January 26, 2023 • 52 mins
Vanessa Williams’ hit ballad “Save the Best for Last” spent five weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, became her signature song, and remains an adult-contemporary staple. But it was also a redemptive turning point for Williams, the first Black Miss America, whose reputation had been tarnished in 1984 when she gave up her title after Penthouse published nude photos of her from her past without her permission.
In this episode, we explore how the singer-actress overcame betrayal, bigotry, and public ridicule to stage one of the most memorable comebacks in entertainment history. With special guest Vanessa Williams.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Where Were You In ninety two is a production of
I Heart Radio. You know I always say success is
the best revenge. Welcome to Where Are You In nine two,
a podcast in which I Your host Jason Lafier look
back at the major hits, one hit wonders, shocking news stories,
(00:22):
and irresistible scandals that shaped what might be the wildest,
most eclectic, most controversial twelve months of music effort. This week,
Vanessa Williams Grammy nominated smash Saved the Best for Last,
spent five weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot
one d became her signature song and remains an adult
(00:43):
contemporary staple. But it also marked a redemptive turning point
for the first black Miss America, whose reputation had been
tarnished when she gave up her title after Penthouse published
unauthorized nude photos of her taken before her participation in
the pageant. In this episode, we explore how the singer
actress overcame betrayal, bigot treat and public ridicool to stage
(01:06):
one of the most memorable comebacks of entertainment history. Plus,
Vanessa Williams herself joins us to discuss how a single
photo shoot and then a massive hit single changed her
life forever. Sometimes the Snow comes down in June. Do
(01:28):
you remember back in episode one when I declared that
the opening line of Sir Mix Lots hit Baby Got Back,
oh my God, Becky look at her butt, maybe one
of the most unforgettable opening lines in pop history. Well,
sometimes the Snow comes down in June is right up
there too. It, along with oh my God, Becky, was
certainly one of the most famous lines to come out
(01:50):
of Vanessa. Williams saved the best for last. The song
that that snow comes down in June line comes from
spent five weeks at number one that year, becoming Williams
first and only song to top the Billboard Hot one hundred.
Funny coincidence. A few months later, Baby Got Back also
(02:10):
spent five weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot
one hundred, becoming Stirm Mix a Lot's first and only
song to top that chart. The lesson here, Folks, when
attempting to write a number one pop song, kick things
off with a doozy Well it's not quite a shocked
valley girl commenting on some random woman's booty. Sometimes the
snow comes down in June is kind of a weird
(02:31):
and treating way to start a song if you think
about it. What I heard it as a kid, I
was as befuddled as that Valley girl. Snow in June impossible.
Of course, now I've learned it's totally possible. It's snowed
in Colorado and at Lake Tahoe on the California Nevada
border just this past June. In June, heavy snow fell
in the Utah Mountains. Anyway, this isn't a damn weather report.
(02:54):
I'm just saying it happens. Strange things happen, which is
what that line is about, as well as the song's
more suspicious second line. Sometimes the sun goes round the moon.
Sometimes crazy ship happens. Sometimes life surprises us, for better
or for worse. Vanessa Williams knows this. She has been
(03:14):
through it, seeing her life change quite literally overnight on
more than a few occasions. By the time Williams ascended
to the top of the charts in she'd already had
experience taking out all the competition. In night three, she
was crowned Miss America, becoming the first black Miss America.
It was something she'd never expected. A feat she achieved
(03:37):
almost by accident. Then in just two months before her
reign was set to end, she'd surrender her title. After
her world was rocked by scandal. She would walk away
disgraced and devastated. How do you rebound from that kind
of public humiliation, Well, she did in a major way.
Some would say Williams come back like snow coming down
(03:59):
in June, or more so like the sun going around
the moon was a miracle, but that takes away her
agency and diminishes her talent. She climbed to the summit
and transcended the duty pageant world because she refused to
let her four fall from grace, ruin her or define her.
This is her story. Vanessa Williams was born in the
(04:26):
Bronx and raised in the Westchester County suburb of Millwood
by music teacher parents. She has said she never felt
beautiful growing up. In grade school, she was the only
black kidding class, which could be isolating. As an adolescent,
she struggled with pimples. Her mother, Plan Williams, instilled the
values of hard work and merit in her when she
was young. Being pretty was great, but being talented and
(04:50):
respected was what mattered. In the early eighties. She attended
Syracuse University, my alma mater, where she studied musical theater.
Dur Ring her sophomore year, a man named Bill Harmond,
who was on the board of the Miss Greater Syracuse pageant,
saw her performance in a school production of Swinging on
a Star and was blown away. He told one of
(05:10):
her friends and classmates that he thought she had the
goods to make it all the way to Miss America.
Beauty Queen was not on her list of aspirations. She
had intended to graduate with the b f A, go
to Yale for post grad and then start auditioning, but
by April of her sophomore year, the director of the
Miss Greater Syracuse pageant was practically beating down her door
(05:32):
to get her to audition for the pageant. She finally
sold Williams on the idea by informing her that if
she won, she'd receive a five scholarship for her junior year.
When she asked her mother for advice, she immediately told
her to do it. Later, when she called her to
say she'd won Miss Greater Syracuse, her mom's first response was,
(05:53):
that's terrific. How much money did you get in July,
she headed to the Miss New York pageant. She won
that too. Her life became a series of parades and
county fairs and rehearsals for her next stop, the Miss
America pageant. They're in Atlantic City. She'd performed Barbara streisand
(06:17):
slowed down melodramatic version of Happy Days or here Again
a tune Babs had sung opposite Judy Garland and a
medley of it and get Happy during in October nineteen
sixty three episode of The Judy Garland Show. So Yeah, Well,
Williams was new to the beauty queen scene. She was
a total theater geek, which she concluded might work in
her favor. Says Williams, I mean some of these girls
(06:39):
have been in the passion system for their lives and
their goal is to be Miss America. And I came
in from you know, side door, uh, and my goal
in life was to be on Broadway, as she recalls,
and you have no idea her two thousand twelve memoir
(07:00):
that she wrote with her mom quote, even as I
would glide down the runway and high heels and a swimsuit,
I would think, how did I get here? Now? How
do I justify this again. Oh yeah, scholarship money for
my junior year. You're an actress. Pretend this is another
role and smile. It worked. In September, Williams won the
(07:21):
title of Miss America. All she could think is the
Ryanstone trro was placed on her head, was that she'd
now have to give up studying abroad in London her
junior year. But then walking the runway right after being crowned,
Williams was suddenly really proud, elated. Friends and family had
bust in to support her, and she recalls hearing her
(07:42):
father's clapping rising above the cheers and applause. And the
months that followed, she would tour the country, changing her
location every one to two days. She would sign autographs,
have dinner with the President and First Lady, and meet
Eddie Murphy and Mohammad Ali. Less than five months after
having one Miss Great Syracuse, twenty year old Vanessa Williams
(08:02):
had become the first black Miss America and the pageant
six decade history. You see, when it was first created
in nineteen one as a way to attract tourists to
the Atlantic City Boardwalk, the Miss America pageant had some
(08:23):
explicit guidelines rule number seven, for example, stated that quote
contestants must be of good health and of the white race.
That rule wasn't abolished until nineteen fifty, but the pageant
would not include a black contestant until nineteen seventy when
Miss Iowa Cheryl Brown competed for Miss American. Nineteen. When
(08:46):
Williams won the title, in Shirley Chisholm, the first black
woman elected to the United States Congress, was hopeful, saying
at the time, quote, the inherent racism in America must
be diluting itself. But being the first black Miss America
would come with its burdens. Not everyone was as thrilled
for Williams, his Chisholm and her loved ones were. There
(09:08):
were jokes, dumb and racist ones. Days after her victory,
The Tonight Show host Danny Carson addressed it in his
opening monologue. Did you hear we have the first black
Miss America? He asked, I bet you didn't know that
Mr t was one of the judges. Williams was stunned.
A week after she took the crown, letters began arriving
at the Williams home. While her mother recalls reading thousands
(09:31):
of congratulatory messages. The family also received hate now. Some
deemed Williams quote unquote, not pure and therefore not worthy
of the title because of her race. One note read
quote you'll never be our miss America, and another someone
threatened to throw acid in her face. Another included the
(09:51):
message You're dead, bitch. Some of the letters were filled
with spit, others contained pubic care and seamen. After she
went to the police, an FBI agent taught Williams mother
how to open the envelopes with gloves in such a
way that the letters could be traced back to the centers.
Some who wrote the Williams were black, As Helen Williams recalls,
(10:12):
and you have no idea quote. We got letters from
black people saying we were liars, that she wasn't really black.
How could she be black with light skin and blue eyes.
We'd go to hell for our deceptions. Both of Vanessa
Williams's parents were black. Her grandparents on both sides were
also black. Others condemned Williams for having a white boyfriend.
(10:32):
At the time, says Vanessa Williams. To think about myself
at twenty years old, going through this criticism of me
just trying to be a junior in in college, winning
this thing overnight, having no intention of actually having this
as part of my my my career. Having to deal
(10:55):
with um, the not only the logistics and the skeed
dual and the importance uh and the the weight of
the situation, but then dealing with criticism. UM. That that
was I can say it hurt my feelings twitter years old, UM,
And it was hard to deal with. Her mother turned
(11:17):
many of the letters over to the police, but unhinged
harassers would call the William's home with death threats. Others
would show up at their door, not wanting to scare her.
While she was traveling and fulfilling her new duties, how
uncut many details from her daughter. In the South, extra
security would accompany Vanessa. Armed guards stood outside her hotel
room in Alabama. Extra measures were taken even when she
(11:41):
returned to Millwood in New York, which was mostly white.
Of course, it was clear to me when we had
our homecoming parade in my hometown and there was sharpshooters
on the top of the buildings, and you think, wow,
you know, that's a lot of protection. And then you think, oh, wow,
that is a lot of protection because there are some risks.
