Johnny Carson: In Fond Memory by Whitley Strieber
24-Jan-2005


I remember Johnny Carson with the greatest respect and fondness. Back when Communion was just published, my publicist suddenly got a call from his office. He wanted me on his program. At the time, I was being grilled alive on television. I had sat three feet away from Larry King and had him laugh in my face in front of a million people. I had been scorned and excoriated by the atrocious Phil Donohue before a studio audience a thousand strong, all laughing derisively. I was being made a national joke as the 'rectal probe' guy. So I really, really did not want to endure another public humiliation. But it was the Tonight Show, at that time the biggest place an author could go on television. (They still took authors in those days, because Johnny liked books, as Jack Paar had.) It was an offer the publisher felt that I couldn't refuse. So I went out to Burbank to do the program. And an amazing thing happened. Carson didn't have me on to humiliate me. On the contrary, he was open to my story and fascinated with it. He even bumped a band so that I could remain on longer. There were two reasons for this: the first one is that, like a surprising number of celebrities of that era, he seemed to have some inside knowledge of the UFO field. In this respect, he was like Jackie Gleason, whose wife told me that he'd actually be shown UFOs in a hangar by Richard Nixon. The second reason was more personal: he had seen a UFO from the deck of his house in Malibu. He told me that he'd watched it for some time. It had appeared during the day, in a clear blue sky. He did not describe it to me in detail, but he did say that there was no question in his mind about it being any sort of ordinary aircraft or balloon. I have always been grateful to Johnny Carson for his courage in giving me a fair hearing. My experience of most media professionals is that they are, in their deepest souls, natural prostitutes. But not Mr. Johnny Carson. He was a man of decency. He was honest and forthright. And he provided this country and the world with years of marvelous entertainment. I will miss not only his presence in life, but also the values by which he conducted his life.