WINFREY: Let me take you inside the barber shop and
meet my dad. Some of you might have met my dad already,
but I'll let you met my dad again. Dad?
Mr. VERNON WINFREY: Yes.
WINFREY: Meet the people. Hey.
Mr. VERNON WINFREY: Hey.
WINFREY: You look good. You look good.
Mr. VERNON WINFREY: Thank you. Thank you, I...
WINFREY: You're skinnier than you were the last time.
Mr. VERNON WINFREY: I feel fine, too.
But I'm--I'm weighing about the same, 145.
WINFREY: Wow, my dad's always weighed 145.
Mr. VERNON WINFREY: I'm solid. I keep my weight...
WINFREY: None of this rubbed off on me.
Well, the barber shop looks exactly the same, exactly.
Ex--well, I think there's a little bit of paneling
there I didn't notice before.
Mr. VERNON WINFREY: Yeah. A little bit.
It looked so bad we put a--oh, I have a radio.
WINFREY: A radio, OK, good.
Mr. VERNON WINFREY: Radio. Yeah.
WINFREY: Big changes. How much is a haircut here now?
Mr. VERNON WINFREY: Seven dollars for adults.
WINFREY: Seven dollars.
Mr. VERNON WINFREY: Six for children.
WINFREY: Wow.
Mr. VERNON WINFREY: And if they come
and don't have but five, I still cut it for them.
WINFREY: That's nice of you.
Mr. VERNON WINFREY: I will not turn them away
if they don't have an extra dollar.
WINFREY: For a haircut?
Mr. VERNON WINFREY: Yes.
WINFREY: You always were that kind of dad.
Mr. VERNON WINFREY: Yes.
WINFREY: Things haven't changed.
Not even--oh, I see some old pictures of me around here.
WINFREY: I see Tommy over there.
Tommy was my father's sort of adopted son.
When I moved out of the house, Tommy moved in and took
over my bedroom. Well, I'm going to go down to the store
first, I think. I was going to go to the house,
but I think I'll go down to the store.
WINFREY: Uh-huh. OK.
WINFREY: OK? I'm going to take you to the store
where I used to work. It was my first job that I hated.
Hated it. Just hated it.
WINFREY: Hated it with a--with a passion.
WINFREY: Hey, Tommy.
TOMMY: Hey, Oprah.
WINFREY: All right. Going to the store.
So this is the store where I really had my first job.
I used to have to come and work the day shift and the
weekend shift here. Day shift after I got out school.
The store is right adjacent to my father's barber shop.
So I pulled up in my '63 Mercury.
This was about 1970-'71, and go inside and spend the
next 8 to 10 hours at the store. I have sold many of these
pickles for a nickel and I've stood behind this counter for
hours on end selling whatever anybody wanted because my
father and his partner, Mr. Evans, they never closed
the store, not one day in 17 years.
Births, deaths, marriages, they never closed the store.
(Laughter)
WINFREY: This used to be a counter where they
sold only penny candy.
You had to sell 100 pieces of penny candy to make $1.
It used to drive me crazy. Back then everybody used
to buy something called Now Or Laters. I see they're here.
Some kind of candy thing. I never ate anything because
I was crazy from selling them all the time.
They're now a dime, but they used to be a nickel.
And the only thing that got me out of the store was the
fact that I got myself a job in radio broadcasting.
Thank goodness.
WINFREY: I'm here at WVO radio station.
This is where I got my first job in broadcasting.
And I'm here with Clarence Kilcrese, he was Gilly Baby,
at the time. GM...
Mr. KILCRESE: General manager.
WINFREY: And you were one of the people who was
called in when I was just walking through the station.
They said, `Come listen to this girl read.'
Mr. KILCRESE: I needed part timers at that time.
And I had two girls in mind, so they said
`Listen to this girl read.' And I walked in
and I said--you never stumbled one time.
I said, `This is the lady right here.'
WINFREY: That's right, and I thank you for that.
I thank you for that.
You have these pictures--cause I ended up at the
radio station--it's a long story.
Mr. KILCRESE: Yeah.
WINFREY: But the radio station was having
a contest where I was Miss VOL.
WINFREY: See this? WVOL.
Mr. KILCRESE: (Voiceover) Yeah. VOL.
WINFREY: And then I was entered in this fire
prevention contest.
WINFREY: And I haven't seen these pictures
since the day they were taken.
Mr. KILCRESE: Oh, boy. You like them?
WINFREY: Look at my nose.
Mr. KILCRESE: Oh, it's beautiful.
WINFREY: Look at that little round face.
Unbelievable. Some things never change.
Mr. KILCRESE: I'll tell you. I'll tell you.
WINFREY: And this was Miss Black America.
Mr. KILCRESE: Miss Black America.
And you were Miss Fire Prevention.
