Transcription

• Speaker

  N’DIGO STUDIO WITH HERMENE HARTMAN Season 8, Episode 1 Guest: Jayne Kennedy Host: Hermene Hartman OPENING N’DIGO STUDIO: N’DIGO Studio. N’DIGO Studio. We are in the living room. Join me in the living room. WELCOME HERMENE HARTMAN: Hi, I’m Hermene Hartman with N’DIGO Studio, and welcome. Today, we’re in a special place with a very special guest. We’re at Southern Chicago, on the couch in the living room—and guess who’s with me? Jayne Kennedy. She’s written a memoir and developed a fragrance to go with the memoir. We are so happy to have you with us. Welcome to Chicago. JAYNE KENNEDY: Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. I’m glad to be here. HERMENE: We’re going to walk through your life, which has been wonderful. I have to tell you, I read your book, and I teared up a couple of times. You have just been so fabulous. You’ve been the “It Girl,” but your personal journey is just fabulous. You tell your truth and your story with a lot of candor and honesty. I think this is a story for women—women of all ages dealing with challenges, career challenges and marital challenges. And I thank you for being such a beautiful and wonderful pioneer. JAYNE: Thank you very much. Plain Jayne was a journey that took 25 years to write. HERMENE: Twenty-five years. That’s a lifetime. JAYNE: Yes, because what you saw—the truth and the honesty—was a lived experience. HERMENE: It was lived. Alex Haley wanted to write your book, or help you write the book, but he passed away. JAYNE: Yes. HERMENE: And Oprah Winfrey told you to hold off on writing the book until your daughter Sky was older. JAYNE: Yes. HERMENE: And it took 25 years. JAYNE: It took 25 years. I started in the year 2000, and we launched in 2025. COMING TO CHICAGO HERMENE: And because of Audic Strategic Partners, you’ve come to Chicago. They brought you here, and you’re here with them all week. We went to the Obama Library exhibit. How was that? JAYNE: You know, I came in on the flight, and we landed at 1:30. The next thing I knew, we were on our way to the exhibit. I had no idea we were going directly there! HERMENE: We had to have surprises! JAYNE: Yeah! We didn’t go to the hotel. All my luggage stayed in the car, and we toured the entire building. It was amazing. It touched my heart in so many ways. FROM OHIO TO HOLLYWOOD HERMENE: Let’s start with beauty queen Jayne Kennedy. What inspired you to write this book? JAYNE: I wanted to write a story that was a legacy for my children because I’d been out of the business for 30 years. I worked like crazy when I did work. Then, when I had my family, I wanted to be home. My children didn’t see that Hollywood side of me. Their first experience with the Hollywood side happened when I was driving home after we had gone to the market. We were on a very busy street, and all of a sudden, on the radio, someone says, “Yo, word to my mother, man…she looked just like Jayne Kennedy.” My daughter said, “Mommy, he said your name on the radio! Mommy, why is he saying your name on the radio?” And then my older daughter said, “Mommy, you got street cred!” HERMENE: Let’s start in Ohio. You won the beauty contest. JAYNE: Yes. HERMENE: That was your start. You got married to Leon, who was a disc jockey. You both became producers. Both of you were as creative and talented as could be. You became Hollywood’s golden couple. You took off—just you and him. Newly married. You didn’t know anybody. That took a lot of nerve. JAYNE: I was 19 years old. HERMENE: Nineteen years old and going to Hollywood. What was that motivation? What was that inspiration? What was that gut? That took a lot of guts. JAYNE: Well, you said that I hadn’t done anything until the Miss USA pageant, but actually I had been a model for my company, Team Fashion Report, and I was doing television commercials. HERMENE: This was in Ohio? JAYNE: In Ohio. THE INFLUENCE OF SHIRLEY CHISHOLM HERMENE: And one of your heroes—one of your “she-roes”—was Shirley Chisholm. JAYNE: Shirley Chisholm. She was the one who inspired me. HERMENE: What did you like about her? JAYNE: I was doing a fashion show, and I was backstage when I heard this voice—the power and the words. I said, “Who is she?” I’m peeking through the curtain, and I got stuck. I was mesmerized. They had to come get me: “Jayne! Jayne! Jayne! You’re on! You’re on!” HERMENE: You forgot to go on? JAYNE: I did! LEARNING HOW TO NETWORK HERMENE: So you go to Hollywood. You don’t know anybody. You have no connections. You’re bold, pure, honest and courageous. But networking—you were a master networker. Tell me about networking, because it’s so important to understand networking and mentoring. You used it to the hilt. In fact, I think you used it better than anybody. JAYNE: I don’t know. You might be right about that! But I learned very quickly that you don’t get the jobs if you’re only counting on going to auditions. And going to an audition could mean whether you’re in the entertainment industry