America’s first lady of talk shows Oprah
Winfrey is well known for surpassing her
competition to become the most-watched
daytime host on television her natural
style with guests and audiences on The
Oprah Winfrey Show earned her widespread
popularity her own production company
Harpo and the television station own
Shore for The Oprah Winfrey Network but
things weren’t always easy for the queen
of the day this is Oprah Winfrey before
she was a billion
i’m gerard heron and welcome to value
taemin’s before they were billionaires
Oprah Gayle Winfrey was born to Vernita
Lee and Vernon Winfrey on an isolated
farm in Coast Cuzco Mississippi on
January 29th 1954 her name was supposed
to be Orpah from the Bible but because
of the difficulty of spelling and
pronunciation she was known as Oprah
almost from birth it went down as Orpah
on my birth certificate but people
didn’t know how to pronounce it they put
the P before they are in everyplace else
other than the birth certificate if they
had trouble with Orpah they must have
really had trouble with cuskey usko
Winfrey’s unmarried parents separated
soon after she was born and left her in
the care of her maternal grandmother on
the farm as a child Winfrey entertained
herself by play-acting in front of an
audience of farm animals under the
strict guidance of her grandmother she
learned to read at only two and a half
years old addressing her church
congregation about when Jesus rose on
Easter day I was taught to read in early
age and by the time I was three I was
reciting speeches Winfrey claims she
skipped kindergarten by writing a note
to her teacher on the first day of
school saying she belongs in the first
grade wrote my kindergarten teacher a
letter miss knew I said Dumas knew I do
not belong here she would skip second
grade as well and head straight to the
third grade the following year at only 6
years old Winfrey was sent North to join
her mother and two half-brothers in an
extremely poor and dangerous
neighborhood in Milwaukee
I suddenly land in a place that’s
completely foreign to me I don’t know
anybody I don’t really even know my
mother by 12 she was sent to live with
her father in Nashville Tennessee
feeling secure and happy for a brief
period she began making speeches at
social gatherings and churches one such
event earned her five hundred dollars
for a single speech at that moment she
knew her life’s calling she was going to
speak for a living unfortunately for
Winfrey though she was forced to leave
the safety of her father’s home to help
care for her mother back in Milwaukee
the poor urban lifestyle had its
negative effect on a young Winfrey her
mother worked odd jobs and did not have
much time for supervision and Winfrey
was repeatedly sexually abused by men
that others in her family trusted the
abuse started manifesting itself in bad
behavior and acting out wit freeze
mother had enough and sent her back to
live with her father in Nashville
something Winfrey
saved her life her father was very
strict and provided her with guidance
structure rules and books he required
that his daughter complete weekly book
reports and she went without dinner
until she learned at least five new
vocabulary words a day Whitford became
an excellent student participating in
the drama club debate club and student
council in an L Club speaking contest
she won a full scholarship to Tennessee
State University and was invited to the
White House Conference on youth in 1970
Winfrey was crowned Miss fire-prevention
by w vol a local Nashville radio station
and was hired by John Heidelberg to read
afternoon newscasts Winfrey became Miss
black Nashville and Miss Tennessee
during her freshman year Tennessee State
the nashville Columbia Broadcasting
System better known as CBS offered her a
job Winfrey actually turned it down
twice but finally took the advice of her
speech teacher who reminded her that job
offers from CBS were the entire reason
people go to college Oprah took the job
at WTF V and at only 19 years of age
while still a sophomore in college she
became Nashville’s first
african-american female co-anchor on the
evening news at only 19 years old
there’s a lesson here value Tanner’s all
you have to do is keep your head down
work hard and you can overcome
insurmountable odds as long as you avoid
Milwaukee after Winfrey graduated she
moved to Baltimore Maryland where she
did cuttings during Good Morning America
but soon she was moved to the morning
talk show with co-host Richard share at
the 7 years a general manager of ABC’s
Chicago affiliate saw Winfrey in an
audition tape sent in by her producer
Deborah DeMaio at the time her ratings
in Baltimore were better than Phil
Donahue’s a national talk show host and
she and DeMaio were hired Winfrey moved
to Chicago Illinois in January of 1984
and took over as anchor on am Chicago a
morning talk show that was consistently
last in the ratings
she changed the emphasis of the show
from traditional women’s issues to
current and controversial debatable
topics after one month the show was even
with Donahue’s program three months
later it inched ahead in September of
1985 the program now renamed the Oprah
Winfrey Show was expanded to one hour
as a result Donahue moved to New York
City in 1985 Quincy Jones saw Winfrey on
television and thought she would make a
fine actress in a movie he was
co-producing with
