15A
BLACK HISTORY/The Charlotte Post
Thursday, February 13, 1997
istory
01^711
Winfrey reigas
atop media empire
apologies to
roward Stern, it
^must be said that
the reigning monarch of all
media is actually Oprah
Winfrey. So powerful is the
talk show hostess that her
influence extends beyond her
daily one-hour gabfest into
everything from the publish
ing industry to the agricultur
al commodity markets. Want
proof? Winfrey plugs an
unknown author on-air, and
his hook shoots to the top of
the best-seller charts. She
shrewdly renegotiates her syn
dication contract, and Forbes
soon crowns her the world’s
highest-paid entertainer. She
kicks off a new exercise pro
gram, and thousands of
women immediately adopt her
regimen. She establishes a
television and film studio in
West Chicago, and the former
ly sketchy neighborhood
undergoes an economic renais
sance. She discusses mad cow
disease on her show, and
American cattle futures plum
met. Yet, regardless of how
high her authority climbs,
good oT Oprah remains the
plain-speaking, empathetic
best-girlfriend to the Betty
Crocker set. Even casual view
ers of The Oprah Winfrey
Show are well-versed in its
host’s troubled childhood. Bom
to unwed teenage parents in
rural Mississippi, Winfrey
spent her childhood living in
extreme poverty on her Bible-
thumping grandmother’s
farm. (Incidentally, “Oprah” is
an accidental misspelling of
the biblical name Orpah.) She
moved to Milwaukee as a pre-
teen to live with her mother,
Vemita Lee, under whose roof
she was sexually molested sev
eral times by male relatives.
Winfrey spent her early teens
in and out of trouble. At age
fourteen, she gave birth to a
premature baby, who died
hortly thereafter. Facing a
dangled threat of being sent to
a home for wayward youth,
Winfrey went to live with her
father in Nashville. Vernon
Winfrey, a barber and busi
nessman, provided the disci
pline that was sorely lacking
in his daughter’s life. He insti
tuted a strict curfew and
stressed the value of educa
tion, and under his iron fist,
Oprah turned her life around
in record time.
At age 19, Winfrey landed
her first broadcasting job - as
a reporter at radio station
WVOL in Nashville — and
enrolled at Tennessee State
University to study speech and
performing arts. In her sopho
more year, 1972, Winfrey
switched mediums and
became the first African-
American anchor at
Nashville’s WTVF-TV. She
moved to Baltimore in 1976
and, after two years working
as a reporter and co-anchor at
WJZ-TV, she was hired to host
the station’s chat show. People
Are Talking. At first, station
management didn’t quite
know what to make of Winfrey
- here was a black, overweight
woman edging into a white
man’s appearance-obsessed
world.
Viewers, however, responded
exceedingly well to her, and
Winfreds healthy Nielsen rat
ings reflected their enthusi
asm. In 1984, after eight years
at WJZ, Winfrey accepted,
with much trepidation, a job as
host of A.M. Chicago, a morn
ing show in the Windy City.
She had reason to be nervous:
the program was scheduled
opposite Phil Donahue’s top-
rated national talk show - stiff
competition indeed.
It turned out that her wor
ries were all for naught.
Winfrey
Within months, Winfrey’s A.M.
Chicago was trouncing its
rival. Rather than try to mimic
Donahue’s polished interview
techniques and high-profile
guest list, Winfrey simply
offered herself. “The closest
thing that Phil Donahue ever
talked about was the fact that
he was a wayward Catholic.
Other than that, talk show
hosts didn’t talk about them
selves,” explained fellow tube-
talker Maury Povich in an
interview with Working
Woman magazine. “Oprah
opened up a lot of new win
dows because they could
empathize with her.” Winfrey,
who had always wanted to be
an actress but had no profes
sional experience, then landed
a plum movie assignment
playing the world-weary Sofia
in Steven Spielberg’s 1985 cin
ematic adaptation of Alice
Walker’s The Color Purple.
For her moving performance,
Winfrey scored an Oscar nomi
nation for Best Supporting
Actress. The enviable publicity
that surrounded her Academy
nod couldn’t have come at a
better time. Winfrey was
scheduled to relaunch her pro
gram - now titled The Oprah
Winfrey Show - as a national
ly syndicated program, in
1986. The transfer to the far
larger pond went off without a
hitch, and the once-almighty
Donahue now found himself
competing with his Chicago
nemesis on an even battlefield.
During this period of quick
expansion, Winfrey began cut
ting herself a hefty piece of her
show’s financial pie. She estab
lished Harpo Productions
(“Harpo” is Oprah spelled
backwards) and eventually
purchased her program out
right from CapitM Cities/ABC.