The beauty queen perks didn't seem worth the danger, writes
(12:04):
Helen Williams. And you have no idea quote. We had
no idea her Miss America rain would quickly become a
reign of terror for us. We had no idea how
once it started. We couldn't wait for it to be over.
Vanessa William's reign would be over sooner than she or
her family expected. On Friday thirteenth in July, just six
(12:29):
weeks before her year long tenure as Miss America was
set to end, she received some startling news. She was
finishing up an interview with The New York Post when
the reporter told her they were rumblings that she'd appear
nude and Penthouse magazine. She was confused and dumbfounded. Sure enough,
about a week later, while she was signing autographs for
a crowd of young black girls who idolized her at
(12:51):
a Gellette event, she was told to call her lawyer
right away. The press had gotten their hands on advanced
copies of Penthouses fifteenth anniversary issue. There she was on
its cover, wearing a sparkly gown, next to comedian George Burns,
known for portraying the Man Upstairs in the movie Oh God,
and a photo she'd taken with him at his eighty
(13:11):
eight birthday party several months before the cover line Miss America,
Oh God, She's nude. Inside the issue, she had appeared
a lot less. The news broke fast the morning after
the Galette event and a very uncomfortable dinner with his
Exacts ship went down. Williams hotel was packed with reporters.
(13:33):
She and her Miss America chaperone pushed their way past
the rapid fire, questioning and flashbulbs, but the paparazzi followed
them all the way to the airport. On the plane
after takeoff, a man from CBS Knew suddenly popped up
out of nowhere with a camera, asking her for comment.
The tabloid headlines called her Mess America and Vanessa the undressa. Meanwhile,
(13:54):
Albert Marks, the pageant chairman, was totally disgusted and demanded
that Williams resign within me two hours. Didn't call her,
went straight to the press. He has said, quote, I've
never seen anything like these photographs. I can't even show
them to my wife. What does that even mean? I
gotta take a breath. So at this point you might
(14:15):
be wondering where these nude photos came from. This is
one of the reasons I'm taking a breath, because so
many people suck in the story and surprise, they're all men.
A year before she became Miss America, Williams was nineteen
and back home for the summer between semesters, working as
a receptionist slash makeup artist with a local photographer. One day,
(14:37):
after hours, he asked her to model for him with
his friend for some quote unquote artsy black and white
nude silhouettes. These are just for me, he said. Don't worry,
no one will know it's you. Anyway, his friend, a woman,
showed up. She and Williams had some white wine, and
then the pair took the photographer's commands and posed for
some shots. The images were intimate and erotic, and Williams
(15:00):
writes in her book, you have no idea. The photographer
had become a friend, She had met his wife and kids.
Why shouldn't I trust him, she thought. Hugh Hefner, Playboy
founder and editor in chief, was offered the photos first,
but he turned them down out of respect for Williams.
The single victim, and all this was the young woman herself,
(15:21):
who's right to make this decision was taken away from her.
He said, if she wanted to make this kind of statement,
that would be her business. But the statement wasn't made
by her. But as Time reported, Playboy also rejected the
photos because quote it does not use what spokesman Dave
Salier's calls lesbian material. Penthouse founder editor and publisher Bob
(15:43):
Guccione did accept the photos, paying the photographer fifty dollars
for them. As Leslie Jay Gould, the public relations director
for Penthouse the nineties, told Esquire, Bob didn't see it
the way Heffner saw it. He thought Hefner missed out
on making a lot of money. Bob's way of thinking
was that if he didn't publish the photos of someone
else would google this guy and it will all make sense.
(16:06):
He used to wear a gold chain with a penis
dangling from it. Williams waited until the last hour of
those seventy two hours she'd been given to decide if
she wanted to resign. She ultimately did. Reading her speech
at a press conference on July night four, she said
the potential harm to the pageant and the deep division
(16:27):
that a bitter fight may cause has convinced me that
I must relinquish my title as Miss America. I feel
at this time I could expend my energies and launching
what I hope will be a successful career in the
entertainment business. Her parents knew she had made a mistake,
but didn't think she should resign. She'd gone above and
beyond her duties, making extra appearances because she had made
(16:49):
history with her win. Still they stood behind her. They
just wanted her to get through it and move on.
Williams got to keep the crown and the money she
had already made from those appearances, but she lost her
deal with Gillette and with it, the respect of many
in the pageant community and in the black community. They
(17:17):
hate mail started coming again. She was a target of
ridicule for tabloids and for comedians like Joan Rivers and
Chris Rock. The mayor of Talladega, Alabama, demanded she returned
the key to the city she received when she was
Grand Marshal and its Christmas parade. Her mother wrote him
a letter in which she refused. It didn't help that
while Williams was suing Guccione for publishing the nude photos
(17:37):
without her consent. She had to contend with another Pinhouse
cover published just months later. That issue contained another set
of photos of her, taken that same summer with a
different photographer. In these images, she appeared in bondage gear.
She had left that shoot feeling so remorseful and uncomfortable
that she returned to the photographer's apartment with her boyfriend
(17:58):
at the time and refused to leave with the negatives.
After a struggle, she thought he'd surrendered all of them,
but that photographer too would sell them to Penthouse. The
cover of that second Penthouse issue, which dropped in janu
featured in another photo of Williams with burns. It's cover
line read, oh God, I did it again. Williams lawyers
(18:31):
informed her that her trial against Penthouse and Guccione could
drag on, that his team would dig up any dire
on her they could find. Her parents believed she had
been treated unjustly, but as teachers, they didn't have endless
funds to pay her legal fees. She knew the tabloids
would continue to dog her. As she writes, and you
have no idea quote I wanted it to be over.
(18:54):
What were we really winning? Anyway, I'd be getting publicity
for all the wrong reasons. I thought I'm done. She
dropped the suit lesson two years after she filed it.
The experience was painful and mortifying for Williams, the consequences
earth shattering. For years after the scandal, she'd go to
meetings or auditions and she'd feel dismissed before she even
(19:15):
opened her mouth, says Williams. I mean I'd walk into
a room for an audition and talking about being judge?
Can she act? Do we really want her? Is this
just for the dinner party conversation that I can say,
Oh guess what? I uh, I have Vanessa Williams coming.
Let me tell you about this audition. So I had
no idea who to trust, who was real, who really
(19:36):
was going to give me an opportunity, or who was
just pure folly. But she also knew she wouldn't just
recede into the background. She had been raised to push
past barriers sexist, racist or otherwise. She proved her critics
that she wasn't just a sad, dethroned beauty queen or
a victim. You have no idea who I am? And
what I can do, she recalls thinking in her memoir,
one day the dust will settle and you'll see what
(19:58):
I am made of. Up next, after the break, we
look at how Williams rose above the shame and backlash
to launch a successful singing and acting career and become
the most famous Miss America We've ever had. The year
(20:41):
was Vanessa. Williams had been struggling to move past her
pageant controversy and realize her dream of making it on Broadway.
So the advice of her manager, Raman Hervey, who for
a time was also her husband, she decided to pursue
a recording career through a musical director of an off
Broadway project you've been involved in. She snagged a gig
(21:02):
singing backup on two songs for Parliament Funkadelics George Clinton.
After having worked with the legend, she was able to
boost her credit. Singers with musical theater backgrounds were usually
a turn off for record companies. She met At Eckstein,
general manager of Wing Records, a small division of PolyGram,
who instantly took to her. He'd worked under the tutlage
of Quincy Jones, so she was in good hands. Williams
(21:36):
released her debut album, The Right Stuff in Its first
two singles were successful on the R and B charts,
but it's third, the sacks laced ballad Dreaming, was a
hit on the Billboard Hot one, peaking at number eight.
Her music career seemed to be taking off a blessing
since she knew she had a lot to prove as
a disgraced beauty queen turned aspiring pop star. For her
(21:58):
next lp X sign would push Williams into new terrain.
The R and B fair from The Right Stuff had
been mostly popular with black audiences, but like his mentor
Quincy Jones had done with acts like Michael Jackson and
Lionel Richie, he wanted to help Williams quote unquote, crossover
and attract white listeners to her second album, The Comfort Zone,
came out in August. It's lead single, the dance pop,
(22:23):
Knew Jack swing inflected running Back to You, went to
number one on the Hot R and B Hip Hop
Songs chart and number eighteen on the Hot one hundred.
It's second single, the title Track, was also an R
and B hit, but it only made it to number
sixty two on the Hot one hundred. The Comfort Zones.
Third single, however, would completely change the course of William's career.
(22:49):
Save the Best for Last began as an afterthought in
Phil Goldston, who had penned songs for Celendian and Share,
and his songwriting partner John Lynde, who had worked on
Madonna's Crazy for You, were in Los Angeles crafting a
track they envisioned for Steve Perry. Both of them had
been successful, but they had families and bills to pay,
(23:10):
and they needed their next hip. During a break from
the would be Steve Perry tune, Goldston started messing around
on his dinky little keyboard with what would eventually become
the opening lick of Save the Best for Last. Lynn's
ears perked up. He wanted to build on it, says Goldston.
In twenty seven minutes, we wrote almost all of the
music of the song. When we took that little break,
(23:34):
John said, well, you know, what's the title of this thing?
So I went through this little black book and I'm
just going through this list of two or whatever number
it was at that time, of handwritten concepts, scraps, actual titles.
He landed on Saved the Best for Last. Lynn liked it.
It fit with the arrangement they'd whipped up. At the
(23:55):
end of the night, Lynn asked Goldston what they do
with the song, which they would were for to as
their Broadway scrap. Based on the old school nature of
the thing, he suggested Golson take it to Wendy Waldman,
who had been a folk rock singer in the nineteen
seventies and written for the likes of Judy Collins, Bett
Midler and Reba McEntire, to get some help with the lyrics.
Ghlston agreed, but he lived in New York and Waldman
(24:18):
was in Nashville, so we had no idea when you
get around to showing it to her. After a record
he produced was rejected by a label, Golson was moping
around the house when his wife suggested he get out
of town and take his first trip to Nashville. He
called Waldman, who loved the idea, and they chose a weekend.