WINFREY: Oh, Miss Fire Prevention.
I was Miss Fire Prevention.
And before that I was Miss VOL.
Mr. KILCRESE: Miss VOL.
WINFREY: I forgot that.
Mr. KILCRESE: And it cost me $50 to sponsor you in that.
WINFREY: You want your money back?
Mr. KILCRESE: I'd like to have it back today.
WINFREY: When I was 14 years old,
living in Milwaukee with my mother and on the verge
of becoming a serious juvenile delinquent,
I got sent to live with my father so that my father
could straighten me out. And that he did.
And when I got sent, this was where I got sent to.
This house right here on this street.
And actually, it's a very small house.
But when I first arrived at this house,
I thought it was a mansion.
I thought, my God, I've never lived in a full-brick house.
Let's go inside. Well, not exactly a mansion,
but it's home for me. I mean, I walk in this living room
and so many things are still the same.
Except I remember there used to be--of course,
there was a coffee table here.
The carpet's the same, the sofa's the same.
The only difference is, no plastic.
(Laughter)
WINFREY: And I used to hate the plastic on the
sofa because it used to stick to your legs, you know,
in the summertime when you were hot.
But I think all that plastic worked all those years
'cause at least it kept it clean.
In 1992, this is a clean sofa, thanks to the plastic.
WINFREY: So this is the station that gave me my first
break in television. It's--it feels really strange to
sit behind the desk, even though it certainly isn't the
same desk, I remember, being a square kind of blue thing.
WINFREY: Well, I came here when I was 19 years
old after Chris Clark had heard me on the radio.
WINFREY: Chris Clark, who auditioned me,
and I didn't know anything about television,
but I thought if I just pretended to be Barbara Walters
that everything would work out.
They tell me that Chris is in the room here someplace.
Chris, where are you?
Mr. CHRIS CLARK: Over here, Oprah.
WINFREY: Hi. Hi.
Mr. CLARK: How you doing?
WINFREY: You look the same.
Mr. CLARK: So do you.
WINFREY: You look the same. No, quit. I have changed.
But you look exactly...
Mr. CLARK: Good to see you.
WINFREY: Good to see you.
Mr. CLARK: I'd have your eyes checked if I were you.
WINFREY: You look exactly--remember when I first started?
Mr. CLARK: Oh, do I ever.
WINFREY: And I used to wear those false eye
lashes--I still wear false eye lashes.
And they used to always hang down all the time.
Mr. CLARK: Yes.
WINFREY: Yes. I was on the air and he'd say,
`Your eyelash is falling off.' Unbelievable.
Mr. CLARK: Or whenever you came back from a story
where somebody lost a home or a dog, when you came
back you were so sad you couldn't write the story.
WINFREY: I know. I wasn't...
Mr. CLARK: `Write, Oprah.' `But I'm so sad.'
WINFREY: I was--I was not the best of writers.
But do you remember the audition, Chris?
Do you remember that?
Mr. CLARK: Yeah.
WINFREY: You do?
Mr. CLARK: Yeah, I do.
WINFREY: Tell me about it 'cause I've forgotten it.
Mr. CLARK: You were terrific.
At 19 years old, you had--you had the stage presence
that people many years older had never had.
WINFREY: Thanks.
Mr. CLARK: And that was my--that was my mistake, though.
Because you had such presence and such confidence...
WINFREY: Mm-hmm.
Mr. CLARK: ...that I said, `Hey, she's great.
We'll get her, send her out to do all these stories.'
WINFREY: Mm-hmm.
Mr. CLARK: Only I don't think you knew
as much as I thought you knew.
WINFREY: I didn't know anything. That's the truth.
I lied to you. I lied to you.
Mr. CLARK: What?
WINFREY: 'Cause when you said, `Have you ever run a camera?'
Remember we used to use those Bell & Howells.
Mr. CLARK: Sure.
WINFREY: And I went, `Sure, sure.'
Mr. CLARK: We did it.
WINFREY: I remember going on my first job in
the City Counsel and Fred Lowry was there. Fred Lowry.
Mr. CLARK: Yeah.
WINFREY: And I said, `Look, I just got this job.
Chris Clark gave me this job and I don't know what I'm doing.
Could you please help me out
and tell me who is who in the council.'
Those were the days for me.
Mr. CLARK: Those were the days.
WINFREY: Well, I want to thank you because if it wasn't
for you, who knew I--what I would be doing.
Because you gave me a break when,
you know, breaks were hard to find.
Mr. CLARK: You know, everybody thinks I was such a great
guy to do this. But if they had only seen you at 19,
they would know--it would be no decision.
Because you were so good.
WINFREY: Really?
Mr. CLARK: Yeah. You really were.
You still are, obviously.
WINFREY: Thanks, Chris. That's great.
(Applause)