rector Steven Spielberg the film was
based on the Alice Walker novel the
color purple you may have heard of it
the color purple her only acting
experience until then had been in a
one-woman show the history of black
women through drama and song which she
performed during an African American
theatre festival in 1978 the popularity
of Winfrey Show skyrocketed to the
success of the color purple and in
September of 1985 the distributor King
world bought the syndication rights to
air the program in 138 cities a record
for first time syndication that year
although Donahue was being aired on over
200 stations Winfrey won her timeslot by
31%
she drew twice the Chicago audiences
Donahue and carried the top 10 markets
in the United States in 1986 Winfrey
received a special award from the
Chicago Academy for the Arts for unique
contributions to the city’s artistic
community and was named woman of
achievement by the National Organization
women The Oprah Winfrey Show won several
Emmys for best talk show when Winfrey
was honored as the best talk show host
Winfrey formed her own production
company Harpo in August of 1986 to
produce the topics that she wanted to
see produced including the television
drama miniseries based on Gloria nailers
the woman of Brewster place in which wit
free was featured along with Cicely
Tyson Robin Givens
Olivia Cole Jackie Paula Kelly and Lynn
Whitfield in 1996 Oprah changed the game
when she started in on-air Reading Club
this is one of my all-time favorite
moments I’m having on television right
now you are witnessing it on September
17th Winfrey stood up and announced she
wanted to get the country reading she
told her adoring fans to hasten to the
stores to buy the books she had chosen
they would then discuss it together on
air the following month the initial
reaction was astonishing the first book
the deep end of the ocean had generated
significant sales for a first novel
68,000 copies had gone into the stores
since June but between the last week in
August when Winfrey told her plans to
the publisher and the September on-air
announcement Viking printed 90,000 more
by the time the discussion was broadcast
on October 18th
there were 750,000 copies in print the
book became on number one bestseller and
another 100,000 were printed before
February of 97 Oprah
Oh magazine the year 2000 which combined
with the book club ensured Oprah Winfrey
was the most powerful book marketer in
the United States of America in 2013
Oprah Winfrey the actress TV host
journalist producer philanthropist and
media magnate became the first female
african-american billionaire this has
been before they were billionaires I’m Gerard Haren for value team
Winfrey is well known for surpassing her
competition to become the most-watched
daytime host on television her natural
style with guests and audiences on The
Oprah Winfrey Show earned her widespread
popularity her own production company
Harpo and the television station own
Shore for The Oprah Winfrey Network but
things weren’t always easy for the queen
of the day this is Oprah Winfrey before
she was a billion
i’m gerard heron and welcome to value
taemin’s before they were billionaires
Oprah Gayle Winfrey was born to Vernita
Lee and Vernon Winfrey on an isolated
farm in Coast Cuzco Mississippi on
January 29th 1954 her name was supposed
to be Orpah from the Bible but because
of the difficulty of spelling and
pronunciation she was known as Oprah
almost from birth it went down as Orpah
on my birth certificate but people
didn’t know how to pronounce it they put
the P before they are in everyplace else
other than the birth certificate if they
had trouble with Orpah they must have
really had trouble with cuskey usko
Winfrey’s unmarried parents separated
soon after she was born and left her in
the care of her maternal grandmother on
the farm as a child Winfrey entertained
herself by play-acting in front of an
audience of farm animals under the
strict guidance of her grandmother she
learned to read at only two and a half
years old addressing her church
congregation about when Jesus rose on
Easter day I was taught to read in early
age and by the time I was three I was
reciting speeches Winfrey claims she
skipped kindergarten by writing a note
to her teacher on the first day of
school saying she belongs in the first
grade wrote my kindergarten teacher a
letter miss knew I said Dumas knew I do
not belong here she would skip second
grade as well and head straight to the
third grade the following year at only 6
years old Winfrey was sent North to join
her mother and two half-brothers in an
extremely poor and dangerous
neighborhood in Milwaukee
I suddenly land in a place that’s
completely foreign to me I don’t know
anybody I don’t really even know my
mother by 12 she was sent to live with
her father in Nashville Tennessee
feeling secure and happy for a brief
period she began making speeches at
social gatherings and churches one such
event earned her five hundred dollars
for a single speech at that moment she
knew her life’s calling she was going to
speak for a living unfortunately for
Winfrey though she was forced to leave
the safety of her father’s home to help
care for her mother back in Milwaukee
the poor urban lifestyle had its
negative effect on a young Winfrey her
mother worked odd jobs and did not have
much time for supervision and Winfrey