He called Lynn and told him the news, and he said, well,
don't forget to take that little scrap with you. And
(24:40):
I said, what a little scrap? And he said that
when we were working on Save the Best for something,
And I said, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Okay, I'll
take that one out. So I found the tape with
that I don't put it in my bag, and I
brought it with me. I didn't even remember it. Three
(25:03):
days into working with a nine month pregnant Walman in Nashville,
he played her the quote unquote scrap. She thought it
was fantastic. She asked Goldston what the title saved the
best for last ment? And I said, well, to me,
that title is probably bittersweet and ironic in a way.
(25:24):
And she said, what do you mean. I said, well,
just when I thought that everything was really going well,
you left me. She looked at me. She said, you're crazy.
It's not about that at all. And Walman's interpretation the
title was referring to someone who thought their love interest
didn't love them, only to discover at last that they did.
(25:45):
I said, oh, do you mean like a moon in
June song? She said, that's right. Goldston goes on to
explain what a moon and June song is. Some songwriters,
particularly of my generation, use the term moon in June
song to refer to a relatively uh simple, not simplistic,
(26:09):
but simple song in the Tin Panaley tradition, with precise
rhymes were possible. Moon and June and um a certain
almost sweetness to it. Golston says he didn't realize until
quite some time later that by characterizing the track that
(26:31):
way he had inspired its memorable opening lines. And then
one of us, neither of us for members, who said
the first line, sometimes the snow comes down in June,
and the other said, sometimes this sun goes around the moon.
So there was the moon in June, just in the reverse,
and we were often running. Gholston returned to New York
thinking that saved the Bus for last was the weakest
(26:53):
link of the batch of songs he'd worked on with Waldman,
but both his wife and five year old son really
responded to it. He considered this a sign, so he
got to work producing a demo and enlisted Walman to
sing it. They and Lynn thought it had big commercial potential.
We had the song out as in pitching the song
(27:13):
to three major artists who we really thought were the
right call for this, and the good news for all
of us is that all three passed. The three singers
who turned it down Bette Midler, Barbara Streisand and Whitney Houston.
When at Eckstein from William's label sent Waldman's demo to her.
(27:36):
Williams instantly liked it. Eckstein asked Galston Inland if she
could record it, and they decided to give it a shot.
Eckstein paired Williams with producer Keith Thomas, best known for
his work with gospel titans B. B and C. C. Winans.
He also produced Amy Grant hit Baby Baby, William's Food
of Thomas's studio and Franklin, Tennessee twenty miles from Nashville
(27:59):
to record Save the Bust for Last and four other
songs for the comfort Zone. She recalls him giving her
a bag of potato chips before she started to lay
down her vocals. He claimed the oil and salt gave
his singers voice as an extra. Given the fate of
the song, he might have been onto something. Save the
Best for Last was released as a single in January,
(28:20):
more than three years after Golston Inland started writing it.
By March of that year, it had soared to number
one on the Boboard Hot one hundred, where it would
find its comfort zone, staying there for five consecutive weeks.
It also rose to the top spot on both the
R and B and Adult Contemporary charts. It would become
the number four single of Our Beloved Baby Got Back
(28:42):
was number two. The track would also earn Grammy nominations
for Best Song, Best Record, and Best Pop Vocal Performance Female.
The single The Comfort Zone would snag a NAM for
Best R and B Vocal Performance Female. The album The
Comfort Zone would go multi platinum. Before Saved the Best
(29:06):
for Last became a massive hit, Golson's manager had taken
him out to lunch at a hot dog stand and
told him that, given his dry spell and finances, he
might want to consider writing jingles. By spring of his
career had started to turn around. He recalls hearing Saved
the Best for Last for the first time one weekend
in a path mark in Yonkers, New York, when he
(29:27):
was grocery shopping with his seven year old son and
four year old daughter. Unshaven and wearing an old overcoat,
his hair unwashed. He was stooping to the bottom shelf
in an aisle to find the low priced cans of
crushed tomatoes. When the song came blaring from the sound system.
His kids began screaming into light. He Lyndon Waldman had
(29:47):
experienced success before, but nothing like this. It was particularly
affirming because it was a song that defied the current marketplace.
Save the Best for Last was of an anomal among
the other number one hits, Yes, a handful of ballads
top the charts that year, Boys Too, Mend's and of
(30:07):
the Road, George Michael and Elton John's Don't let the
Sun Go Down on Me, Mariah Carey's remake of the
Jackson five song I'll Be There, Whitney Houston's remake of
Dolly Partons I Will Always Love You. But most of
these songs are about rejection or heartache. Save the Best
for Last is about someone being friend zoned. The singer
has watched their close pal and love interests get dumped.
(30:29):
They've listened as that pal has confided in them, and
they've hoped all along that that pal would finally come
to their senses and realize the one they should be
with has been right under their nose all along. Then,
as the lyrics go, just when I thought our chance
had passed, you go and Save the Best for Last,
the pall does in fact love them. The pair are
(30:52):
going to give it a whirl. The song is one
of those rare ballads with a happy ending. It's essentially
a rom com set to twinkly am radio keyboards, swelling
strings and whispy acoustic guitars. Yeah, it's basically my best
friend's wedding if Julia Roberts finally bagged Dermot. Mulrooney. Goldstone
was right to initially call Save the Bus for Last
(31:14):
a Broadway scrap. To me, it's always felt a little
less like a standard pop song and more like a
show tune, which is not a knock. Williams sounds wonderful
on it, composed, restrained, dignified, and then just enough of
and even a little annoyed with her new boo. Sorry
to beaton, Babs, but she was the perfect choice for it.
(31:36):
Williams was thirty three weeks pregnant with her third child
when she performed Saved the Bus for Last at the
three Grammys. She sat on a stool to sing it.
Though she didn't take home any awards at night, she
certainly felt like a winner and her mind she had
finally arrived. Her peers, the voting academy, record buyers, the
general public. Now they too had put the Miss America
(31:59):
scan behind her. As she writes in her memoir, I
wasn't an outsider anymore. Of course, this was only the beginning.
Williams continued recording music after the Comfort Zone. Her Top
five single, Colors of the Wind from the soundtrack for
(32:22):
the Disney film Pocahanas, even won the Academy Award for
Best Original Song. But she'd arguably become more famous for
her acting, starting with Arnold Schwarzinger in the n action
flip Eraser, lead to more roles in the movie Soul Food,
and later as the Icy Anna win tur inspired fashion
(32:43):
editor Willimina Slater on the hit ABC show Ugly Betty,
for which she'd earned three Emmy nominations. She'd also land
recurring turns in series like Desperate Housewives and The Good Wife,
and she did wind up fulfilling her long time goal
of making it on Broadway, taking over for Cheetah Rivera
as a lead and Kiss of the Spider Woman and
(33:04):
playing the Witch, and the two thousand two revival of
Stephen Sondheime's Into the Woods, which earned her a Tony nomination.
Williams recently wrapped her run and the Tony nominated two
two Broadway show Potus, and now forty years after she
went before that panel of judges in Atlantic City. She's
the judge of her own on the Paramount plus Drag
Queen Singing competition Queen of the Universe. Up next after
(33:37):
the break, Vanessa Williams joins us to talk about the
fallout after the Penthouse scandal, how she regained control of
her image and the legacy of Saved the Best for Last.
(34:01):
Welcome back to Where were You in ninety two? We've
been discussing Vanessa Williams and her number one smash Saved
the Best for Last. Now it's time to hear from
Williams herself. So where were you in ninety two? Physically mentally,
uh In, I was living in Los Angeles in Plaia
del Ray. I was a mother of two girls and
(34:25):
um traveling the world promoting The Comfort Zone, which was
my second studio album. I did not have big, gigantic
producers working with me. That we're Jimmy Jammin, Terry Lewis
and Keith Thomas for one, who did say The Best
for Last? He was making the transition from working in
the gospel Christian range area with BBNCC one and I
(34:48):
did most of the album in Franklin, Tennessee. So you
you write in the book, when you're discussing reaching these
this crossroads. Um, to make the Comfort Zone your second album,
you say I still had so much to prove. What
was your strategy to have a successful sophomore effort? Well,
what I mean about proving? Uh, you know, I always
(35:09):
say success is the best revenge. You just never know
what life has in store for you. So, um, proving
myself meant that I was judged as a beauty queen
after I won, I was judged as a scandalous beauty
queen after you know my reign, and uh, people judge
that I've been in show after show. I was a
(35:30):
singer and a dancer and actor, a musician. So to
be judged, um, and to have your talent and your
intellect negated by being a beauty queen and labeled a
scandalous beauty queen. I was always trying to prove myself
every opportunity I had. It was like, I'm going to
prove to you that I can act. I'm going to
prove to you that I can sing. I'm going to
(35:51):
prove to you that I can dance. That my talent
is something that has opened doors for me. But it's
not put upon on. It's something that I naturally have
and have worked on. And then I'm sure a lot
of people thought, Okay, well she got lucky with a
one hit. Well okay dreaming, okay, maybe two hits. And
then you know, a conference zone came and it ticked
(36:14):
off the box from not only taking me from the
R and B world but also crossing over into the
pop world. Um, and again there are new people that
I get to judge you and like, who's singing this song?
Oh it's the Forum as America that's singing this Oh
can she do it again? So I think that we
all in life are always trying to prove who we are,
(36:35):
and we're always judged, and instead of fighting that and
getting resentful, you just realize that that's part of life.
