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Cleopatra. From high school in 1943, the Great Carsoni joined the Navy V12 program, served aboard the U.S.S. Pennsylvania and later in Guam. He saw no combat, but he had plenty of time to polish his magic act and work on ventriloquism. He recalls that he devoted a long night to decoding a Navy message, and delivered it to the admiral's quarters at 7 a.m. Visiting with the admiral was Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal, who asked the young ensign what he was going to do after the war. "I hadn't really given it much thought," says Carson today, "but I had to say something." So for the next few hours, he entertained the SECNAV with card tricks.
The great rehearsal continued after the war at the University of Nebraska. Johnny majored in English, Speech and Alpha Phi girls when he wasn't off broadcasting for the local radio station or working magic on the service-club circuit. He was strictly an average student and strictly show business. He played Cleopatra in a fraternity spectacular called She Was Only a Pharaoh's Daughter, But She Never Became a Mummy. His senior thesis, titled Comedy Writing, was not in manuscript but on tape. Its quotes and footnotes contained excerpts from Fred Allen, Fibber McGee and Molly, and Bob Hope shows. Carson's analysis of timing and his appreciation of other crucial matters was somewhat naive ("A good comedian can get you to buy his sponsor's products"), but "not bad," he insists, "for 18 years ago."
Outlandish Guests. To put it all into practice, Johnny launched an afternoon TV variety show, first for a year and a half over WOW-TV in Omaha, then in Los Angeles. "KNXT cautiously presents Carson's Cellar," he used to say. Thirty weeks later, KNXT threw caution and Carson to the winds, and he fetched up as a writer for Red Skelton. One night, during a preshow rehearsal, Skelton got a concussion bonking into a "breakaway" door, and Writer Carson went on in his place. With assurance and finesse, he laid out an ad-lib monologue mocking the economics of the TV industry. It was good enough to prompt critical applause and comparisons with the then reigning comic, George Gobel. "The kid is great, just great," said Jack Benny the next day. Thus was Johnny rewarded at 29 with his own variety network TV show. He thrashed through image changes, seven writers, eight directors and 39 weeks before CBS replaced him with The Arthur Murray Show, ABC then tried him on a daytime show, Who Do You Trust? The quiz part of the program was downplayed just as in Groucho Marx's You Bet Your Life, and Johnny proved himself so droll at japing with his outlandish guests that he was soon pinch-hitting for Jack Paar on Tonight. When "King" Jack decided to quit, he anointed Carson as "the one man who could or should replace me."
Limitless Pool. The Tonight show is one of the most pulverizing grinds in the business. Says Comic Dick Cavett, a