00:00I grew up not far from here, a block north of Hollywood Boulevard, and when I was around,
00:06I'm going to tell you my life story.
00:10When I was around nine or ten years old, my grandmother and I saved our pennies, and we
00:15would go to the movies three or four times a week.
00:19And back then, back in the covered wagon days, they had double features, which meant that
00:25I would see as many as six to eight movies a week.
00:30And then my best friend, Ayla May, and I, after we saw the movies, we would act them out.
00:35And we would be Betty Grable and Dan Daly and Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald, Mickey,
00:43Judy, Tarzan, and Jane.
00:46And then after we finished doing all that, we'd go climb the Hollywood sign.
00:52No, really, we climbed the Hollywood sign when we could get to it.
00:57The O's were my favorite.
00:59I loved, I loved the O's.
01:02When I got my variety show, one of the major things I wanted to do, and I loved doing,
01:09was our takeoffs on all the movies that I grew up loving.
01:12And this time, we had costumes designed by the brilliant Bob Mackie, a 28-piece, yes, a 28-piece
01:22orchestra, our own rep company, two guest stars a week, dancers and singers.
01:29In essence, we mounted a musical comedy review every week, and oh, God, did we have fun.
01:35And at first, the network didn't want me to do one.
01:39They tried to talk me into doing a half-hour sitcom called Here's Agnes.
01:47Can you picture it?
01:48Here's Agnes.
01:49I could just see it, you know.
01:52But I had a terrific and unheard of contract that said that all I had to do was push the
01:59button, and the network would have to give me 31-hour variety shows.
02:05Yeah, and I told them that that's what I wanted to do.
02:09But they said, Carol, no, no, no, no, no, no, look, all the comedy variety shows are hosted
02:16by men, Sid Caesar, Jackie Gleason, Milton Berle, now Dean.
02:22It's really not for a gal.
02:24It's comedy variety is a man's game.
02:30Mm-mm.
02:32No.
02:33I want to pay tribute to all the folks who contributed to our show behind the scenes,
02:38and especially to my family in front of the camera.
02:41The brilliant Harvey Korman.
02:49Vicky Morris, Lyle Wagoner, and Tim Conway.
03:01Their comedic chops made it all work, and I was able to do what I did because of what
03:06they brought to the table.
03:07Not only their talents, but their love.
03:11And I'm so happy I pushed that button.
03:13My thanks to SAG-AFTRA and to all of you, wow, for this very special evening and very
03:19special honor.
03:22I'm so glad we had this time together.