I believe it was at Extein who said, hey, like,
just f y, I, if you're going to go in
the pop domain, you may leave some of your black
listeners behind, who who have come for the R and
B and the soul And you've got to straddle this. Now,
(36:56):
how are you able to strike the balance and keep
getting new fans, keep keep your your dedicated fan base. Well,
I think my dedicated fan base loved me not only
for the the hits that that that I had off
the right stuff, but before because I was a survivor
and I symbolize the great comeback. So it was more
(37:18):
for my my grits and my integrity and the fact
that I was going to overcome. And there's a you know,
there are people in your lives that are celebrities or
that you know their struggles and their paths in life,
and you love them for sticking out and proving that
(37:39):
through all of it. You got a chance to win
on the comfort zone. After having success, I think Ed
got a chance to talk to people that were actually
willing to give me songs. ED knew that, Okay, now
we've proven that she's here to stay, and that opened
more doors for people to take me Legitimately. You talk
about being judging. Of course, you and or the mis
(38:00):
American Pageant, which is inherently all about judging. You've got
a panel of judges. But it didn't stop there. You win.
I think one of the more distrussing passages in in
the book, you write of the backlash you received not
only from the white community, but from from the black community.
I've had people when I was crowned, say, I never
(38:20):
thought I'd seen it in my lifetime, which is very
similar to you know what we said when we when
Obama first became president. But there were people that felt
I wasn't black enough, which again is being judged and
assuming that you know somebody's experience, and of course it
hurts your feelings, and you say, isn't this enough? And
(38:42):
does this discredit even this momentous occasion when you can't
even acknowledge the fact that we've made history because of
the way that I look the year three that I won,
there were four women of color, which was the most
they had ever had, four black women in one Latino women,
so uh contestants. And I had a white boyfriend at
(39:04):
the time. And again, you know, anger from some black
men that felt that, you know, I having a white
boyfriend was saying that I didn't love black men, which
was you know, again another criticism which I was completely
um having to combat. It was a lot. And again
(39:25):
I looked back at my twenty year old self, twenty
one year old self, having been a mother of four children,
watching them all go through the same age range, and
I marvel at how I got through it. The letters
that your mother received that that she writes about and
in the book that was just very jarring. I can't
believe in a way, you know. I read it and
(39:46):
I was thinking, Wow, maybe social media backlash is a
good thing, because people can't send you letters with some
of the contents in the envelopes that your mother had to,
you know, unearthed. My parents lived in the house that
I grew up in. We had a number that you
get back in the phone book. It was listed so
(40:08):
anyone could dial up my house. My parents would pick
up we didn't have caller I D. My parents would
pick up the you know, the rotary phone, and they
would get up these evil messages that they were accosted
by about threats to my life, about horrible racial um
(40:28):
slurs that were held at them, and they had to
they had to harbor it or or or protect me
from it to allow me to continue to do my
job as Miss America and travel the States every other day,
appearance after appearance and not freak me out. But they
would say, oh, you're going to Chicago, be careful. Oh
(40:51):
you're going down to Alabama, watch out. Oh you know,
So they would give me these gentle hints to try
to protect me but not have me freak out because
the job was part enough. At some point you just
have to hand it over and surrender to um life
and do the best you can, but also be wearing
(41:13):
when the Penthouse photos surfaced. Towards the end of your reign,
um is Miss America. You were given seventy two hours
to resign by the pageant. Uh, and you basically waited
until the last hour. You know, you're working with your publicists. Um.
And in that last hours when you decided, Okay, I
think I will resign. What spurred that decision at the
(41:36):
essentially the the not the eleventh hour, but the seventy
one hour, there were a big faction of people that
wanted me to fight for the crown. Basically they said,
you have uh, you superseded your your obligations. There was
no reason to resign and UM. So even when I
(41:58):
when I reached my press conference, there were people with signs, uh,
you know, saying keep the crown, don't resign, and and
and activated activated um. But at that point I had
a month Togo, a month and a couple of weeks
of you know, vacation that was allotted, and I wanted
(42:19):
to get on with my life, you know. And uh
it was tremendously you know, humiliating and painful and um
and and stressful. Uh. And again I think back of
the years old incredibly stressful, but I wanted to move on.
And and I had had a brilliant term you know,
(42:42):
term year rain whatever. Um. I had had so many
opportunities and done the best of my abilities and was
very proud of the work that I had done. I'm
looking at the cover of the Comfort Zone today and
I'm thinking, wow, like this is her emerging. She's wet,
she's sultry, and I'm wondering, what were the conversations like
(43:03):
with you trying to of course put the past behind you,
put the scandal of the penthouse photos and Miss America
behind you, but also you know, you were wanted to
come across as a You made that very clear, like
I don't want wimpy ballads, I don't want to be
pleading with men. I want to be a very confident woman.
So how did you how did you navigate that there
(43:23):
were so many perceptions of my image. Uh, Miss America
is very straight laced, scandalized. Miss America was very scandalous.
Is she's soul full enough, is she's is she too
middle of the road? So I wanted to make sure
that my image was strong. Um. Again, I was middle
twenties provocative. I was still dancing in in grade shape. Uh.
(43:48):
And also UM, confident and and approachable. You, of course
UH scored big would say the best for last UM
and you you felt something you know you you write
in the book I got chills from from hearing the demo.
But you have no idea it was gonna be the
sort of hit that it was. When did you know
that it was massive? When I recorded it in UM
(44:15):
Nashville or Franklin, Tennessee with with Keith. I remember recording it.
We're like, we're going to get this in one take.
And when you and back then there's no auto tunes.
So you hear someone's real voice, the real timbre, the
real breaths. When you hear the purity of a voice
(44:36):
making mistakes, you're not being actually completely correct digitally. UM.
There's a magic there because you think that you're hearing
it for the first time, and you think that you're
you're you're listening to it to actually somebody perform it.
So I knew that we were going to get it
in one take. That was our mission. And UM and
(44:57):
I knew that. Um Keith and myself and and Ed
and my husband at the time was my manager. We
knew that we had we had something special. I had
no idea it would last in the number one spot
for so long. Did you do it in one take?
Then you did it in one take? Yeah? Yeah? Then
people say, well, that can't be true. So every time
(45:19):
I performed it after that, it was like, oh, let's
see if you know, there's some tricks in that bag.
Um you know so uh. And to this day people
when I was saying it, people say, oh my god,
you sound just like the record. I said, that's that's
good because I sang it on the record. I love it.
I think that the Grammys nine Grammys when you performed,
(45:42):
I think you were thirty three weeks pregnant. Yeah, I
think I read not only can I do it in
one take? Three weeks pregnant one day? If you could
sum it up, what do you think the legacy of
Save the Bus for Last is? Well, what I the
constant feedback I get from people that approach me, UM,
(46:04):
is that song changed my life or that was our
wedding song because that was our story. And what I
think my superpower is as a performer, Uh, I tap
into my acting ability. So before I approached the mic,
what is my what is my before? And what am
(46:25):
I bringing? What story do I want to tell? And
it's not vocal acrobatics and how loud, how how many
riffs I can do. It's like, let me bring you
into this moment and let me paint a picture. And
that's what the consistent um feedback is from Saved the
Best for Last. It's that human connection with being ignored,
(46:47):
being there all the time, and you finally see who
I am and you know, whether it's getting married or
or being best friends, you finally see it. And also
the melody I think you know Wendy and Phil and
John on because melody is that's that haunting thing, that's
the earworm, that's the thing that you can sing along
to and you can't forget it. But it also creates
(47:10):
that visceral reaction in your body that takes you back
to the first time that you heard it, or takes
you back to that first relationship that you connected with.
So I think that's the magic, much like Saved the
(47:35):
best for last. This story has a happy ending. In
two thousand sixteen, Williams was tapped to be head judge
of the Miss America pageant. During the ceremony, Sam Haskell,
the Miss America CEO at the time, joined her on
stage to offer a public may Koopa, I want to
apologize for anything that was said or done that made
(47:56):
you feel any less than the Miss America you are
and the Miss of America you always will be. He said.
Nice gesture, but she hardly needed it in a sense.
Being pressured to give up that title of Miss America
back in the community four may have been one of
the best things that ever happened to Williams, and her
deciding to resign may have been one of the best
(48:16):
decisions she ever made. It took guts and was sort
of badass, and it led her exactly where she needed
to be. If she felt betrayed and humiliated by the scandal,
it only made her want to fight harder, to put
the whole mess, including a victory she never really wanted,
behind her and become something bigger, and she did. How
(48:38):
many Miss America's can you name? I admit this is
not my world, but I can name one today more
than ever, beauty pageants seemed like a degrading, sexist, hypocritical
(48:59):
thing of a distant past. Be kind of naked but
not too naked. Be sexy but not sexual. Be confident
but also cute and coy, smile more. Even if Miss
America ditched at swimsuit competition in two eighteen and announced
it would no longer judge contestants on their physical appearance,
sure audiences today would much rather watch RuPaul's Drag Race,
(49:22):
on which Williams has also served as a judge. A
wildly popular competition show turned total empire. It is at
least partly a commentary on the ridiculous standards of beauty
to which many women still feel beholden, and it's also
a satire of the artifice and goofy, over the top
camp nature of pageants. Just think of all those Miss
(49:44):
Universe memes that have been making the rounds recently. The
jig is up. Meanwhile, Save the Best for Last lives on,
says one of its writers, Phil Goldston. So last year
I decided to do a search and see how many
recording there are. I've saved the Best for Last and
they're more than eight out there in the marketplace, a
(50:08):
wedding classic, go to drag number, the stuff of a
Delilah listeners dreams the song has become something bigger than
what it was ever intended to be. That's because the
story of Save the Best for Last is the story
of Vanessa Williams. I think that for those familiar with
Vanessa's story, it is not only a comeback story. It's
(50:30):
a story of triumph for a person unfairly disparaged to
mean by everything from sexism to racism and a lot
in between. Where Say the Best for Last is concerned.