or you’re going after a job in any other capacity. You have to first believe in yourself. And then you have to be prepared. Here I was. I landed in Hollywood, and within two weeks—with none of the things I just said you had to have—I ran into Lamonte McLemore of The 5th Dimension. He said, “I want you to go see a choreographer in Burbank. He’s working on that hit show Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In.” I’m sitting in the audience, maybe third row. There’s no audience because they’re rehearsing. This big guy comes over to me and says, “Can you dance?” I said, “Yeah.” You know, I’m trying to be cool. He didn’t ask if I could dance professionally. He just said, “Can you dance?” I said, “Yeah.” He grabbed my hand and threw me on the stage. “When the red light goes on, you stop. When the green light goes on, you dance.” I’m in my work clothes because I was on my office break. I knew I was never going to get back in time. I’d be fired. But I started dancing. He said, “Can you come back next week?” I said, “Yes.” And I got hired as a series regular. BOB HOPE, VIETNAM AND THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW JAYNE: The same kind of thing happened when I did the Bob Hope special. I traveled around the world with Bob Hope. During the Vietnam War, we started in Hawaii and then went to Vietnam. We did maybe five bases there. That’s when it hit me that I was really doing something significant. We traveled around the tour—to Cambodia, Spain, Cuba—and then came back. Later, the cue card guy said, “You should meet Greg Garrison. He’s in charge of the Ding-a-Ling Sisters on The Dean Martin Show, and they’re looking for girls.” So I went to the audition. He said, “Okay. You can’t tell anyone you’re married. You can’t bring your husband to the set. You have to take off your wedding ring. Nobody can know you’re married.” And I said, “You know what? I don’t want this job.” And I left. Then he called me back the next day. He said, “So you’re saying you’d do the show if you don’t have to do that?” I said, “I would do the show.” He said, “Okay. But still, you can’t do interviews without the rest of the girls. You can’t do any personal interviews.” Girl, please. I had interviews booked everywhere! Every time I came back to the office after doing all the things he told me he didn’t want me to do, he’d look at me and just put his head down. SPONSOR BREAK — COMED ANNOUNCER: The incredible things you do need energy, and ComEd is proud to help make that energy happen for our community. Power up your grand opening. Power up inspiration. Power up a new routine. We work hard to keep your energy reliable, your bills as low as possible, and create programs that help you manage it. Because the power is in you. We just help you turn it up. ADVERTISEMENT ANNOUNCER: Let’s go back. Back before Central Austin had a grocery store of its own. Back when getting fresh food required a car or bus ride. With J.B. Pritzker’s help, now families can buy groceries right here. BUSINESS OWNER: Too often, people don’t believe in business owners like me. But J.B. was critical to getting us off the ground, and he’s helping open grocery stores in so many neighborhoods. This is not easy work, especially these days. But J.B. gets it. He’s standing behind our business and our community. BREAKING INTO SPORTS BROADCASTING HERMENE: Now you’re entertaining. You’re dancing. You’re modeling. You’re progressing well in the entertainment world. And then here comes Jayne Kennedy, the sportscaster. You became a pioneer for women. Talk to me about The NFL Today. JAYNE: I knew that Phyllis George was leaving. She had been on the show for two years, and I knew they were looking for a replacement. We talked about it and said, “We need to find somebody who can help get us on the inside.” I asked my agent, “Can you submit me?” Three times he submitted a list of 10 people. Three times—never me. He said, “They’re not looking for someone like you.” HERMENE: But this is your agent! JAYNE: My agent! Representing me! He would not submit me. He refused, even when I begged him. I said, “I can do this job.” He said no. By the time he sent the third list, I said, “You know what? We’ve got to find another way.” Leon said, “Well, let’s call Jim Brown and see if he has any suggestions.” We eventually found another route, and I was introduced to the head of casting. She said, “I love her. Let’s take her to New York.” I get to New York, and there are 15 girls—all blondes. Blonde hair. I’m the only Black girl. I’m the only one with brown hair. So I said, “They’re not looking for someone like me.” But my friend had told me, “Just make a friend. That’s all you have to do with the person you’re interviewing during this process. Just make a friend.” So when we were in the dressing room, I asked the interviewer if he had a backgammon board. We sat down and started playing. By the time we got onstage for our interview, we were already friends. HERMENE: You were