How does a poor African-American girl from Mississippi, dressed in overalls made from potato sacks, become the most powerful celebrity in the world and a billionaire to boot?
She talked her way out of the ghetto, it seems.
Oprah Winfrey, who was born Oprah in 1954 (a biblical name that was mispronounced ‘Oprah’), suffered a sad childhood corroded by extreme poverty, sexual abuse and a stillbirth aged 14. She somehow survived, empathy intact, to become host of America’s favourite talk-show, as well as succeeding as an actress, producer, publisher and charity worker.
Via stints on radio and a Nashville television station, Winfrey’s chatty charms brought her to Chicago in 1984 to host WSL-TV’s ailing talk show AM Chicago. Within months of her arrival the show had rocketed to top position in the Chicago ratings charts and soon became The Oprah Winfrey Show in an expanded hour-long format.
Going national in 1986, the programme rapidly became a forum for Winfrey to tackle issues close to her heart. Here was a rare thing: a talk-show host who could genuinely relate to human problems like fluctuating weight, drug addiction and miscarriage because she, too, had endured them – and overcome them. Winfrey has that rare appeal to the everyman (and even more so to the everywoman).
In 2000 Winfrey founded O, The Oprah Magazine, which has become one of today’s leading women’s mags, and has also set up film company Harpo. Oprah made her name as an actress in Spielberg’s The Colour Purple in 1985 and 13 years later starred in Harpo’s production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Beloved by Toni Morrison.
Her online ‘Book Club’ has become the largest book club in the world with 700,000 members, putting even Richard and Judy in the shade. And the presenter-cum-producer-cum-actor-cum-publisher still finds time to do plenty of charity work, including for the Angel Network, which has raised more than $35m for non-profit organisations around the world.
Her achievements are staggering, especially given the impediments of an abusive background and being a black female in a white male-dominated world. Her eponymous talk show has the highest ratings in US television history and Oprah was Forbes African American of the 20th century, the world’s only black female billionaire for three years running and the greatest black philanthropist in history according to Business Week.
Keep talking Oprah!
Three Great Oprah Moments
1988: After dieting for four months a slimmed-down Oprah appeared on stage dragging 67 pounds of fat on a wagon.
1993: she interviewed Michael Jackson for 90 minutes. In the fourth most watched TV event in American history and the most watched interview ever Jackson spoke for the first time about his changing skin tone and plastic surgery.
2005: In the first episode of the 19th season all 276 members of the audience received a free Pontiac car as part of a publicity stunt. However, many had to sell or forfeit their prize when it transpired that they had to pay as much as $7k tax.
Via-http://www.ubops.com/
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