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Famous names | Fortunes | Costly decisions

The stories behind the money.

[NULL @blackishsoull]

Doc Severinsen asked Johnny Carson on air if he was helping "Mrs. Carson" with the Thanksgiving turkey. There was no Mrs. Carson.

Doc led the Tonight Show band for 25 years. Carson was married four times, and all of it played out in public.

When the question landed, Carson didn't dodge it. He corrected his friend, said he'd forgotten about that, and turned the divorce into the joke. Oyster stuffing versus bread stuffing. He lost that argument, and she got a lot more than the stuffing.

Doc fired back that after so many years he sometimes forgot which wife they were on for which Thanksgiving.

The audience applauded.

Only a friend of 25 years can ask that question on national TV. And only a man who has made peace with it can answer it like that.

Watch the clip. A cruel question, or the warmest thing two friends can do on camera?

[NULL @blackishsoull]

America took Charlie Chaplin's way home in 1952. Twenty years later, it stood for 12 minutes to welcome him back.

September 1952. Chaplin sails to London with his family for the premiere of Limelight.

While he's at sea, US Attorney General James McGranery cancels his re-entry permit.

He never moves back. He settles in Switzerland.

For 20 years, he doesn't set foot in America.

April 10, 1972. The Academy invites him to accept an honorary Oscar. He is 82.

He walks on stage and the whole room stands. The ovation reportedly lasts 12 minutes, the longest in the Academy's history.

A year later, Limelight, the film he was sailing to premiere when the door closed, wins the Oscar for Best Original Score. It is his only competitive one.

Some institutions never apologize. They just stand up.

Watch the clip. An apology, or just applause?

[Myroslav @Myrvexo]

The first video ever uploaded to YouTube was 19 seconds of a guy talking about elephants. Eighteen months later, Google paid $1.65 billion for the site.

April 23, 2005. Jawed Karim, one of YouTube's three co-founders, stands in front of the elephants at the San Diego Zoo.

He says the cool thing about them is their really long trunks. Then he wraps up: "That's pretty much all there is to say."

Nobody knew they were watching history.

In October 2006, Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock. Karim had already left for grad school at Stanford. He reportedly took home about $64 million.

He never uploaded another video. His channel still has exactly one.

Today that clip has over 447 million views. And when Karim disagrees with the platform he built, he still writes about it in that video's description.

Watch the clip. The most boring video ever made, or the most valuable?

[NULL @blackishsoull]

Salma Hayek felt completely out of place in fifth grade. So she asked a saint for a miracle.

She says she was the popular girl, surrounded by friends. Then the other girls started growing up, and she felt left behind. For a while she was miserable.

Then she went on a road trip with her mom to a church said to hold a saint who worked miracles.

Her mom told her it isn't nice to be greedy when you pray for one.

So Salma went outside, said she'd forgotten something, and slipped back in alone. She put her hands in the holy water and asked to finally look like her friends.

Years later, she told this story on national TV. A talk show couch, a full studio, and she was the one controlling the laugh.

Most people hide what they were insecure about at ten. She turned it into the best story of the night.

Watch the clip. A prayer, or perfect comic timing?

[NULL @blackishsoull]

@cecala_david Back when the guest list was a Hollywood who’s who and nobody was fighting for clicks.

[NULL @blackishsoull]

Doc Severinsen asked Johnny Carson on air if he was helping "Mrs. Carson" with the Thanksgiving turkey. There was no Mrs. Carson.

Doc led the Tonight Show band for 25 years. Carson was married four times, and all of it played out in public.

When the question landed, Carson didn't dodge it. He corrected his friend, said he'd forgotten about that, and turned the divorce into the joke. Oyster stuffing versus bread stuffing. He lost that argument, and she got a lot more than the stuffing.

Doc fired back that after so many years he sometimes forgot which wife they were on for which Thanksgiving.

The audience applauded.

Only a friend of 25 years can ask that question on national TV. And only a man who has made peace with it can answer it like that.

Watch the clip. A cruel question, or the warmest thing two friends can do on camera?

[Myroslav @Myrvexo]

In January 2010, NBC told Conan O’Brien it would move The Tonight Show to 12:05 a.m. to make room for Jay Leno at 11:35. He left instead.

