It should be mentioned that the historical notes are not here to boost the ego of a lady who is already about as revered as any human being ever has been. No, the purpose of recalling events is to lay a basis for meaningful questions about what was going on during different stages of an exceptionally well-documented life.
If research means anything at all, it means gathering a ton of facts. Granted: While reporting on one of the most recognizable humans on the planet can generate falsehoods, it also provides a certain amount of hard evidence. The mere awareness of the subject’s life circumstances at any given time can help us ordinary folk to pinpoint the circumstances in our lives that exacerbate or alleviate our personal struggles.
The short answer is, this is someone who managed to lose plenty of weight, and we know a lot about her. And not least, Oprah seems to be an exceptionally self-aware person and a reliable narrator. It is totally possible that she might have something to say that proves to be at least as useful as what a member of our therapy group might offer. It might do us some good to know what decisions Oprah came to, and why, and what resulted.
Sometimes connections are difficult to make because observers and theorists, amateurs and experts, use different vocabularies to describe the concepts that excite them, and sometimes those concepts don’t translate between disciplines. Much transpires beneath the surface. The previous post mentioned a few of the “Mosts” that Oprah Winfrey has accomplished throughout her stunning career, and this one looks at some of her “Firsts” and “Onlies.”
Firsts
In 1975, as a college sophomore, Oprah became the first and youngest African American woman to anchor a show at WTVF in Nashville. In 1988, she became the first woman ever to own and produce her own TV talk show, and the youngest person (and only the fifth woman) to be named “Broadcaster of the Year” by the International Radio and Television Society.
In 2002, at the Emmy Awards, she was the very first recipient of the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award. The following year, with a net worth of around $1 billion, she showed up as the first African-American woman on the Forbes “World’s Richest People” list. By 2003, she was America’s first Black American woman billionaire.
In 2018, she was the first Black woman recipient of the Golden Globe’s Cecil B. DeMille Award, which is given to “a talented individual for outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment.” This next mention is not quite a first, but Oprah was only the third woman in American entertainment (after Mary Pickford and Lucille Ball) to own her own studio.
Onlies, Others, and Philanthropy
According to the Harpo Inc. site,
Five presidents, five first ladies, one reigning queen, one former queen, six princesses, seven princes, one earl, one lord, one count and one duchess have graced The Oprah Winfrey Show stage…
… Which frankly sounds like a probably unmatched record. In another field, Oprah is almost certainly the only individual to have founded a school in Africa that educates 152 students. She has reportedly poured at least $40 million into The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls. Here at home, in 1993, she…
[…] initiated The National Child Protection Act and testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to establish a national database of all convicted child abusers. On December 20, 1993, President Clinton signed into law the Oprah Bill.
The cover of O Magazine was relinquished to someone else only one time, when a portrait of Breonna Taylor by digital artist Alexis Franklin appeared in the September 2020 issue. Oprah wrote:
What I know for sure: We can’t be silent. We have to use whatever megaphone we have to cry for justice.
And that is why Breonna Taylor is on the cover of O magazine. I cry for justice in her name.
In 1985, for her portrayal of Sofia in The Color Purple, Oprah was nominated for both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. In 1996, she received the George Foster Peabody Individual Achievement Award, which is as prestigious as a broadcasting award gets. In 1999, there was the Emmy lifetime achievement award, and in 2011, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences “Chairman’s Crystal Pillar Award” for her overall television career that had spanned decades.
In 2013, Oprah Winfrey was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and in 2016, she won a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical for “The Color Purple.” Ten years later, a painting of her was installed in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. The following December, Forbes certified her as the world’s 14th most wealthy self-made woman.
In the general category of philanthropy, Oprah, often named one of the world’s most generous celebrities, has an outstanding record. There have been indirect moves, like ceasing to submit her TV show for Emmy awards except in the technical categories. This was done as a generous gesture to help others achieve the recognition they deserve.
In 1997 she started the charitable foundation, Oprah’s Angel Network. She has donated over $400 million to charity and has been called “probably the most significant humanitarian in the history of television.”
Your responses and feedback are welcome!
Source: “Source: “Harpo Inc.,” Company-Histories.com, undated
Source: “10 Longest Running Talk Shows on US Television,” WondersList.com, undated
Source: “Why Oprah Gave Up Her Cover for the First Time Ever to Honor Breonna Taylor.,” OprahDaily.com, 07/30/20
Image by Paul Sableman/Attribution 2.0 Generic
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