Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 23, 1994 TAG: 9407300010
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: 16 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: IRA J. HADNOT DALLAS MORNING NEWS
DATELINE: DALLAS LENGTH: Long
A successful motivational speaker, and known across the country from his recognizable talk show sign-off as "Mrs. Mamie Brown's baby boy," Brown is working on a follow-up to his hit book "Live Your Dreams," a new television show, and putting his own dreams in order.
He also says he is going to "produce the best orators on the planet" through his own training company for speakers - people who will spread messages of hope and be agents of healing.
And, he says, within six months he will launch a new television show, the kind of program he says he was unable to do during the five months "The Les Brown Show" aired under King World Productions. The show, which aired from last September to this January, did not meet King World's ratings expectations.
And he wants to get married to Gladys Knight, his fiancee of two years now.
"I'm ready. I've been refocusing my life. I had to step back," Brown says. "I've been underground."
All of these plans, dreams and goals rush out in a multisyllabic sentence and without pause - a trait uncharacteristic of the polished articulator. That's because Les Brown has a special sense of urgency these days.
His beloved mother's death of breast cancer about two months ago has pushed him toward "getting on with things." He speaks adoringly of the single parent who adopted him and his twin brother, Wesley, after they were abandoned. The boys were born in a vacant building in Miami. Mamie Brown adopted them when they were 3 weeks old. Five years later, she adopted a girl.
A tremble in his voice as he speaks of her is the only outward hint of how deeply Mrs. Brown's death has hit him.
"When she was diagnosed two months before her death [in May], I was there. And I stayed there the whole time, taking care of her like she took care of me. We talked, we shared, we reflected. I listened to music with her. We closed things," he says during an interview while on a brief promotional stop in Dallas for the paperback release of "Live Your Dreams."
Brown, 49, lives in New York with his oldest daughter, a 28-year-old who he says follows him around the apartment reminding him that his fans are not going to put up with his not living his life.
"She's telling me to clean up my room and taunting me with my own words. I am amazed at the kind of counseling I am getting, but I can't take much more of this," he says, laughing.
The one-time Ohio legislator and twice-married father of seven children (ranging in age from 10 to 28) says he is disappointed with a television industry that ``prides itself on not being original and doesn't have a sense of responsibility for the content it is feeding the American psyche."
He fought not to become like the other talk shows, "focused on sex and destruction," Brown says. He prided himself on bringing his motivational message to the medium. He says ratings weren't the reason the show was canceled. A King World spokeswoman would only say: "The show wasn't doing well in its time period."
In some cities, such as Dallas, the show was aired so early in the morning, only the most motivated fans could catch it.
Les Brown says: "Every day was a battle. They told me, `We've done that, Brown. Trust us.' The very qualities they liked in me in the first place, they wanted to change. People who saw me as a speaker hated me as a talk show host. And people who never heard me speak loved me on TV. I'd look at the show and say, `Where is Les Brown?' "
Les Brown was very uncomfortable with his television image. The happier moments he experienced during the show's taping in New York flowed from the stability he says he felt in his relationship with Knight.
"We saw more of each other because I was stationary. She would fly to New York during tapings and breaks in her performance schedule. We were together," he says wistfully.
The two met on the road. As Brown tells it:
Both were in Chicago; he was speaking at the same convention that had booked her for a performance. He went backstage and introduced himself. They later talked for about five hours.
"I left for Dallas and she went to Rochester. I called her and said: `We talked for five hours. I am in love.' She said, `So am I.' I knew she was going to be in Vegas 10 days later. So, being bold and positive, I bought a ring, flew to Vegas, went to her dressing room, got on my knees and proposed. She cried and said, `Yes.' "
But now the two are back criss-crossing the country. Brown is in demand as a speaker and Knight's career keeps her in concert halls or in recording studios.
Why return to television?
"I wasn't just interested in being on TV. I wanted to make a difference, to use television as a powerful instrument for social change. ...
"People are looking for and are hungry for ideas and information that can lift their spirits and change their lives.
"People feel stretched, and there is very little we can find that validates, empowers and inspires us. I have learned from speaking to all colors and all kinds that we are more alike than we are different. Hope and fear are universal."
by CNB