What I think is particularly meaningful is that the song
(50:52):
is about the surprises that can come your way in
life if you're open and if you embrace them, the
glory that can be yours and the happiness that can
be yours. And I think that's what happened with Vanessa,
and that's most certainly what happened to three of us
(51:14):
who wrote the song. Where Were You in ninety two
(51:57):
was a production of I Heart Radio. The executive producers
are Noel Brown and Jordan run Tug. The show was researched,
written and hosted by me Jason Laffier, with editing and
sound design by Michael Alder June. If you like what
you heard, please subscribe and leave us a review. For
more podcasts for my heart Radio, check out the I
heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to
(52:20):
your favorite shows,
Where Were You In ninety two is a production of
I Heart Radio. You know I always say success is
the best revenge. Welcome to Where Are You In nine two,
a podcast in which I Your host Jason Lafier look
back at the major hits, one hit wonders, shocking news stories,
(00:22):
and irresistible scandals that shaped what might be the wildest,
most eclectic, most controversial twelve months of music effort. This week,
Vanessa Williams Grammy nominated smash Saved the Best for Last,
spent five weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot
one d became her signature song and remains an adult
(00:43):
contemporary staple. But it also marked a redemptive turning point
for the first black Miss America, whose reputation had been
tarnished when she gave up her title after Penthouse published
unauthorized nude photos of her taken before her participation in
the pageant. In this episode, we explore how the singer
actress overcame betrayal, bigot treat and public ridicool to stage
(01:06):
one of the most memorable comebacks of entertainment history. Plus,
Vanessa Williams herself joins us to discuss how a single
photo shoot and then a massive hit single changed her
life forever. Sometimes the Snow comes down in June. Do
(01:28):
you remember back in episode one when I declared that
the opening line of Sir Mix Lots hit Baby Got Back,
oh my God, Becky look at her butt, maybe one
of the most unforgettable opening lines in pop history. Well,
sometimes the Snow comes down in June is right up
there too. It, along with oh my God, Becky, was
certainly one of the most famous lines to come out
(01:50):
of Vanessa. Williams saved the best for last. The song
that that snow comes down in June line comes from
spent five weeks at number one that year, becoming Williams
first and only song to top the Billboard Hot one hundred.
Funny coincidence. A few months later, Baby Got Back also
(02:10):
spent five weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot
one hundred, becoming Stirm Mix a Lot's first and only
song to top that chart. The lesson here, Folks, when
attempting to write a number one pop song, kick things
off with a doozy Well it's not quite a shocked
valley girl commenting on some random woman's booty. Sometimes the
snow comes down in June is kind of a weird
(02:31):
and treating way to start a song if you think
about it. What I heard it as a kid, I
was as befuddled as that Valley girl. Snow in June impossible.
Of course, now I've learned it's totally possible. It's snowed
in Colorado and at Lake Tahoe on the California Nevada
border just this past June. In June, heavy snow fell
in the Utah Mountains. Anyway, this isn't a damn weather report.
(02:54):
I'm just saying it happens. Strange things happen, which is
what that line is about, as well as the song's
more suspicious second line. Sometimes the sun goes round the moon.
Sometimes crazy ship happens. Sometimes life surprises us, for better
or for worse. Vanessa Williams knows this. She has been
(03:14):
through it, seeing her life change quite literally overnight on
more than a few occasions. By the time Williams ascended
to the top of the charts in she'd already had
experience taking out all the competition. In night three, she
was crowned Miss America, becoming the first black Miss America.
It was something she'd never expected. A feat she achieved
(03:37):
almost by accident. Then in just two months before her
reign was set to end, she'd surrender her title. After
her world was rocked by scandal. She would walk away
disgraced and devastated. How do you rebound from that kind
of public humiliation, Well, she did in a major way.
Some would say Williams come back like snow coming down
(03:59):
in June, or more so like the sun going around
the moon was a miracle, but that takes away her
agency and diminishes her talent. She climbed to the summit
and transcended the duty pageant world because she refused to
let her four fall from grace, ruin her or define her.
This is her story. Vanessa Williams was born in the
(04:26):
Bronx and raised in the Westchester County suburb of Millwood
by music teacher parents. She has said she never felt
beautiful growing up. In grade school, she was the only
black kidding class, which could be isolating. As an adolescent,
she struggled with pimples. Her mother, Plan Williams, instilled the
values of hard work and merit in her when she
was young. Being pretty was great, but being talented and
(04:50):
respected was what mattered. In the early eighties. She attended
Syracuse University, my alma mater, where she studied musical theater.
Dur Ring her sophomore year, a man named Bill Harmond,
who was on the board of the Miss Greater Syracuse pageant,
saw her performance in a school production of Swinging on
a Star and was blown away. He told one of
(05:10):
her friends and classmates that he thought she had the
goods to make it all the way to Miss America.
Beauty Queen was not on her list of aspirations. She
had intended to graduate with the b f A, go
to Yale for post grad and then start auditioning, but
by April of her sophomore year, the director of the
Miss Greater Syracuse pageant was practically beating down her door
(05:32):
to get her to audition for the pageant. She finally
sold Williams on the idea by informing her that if
she won, she'd receive a five scholarship for her junior year.
When she asked her mother for advice, she immediately told
her to do it. Later, when she called her to
say she'd won Miss Greater Syracuse, her mom's first response was,
(05:53):
that's terrific. How much money did you get in July,
she headed to the Miss New York pageant. She won
that too. Her life became a series of parades and
county fairs and rehearsals for her next stop, the Miss
America pageant. They're in Atlantic City. She'd performed Barbara streisand
(06:17):
slowed down melodramatic version of Happy Days or here Again
a tune Babs had sung opposite Judy Garland and a
medley of it and get Happy during in October nineteen
sixty three episode of The Judy Garland Show. So Yeah, Well,
Williams was new to the beauty queen scene. She was
a total theater geek, which she concluded might work in
her favor. Says Williams, I mean some of these girls
(06:39):
have been in the passion system for their lives and
their goal is to be Miss America. And I came
in from you know, side door, uh, and my goal
in life was to be on Broadway, as she recalls,
and you have no idea her two thousand twelve memoir
(07:00):
that she wrote with her mom quote, even as I
would glide down the runway and high heels and a swimsuit,
I would think, how did I get here? Now? How
do I justify this again. Oh yeah, scholarship money for
my junior year. You're an actress. Pretend this is another
role and smile. It worked. In September, Williams won the
(07:21):
title of Miss America. All she could think is the
Ryanstone trro was placed on her head, was that she'd
now have to give up studying abroad in London her
junior year. But then walking the runway right after being crowned,
Williams was suddenly really proud, elated. Friends and family had
bust in to support her, and she recalls hearing her
(07:42):
father's clapping rising above the cheers and applause. And the
months that followed, she would tour the country, changing her
location every one to two days. She would sign autographs,
have dinner with the President and First Lady, and meet
Eddie Murphy and Mohammad Ali. Less than five months after
having one Miss Great Syracuse, twenty year old Vanessa Williams
(08:02):
had become the first black Miss America and the pageant
six decade history. You see, when it was first created
in nineteen one as a way to attract tourists to
the Atlantic City Boardwalk, the Miss America pageant had some
(08:23):
explicit guidelines rule number seven, for example, stated that quote
contestants must be of good health and of the white race.
That rule wasn't abolished until nineteen fifty, but the pageant
would not include a black contestant until nineteen seventy when
Miss Iowa Cheryl Brown competed for Miss American. Nineteen. When
(08:46):
Williams won the title, in Shirley Chisholm, the first black
woman elected to the United States Congress, was hopeful, saying
at the time, quote, the inherent racism in America must
be diluting itself. But being the first black Miss America
would come with its burdens. Not everyone was as thrilled
for Williams, his Chisholm and her loved ones were. There
(09:08):
were jokes, dumb and racist ones. Days after her victory,
The Tonight Show host Danny Carson addressed it in his
opening monologue. Did you hear we have the first black
Miss America? He asked, I bet you didn't know that
Mr t was one of the judges. Williams was stunned.
A week after she took the crown, letters began arriving
at the Williams home. While her mother recalls reading thousands
(09:31):
of congratulatory messages. The family also received hate now. Some
deemed Williams quote unquote, not pure and therefore not worthy
of the title because of her race. One note read
quote you'll never be our miss America, and another someone
threatened to throw acid in her face. Another included the
(09:51):
message You're dead, bitch. Some of the letters were filled
with spit, others contained pubic care and seamen. After she
went to the police, an FBI agent taught Williams mother
how to open the envelopes with gloves in such a
way that the letters could be traced back to the centers.
Some who wrote the Williams were black, As Helen Williams recalls,
(10:12):
and you have no idea quote. We got letters from
black people saying we were liars, that she wasn't really black.
How could she be black with light skin and blue eyes.
We'd go to hell for our deceptions. Both of Vanessa
Williams's parents were black. Her grandparents on both sides were
also black. Others condemned Williams for having a white boyfriend.
(10:32):
At the time, says Vanessa Williams. To think about myself
at twenty years old, going through this criticism of me
just trying to be a junior in in college, winning
this thing overnight, having no intention of actually having this
as part of my my my career. Having to deal
(10:55):
with um, the not only the logistics and the skeed
dual and the importance uh and the the weight of
the situation, but then dealing with criticism. UM. That that
was I can say it hurt my feelings twitter years old, UM,
And it was hard to deal with. Her mother turned
(11:17):
many of the letters over to the police, but unhinged
harassers would call the William's home with death threats. Others
would show up at their door, not wanting to scare her.
While she was traveling and fulfilling her new duties, how
uncut many details from her daughter. In the South, extra
security would accompany Vanessa. Armed guards stood outside her hotel
room in Alabama. Extra measures were taken even when she
(11:41):
returned to Millwood in New York, which was mostly white.
Of course, it was clear to me when we had
our homecoming parade in my hometown and there was sharpshooters
on the top of the buildings, and you think, wow,
you know, that's a lot of protection. And then you think, oh, wow,
that is a lot of protection because there are some risks.
The beauty queen perks didn't seem worth the danger, writes
(12:04):
Helen Williams. And you have no idea quote. We had
no idea her Miss America rain would quickly become a
reign of terror for us. We had no idea how
once it started. We couldn't wait for it to be over.
