Sally Jessy Raphael found it “difficult” to build her career as a woman in the 1950s.
Talk show legend Sally Jessy Raphael has recalled the ‘difficulties’ she faced early on in her career
The 90-year-old star became a household name through her long-running talk show ‘Sally’, but admitted that when she was starting out, it was tough for her as a working mother in an industry that was dominated by men.
She told People:” Well, there weren’t many of us [working moms]. Most women in the 50s were stay-at-home moms. And so a working woman was either single or interesting. It was difficult. It was all-male.
“They got paid much more than I ever got paid, and you never met another woman.”
Sally – who has daughters Andrea and Allison from her first marriage to Andrew Vladimir, and then adopted son Jason with her late husband Karl Soderland – is thought to have earned a fortune of $40 million from her televisions career but admitted that when she began she had to incorporated three jobs to make a living, and was pleased that her husband was happy to stay at home to raise the children.
She said: “There just weren’t women out there. Even in Puerto Rico, I was the only woman doing radio and television. I was the morning woman, but I didn’t think of myself as a woman. I just thought of getting a job and earning some money. So that’s the way [I did it].
“Thank heaven I had a husband who didn’t mind being a house husband way back then, and he looked after the children.
“But I worked, many times three jobs. In Miami, I worked the morning show, AM Miami, then I worked at noontime interview show and then I worked a nighttime classical music station. I knew nothing about classical music. But three put it together into some kind of salary.”
But the retired TV host – whose programme ran from 1983 until 2002 – could never understand why her core audience turned out to be black, straight men.
She said: “They do a thing when you’re on the air to find out who’s really watching. And gay men were there, but the largest audience were straight black males.
“I have never been able to figure that out. However, every time I walked past a group of black males, they all say, ‘Hi, Sally,’ so I know it’s true. And they’re more likely to ask for a hug than white males or white women, so goodness knows.”
