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PRODUCT
The Rulebreaker: The Life and Times of Barbara Walters
Product Description:
Price:
$16.99
Detailed description:
A “smart, juicy, deeply reported” (Katie Couric) biography of the most successful female broadcaster of all time—Barbara Walters—a woman whose personal demons fueled an ambition that broke all the rules and finally gave women a permanent place on the air, written by bestselling author Susan Page.
Barbara Walters was a force from the time TV was exploding on the American scene in the 1960s to its waning dominance in a new world of competition from streaming services and social media half a century later. She was not just a groundbreaker for women (Oprah announced when she was seventeen that she wanted to be Barbara Walters), but also expanded the big TV interview and then dominated the genre. By the end of her career, she had interviewed more of the famous and infamous, from presidents to movie stars to criminals to despots, than any other journalist in history. Then at sixty-seven, past the age of many female broadcasters found themselves involuntarily retired, she pioneered a new form of talk TV called The View. She is on the short list of those who have left the biggest imprints on television news and on our culture, male or female. So, who was the woman behind the legacy?
In The Rulebreaker, Susan Page conducts 150 interviews and extensive archival research to discover that Walters was driven to keep herself and her family afloat after her mercurial and famous impresario father attempted suicide. But she never lost the fear of an impending catastrophe, which is what led her to ask for things no woman had ever asked for before, to ignore the rules of misogynistic culture, to outcompete her most ferocious competitors, and to protect her complicated marriages and love life from scrutiny.
Page breaks news on every front—from the daring things Walters did to become the woman who reinvented the TV interview to the secrets she kept until her heath. This is the “stunning” (Norah O’Donnell), “brilliantly written” (Andrea Mitchell) account of the woman who knew she had to break all the rules so she could break all the rules about what viewers deserved to know.
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Product group:
Categories: Women Writers
Product name:
The Rulebreaker: The Life and Times of Barbara Walters
Price:
$16.99
Shelley –
This is such a well written and interesting book. The author does an excellent job of explaining the significance of the many achievements of this groundbreaking journalist. I found this fascinating from cover to cover and will be recommending it to others as a must read.
William Orr –
Page unearthed the truth about this American icon and trailblazer. Walter’s personal life was incredibly accurate and applicable to the challenges she faced during her career. The bio shows us how really incredible this human being really was. I found it personally informative and superbly written.
amachinist –
Barbara Walters wrote her autobiography in 2008 entitled Audition. The author of The Rulebreaker, as expected, relied heavily on Barbara’s work as a reference. A reader might wonder, “Why not just read what Barbara had to say about herself?” Like most of us, Walters, a consummate journalist and interviewer who sought the most intimate details about the lives of the rich, famous and infamous, was not always truthful about her own life.
Her father, who was involved in show business, was a huge influence on her life. His financial situation waxed and waned and after his death, Walters took on the financial responsibility for both her mother and mentally disabled sister, but kept them at a distance in Florida while she settled in NY City, the nucleus of the broadcasting business.
Walters was determined to be a primetime journalist. She was marginalized because she was a woman and was forced, initially, to work behind the scenes as an editor of news shows. In the end, this gave her the experience to craft and edit her own broadcasts when she did break through as an anchor. She changed the definition of an interview by in-depth research and writing, sometimes over a hundred questions for each guest. These interviews were at times revealing, painfully intimate and emotional. The book highlights several of these including Walters’ interview with Monica Lewinsky.
Walters could be cutthroat in her determination to get an interview. She was NOT a team player and frequently went to great lengths to scoop an interview which had been promised to other female reporters. This did not endear her to her female colleagues, though most had to admit that Barbara Walters had blazed the trail for women broadcasters. In 1996 she founded the all female talk show called The View. It became a hit and was seen as a feminist advancement in the broadcast business.
Barbara’s personal life was not as successful as her career in terms of her estrangement from her adopted daughter and three failed marriages. In 2014, when Walters retired from The View, all ten previous co-hosts and two dozen of the nation’s leading female broadcasters appeared to give Barbara a huge testimony to the impact she had on their lives. Perhaps, this was her true family and legacy.
Jazz Fan –
I had read Barbara’s biography several years ago. I read so many books that I didn’t remember a whole lot about it. This was a nice refresher and told from so many who knew Barbara. I loved their perspective on what they observed about her. This was part bio, part history and I love history. I highly recommend it.
Rebecca Connatser –
A life story with information you probably did not know. It traces her tenacious moves up the ladder despite her difficulty pronouncing the letter ‘r’. Such a fascinating read and so well-written!
Mark Guberman –
I feel like I really got to know Barbara Walter’s, the human being. She had an incredible career, had an incredible number of achievements, and had challenges she faced and some she never reconciled. Well worth reading.
Abbey –
Susan Page is a very good author. I loved her book on Barbara Bush. A good read. This book, not so much.
Maybe it’s the subject. Barbara Walters life. Not too exciting, kind of depressing. Disappointed in the book.
marlene –
Just started the book !
NancyF –
Having lived through the Walter Cronkite/Dan Rather era of TV news, I thought I knew a lot about Barbara Walters too. But no! It turns out she lived a much more complex life, with a stressful childhood and difficult path to success and had more romantic relationships than I had imagined. I could not put this book down and by the end, I had developed a greater respect for this trailblazing writer, producer, broadcaster and TV host and a keener understanding of the challenges faced by female journalists in those decades.