Vanessa William's reign would be over sooner than she or
her family expected. On Friday thirteenth in July, just six
(12:29):
weeks before her year long tenure as Miss America was
set to end, she received some startling news. She was
finishing up an interview with The New York Post when
the reporter told her they were rumblings that she'd appear
nude and Penthouse magazine. She was confused and dumbfounded. Sure enough,
about a week later, while she was signing autographs for
a crowd of young black girls who idolized her at
(12:51):
a Gellette event, she was told to call her lawyer
right away. The press had gotten their hands on advanced
copies of Penthouses fifteenth anniversary issue. There she was on
its cover, wearing a sparkly gown, next to comedian George Burns,
known for portraying the Man Upstairs in the movie Oh God,
and a photo she'd taken with him at his eighty
(13:11):
eight birthday party several months before the cover line Miss America,
Oh God, She's nude. Inside the issue, she had appeared
a lot less. The news broke fast the morning after
the Galette event and a very uncomfortable dinner with his
Exacts ship went down. Williams hotel was packed with reporters.
(13:33):
She and her Miss America chaperone pushed their way past
the rapid fire, questioning and flashbulbs, but the paparazzi followed
them all the way to the airport. On the plane
after takeoff, a man from CBS Knew suddenly popped up
out of nowhere with a camera, asking her for comment.
The tabloid headlines called her Mess America and Vanessa the undressa. Meanwhile,
(13:54):
Albert Marks, the pageant chairman, was totally disgusted and demanded
that Williams resign within me two hours. Didn't call her,
went straight to the press. He has said, quote, I've
never seen anything like these photographs. I can't even show
them to my wife. What does that even mean? I
gotta take a breath. So at this point you might
(14:15):
be wondering where these nude photos came from. This is
one of the reasons I'm taking a breath, because so
many people suck in the story and surprise, they're all men.
A year before she became Miss America, Williams was nineteen
and back home for the summer between semesters, working as
a receptionist slash makeup artist with a local photographer. One day,
(14:37):
after hours, he asked her to model for him with
his friend for some quote unquote artsy black and white
nude silhouettes. These are just for me, he said. Don't worry,
no one will know it's you. Anyway, his friend, a woman,
showed up. She and Williams had some white wine, and
then the pair took the photographer's commands and posed for
some shots. The images were intimate and erotic, and Williams
(15:00):
writes in her book, you have no idea. The photographer
had become a friend, She had met his wife and kids.
Why shouldn't I trust him, she thought. Hugh Hefner, Playboy
founder and editor in chief, was offered the photos first,
but he turned them down out of respect for Williams.
The single victim, and all this was the young woman herself,
(15:21):
who's right to make this decision was taken away from her.
He said, if she wanted to make this kind of statement,
that would be her business. But the statement wasn't made
by her. But as Time reported, Playboy also rejected the
photos because quote it does not use what spokesman Dave
Salier's calls lesbian material. Penthouse founder editor and publisher Bob
(15:43):
Guccione did accept the photos, paying the photographer fifty dollars
for them. As Leslie Jay Gould, the public relations director
for Penthouse the nineties, told Esquire, Bob didn't see it
the way Heffner saw it. He thought Hefner missed out
on making a lot of money. Bob's way of thinking
was that if he didn't publish the photos of someone
else would google this guy and it will all make sense.
(16:06):
He used to wear a gold chain with a penis
dangling from it. Williams waited until the last hour of
those seventy two hours she'd been given to decide if
she wanted to resign. She ultimately did. Reading her speech
at a press conference on July night four, she said
the potential harm to the pageant and the deep division
(16:27):
that a bitter fight may cause has convinced me that
I must relinquish my title as Miss America. I feel
at this time I could expend my energies and launching
what I hope will be a successful career in the
entertainment business. Her parents knew she had made a mistake,
but didn't think she should resign. She'd gone above and
beyond her duties, making extra appearances because she had made
(16:49):
history with her win. Still they stood behind her. They
just wanted her to get through it and move on.
Williams got to keep the crown and the money she
had already made from those appearances, but she lost her
deal with Gillette and with it, the respect of many
in the pageant community and in the black community. They
(17:17):
hate mail started coming again. She was a target of
ridicule for tabloids and for comedians like Joan Rivers and
Chris Rock. The mayor of Talladega, Alabama, demanded she returned
the key to the city she received when she was
Grand Marshal and its Christmas parade. Her mother wrote him
a letter in which she refused. It didn't help that
while Williams was suing Guccione for publishing the nude photos
(17:37):
without her consent. She had to contend with another Pinhouse
cover published just months later. That issue contained another set
of photos of her, taken that same summer with a
different photographer. In these images, she appeared in bondage gear.
She had left that shoot feeling so remorseful and uncomfortable
that she returned to the photographer's apartment with her boyfriend
(17:58):
at the time and refused to leave with the negatives.
After a struggle, she thought he'd surrendered all of them,
but that photographer too would sell them to Penthouse. The
cover of that second Penthouse issue, which dropped in janu
featured in another photo of Williams with burns. It's cover
line read, oh God, I did it again. Williams lawyers
(18:31):
informed her that her trial against Penthouse and Guccione could
drag on, that his team would dig up any dire
on her they could find. Her parents believed she had
been treated unjustly, but as teachers, they didn't have endless
funds to pay her legal fees. She knew the tabloids
would continue to dog her. As she writes, and you
have no idea quote I wanted it to be over.
(18:54):
What were we really winning? Anyway, I'd be getting publicity
for all the wrong reasons. I thought I'm done. She
dropped the suit lesson two years after she filed it.
The experience was painful and mortifying for Williams, the consequences
earth shattering. For years after the scandal, she'd go to
meetings or auditions and she'd feel dismissed before she even
(19:15):
opened her mouth, says Williams. I mean I'd walk into
a room for an audition and talking about being judge?
Can she act? Do we really want her? Is this
just for the dinner party conversation that I can say,
Oh guess what? I uh, I have Vanessa Williams coming.
Let me tell you about this audition. So I had
no idea who to trust, who was real, who really
(19:36):
was going to give me an opportunity, or who was
just pure folly. But she also knew she wouldn't just
recede into the background. She had been raised to push
past barriers sexist, racist or otherwise. She proved her critics
that she wasn't just a sad, dethroned beauty queen or
a victim. You have no idea who I am? And
what I can do, she recalls thinking in her memoir,
one day the dust will settle and you'll see what
(19:58):
I am made of. Up next, after the break, we
look at how Williams rose above the shame and backlash
to launch a successful singing and acting career and become
the most famous Miss America We've ever had. The year
(20:41):
was Vanessa. Williams had been struggling to move past her
pageant controversy and realize her dream of making it on Broadway.
So the advice of her manager, Raman Hervey, who for
a time was also her husband, she decided to pursue
a recording career through a musical director of an off
Broadway project you've been involved in. She snagged a gig
(21:02):
singing backup on two songs for Parliament Funkadelics George Clinton.
After having worked with the legend, she was able to
boost her credit. Singers with musical theater backgrounds were usually
a turn off for record companies. She met At Eckstein,
general manager of Wing Records, a small division of PolyGram,
who instantly took to her. He'd worked under the tutlage
of Quincy Jones, so she was in good hands. Williams
(21:36):
released her debut album, The Right Stuff in Its first
two singles were successful on the R and B charts,
but it's third, the sacks laced ballad Dreaming, was a
hit on the Billboard Hot one, peaking at number eight.
Her music career seemed to be taking off a blessing
since she knew she had a lot to prove as
a disgraced beauty queen turned aspiring pop star. For her
(21:58):
next lp X sign would push Williams into new terrain.
The R and B fair from The Right Stuff had
been mostly popular with black audiences, but like his mentor
Quincy Jones had done with acts like Michael Jackson and
Lionel Richie, he wanted to help Williams quote unquote, crossover
and attract white listeners to her second album, The Comfort Zone,
came out in August. It's lead single, the dance pop,
(22:23):
Knew Jack swing inflected running Back to You, went to
number one on the Hot R and B Hip Hop
Songs chart and number eighteen on the Hot one hundred.
It's second single, the title Track, was also an R
and B hit, but it only made it to number
sixty two on the Hot one hundred. The Comfort Zones.
Third single, however, would completely change the course of William's career.
(22:49):
Save the Best for Last began as an afterthought in
Phil Goldston, who had penned songs for Celendian and Share,
and his songwriting partner John Lynde, who had worked on
Madonna's Crazy for You, were in Los Angeles crafting a
track they envisioned for Steve Perry. Both of them had
been successful, but they had families and bills to pay,
(23:10):
and they needed their next hip. During a break from
the would be Steve Perry tune, Goldston started messing around
on his dinky little keyboard with what would eventually become
the opening lick of Save the Best for Last. Lynn's
ears perked up. He wanted to build on it, says Goldston.
In twenty seven minutes, we wrote almost all of the
music of the song. When we took that little break,
(23:34):
John said, well, you know, what's the title of this thing?
So I went through this little black book and I'm
just going through this list of two or whatever number
it was at that time, of handwritten concepts, scraps, actual titles.
He landed on Saved the Best for Last. Lynn liked it.
It fit with the arrangement they'd whipped up. At the
(23:55):
end of the night, Lynn asked Goldston what they do
with the song, which they would were for to as
their Broadway scrap. Based on the old school nature of
the thing, he suggested Golson take it to Wendy Waldman,
who had been a folk rock singer in the nineteen
seventies and written for the likes of Judy Collins, Bett
Midler and Reba McEntire, to get some help with the lyrics.
Ghlston agreed, but he lived in New York and Waldman
(24:18):
was in Nashville, so we had no idea when you
get around to showing it to her. After a record
he produced was rejected by a label, Golson was moping
around the house when his wife suggested he get out
of town and take his first trip to Nashville. He
called Waldman, who loved the idea, and they chose a weekend.
