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Joyce Davidson
Joyce Davidson (14 April 1931 – 7 May 2020) was a television personality in Canada and the United States.
She was born Joyce Inez Brock in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan during the Great Depression and was the eldest of four children of Myrtle and Eric Brock. Her father was from England and was a veteran of the First World War while her mother came from a Norwegian family of 11 children. Davidson grew up in the industrial centre of Hamilton, Ontario, where her family moved so that her father could search for work. In Hamilton, her mother found work as a secretary at the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, while her father, who suffered from health problems, "came and went".
Davidson was a young housewife in Hamilton, Ontario when she entered a beauty contest and won $400 and a trip to New York City. Her contest victory led to her picture appearing in a few magazines. In 1954, CBC Television's new Hamilton affiliate, CHCH-TV opened and Davidson, who had been working in a factory, applied for a job and was hired as an assistant on a cooking show. She then began appearing in television commercials on CHCH and then at CBLT in nearby Toronto. In 1956, she was hired to fill a vacancy as a presenter and interviewer on CBC Television's Tabloid, a national current affairs program with a light entertainment format and was also a contributor to CBC's Close-Up and On the Scene.
Davidson caused controversy while the Canadian media was reporting on the tour of the country by Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, that began on 18 June 1959. On that day, Davidson was on a trip to New York City and was interviewed by Dave Garroway on NBC's Today show. There, she said on-camera, "Like most Canadians, I am indifferent to the visit of the Queen," and said, "we're a little annoyed at still being dependent." Davidson was lambasted in the Canadian press and by many indignant Canadians for her comment. The CBC received angry phone calls from viewers, her show lost sponsors, Conservative Members of Parliament expressed their outrage to Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, and Davidson was suspended from the programme. Within a few days, she resigned from CBC's Tabloid series. A subsequent Gallup poll showed that 64% of Canadians disagreed with her, although only 48% of respondents considered themselves significantly interested in the royal visit.
In addition to losing her hosting position on Tabloid, her revenue from doing commercials on Canadian television also dried up and her children were taunted at school. According to Here’s Looking at Us: Celebrating Fifty Years of CBC-TV, Davidson also faced public criticism "for telling Pierre Berton in an interview that a woman who was still a virgin at age thirty was 'unlucky.'” Chatelaine published an article on Davidson in the summer of 1960 titled "Must I leave Canada?”
Facing diminished work prospects in Canada, Davidson moved to the United States in 1961, having become a frequent contributor to the Today show. That year, she appeared as a guest panelist on several episodes of the U.S. television game show To Tell the Truth where she remarked on her first appearance, "I'm enjoying being an immigrant." She was hired to do commercials for Lux soap and by Westinghouse Broadcasting to be the sidekick of Mike Wallace on a new talk show he was hosting titled PM East/PM West. The nightly series, which featured Wallace and Davidson in New York and Terrence O'Flaherty hosting a separate segment in San Francisco, lasted from June 1961 to June 1962. Fans of occasional guest Barbra Streisand made and saved audiotapes of some of her appearances. Davidson can be heard talking for only a few seconds on that audio.
A long segment with Davidson interviewing Boris Karloff survives in the sole video-recorded episode, which is available for viewing at the UCLA Film and Television Archive. Telecast on television stations owned by Westinghouse and in a few other cities on 12 February 1962, the episode does not include Streisand. Westinghouse designed PM East/PM West to compete with The Tonight Show, which was then hosted by Jack Paar, but Paar and his network, NBC, attracted many more viewers.
In 1964, Davidson began working as co-producer of a television talk show titled Hot Line that was broadcast locally in New York. The producer, David Susskind, also appeared on-camera, but Davidson did not. The host was Gore Vidal, and Dorothy Kilgallen appeared on most episodes.
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Joyce Davidson
Joyce Davidson (14 April 1931 – 7 May 2020) was a television personality in Canada and the United States.
She was born Joyce Inez Brock in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan during the Great Depression and was the eldest of four children of Myrtle and Eric Brock. Her father was from England and was a veteran of the First World War while her mother came from a Norwegian family of 11 children. Davidson grew up in the industrial centre of Hamilton, Ontario, where her family moved so that her father could search for work. In Hamilton, her mother found work as a secretary at the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, while her father, who suffered from health problems, "came and went".
Davidson was a young housewife in Hamilton, Ontario when she entered a beauty contest and won $400 and a trip to New York City. Her contest victory led to her picture appearing in a few magazines. In 1954, CBC Television's new Hamilton affiliate, CHCH-TV opened and Davidson, who had been working in a factory, applied for a job and was hired as an assistant on a cooking show. She then began appearing in television commercials on CHCH and then at CBLT in nearby Toronto. In 1956, she was hired to fill a vacancy as a presenter and interviewer on CBC Television's Tabloid, a national current affairs program with a light entertainment format and was also a contributor to CBC's Close-Up and On the Scene.
Davidson caused controversy while the Canadian media was reporting on the tour of the country by Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, that began on 18 June 1959. On that day, Davidson was on a trip to New York City and was interviewed by Dave Garroway on NBC's Today show. There, she said on-camera, "Like most Canadians, I am indifferent to the visit of the Queen," and said, "we're a little annoyed at still being dependent." Davidson was lambasted in the Canadian press and by many indignant Canadians for her comment. The CBC received angry phone calls from viewers, her show lost sponsors, Conservative Members of Parliament expressed their outrage to Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, and Davidson was suspended from the programme. Within a few days, she resigned from CBC's Tabloid series. A subsequent Gallup poll showed that 64% of Canadians disagreed with her, although only 48% of respondents considered themselves significantly interested in the royal visit.
In addition to losing her hosting position on Tabloid, her revenue from doing commercials on Canadian television also dried up and her children were taunted at school. According to Here’s Looking at Us: Celebrating Fifty Years of CBC-TV, Davidson also faced public criticism "for telling Pierre Berton in an interview that a woman who was still a virgin at age thirty was 'unlucky.'” Chatelaine published an article on Davidson in the summer of 1960 titled "Must I leave Canada?”
Facing diminished work prospects in Canada, Davidson moved to the United States in 1961, having become a frequent contributor to the Today show. That year, she appeared as a guest panelist on several episodes of the U.S. television game show To Tell the Truth where she remarked on her first appearance, "I'm enjoying being an immigrant." She was hired to do commercials for Lux soap and by Westinghouse Broadcasting to be the sidekick of Mike Wallace on a new talk show he was hosting titled PM East/PM West. The nightly series, which featured Wallace and Davidson in New York and Terrence O'Flaherty hosting a separate segment in San Francisco, lasted from June 1961 to June 1962. Fans of occasional guest Barbra Streisand made and saved audiotapes of some of her appearances. Davidson can be heard talking for only a few seconds on that audio.
A long segment with Davidson interviewing Boris Karloff survives in the sole video-recorded episode, which is available for viewing at the UCLA Film and Television Archive. Telecast on television stations owned by Westinghouse and in a few other cities on 12 February 1962, the episode does not include Streisand. Westinghouse designed PM East/PM West to compete with The Tonight Show, which was then hosted by Jack Paar, but Paar and his network, NBC, attracted many more viewers.
In 1964, Davidson began working as co-producer of a television talk show titled Hot Line that was broadcast locally in New York. The producer, David Susskind, also appeared on-camera, but Davidson did not. The host was Gore Vidal, and Dorothy Kilgallen appeared on most episodes.