Audition (53 page)

The concept I had of the
Specials
was a format that would feature at least one celebrity and one political figure, a formula similar to some future newsmagazines. So I was very pleased that President-elect Jimmy Carter agreed to sit for an in-depth interview for that first
Special.
After the torture with Streisand the interview with Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, was a romp in the park, or rather, a romp in Plains, Georgia.

I had first talked with Carter back in 1974 on the
Today
show when he was unknown to most Americans but had nevertheless decided to throw his hat in the ring and run for president. He was the governor of Georgia then, a former peanut farmer and naval officer who had risen up the political ranks through state politics.

At first people really did say, “Jimmy who?”—especially since he never used his full name, James Earl Carter. This, too, was rather refreshing. The
Today
interview was brief—most morning-show interviews were and are—but I was impressed. He was a small man who radiated a quiet confidence. He had a friendly smile, although his eyes bulged a bit. After the darkness of Richard Nixon and the awkwardness of Gerald Ford, Carter had an air of simplicity and authenticity. I thought to myself that he might even make it all the way to the presidency.

I followed his race carefully and once, when he was campaigning in Florida, I went there to report on his progress. I tied this to a visit with my parents and brought my daughter with me. I have a sweet photograph of Carter, sitting on the floor with eight-year-old Jackie, talking in a very serious way with her. Jackie promised to vote for him.

So I was looking forward to our interview. It took place a month after the election, in his hometown of Plains, Georgia. The entire phone book for Plains and its neighboring towns was only forty-five pages long, and the listings for Plains itself were just a page and a half. Plains didn’t even have a restaurant until the presidential race brought so many journalists to town that one simple eatery opened.

The interview was held in the Carters’ unpretentious four-bedroom brick house, surrounded by a wooded grove. Carter said he had constructed much of the living room furniture himself. As we sat on the couch he had built, he told me, “I never have had a doubt that I would be elected. I never have reached a single day in my life when I felt that I would lose.” An interesting statement of confidence from a one-term governor of Georgia who had come from such inauspicious roots.

Then I stuck my foot in my mouth. The outgoing president, Gerald Ford, had talked publicly about bringing his own bed to the White House for him and his wife, Betty, and I asked Jimmy Carter if he’d be bringing his own bed. Sounds cheeky, but it didn’t seem that way at the time. And neither Jimmy nor Rosalynn Carter seemed the least bit taken aback by the question. So, with some embarrassment, I pressed on. “Do you sleep in a double bed or twin beds?” I asked. “Double bed,” Carter replied with a smile, looking at his wife. “Always have. Sometimes we sleep in a single bed…but it’s much more comfortable in a double bed.”

I cringe now at this exchange with President-elect and Mrs. Carter, but it made them very human. It also painted an accurate picture of their close relationship, which would become apparent to everyone over the next four years.

But I was roundly criticized for my Carter bedroom revelation. John O’Connor, the respected television critic for the
New York Times
, called it an “exploitation of personal and intimate details” and pronounced it “pointless, if not ludicrous.” But that criticism paled before the wrath that greeted the way I ended the interview.

Carter would shortly be leading this country, which had been so torn apart by the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal, and I said: “Be wise with us, Governor. Be good to us.” “I’ll try,” he replied.

Photo Insert 1

My maternal grandparents, John and Celia Seletsky with their daughters Dena (standing) and Lena

Typical Latin Quarter finale

Mom, Dad, and the Duchess of Windsor when the Latin Quarter played in Nassau

Mother, father, and sister Jackie, around the age of twenty

My sister Jackie

My adored cousin Shirley and her husband, Irving Budd

My sister Jackie, my father, me, my then husband Lee Guber, and my mother, late 1960s

With Lee and baby Jackie

Jackie and I—sweet memories