He called Lynn and told him the news, and he said, well,
don't forget to take that little scrap with you. And
(24:40):
I said, what a little scrap? And he said that
when we were working on Save the Best for something,
And I said, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Okay, I'll
take that one out. So I found the tape with
that I don't put it in my bag, and I
brought it with me. I didn't even remember it. Three
(25:03):
days into working with a nine month pregnant Walman in Nashville,
he played her the quote unquote scrap. She thought it
was fantastic. She asked Goldston what the title saved the
best for last ment? And I said, well, to me,
that title is probably bittersweet and ironic in a way.
(25:24):
And she said, what do you mean. I said, well,
just when I thought that everything was really going well,
you left me. She looked at me. She said, you're crazy.
It's not about that at all. And Walman's interpretation the
title was referring to someone who thought their love interest
didn't love them, only to discover at last that they did.
(25:45):
I said, oh, do you mean like a moon in
June song? She said, that's right. Goldston goes on to
explain what a moon and June song is. Some songwriters,
particularly of my generation, use the term moon in June
song to refer to a relatively uh simple, not simplistic,
(26:09):
but simple song in the Tin Panaley tradition, with precise
rhymes were possible. Moon and June and um a certain
almost sweetness to it. Golston says he didn't realize until
quite some time later that by characterizing the track that
(26:31):
way he had inspired its memorable opening lines. And then
one of us, neither of us for members, who said
the first line, sometimes the snow comes down in June,
and the other said, sometimes this sun goes around the moon.
So there was the moon in June, just in the reverse,
and we were often running. Gholston returned to New York
thinking that saved the Bus for last was the weakest
(26:53):
link of the batch of songs he'd worked on with Waldman,
but both his wife and five year old son really
responded to it. He considered this a sign, so he
got to work producing a demo and enlisted Walman to
sing it. They and Lynn thought it had big commercial potential.
We had the song out as in pitching the song
(27:13):
to three major artists who we really thought were the
right call for this, and the good news for all
of us is that all three passed. The three singers
who turned it down Bette Midler, Barbara Streisand and Whitney Houston.
When at Eckstein from William's label sent Waldman's demo to her.
(27:36):
Williams instantly liked it. Eckstein asked Galston Inland if she
could record it, and they decided to give it a shot.
Eckstein paired Williams with producer Keith Thomas, best known for
his work with gospel titans B. B and C. C. Winans.
He also produced Amy Grant hit Baby Baby, William's Food
of Thomas's studio and Franklin, Tennessee twenty miles from Nashville
(27:59):
to record Save the Bust for Last and four other
songs for the comfort Zone. She recalls him giving her
a bag of potato chips before she started to lay
down her vocals. He claimed the oil and salt gave
his singers voice as an extra. Given the fate of
the song, he might have been onto something. Save the
Best for Last was released as a single in January,
(28:20):
more than three years after Golston Inland started writing it.
By March of that year, it had soared to number
one on the Boboard Hot one hundred, where it would
find its comfort zone, staying there for five consecutive weeks.
It also rose to the top spot on both the
R and B and Adult Contemporary charts. It would become
the number four single of Our Beloved Baby Got Back
(28:42):
was number two. The track would also earn Grammy nominations
for Best Song, Best Record, and Best Pop Vocal Performance Female.
The single The Comfort Zone would snag a NAM for
Best R and B Vocal Performance Female. The album The
Comfort Zone would go multi platinum. Before Saved the Best
(29:06):
for Last became a massive hit, Golson's manager had taken
him out to lunch at a hot dog stand and
told him that, given his dry spell and finances, he
might want to consider writing jingles. By spring of his
career had started to turn around. He recalls hearing Saved
the Best for Last for the first time one weekend
in a path mark in Yonkers, New York, when he
(29:27):
was grocery shopping with his seven year old son and
four year old daughter. Unshaven and wearing an old overcoat,
his hair unwashed. He was stooping to the bottom shelf
in an aisle to find the low priced cans of
crushed tomatoes. When the song came blaring from the sound system.
His kids began screaming into light. He Lyndon Waldman had
(29:47):
experienced success before, but nothing like this. It was particularly
affirming because it was a song that defied the current marketplace.
Save the Best for Last was of an anomal among
the other number one hits, Yes, a handful of ballads
top the charts that year, Boys Too, Mend's and of
(30:07):
the Road, George Michael and Elton John's Don't let the
Sun Go Down on Me, Mariah Carey's remake of the
Jackson five song I'll Be There, Whitney Houston's remake of
Dolly Partons I Will Always Love You. But most of
these songs are about rejection or heartache. Save the Best
for Last is about someone being friend zoned. The singer
has watched their close pal and love interests get dumped.
(30:29):
They've listened as that pal has confided in them, and
they've hoped all along that that pal would finally come
to their senses and realize the one they should be
with has been right under their nose all along. Then,
as the lyrics go, just when I thought our chance
had passed, you go and Save the Best for Last,
the pall does in fact love them. The pair are
(30:52):
going to give it a whirl. The song is one
of those rare ballads with a happy ending. It's essentially
a rom com set to twinkly am radio keyboards, swelling
strings and whispy acoustic guitars. Yeah, it's basically my best
friend's wedding if Julia Roberts finally bagged Dermot. Mulrooney. Goldstone
was right to initially call Save the Bus for Last
(31:14):
a Broadway scrap. To me, it's always felt a little
less like a standard pop song and more like a
show tune, which is not a knock. Williams sounds wonderful
on it, composed, restrained, dignified, and then just enough of
and even a little annoyed with her new boo. Sorry
to beaton, Babs, but she was the perfect choice for it.
(31:36):
Williams was thirty three weeks pregnant with her third child
when she performed Saved the Bus for Last at the
three Grammys. She sat on a stool to sing it.
Though she didn't take home any awards at night, she
certainly felt like a winner and her mind she had
finally arrived. Her peers, the voting academy, record buyers, the
general public. Now they too had put the Miss America
(31:59):
scan behind her. As she writes in her memoir, I
wasn't an outsider anymore. Of course, this was only the beginning.
Williams continued recording music after the Comfort Zone. Her Top
five single, Colors of the Wind from the soundtrack for
(32:22):
the Disney film Pocahanas, even won the Academy Award for
Best Original Song. But she'd arguably become more famous for
her acting, starting with Arnold Schwarzinger in the n action
flip Eraser, lead to more roles in the movie Soul Food,
and later as the Icy Anna win tur inspired fashion
(32:43):
editor Willimina Slater on the hit ABC show Ugly Betty,
for which she'd earned three Emmy nominations. She'd also land
recurring turns in series like Desperate Housewives and The Good Wife,
and she did wind up fulfilling her long time goal
of making it on Broadway, taking over for Cheetah Rivera
as a lead and Kiss of the Spider Woman and
(33:04):
playing the Witch, and the two thousand two revival of
Stephen Sondheime's Into the Woods, which earned her a Tony nomination.
Williams recently wrapped her run and the Tony nominated two
two Broadway show Potus, and now forty years after she
went before that panel of judges in Atlantic City. She's
the judge of her own on the Paramount plus Drag
Queen Singing competition Queen of the Universe. Up next after
(33:37):
the break, Vanessa Williams joins us to talk about the
fallout after the Penthouse scandal, how she regained control of
her image and the legacy of Saved the Best for Last.
(34:01):
Welcome back to Where were You in ninety two? We've
been discussing Vanessa Williams and her number one smash Saved
the Best for Last. Now it's time to hear from
Williams herself. So where were you in ninety two? Physically mentally,
uh In, I was living in Los Angeles in Plaia
del Ray. I was a mother of two girls and
(34:25):
um traveling the world promoting The Comfort Zone, which was
my second studio album. I did not have big, gigantic
producers working with me. That we're Jimmy Jammin, Terry Lewis
and Keith Thomas for one, who did say The Best
for Last? He was making the transition from working in
the gospel Christian range area with BBNCC one and I
(34:48):
did most of the album in Franklin, Tennessee. So you
you write in the book, when you're discussing reaching these
this crossroads. Um, to make the Comfort Zone your second album,
you say I still had so much to prove. What
was your strategy to have a successful sophomore effort? Well,
what I mean about proving? Uh, you know, I always
(35:09):
say success is the best revenge. You just never know
what life has in store for you. So, um, proving
myself meant that I was judged as a beauty queen
after I won, I was judged as a scandalous beauty
queen after you know my reign, and uh, people judge
that I've been in show after show. I was a
(35:30):
singer and a dancer and actor, a musician. So to
be judged, um, and to have your talent and your
intellect negated by being a beauty queen and labeled a
scandalous beauty queen. I was always trying to prove myself
every opportunity I had. It was like, I'm going to
prove to you that I can act. I'm going to
prove to you that I can sing. I'm going to
(35:51):
prove to you that I can dance. That my talent
is something that has opened doors for me. But it's
not put upon on. It's something that I naturally have
and have worked on. And then I'm sure a lot
of people thought, Okay, well she got lucky with a
one hit. Well okay dreaming, okay, maybe two hits. And
then you know, a conference zone came and it ticked
(36:14):
off the box from not only taking me from the
R and B world but also crossing over into the
pop world. Um, and again there are new people that
I get to judge you and like, who's singing this song?
Oh it's the Forum as America that's singing this Oh
can she do it again? So I think that we
all in life are always trying to prove who we are,
(36:35):
and we're always judged, and instead of fighting that and
getting resentful, you just realize that that's part of life.
I believe it was at Extein who said, hey, like,
just f y, I, if you're going to go in
the pop domain, you may leave some of your black
listeners behind, who who have come for the R and
B and the soul And you've got to straddle this. Now,
(36:56):
how are you able to strike the balance and keep
getting new fans, keep keep your your dedicated fan base. Well,
I think my dedicated fan base loved me not only
for the the hits that that that I had off
the right stuff, but before because I was a survivor
and I symbolize the great comeback. So it was more
(37:18):
for my my grits and my integrity and the fact
that I was going to overcome. And there's a you know,
there are people in your lives that are celebrities or
that you know their struggles and their paths in life,
and you love them for sticking out and proving that
(37:39):
through all of it. You got a chance to win
on the comfort zone. After having success, I think Ed
got a chance to talk to people that were actually
willing to give me songs. ED knew that, Okay, now
we've proven that she's here to stay, and that opened
more doors for people to take me Legitimately. You talk
about being judging. Of course, you and or the mis
(38:00):
American Pageant, which is inherently all about judging. You've got
a panel of judges. But it didn't stop there. You win.