smooth. JAYNE: Yeah. You have to be. BRENT MUSBURGER AND “THE IT THING” HERMENE: But you also had insight. It wasn’t just that you showed up—you knew sports. Your partner on television, Brent Musburger, was the one who said, “I like her.” After all the interviews, he basically said Jayne was the one. JAYNE: I didn’t know he said that. I didn’t find out until many, many years later—decades later. I ran into him in Las Vegas. He said, “Jayne, you had that ‘it’ thing that nobody could have taught. You don’t study for that.” He said, “The players trusted you. And when they trust you, you can ask them anything you want.” WOMEN IN THE LOCKER ROOM HERMENE: Would you go into the locker room? JAYNE: I had a problem with that. I had seen a basketball game on television. They were interviewing a gentleman in the foreground, but in the background you could see the shower. There was a guy there, butt naked! I’m screaming because you can see the guy right there over his shoulder. I’m going, “This is crazy. We can’t run like this.” So my idea was to just have a separate room. SPONSOR BREAK — COMED ANNOUNCER: Power up away mode. Power up high-usage alerts. Power up energy savings. You’ve got the power to save on energy, and ComEd has the tools, alerts and programs to help you turn it up. Visit ComEd.com/powerup for ways to help you save. ADVERTISEMENT SPEAKER: Listen, for years, politicians have promised and never delivered. They would say they were going to rebuild, they were going to put something new here. But then came a man by the name of J.B. Pritzker, and he is changing things. NEWS CLIP: Long-vacant land on the Far South Side is about to be transformed—a big boost for those who live and work in the area. SPEAKER: He came here. He visited. He rolled up his sleeves. And it’s real. J.B. is bringing thousands of jobs right here. It’s a reality. And this is just the beginning. Just the beginning. THE CHALLENGE OF THE NFL TODAY HERMENE: You’ve been an actress. You’ve been a producer. You’re creative. You’re a writer. You’ve been a broadcaster, a fitness pioneer, an entrepreneur and an author. What challenged you the most? JAYNE: It had to be The NFL Today because there was such an audience out there that never wanted me to succeed on that show. HERMENE: As a woman? JAYNE: As a woman or as a Black woman. They did not want me there. There were all kinds of negative things written about me in the papers. And back then, there were only three networks: ABC, CBS and NBC. That was it. You didn’t have the news sources you have now. Print magazines didn’t like us because when they wrote an article about a game, it didn’t come out until Monday. We were on a show that could give you that information on the spot. The studio and the control room came up with ways to bring you the weather, the conditions and everything happening at the game. We didn’t have to just tell you what was happening at Soldier Field. You could actually see what was going on at Soldier Field. That hadn’t been done before. OPENING THE DOOR FOR WOMEN HERMENE: Now we have women on the court, in the locker room and on the field. But you were really the first. You pioneered that for women. You opened that door. JAYNE: Every time I meet a woman in sports broadcasting, they tell me, “Jayne, we stand on your shoulders.” It’s so heartwarming because I didn’t know that back then. HERMENE: I was going to ask you that. As you were breaking barriers, creating new benchmarks and being a pioneer, did you consciously realize what you were doing? JAYNE: No. I was working. I was living in L.A., flying to New York, coming back to L.A., then flying out to interview whatever athlete I needed to interview on a Tuesday or Wednesday. I’d go back to L.A., work Thursday and Friday, then go back to New York. It just went over and over and over again. I was also doing shows for Sports Spectacular. I was doing a lot. I knew I was making a difference. I knew I was opening a door. I just had no idea where that door was going to go. And I didn’t really know what was happening in America—what people were saying. Jet magazine had me on cover after cover, on coffee tables in homes across America. I did 22 of their covers. THE PLAYBOY COVER AND ITS CONSEQUENCES HERMENE: I want you to talk about Playboy magazine. You were on the cover of Playboy, and that did something to your career. I’ve admitted it before—I love that photo! JAYNE: I like that photo. HERMENE: I like that photo! But it had consequences. JAYNE: It had consequences. America didn’t like that their sweetheart was doing a Playboy cover. I didn’t want to do it at all. Leon and I had started our own production company. We had a movie out, and we wanted to promote the movie. Hugh Hefner thought it would be a great idea if we put some of the Bunnies in the movie, and he would put me on the cover of the next issue. It was a great marketing idea—but not for me. I saw it as something I would never do. Leon and Hef thought it was a great