Johnny Carson’s former manager shopping not so nice tell-all memoir
Posted on November 2nd, 2008 by Hot Momma
Johnny Carson’s longtime lawyer Henry Bushkin, who was also his agent and manager, is shopping a warts-and-all memoir about the late-night legend through superagent David Vigliano. The big emphasis of the book seems to be on the warts, painting the beloved “Tonight Show” host as a sad, depressed man who cheated on his wives, was tormented by his mom and refused to visit his son in a mental hospital. There were rumors of a darkside to Carson for many years so this is not a huge revelation but coming from someone that spent so much time with him probably is a bit more damaging. Henry who was jokingly dubbed “Bombastic Bushkin” by Carson on his late-night NBC show spilled some of the details for the book to Page Six, telling them:
“He was a great star, but not a great man. Many great comedians were miserable human beings . . . Johnny suffered a great many demons brought about by what I call a toxic sort of mother. His mother couldn’t give a compliment. He’s the biggest star in the world and she couldn’t even acknowledge it.”
Bushkin went on to give a few not so nice alleged facts on Carson:
* Refused to visit his son, Rick, when he was committed to Bellevue with severe emotional problems. “The kid was there for 4½ months and he never went. I had to take care of everything and was there almost every day. Rick [who died in a car crash in 1991] was a lovely human being.”
* Enjoyed the use of a 10,000-square-foot penthouse with a private pool at Caesars Palace when he played Vegas and routinely entertained the “18 beautiful girls in the chorus line that opened his act . . . and he was certainly involved with some of them.”
* Was so miserable at the top of his game that he constantly “questioned his own ability to have happiness in his life.”
* Abandoned many of his closest friends, including Bushkin, who says, “At one time we did everything together. At the end, he treated me like everybody else - like I didn’t exist. At the end, it was like I was an irritant. In many respects, he was the saddest guy I ever knew.”
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Glad to see a book will be written on Carson by the man who was closest to him. Now maybe we’ll get the real story about Carson, the man. Al Clamente