was repeatedly sexually abused by men
that others in her family trusted the
abuse started manifesting itself in bad
behavior and acting out wit freeze
mother had enough and sent her back to
live with her father in Nashville
something Winfrey
saved her life her father was very
strict and provided her with guidance
structure rules and books he required
that his daughter complete weekly book
reports and she went without dinner
until she learned at least five new
vocabulary words a day Whitford became
an excellent student participating in
the drama club debate club and student
council in an L Club speaking contest
she won a full scholarship to Tennessee
State University and was invited to the
White House Conference on youth in 1970
Winfrey was crowned Miss fire-prevention
by w vol a local Nashville radio station
and was hired by John Heidelberg to read
afternoon newscasts Winfrey became Miss
black Nashville and Miss Tennessee
during her freshman year Tennessee State
the nashville Columbia Broadcasting
System better known as CBS offered her a
job Winfrey actually turned it down
twice but finally took the advice of her
speech teacher who reminded her that job
offers from CBS were the entire reason
people go to college Oprah took the job
at WTF V and at only 19 years of age
while still a sophomore in college she
became Nashville’s first
african-american female co-anchor on the
evening news at only 19 years old
there’s a lesson here value Tanner’s all
you have to do is keep your head down
work hard and you can overcome
insurmountable odds as long as you avoid
Milwaukee after Winfrey graduated she
moved to Baltimore Maryland where she
did cuttings during Good Morning America
but soon she was moved to the morning
talk show with co-host Richard share at
the 7 years a general manager of ABC’s
Chicago affiliate saw Winfrey in an
audition tape sent in by her producer
Deborah DeMaio at the time her ratings
in Baltimore were better than Phil
Donahue’s a national talk show host and
she and DeMaio were hired Winfrey moved
to Chicago Illinois in January of 1984
and took over as anchor on am Chicago a
morning talk show that was consistently
last in the ratings
she changed the emphasis of the show
from traditional women’s issues to
current and controversial debatable
topics after one month the show was even
with Donahue’s program three months
later it inched ahead in September of
1985 the program now renamed the Oprah
Winfrey Show was expanded to one hour
as a result Donahue moved to New York
City in 1985 Quincy Jones saw Winfrey on
television and thought she would make a
fine actress in a movie he was
co-producing with
rector Steven Spielberg the film was
based on the Alice Walker novel the
color purple you may have heard of it
the color purple her only acting
experience until then had been in a
one-woman show the history of black
women through drama and song which she
performed during an African American
theatre festival in 1978 the popularity
of Winfrey Show skyrocketed to the
success of the color purple and in
September of 1985 the distributor King
world bought the syndication rights to
air the program in 138 cities a record
for first time syndication that year
although Donahue was being aired on over
200 stations Winfrey won her timeslot by
31%
she drew twice the Chicago audiences
Donahue and carried the top 10 markets
in the United States in 1986 Winfrey
received a special award from the
Chicago Academy for the Arts for unique
contributions to the city’s artistic
community and was named woman of
achievement by the National Organization
women The Oprah Winfrey Show won several
Emmys for best talk show when Winfrey
was honored as the best talk show host
Winfrey formed her own production
company Harpo in August of 1986 to
produce the topics that she wanted to
see produced including the television
drama miniseries based on Gloria nailers
the woman of Brewster place in which wit
free was featured along with Cicely
Tyson Robin Givens
Olivia Cole Jackie Paula Kelly and Lynn
Whitfield in 1996 Oprah changed the game
when she started in on-air Reading Club
this is one of my all-time favorite
moments I’m having on television right
now you are witnessing it on September
17th Winfrey stood up and announced she
wanted to get the country reading she
told her adoring fans to hasten to the
stores to buy the books she had chosen
they would then discuss it together on
air the following month the initial
reaction was astonishing the first book
the deep end of the ocean had generated
significant sales for a first novel
68,000 copies had gone into the stores
since June but between the last week in
August when Winfrey told her plans to
the publisher and the September on-air
announcement Viking printed 90,000 more
by the time the discussion was broadcast
on October 18th
there were 750,000 copies in print the
book became on number one bestseller and
another 100,000 were printed before
February of 97 Oprah
Oh magazine the year 2000 which combined
with the book club ensured Oprah Winfrey
was the most powerful book marketer in
the United States of America in 2013
Oprah Winfrey the actress TV host
journalist producer philanthropist and
media magnate became the first female
african-american billionaire this has
been before they were billionaires I’m Gerard Haren for value team
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