I think one of the more distrussing passages in in
the book, you write of the backlash you received not
only from the white community, but from from the black community.
I've had people when I was crowned, say, I never
(38:20):
thought I'd seen it in my lifetime, which is very
similar to you know what we said when we when
Obama first became president. But there were people that felt
I wasn't black enough, which again is being judged and
assuming that you know somebody's experience, and of course it
hurts your feelings, and you say, isn't this enough? And
(38:42):
does this discredit even this momentous occasion when you can't
even acknowledge the fact that we've made history because of
the way that I look the year three that I won,
there were four women of color, which was the most
they had ever had, four black women in one Latino women,
so uh contestants. And I had a white boyfriend at
(39:04):
the time. And again, you know, anger from some black
men that felt that, you know, I having a white
boyfriend was saying that I didn't love black men, which
was you know, again another criticism which I was completely
um having to combat. It was a lot. And again
(39:25):
I looked back at my twenty year old self, twenty
one year old self, having been a mother of four children,
watching them all go through the same age range, and
I marvel at how I got through it. The letters
that your mother received that that she writes about and
in the book that was just very jarring. I can't
believe in a way, you know. I read it and
(39:46):
I was thinking, Wow, maybe social media backlash is a
good thing, because people can't send you letters with some
of the contents in the envelopes that your mother had to,
you know, unearthed. My parents lived in the house that
I grew up in. We had a number that you
get back in the phone book. It was listed so
(40:08):
anyone could dial up my house. My parents would pick
up we didn't have caller I D. My parents would
pick up the you know, the rotary phone, and they
would get up these evil messages that they were accosted
by about threats to my life, about horrible racial um
(40:28):
slurs that were held at them, and they had to
they had to harbor it or or or protect me
from it to allow me to continue to do my
job as Miss America and travel the States every other day,
appearance after appearance and not freak me out. But they
would say, oh, you're going to Chicago, be careful. Oh
(40:51):
you're going down to Alabama, watch out. Oh you know,
So they would give me these gentle hints to try
to protect me but not have me freak out because
the job was part enough. At some point you just
have to hand it over and surrender to um life
and do the best you can, but also be wearing
(41:13):
when the Penthouse photos surfaced. Towards the end of your reign,
um is Miss America. You were given seventy two hours
to resign by the pageant. Uh, and you basically waited
until the last hour. You know, you're working with your publicists. Um.
And in that last hours when you decided, Okay, I
think I will resign. What spurred that decision at the
(41:36):
essentially the the not the eleventh hour, but the seventy
one hour, there were a big faction of people that
wanted me to fight for the crown. Basically they said,
you have uh, you superseded your your obligations. There was
no reason to resign and UM. So even when I
(41:58):
when I reached my press conference, there were people with signs, uh,
you know, saying keep the crown, don't resign, and and
and activated activated um. But at that point I had
a month Togo, a month and a couple of weeks
of you know, vacation that was allotted, and I wanted
(42:19):
to get on with my life, you know. And uh
it was tremendously you know, humiliating and painful and um
and and stressful. Uh. And again I think back of
the years old incredibly stressful, but I wanted to move on.
And and I had had a brilliant term you know,
(42:42):
term year rain whatever. Um. I had had so many
opportunities and done the best of my abilities and was
very proud of the work that I had done. I'm
looking at the cover of the Comfort Zone today and
I'm thinking, wow, like this is her emerging. She's wet,
she's sultry, and I'm wondering, what were the conversations like
(43:03):
with you trying to of course put the past behind you,
put the scandal of the penthouse photos and Miss America
behind you, but also you know, you were wanted to
come across as a You made that very clear, like
I don't want wimpy ballads, I don't want to be
pleading with men. I want to be a very confident woman.
So how did you how did you navigate that there
(43:23):
were so many perceptions of my image. Uh, Miss America
is very straight laced, scandalized. Miss America was very scandalous.
Is she's soul full enough, is she's is she too
middle of the road? So I wanted to make sure
that my image was strong. Um. Again, I was middle
twenties provocative. I was still dancing in in grade shape. Uh.
(43:48):
And also UM, confident and and approachable. You, of course
UH scored big would say the best for last UM
and you you felt something you know you you write
in the book I got chills from from hearing the demo.
But you have no idea it was gonna be the
sort of hit that it was. When did you know
that it was massive? When I recorded it in UM
(44:15):
Nashville or Franklin, Tennessee with with Keith. I remember recording it.
We're like, we're going to get this in one take.
And when you and back then there's no auto tunes.
So you hear someone's real voice, the real timbre, the
real breaths. When you hear the purity of a voice
(44:36):
making mistakes, you're not being actually completely correct digitally. UM.
There's a magic there because you think that you're hearing
it for the first time, and you think that you're
you're you're listening to it to actually somebody perform it.
So I knew that we were going to get it
in one take. That was our mission. And UM and
(44:57):
I knew that. Um Keith and myself and and Ed
and my husband at the time was my manager. We
knew that we had we had something special. I had
no idea it would last in the number one spot
for so long. Did you do it in one take?
Then you did it in one take? Yeah? Yeah? Then
people say, well, that can't be true. So every time
(45:19):
I performed it after that, it was like, oh, let's
see if you know, there's some tricks in that bag.
Um you know so uh. And to this day people
when I was saying it, people say, oh my god,
you sound just like the record. I said, that's that's
good because I sang it on the record. I love it.
I think that the Grammys nine Grammys when you performed,
(45:42):
I think you were thirty three weeks pregnant. Yeah, I
think I read not only can I do it in
one take? Three weeks pregnant one day? If you could
sum it up, what do you think the legacy of
Save the Bus for Last is? Well, what I the
constant feedback I get from people that approach me, UM,
(46:04):
is that song changed my life or that was our
wedding song because that was our story. And what I
think my superpower is as a performer, Uh, I tap
into my acting ability. So before I approached the mic,
what is my what is my before? And what am
(46:25):
I bringing? What story do I want to tell? And
it's not vocal acrobatics and how loud, how how many
riffs I can do. It's like, let me bring you
into this moment and let me paint a picture. And
that's what the consistent um feedback is from Saved the
Best for Last. It's that human connection with being ignored,
(46:47):
being there all the time, and you finally see who
I am and you know, whether it's getting married or
or being best friends, you finally see it. And also
the melody I think you know Wendy and Phil and
John on because melody is that's that haunting thing, that's
the earworm, that's the thing that you can sing along
to and you can't forget it. But it also creates
(47:10):
that visceral reaction in your body that takes you back
to the first time that you heard it, or takes
you back to that first relationship that you connected with.
So I think that's the magic, much like Saved the
(47:35):
best for last. This story has a happy ending. In
two thousand sixteen, Williams was tapped to be head judge
of the Miss America pageant. During the ceremony, Sam Haskell,
the Miss America CEO at the time, joined her on
stage to offer a public may Koopa, I want to
apologize for anything that was said or done that made
(47:56):
you feel any less than the Miss America you are
and the Miss of America you always will be. He said.
Nice gesture, but she hardly needed it in a sense.
Being pressured to give up that title of Miss America
back in the community four may have been one of
the best things that ever happened to Williams, and her
deciding to resign may have been one of the best
(48:16):
decisions she ever made. It took guts and was sort
of badass, and it led her exactly where she needed
to be. If she felt betrayed and humiliated by the scandal,
it only made her want to fight harder, to put
the whole mess, including a victory she never really wanted,
behind her and become something bigger, and she did. How
(48:38):
many Miss America's can you name? I admit this is
not my world, but I can name one today more
than ever, beauty pageants seemed like a degrading, sexist, hypocritical
(48:59):
thing of a distant past. Be kind of naked but
not too naked. Be sexy but not sexual. Be confident
but also cute and coy, smile more. Even if Miss
America ditched at swimsuit competition in two eighteen and announced
it would no longer judge contestants on their physical appearance,
sure audiences today would much rather watch RuPaul's Drag Race,
(49:22):
on which Williams has also served as a judge. A
wildly popular competition show turned total empire. It is at
least partly a commentary on the ridiculous standards of beauty
to which many women still feel beholden, and it's also
a satire of the artifice and goofy, over the top
camp nature of pageants. Just think of all those Miss
(49:44):
Universe memes that have been making the rounds recently. The
jig is up. Meanwhile, Save the Best for Last lives on,
says one of its writers, Phil Goldston. So last year
I decided to do a search and see how many
recording there are. I've saved the Best for Last and
they're more than eight out there in the marketplace, a
(50:08):
wedding classic, go to drag number, the stuff of a
Delilah listeners dreams the song has become something bigger than
what it was ever intended to be. That's because the
story of Save the Best for Last is the story
of Vanessa Williams. I think that for those familiar with
Vanessa's story, it is not only a comeback story. It's
(50:30):
a story of triumph for a person unfairly disparaged to
mean by everything from sexism to racism and a lot
in between. Where Say the Best for Last is concerned.
What I think is particularly meaningful is that the song
(50:52):
is about the surprises that can come your way in
life if you're open and if you embrace them, the
glory that can be yours and the happiness that can
be yours. And I think that's what happened with Vanessa,
and that's most certainly what happened to three of us
(51:14):
who wrote the song. Where Were You in ninety two
(51:57):
was a production of I Heart Radio. The executive producers
are Noel Brown and Jordan run Tug. The show was researched,
written and hosted by me Jason Laffier, with editing and
sound design by Michael Alder June. If you like what
you heard, please subscribe and leave us a review. For
more podcasts for my heart Radio, check out the I
heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to
(52:20):
your favorite shows,
Host
Jason Lamphier
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