In September 2004, Leno announced on air that O’Brien would succeed him. Leno told him: “See you in five years, buddy!”
O’Brien took over on June 1, 2009. The premiere drew more than nine million viewers.

Leno’s new 10 p.m. show launched on September 14, 2009 with 17.7 million viewers. By October, NBC affiliates’ 11 p.m. local news ratings were slipping. Their viewership fell 25% on average, and as much as 50% in some markets. By November, The Tonight Show was down about two million viewers a night from the year before.

NBC presented the 12:05 plan to O’Brien in early January. It leaked within days.

On January 12, he published a statement addressed to “People of Earth”: “The Tonight Show at 12:05 simply isn’t the Tonight Show.”

He added: “I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction.”

NBC said that if he had stayed, the show would have lost money for the first time. O’Brien’s team disputed this. The claim is known only from NBC’s side.

He left with $45 million: about $33 million for the rest of his contract and about $12 million in staff severance.

His last show aired on January 22, 2010. He closed with: “I’m telling you, amazing things will happen.”

Leno returned to The Tonight Show on March 1, 2010.

In the video below, O’Brien says goodbye.

[NULL @blackishsoull]

@MeyekOnRoute66 Heeeere’s Johnny!” hits different when you grew up in his house.

[Myroslav @Myrvexo]

Billy Crystal hosted the Oscars eight times. In 2011 he walked back on stage and gave the credit to a man who had been dead for nearly eight years.

Bob Hope hosted the show 18 times, more than anyone in history. Crystal said he was worn out after two.

The first televised Oscars aired when Crystal was five. He grew up watching Hope host.

He didn't dream of the job itself. He dreamed of being Bob Hope.

So, he joked, he moved to California and bought land in the Valley.

The room laughed. Hope really did own a huge piece of that Valley. One report puts it at about 10,000 acres.

Crystal got the stage, but Hope got the land.

Watch the clip. A tribute, or the best joke of the night?

[NULL @blackishsoull]

On May 13, 1994, Johnny Carson made his final television appearance. He chose to do it on David Letterman’s Late Show, walking onto the stage to present the Top 10 list.

Carson had retired two years earlier, in May 1992, leaving The Tonight Show after 30 years at the top. The studio audience gave him a 90-second standing ovation the moment he walked out.

He didn't speak a single word. He simply sat in Letterman's chair, looked at the cards, smiled, and handed them back to Letterman before walking off.

It was a silent endorsement in the heated late-night ratings war. Carson had always wanted Letterman to succeed him at NBC, but the network chose Jay Leno instead.

Letterman left NBC for CBS, and Carson followed him with his quiet support, occasionally sending Letterman jokes to use in his monologues.

"He was the gold standard," Letterman later said. "Everything we did was based on what Johnny built."

Carson died 11 years later, in 2005. That 1994 entrance on CBS remained the last time the world ever saw Johnny Carson on television.

[Myroslav @Myrvexo]

Johnny Carson never gave David Letterman The Tonight Show. Then he spent his retirement writing jokes for him.

When Carson retired in May 1992, NBC gave the show to Jay Leno. Letterman left for CBS.

Years later, Carson was retired in California. A friend said that every morning he read the paper and could think of five jokes he wished he had an outlet for.

So he found one. He started sending jokes to Letterman, who sometimes used them in his monologue.

Carson died on January 23, 2005.

The first Late Show after his death opened with a monologue made entirely of Carson’s jokes. Paris Hilton’s dog. John Kerry’s medals. Donald Trump’s hair.

Letterman told the audience who wrote them only after he had finished.

That same night he said: “I owe everything in my professional career, whatever success we’ve attained, to Johnny Carson.”

Keep this part. Some people never say it to your face. They just keep sending you jokes.

Watch the clip. A peace offering, or a quiet verdict on who should have gotten the job?

[NULL @blackishsoull]

Mike Tyson earned $300 million fighting. He filed for bankruptcy owing $23 million. The math behind that gap is the whole story.

At 20, he became the youngest heavyweight champion in history. By 1990, he was earning tens of millions per fight — one Showtime deal alone was worth $120 million.

