Joan Rivers

Background

The story began with Joan Alexandra Molinsky on June 8, 1933. She was a Gemini born in Brooklyn, New York, to Russian-Jewish immigrants. Hence, she’s of Russian descent. Rivers attended Brooklyn Ethical Culture School and Adelphi Academy of Brooklyn. Within two years in the school, she performed in the Cavalcades and became vice president of their dramatic club in 1949. She graduated two years later and relocated with her family to Larchmont. Rivers attended Connecticut College for two years and then transferred to Barnard College. She graduated from the latter in 1954 with a B.A. in English literature and Anthropology. She worked several menial jobs before entering show business, where on the advice of her agent, changed her name to Joan Rivers.

Rivers appeared in an Off-Broadway play called “Driftwood” in the late ‘50s. In 1965, she appeared with Jim Connell and Jake Holmes in their cabaret act, ‘“Jim, Jake & Joan” in the motion picture “Once Upon A Coffee House” (1965). After her appearance on “The Tonight Show” hosted by Johnny Carson, who told her she would become a star, her profile rose significantly, as she made guest appearances on several more shows. From “The Ed Sullivan Show” to “The Mike Douglas Show,” “The Dick Cavett Show,” and “Girl Talk with Virginia Graham,” Rivers displayed her funny talents everywhere. In 1972, she made her Broadway debut in a play called “Fun City.” Rivers went on to narrate “The Adventures of Letterman” from 1972 to 1976. By 1974, she published her first book “Having a Baby Can Be a Scream.” She made her directional debut in 1978 in the comedy “Rabbit Test.” In 1983, Rivers released the best-selling comedy album called “What Becomes a Semi-Legend Most?” which peaked at number 22 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and even got a Grammy Award nomination for Best Comedy Album. In 1986, Fox Television Network announced it was giving Rivers her late-night talk show called “The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers” and by October, the show premiered. However, she got fired in May 1987. By 1989, “The Joan Rivers Show” premiered. Rivers’ eponymous daytime show ran for five seasons and earned her an Outstanding Talk Show Host Daytime Emmy in 1990.

In the 2000s, Rivers did explicitly well. She hosted red carpet shows, appeared in television shows, and wrote more books before hosting “Fashion Police” by the E! Network in 2010. In 2011, she starred in “Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best?” which ran for four seasons until 2014. Her 11th book, “I Hate Everyone…Starting with Me,” was released in June 2012 and became a New York Times Best Seller. In 2013 she launched an online talk show, “In Bed with Joan,” where she invited guests to have conversations with her in bed. As someone of such caliber, Rivers’ personal life has also been public. It features two marriages and one annulment. Rivers was married to James Sanger in 1956, but the marriage lasted six months and was annulled. Her second marriage was to Edgar Rosenberg in July 1965, which lasted until his demise in 1987. They had one child, Melissa Rivers. Rivers had an eight-year relationship with Orin Lehman in the ‘90s. On September 4, 2014, Rivers died at Mount Sinai Hospital, having failed to wake up from a medically-induced coma. Rivers made a significant mark in the world and is missed every day.