Johnny Carson Leaves Lasting Legacy at UNL By Kathe C. Andersen, Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts Plans call for the renovation and upgrading of the Temple Johnny Carson always had a tender heart for his home state, Building to begin in 2006 and be completed sometime in and his alma mater. The television icon who died in January 2007. made numerous gifts to Nebraska entities – including $11 Born in Corning, Iowa, on Oct. 23, 1925, Carson grew up in million since November, 2004. Norfolk, Neb. Following service in the U.S. Navy in World War The first gift, $5.3 million, supports the Hixson-Lied College II, Carson enrolled at Nebraska in 1947 and earned his B.A. in of Fine and Performing Arts’ Department of Theatre Arts. radio and speech (with a minor in physics) in 1949. The gift funds renovation and expansion of the Temple His 1949 senior thesis, “How to Write Comedy for Radio,” Building at 12th and R Streets, and creates an endowment was recorded on a reel-to-reel tape. The 50-minute recording to equip performance spaces with advanced lighting and was a scholarly examination of the techniques and devices that sound technologies and assist students and programs in the radio comedy writers used to construct the jokes and gags in department. comedy radio shows. Using bits from well-known comedians In July, 2005, UNL received an additional $5 million from such as Jack Benny and Bob Hope, Carson illustrated the Carson’s estate. The July bequest establishes the Johnny various techniques used to write comedy, which he later Carson Fund for Theatre, Film and Broadcasting. Annual income effectively used in television through his “Tonight Show” from this endowment will support the Department of Theatre monologues. Arts and the broadcast program in the College of Journalism Carson was Master of Ceremonies for the male dramatic and Mass Communications. society Kosmet Klub shows from “Johnny Carson never forgot 1947 to 1949, and he once dressed where he came from, or that the in drag to become the first man to university played an important emcee the female Co-Ed Follies role in the development of his Show in 1948. many talents in those early years,” Both Carson and his brother, Dick said Giacomo Oliva, dean of the (’51), were members of Phi Gamma Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Delta. John Carson starred in the Performing Arts. “His enduring Fiji’s Kosmet Klub skits. His sister, legacy at the University will be the Catherine (’45), was a member of students who we hope will follow in Kappa Alpha Theta. his footsteps as creative artists for After graduating, Carson worked generations to come.” at WOW Television in Omaha. In honor of the gift, the university After leaving Nebraska, he worked created the Johnny Carson School for a Hollywood television station, of Theatre and Film, essentially where he hosted his own program, renaming its Department of “Carson’s Cellar.” Theatre Arts. The Board of Regents He hosted television shows approved the name change in before filling in for Jack Paar on June; it is pending approval “The Tonight Show” in 1958. On from the Nebraska Coordinating Oct. 1, 1962, Carson became the Commission for Postsecondary Tonight Show’s host. His final show, Education. May 22, 1992 was a national event. Changes at the Temple Building He had hosted more than 4,000 include a new black box theatre This undated photo of Johnny Carson shows him with a microphone, a programs. and film sound stage, a remodeled tool symbolic of his television persona. Carson maintained a strong and expanded scene shop and relationship to the University of updated lighting facilities, new computer-aided design and Nebraska. In the 1970s, Carson established an endowed theatre class lab space, and enhanced storage facilities. When scholarship at the NU Foundation to assist outstanding completed, the new addition will connect the Temple Building Nebraska high school graduates. to the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center. In 1988, Carson gave a gift to support the construction of “The renovation of the Temple building has long been the Lied Center for Performing Arts. The black box theatre overdue,” said Paul Steger, chairman of the Department adjoining the main stage was renamed the Johnny Carson of Theatre Arts. “The Carson donation has allowed us to Theater in his honor. upgrade equipment and to facilitate a more effective theatrical “Mr. Carson’s generosity is well known. His tenacity and experience for our students and for our audiences. The Temple Midwest work ethic is still reflected in the values treasured by renovation and construction provides faculty and students with the students that go to UNL,” Steger said. “Throughout his top-notch facilities, unavailable outside New York, Chicago, long and treasured career, Johnny never lost the belief in the and Los Angeles. This is a dynamic time for our programs to power of the human spirit and has now passed this gift on to our excel by working together.” students. Our students are hard-working artists, driven by their Steger called the new Studio Theatre/Soundstage the “true passion to provoke and entertain, just like Johnny was when he gem” of the project. “This soundproof space adds a degree of attended UNL. The students are blessed with the opportunity intimacy in performance that our current studio cannot provide to follow in Johnny’s footsteps with equipment and facilities and provides student filmmakers a primary place to create that Johnny could have only dreamt of. Mr. Carson’s gift is a work,” he said. legacy for generations to come.” 166 Nebraska Football Game Day Nebraska Football Game Day 167