In 1988, Harpo shelled out $20
million to buy and renovate a
gigantic production facility in
downtown Chicago to house
her company headquarters.
Each time Oprah Winfrey’s
syndication contract with King
World Productions came up for
renewal, Harpo negotiated
ever-sweeter terms, including
significant stock options in
King World. The result: Oprah
Winfrey, as the third woman in
history - after Mary Pickford
and Lucille Ball - to own a
major studio, is well on her
way to becoming America’s
first black billionaire (she will
take down an estimated $97
million in 1996 alone).
In 1994, eight years into her
nationwide run, and with her
40th birthday fast approach
ing, Winfrey foimd herself at
both a personal and profes
sional crossroads. The daytime
television arena had become a
cacophony of chit-chat, and
Winfrey and her by-now-
numerous competitors had
spent years stooping well
below the lowest common
denominator.
Even thoughWinfrey
remained the undisputed
champ of the genre, talk-TV
had turned terribly trashy.
The thought of retiring from
the daily show to devote her
energies to acting and produc
ing crossed Winfrey’s mind
more than once.
But instead of walking away,
Winfrey pledged to refocus her
show on uplifting, meaningful
subjects. She believed that her
connection with viewers was
strong enough that the audi
ence would stick with her even
if her show’s topics were less
sensationalistic. Because of
Winfrey’s pledge, the past two
years of The Oprah Winfrey
Show have featured fewer
pornographers, prostitutes,
and psychopaths, and far more
poetry, pop psychology, and
pajama parties. (One such pro
gram, in January 1995,
focused on overcoming drug
abuse. It included a tearful
confession from Winfrey that
she herself had used cocaine
during her 20s.) Despite an
initial ratings dip, Winfrey’s
numbers have been as strong
as ever. In 1995, she signed an
unprecedented contract that
extends through the year
2000, but which includes a
clause that enables her to can
cel the program without penal-'
ty, should she make that deci
sion.
A discussion of Winfrey
would be incomplete if it didn’t
mention her ongoing battle
with the bulge. After hovering
around 200 pounds from 1984
to 1987, the five-foot-seven
hostess with the mostest lost
67 pounds on a liquid diet and
flaunted her imburied figure
on-air in 1989. Within a year,
she had regained the weight,
plus an additional three
pounds. In 1991, Winfrey
hired low-fat chef Rosie Daley
as her cook. The following
year, exercise guru Bob
Greene joined Winfrey’s
entourage as her personal
trainer. The pounds - almost
90 - graduaUy melted away
See Winfrey on page 16A
Africa
comeis
ALIVE
in
AFRICA ALIVE!
Saturday Feb. 22, 1997
lO am - ‘i' pm .
MUSFUIVl
OF YORK
COUNTY
46i2i Road ■
Rock Hlll.’South: Cafolina •: :
Featured' Performer:
James Makubuya
of Uganda '
■ ■ /Students -.under -
. & under - free;
Information; ..
C8031 329^2121 ^ •
Also, see Dr. Makubuya's lecture
& demonstration on the traditional
music of Uganda, 7pm Friday
. Feb. 21 at The Wesley foundation.
406 Stewart Street. Rock Hill, for ,
information call 803-329-2121. 1
South Carolina
:• .s/i/iiiiia Fm‘. : •
..AFRICA ALIVE! 1997 is sporiSdrRd'by;'-;:,
Target:* RoscJiS'-Qelanese • Rock Hill Notary'
“York GouHtyAt^.rriodations Tax
k np
In Honor Of
BLACK HISTORY MONTH
LNCXIHARlDirE
Presents
i5ible Life
Lg
ha
nn
rri5
I
Stude
February 19,1997
McKnight Hall ^
8:00 p.m.
its $5.00 • Fac/Staff $7.00 • General Public $10.00
McKnight Hall
February 20,1997 • Be on the look out
Known For
“Black Giri
Justice”
& “Black
Statue
of Uberty”
Known For
“Please Do
Not Take
I My Air
Jordans”
es
Students $3.00 • Fac/Staff $5.00 • General $7.00
Tickets Available At The Candy Shoppe
For More information Call: 547-2450
smm. npEni
February 24,1997
McKnight Hall
7:90 p.m.
Fac/Staff $6.00 • General $8.00
ipril 2, 1969, Shakur was arrested and
i^icted along with 21 other members of
the Black Panther Party. This group became
known as the NY Panther 21, During an ordeal that
lasted 25 months, Shakur acted as her own
attorney. In May of 1971, after 90 minutes of
grueling deliberations, a jury acquitted all 21
members. In June of 1971 she gave birth to her son
Tupac.
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