The spending wasn't subtle. A 21-bedroom mansion. A fleet of luxury cars. Two Bengal tigers, requiring their own trainer. Jewelry, mansions, an entourage that lived off his checks as long as he kept writing them.

In 2003, his own lawyer put it plainly to the court: Tyson's finances were "in disarray."

The IRS was his largest creditor — he owed them $13.4 million alone. The man who made $300 million in the ring had $3.7 million left.

Tyson later put it simpler than any accountant could: "It all went crazy and lasted between 15 and 16 years. It seemed like a lot of money, but eventually it was gone."

$300 million isn't a number that disappears by accident. It disappears one decision at a time, repeated for sixteen years, until the math finally catches up.

[Myroslav @Myrvexo]

A man won a $314.9 million Powerball jackpot. Five years later he said he’d give it all back.

Jack Whittaker wasn’t even a regular player. He bought $100 in tickets on Christmas Eve 2002 because the jackpot was huge. He took the cash option: $113 million after taxes.

Then the money started leaving.

$545,000 in cash was stolen from his car outside a strip club. A casino sued him over about $1.5 million in bounced checks.

Asked why he carried so much cash, he said: “Because I can.”

In December 2004, his 17 year old granddaughter Brandi was found dead.
Cocaine and methadone were in her system, and the cause of death was listed as undetermined. In 2009, his daughter Ginger, 42, was found dead.

Years later he told reporters: “If it would bring my granddaughter back, I’d give it all back.”

He also said: “I’m only going to be remembered as the lunatic who won the lottery.”

He died in 2020, at 72.

Keep this part. Money doesn’t change who you are. It removes everything that used to stop you.

Watch the clip, then decide. Was he cursed, or did the money just take the brakes off?

[NULL @blackishsoull]

In 2004, Eduardo Saverin put up the money that started Facebook. By 2005, his stake was diluted to a fraction of a percent — without his knowledge.

Zuckerberg owned two-thirds of the company from day one. Saverin held the rest and covered the early server costs.

As Facebook grew, Zuckerberg brought in Sean Parker and investor Peter Thiel. New shares were issued. Saverin's stake, once as high as 30%, was cut to roughly 10% — then diluted further, to a fraction of 1%. He says he found out the full extent only later.

He sued in 2005, alleging fraud and breach of fiduciary duty. Internal instant messages later surfaced showing Zuckerberg's team knew a lawsuit was likely before the dilution happened — and did it anyway.

Facebook's side of the story, told in the film "The Social Network," framed it differently: Saverin had frozen the company's bank account during a critical funding period and was largely absent from day-to-day operations while the company needed him most.

They settled in 2009. Terms stayed sealed for years. What's known: Saverin got a reported $75 million and an undisclosed stock allocation — and the title of co-founder, restored, on every official record.

By 2012, that restored stake alone was worth an estimated $2 billion.

So did Zuckerberg erase the man who funded his idea the moment he stopped needing him — or did Saverin nearly sink the company at its most fragile moment, and get paid anyway?

[NULL @blackishsoull]

@PopBase The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders just unionized. After years of low pay, a Netflix series, and public pressure, they’re finally sitting down for a real contract. About time.

[NULL @blackishsoull]

@Myroslav_x Imagine swearing on your MOTHER’S LIFE just to win a poker hand… and then revealing you were bluffing. 💀 Bro wasn’t playing poker, he was playing psychological warfare.

[NULL @blackishsoull]

hello

[NULL @blackishsoull]

@EricBalchunas

[NULL @blackishsoull]

Buffett made over 99% of his net worth after age 50.
Not from one brilliant trade. From decades of compounding, patience, and staying invested while others panicked.
Time in the market beats timing the market.

[NULL @blackishsoull]

In 1993, Buffett bought Dexter Shoe for $433M in Berkshire stock.
The company went bankrupt. He later called it "the worst deal I've ever made" — costing shareholders billions in lost stock value.
He talked about it publicly, every year, for decades.
That's leadership.

[NULL @blackishsoull]

Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.
Buffett built a $900B empire on this one idea — the market often gets the price wrong, but rarely gets the value wrong for long.
Are you buying price or value?