idea. They tried to convince me, and I turned it down three times. I kept saying, “No. I don’t want to do this.” We went back and forth, and I kept turning it down. Finally, I said, “You know what? I will do it—not for you, but for the movie.” Because the movie needed that push, and it would help make the movie a success. HERMENE: So it was a promotional decision for you. JAYNE: It was. And I knew that, as one of the producers, I would benefit from it. We did it. The next thing I know, it comes out and all of America is furious. I’ll tell you what they said: “Not our Jayne!” HERMENE: You were like a shining star for all of us. JAYNE: And I guess I had blemished that. WHY PLAIN JAYNE HAD TO TELL THE WHOLE STORY HERMENE: How do you see today versus your day? JAYNE: When I decided I was going to make a comeback—and when I decided to do Plain Jayne—I wanted to tell the whole story. I was sick and tired of people telling stories, and they were all wrong. HERMENE: Let’s talk about your marriage to Leon. You’re at the end of the marriage. He begins having an affair with another woman, and eventually he wants to bring her home. How did you deal with that? JAYNE: I didn’t. There was a lot of back and forth. It wasn’t one particular moment. But at one point, I just said, “You know what? I’m leaving.” We had decided that I would keep the house. He already had an apartment in L.A. So: you go there, I’ll keep the house. But every time I turned around, he was at the house. I’d change the locks. Somehow, he’d still be in the house. That took a lot. I also don’t like talking about other people. I don’t like berating people. But I had to deal with the fact that either I tell the truth or I don’t tell the story at all. Because if I can’t tell the truth, there’s no sense in doing it. I spoke to Leon about it. We went through a period of many, many years when we didn’t speak because I was in so much pain. But when the book started to come out, I told him I wanted to do this book. He said, “I support you.” HERMENE: He didn’t have to do that. JAYNE: No, he did not. He could have been bitter. He could have been all kinds of different people. But he wasn’t. I’ve come to a point in my life where I have reckoned with myself, through the help of God—and that’s a whole chapter in and of itself. I no longer hate anybody. Leon and I get along just fine. He still comes to my daughters’ birthday parties. He showed up at my book signing in Los Angeles. He’s a supporter. FAMILY, MOTHERHOOD AND SACRIFICE HERMENE: And you remarried. JAYNE: I did. HERMENE: Bill Overton. JAYNE: Bill Overton. HERMENE: And you have four daughters. JAYNE: I have four daughters: Savannah Re, Zaire Ollyea, Kopper Joi and my stepdaughter, Cheyenne Marie. Cheyenne Marie is just as much my daughter as the rest of them. They’re all my girls. We have the most amazing blended extended family. Bill’s ex-wife, Kathleen, was my friend. I called her and said, “Kathy, you guys have been divorced for a while. Is it okay if I date Bill? Is it okay if we get married?” At first, I was only going to ask her if I could date him. But she said, “I knew you guys were going to get together.” She has been my best friend through some of the down times in my life—times when I didn’t know where to go and I was lost. She came to support me. She was always there. CAREER VS. FAMILY JAYNE: My career was a journey beyond my wildest dreams. But then you have a baby. The NFL Today wasn’t going to let me be on the sidelines with a belly. So I made sacrifices. Painful sacrifices. ADVICE TO YOUNG WOMEN IN MEDIA HERMENE: What would you tell a young woman today who wants to go into media—maybe newscasting or becoming a media personality? What advice would you offer? JAYNE: Oh gosh. It’s so different now. I was talking with Taylor Rooks when we did a television show for TNT. It was a generational piece with me, Pam Oliver, Stephanie Ready and Taylor Rooks. Taylor Rooks was the youngest. Pam and I were sort of on the same track. We were talking about how rough it was and the challenges—and the gifts that came along with it as well. When it got to Taylor, she said, “I had no idea you guys went through this.” She’s from a different generation. She said, “I had no idea you had to go through that.” What that means is we’re not educating people enough to know who made these strides. Some people think sports broadcasting for women started in 1990. They think that’s old school. I remember seeing a picture of a female sports broadcaster, and they were talking about how she had done something no one else had done as a sports broadcaster. She had done a television show, and they said she was the first person to do that. I said, “Girl wasn’t even born when I did that!” HERMENE: You can’t blow that fuss off! JAYNE: Oh my gosh. Years and years and years. That’s another reason I’m writing the book. I have to pay honor to the legacy. I don’t like bragging, but I have to put this in writing so people can know this is