Johnny Carson with Joan Rivers (1986)
New York Times: Joan Rivers, a Comedic Stiletto, Is Dead at 81
Joan Rivers,
the raspy loudmouth who pounced on America’s obsessions with flab,
face-lifts, body hair and other blemishes of neurotic life, including
her own, in five decades of caustic comedy that propelled her from
nightclubs to television to international stardom, died on Thursday in
Manhattan. She was 81.
Her daughter, Melissa Rivers, confirmed her death. A spokeswoman, Judy Katz, said the cause had not yet been determined.
Ms.
Rivers died at Mount Sinai Hospital, where she was taken last Thursday
after reportedly losing consciousness while undergoing a procedure on
her vocal cords at a doctor’s office on the Upper East Side. Doctors at
the hospital placed her in a medically induced coma. On Tuesday, her
daughter said she was on life support; on Wednesday, she said she had
been moved out of intensive care.
...Joan
Alexandra Molinsky was born in Brooklyn on June 8, 1933, to Meyer and
Beatrice Grushman Molinsky, immigrants from Russia. Her father, a
doctor, did comic impersonations of patients. Her mother insisted on
piano lessons and private schools for Joan and her sister, Barbara, who
grew up in Brooklyn and Larchmont. Joan attended Adelphi Academy in
Brooklyn, Connecticut College for Women and Barnard College in
Manhattan, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1954 with a degree in English.
Dreaming
of an acting career, she worked in the publicity department at Lord
& Taylor and was a fashion coordinator for the Bond clothing stores.
Her marriage to James Sanger, the son of the Bond stores’ merchandiser,
was annulled after six months in the 1950s. She married Mr. Rosenberg
in 1965. Melissa was her only child. In addition to her daughter, she is
survived by a grandson, Cooper.
Her
parents refused to support her acting ambitions, and she struggled for
years in office temp jobs while taking small parts off Off Broadway. She
became a stand-up comic to support her acting, working in grimy cafes
and small clubs, and was fired often. But she liked comedy and was good
at it. She developed fresh routines based on her experiences and
observations, changed her name to Rivers and got a few breaks.
...She
was one of America’s first successful female stand-up comics in an
aggressive vein that had been almost exclusively the province of men,
from Don Rickles to Lenny Bruce. And she was a role model and an
inspiration for tough-talking comedians like Roseanne Barr, Sarah
Silverman and countless others.
Read More at NYTimes.com
Johnny Carson Interview Joan Rivers on the Sammy Davis Show (1966)
Read More at NYTimes.com
Johnny Carson Interview Joan Rivers on the Sammy Davis Show (1966)
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