Rocky Graziano, middleweight boxer. "Off the sauce."

... how you ever gonna top Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show." These guys gotta be like musicians, to come up with those winners, night after night. Even the greatest fighters in the world ain't gonna come up with winners ever time out of the box. Sure they're raking in millions. More power to them. When a guy like Johnny Carson keeps climbing up that ladder, we all go up with him.

Johnny always liked to talk about how he hadda get off the sauce because it made him a little wild. All I say is it's too bad everybody couldn't see Johnny doing a show in Vegas with a little jug of sauce in him. The juice useta make him ten times funnier and with a wit could kill the worst heckler you could throw in against him. (New York, early 1960s)

From "Somebody Down Here Likes Me Too," by Rocky Graziano with Ralph Corsel (Stein & Day, 1981)

Dorothy Lamour, actor. On his secretary's bad side.

I could never seem to get on "The Tonight Show." I ... met Johnny Carson on one of my trips to New York. Totally charming, he said he was coming to Baltimore; and I promised that ... I would take him out for a real Maryland dinner. When I called his hotel, his secretary answered and was quite rude; I never heard from him again. His secretary is now a fixture on "The Tonight Show" staff, and I've heard quite frequently, whenever my name is brought up as a potential guest, her reply is always, "Don't mention that woman's name to me." (early 1960s)

From "My Side of the Road," by Dorothy Lamour with Dick McInnes (Prentice-Hall, 1980)

Roy Clark, country musician and host of "Hee Haw." "Natural rapport."

... my first appearance on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson in 1963.

I discovered I had a natural rapport that made it seem as if Johnny and I had been buddies forever. Johnny not only felt comfortable around me, he was the first guy who ever got me to really talk on television, rather than doing schtick or telling jokes. In the past, on every television show I was ever on, when in doubt, I always fell back on a funny face, or a clever line. When I watched the show that night on TV, I realized just how brilliant Johnny Carson was at what he did. After that first appearance, I was told by the producers that I had an open invitation, any time I wanted to be on the show. (New York)

From "My Life in Spite of Myself!" by Roy Clark with Marc Eliot (Simon & Schuster, 1994)

Joan Rivers, comedian. Instant empathy

I was startled to be actually on the set I had been watching for years with my mother and father. It was smaller than it looked on television and not as glamorous, and there was Johnny Carson, looking younger than he did on the screen and a lot thinner. I sat down and realized I was in the chair and it was gray, not the color I had thought on our black-and-white TV set. My hands went right up to my lap, clutching each other for comfort, and I pressed my ankles and knees together -- the way my mother had taught me they looked best. I focused all my attention on Johnny Carson, trying to block out the entire studio.

... the empathy that has always existed between Johnny Carson and me was there from the first second. He understood everything. He wanted it to work. He knew how to go with me and feed me and knew how to wait. I was very deliberate then, lots of shaking my head up and down and dropping in the punch lines almost as afterthoughts, lots of nervous gestures with the hands always ending up in my lap. He never cut off a punch line and when it came, he broke up. It was like telling it to your father -- and your father is laughing, leaning way back and laughing, this warm face laughing, and you know he is going to laugh at the next one. And he did and he did and he did. (New York, mid-1960s)

From "Enter Talking," by Joan Rivers with Richard Meryman (Delacorte Press, 1986)

Rona Barrett, gossip columnist and TV show host. Mutual knocks

... when Johnny Carson wanted somebody to pick on, he picked on me. The "Rona Barrett doesn't have to cut her steak with a knife" remark came one night after I ran the scoop item on his divorce-to-be. John was mad then, but the truth is that all the knocks he's put on me since (and me on him) are just the two of us knocking what's good for each other. When we meet in person, I like him very much and he always gives me a big, sincere kiss. On the mouth. (mid-1960s)

From "Miss Rona: An Autobiography," by Rona Barrett (Nash Publishing, 1974)

Cher, singer. "A big Nixon fan."

On election night in 1968, Son [Sonny Bono] and I were invited to Jack Benny's house. A bunch of people were sitting around the television as Nixon made his acceptance speech. Johnny Carson, who was a big Nixon fan I guess, was there ... But Lucy [Ball] thought that Nixon's speech was boring, and she started making these great, rude jokes and noises while he was speaking. You could tell that Johnny Carson wasn't happy -- actually, he was pissed off -- but he wasn't going to say anything to her, right? I didn't like Nixon, either, and I couldn't stop laughing, especially because I knew I wasn't supposed to. (Beverly Hills, Calif., 1968)

from "The First Time," by Cher with Jeff Coplon (Simon & Schuster, 1998)

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