scheduling the program and timing it– important for a live program.
Carole’s actor-singer husband Bill had been on Broadway in Milk and Honey and revivals of Kiss Me Kate and South Pacific. When cast in Man of La Mancha, Carole decided to leave NBC, and join Bill as the show went to Los Angeles.
Colleagues warned her that once you quit NBC, they would never take you back. After deciding Hollywood wasn’t for them, Carole learned the Today Show was unofficially looking for a woman writer. Carole said, “Thanks to Gloria Steinem and the women’s movement it was time for women to be promoted, as they had been sued for not promoting women. Out of 40 women, I was chosen. The executive producer liked my writing, and sense of humor, as we laughed throughout most of the interview. Later his secretary said his only worry was that I might distract the men on the show.”
Bryant Gumbel, who took over from Brokaw, was a bit touchy, but very good at his job, Carole said. “He did his homework. And each of these stars excelled in their own way. All were hard working, professional and respectful of other producers and writers.”
David Frost Show
“I had met Barbara Walters earlier while working on the David Frost show. She wasn’t yet a household name. I convinced my producer on the Today Show to book her. He said, ‘Okay, but she better be good.’”
Barbara and Carole met for lunch. “I discovered she was a terrific interview. I said people would want to know how she got the big job as co-host on the Today Show. She said after being a secretary, researcher, and after lots of begging, she was allowed on the air. I said, wouldn’t it be funny if you recited all that and then ended with ‘and then, I slept with the producer and got the job.’”
At the end of the interview with David Frost, she said she’d slept with the producer. “Frost was stunned but when the audience laughed long and loud, he recovered and laughed along with them. Later, the producer said, ‘Did you tell her to say that?’ I said I had. I thought it was funny but maybe David didn’t like being shocked. Years later Barbara claimed she had thought of the shocking joke. I liked working with her; she definitely paid her dues for her success.”
“The first Today Show I was slated to write everything in was to be hosted by Edwin Newman, filling in. Edwin Newman! A highly regarded wordsmith! As we were about to go on air, he asked to see me. I was stunned; what had I done wrong? He politely said, ‘You describe the President’s meeting as a summit meeting but not all the nations needed for a summit were there.’ I replied that the New York Times said it was a summit. He said, ‘The New York Times is wrong.’ I liked that. He was courteous and right.”
“During the Bicentennial, we did a full show on location from every state. I was assigned North Carolina, David Brinkley’s home state. He was the host, and I was to write the script. I was scared; he was known for his excellent writing. Me? Write for Brinkley? So, I wrote the opening monologue as if I were Brinkley. As he stood in front of a plantation mansion, to my surprise and delight, he read the script exactly. I thought, ‘I have made it!’ It was an endorsement I never dreamed I would get.”
“Later on the ride back into town, I asked Brinkley what he would do if handed incorrect copy on air. ‘Simple,’ he said, ‘I wouldn’t read it.’ Are you ever nervous on camera. ‘No,’ he said, ‘it’s probably a flaw but I have never suffered from stage fright.’”
On the other hand, many big stars were frightened. “Anthony Quinn said he always feared he’d never get another job. David Niven too. ‘But you’re a huge star!’ I said. He said he had lots of expenses. The life style of a celebrity can cost a lot. Show business is a scary business. A lot hangs on your decisions especially when the stakes are high. Everyone is nervous. So just be a little less afraid than everyone else.”
Carole was lucky to grow up in a supportive family. “Especially my mother. She was so proud of how pretty my sister and I were she had us walk ahead of her when we went downtown. I asked why. She said she liked to watch passersby admiring us. She thought we were perfect, and knew we were special. As a drawback, I never had any criticism while growing up, so it was tough learning how to handle that. But I did learn.”
Carole enjoyed meeting and interviewing very famous people – communion from Pope John Paul, spending hours with Paul Newman planning his David Frost show appearance. “You get to ask questions you’d never ask otherwise. I pre-interviewed Sophia Loren in her hotel suite and found her welcoming and relaxed. She spoke of her difficult pregnancies, and to become a mother had to be bedridden for months, twice to successfully deliver two healthy baby boys. At the end as a joke I said, ‘Miss Loren, is there anything about ME you’d like to know?’ She paused for a second and then she got it and we both burst out laughing. It was a pleasure to meet her.”
Carole’s husband died of lung cancer in 1998. “I retired from NBC, and began to commute between Litchfield and Manhattan, but it got to be so much work I opted to live in Litchfield full time. Almost every year I fly to Manhattan to catch up with friends and former colleagues while building up a life in Litchfield. That works just fine.”
But she needed to watch her behavior. “After 55 years in New York City, I had become a New Yorker – aggressive, blunt, fast moving and fast talking. Minnesotans are tactful, courteous, and take their time. I had to shift gears. I needed to tone it down.”
Having acted from her childhood up, she decided to do some in Litchfield. “But I didn’t want to memorize. So I put together six readers theater productions – no memorization -- we read the script to the audience, and raised money for renovating the Opera House. When I asked a friend to be in it, she said she had never acted before. I said, ‘Can you read and talk loud?’ ‘Yes,’ she replied. She was terrific in the part. Sometimes, that New York pushiness works.”
The Readers Theater led to former State Representative Dean Urdahl asking her to do more acting. “To play a settler in a movie based on his book Uprising, a historical novel about the Indian Outbreak in the 1860’s. I had ten lines ranting about the Indians. No makeup, missing a front tooth and windblown hair. At the premiere, I looked awful on the big screen. I resolved to not tell anyone about the movie. Guess what? I went right home and called everyone saying I was in a streaming movie they could see online. Later I acted in two more films based on Urdahl’s book. That was fun. I was also told I will be in two more movies this spring. The director, Chris Forbes, told me I was a natural actor. ‘That’s something every actor wants to achieve.’ I was thrilled at the compliment.”
Carole has won several awards: a citation honoring her work on the two-time Emmy-Award-winning David Frost Show; induction into the Litchfield High School Hall of Fame, and her likeness is part of the University of Minnesota Theater Department’s display of honored graduates.”
Carole proudly remembered a high compliment when registering to vote. “The woman in charge and I joked and bantered, having a good time. Another woman asked if I was Carole Wendt, the writer of articles in the local paper. I asked if she recognized me by my picture? ‘No,’ the woman said, ‘By the way you were talking. You talk the way you write.’ Exactly what every writer wants to achieve. Their own ‘voice.’”
As her former boss David Frost would put it, “That definitely was a happiness pie.”
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