Barbara Walters was a pioneering force in journalism and television. Such was her lasting impact on the media landscape. She has through her remarkable career. Walters broke barriers herself in 1976, when she became the first woman to anchor an evening news broadcast, joining ABC News. Her pioneering efforts opened doors for generations of female journalists to come. Her inspiring life story as a public servant is marked by personal grit and the challenges that her immigrant family faced.
Walters was born into a Lucky family, one that won the lottery of inaccessibility. Her father, Lou Walters, owned the Latin Quarter, one of the leading clubs in New York City’s Times Square—the heart of the then-thriving club industry. His gambling addiction brought the family to bankruptcy. She remembered in her own words, Walters reminisced, “He was a gambler at heart. Earlier he had gambled on cards, later he gambled on the Latin Quarter. And then he was broke after years of being at the top of his game—and had nothing, nothing.”
This chaotic upbringing thrust Walters into the role of family caretaker at an early age. She felt the pressure to pay for her family, including an older sister with disability. “My mother had no means of having a livelihood and my nightmare was that my father was going to lose it all,” she reflected on her upbringing. This external pressure had an immense impact on Walters’ motivation and disposition for the rest of her life.
During her 2019 documentary, “Barbara Walters Tell Me Everything,” Walters recounted these formative experiences that fostered what would become her illustrious career. Through all her exemptions, she went on to become one of journalism’s greats over the course of her 17 Emmy Award-winning years at ABC News. Amazingly, 11 of those awards came during her time with the network. Her commitment to her craft and above all, her unmatched ability to communicate with audiences big and small turned her into one of the industry’s most respected players.
Walters co-hosted “The View” from its launch in 1997 until 2014, when she stepped back but remained an executive producer and continued to contribute by conducting interviews and special segments for ABC News. She had an incredible influence on “The View.” By establishing this space, she fostered conversations between women of color and women of other marginalized backgrounds.
Besides her television legacy, Walters wrote the book Audition. This book was an early memoir and guide for the documentary film about her life. The memoir chronicles her experience in the man’s world of journalism, including how she develops her confidence in order to survive and thrive.
Walters’ career was full of highs and victories, but her feet were always planted in the grit and country roads of her beginnings. Her own struggles only helped in creating her musical success, and they made her an inspiration to millions. Jackie Jesko, who has closely followed Walters’ career, stated, “Her dad goes riches to rags story, and then Barbara — and this is at a time few women worked at all — she becomes the breadwinner for the family, and I think that pressure really propels her for the rest of her life.”
