Ask Carnac how ‘Tonight Show’ host Johnny Carson’s stuff ended up in Fullerton

Long before Jimmy Fallon and David Letterman, there was a king of late night TV.

Johnny Carson, who helmed “The Tonight Show” on NBC for 30 years, successfully combined comedy, celebrity interviews, music and opening monologues, establishing a format for all talk show hosts to follow. Along the way, the affable but complex host drew as many as 15 million viewers to the 11:30 p.m. weekday time slot and was at one time the highest-paid TV star.

An exhibit exploring his remarkable show career, “Here’s Johnny – The Making of the Tonight Show,” is now open at the Fullerton Museum Center.

Why Johnny Carson? Why now?

And why Fullerton?

“I have lived in Fullerton for 30 years,” said Jeffrey Carson Sotzing, Johnny’s nephew. His personal collection from “The Tonight Show” forms the foundation of the exhibit. “The Fullerton Museum is a small museum for a small collection, so I thought it was a great place to show it.”

He approached the museum with the idea.

“So, of course, we jumped at the chance,” said curator Kelly Chidester.

Sotzing, the son of Carson’s older sister, the late Catharine Carson Sotzing, is head of Fullerton-based Carson Entertainment, which owns the tapes of “The Tonight Show” from that era and controls the Johnny Carson brand. He worked on “The Tonight Show” with his uncle for many years, and the pair founded the company. Carson died at age 79 in 2005.

The fact that the exhibit opened 10 days after Letterman’s last “Late Show” episode is just a happy coincidence. Letterman was close to Carson, and he adapted the same show format, adding his edgier personality. The emotional public reaction to Letterman’s departure after 32 years was not much different from the enormous grief that surrounded Carson’s last show on May 22, 1992. Carson was so familiar a figure to viewers, he seemed like a friend. A friend you did not want to lose.

“Here at the Fullerton Museum Center, we specialize in exhibits about American popular culture, and this show gives us a great opportunity to showcase one of the legendary figures in TV history,” said Dannielle Mauk, cultural arts manager for the city of Fullerton and director of the museum.

“It’s impossible to overestimate the influence of Johnny Carson on the entertainment industry, or for that matter on the day-to-day lives of millions of Americans who watched ‘The Tonight Show,’” Mauk said. “Especially for our visitors who may have grown up after Carson’s retirement in 1992, and who may not even be able to imagine a world without 500 cable channels, it’s important to see how Carson and his team shaped the medium of TV and developed with it during their 30 years on the air.”

Chidester, who curated the exhibit with Sotzing’s help, wasn’t all that familiar with the show.

“So Jeffrey brought in a series of DVDs,” she said. “I watched them, front to back, back to front and sideways.

“I had not realized how important ‘The Tonight Show’ was to American culture. Johnny Carson interviewed everybody who was anybody — entertainers, movie stars, politicians. He showcased up-and-coming comics and a broad range of musicians.”

There were skits and zoo animals. And lots of laughter, with particularly loud guffaws from Carson’s sidekick announcer, Ed McMahon.

And yet, “the show wasn’t always just entertainment,” Chidester said. “It was a barometer of the state of the union. He dealt with serious issues: water, pollution, civil rights, women’s liberation. He commented on the news. People would tune in and see the popular culture of that day.”

Carson “always seemed so natural, but there was a lot of work behind the scenes to make the shows, and we wanted to show all of that,” she said.

Mauk agreed. “The show isn’t just about Carson, but also about the co-hosts, musicians, guests, crew, artists and all the behind-the-scenes people who made this iconic show happen,” she said.

Among the exhibits is a wall devoted to the nightly monologues. The display starts with typewritten jokes suggested by the staff writers for the May 8, 1987, show, with Carson’s handwritten notes. A collage of cue cards carries the script along with Carson’s desired changes. At the end is a video of that very monologue.

A photo timeline shows Carson’s guests from the 1960s through the early 1990s: Ronald Reagan, Elizabeth Taylor, Bob Hope, Cary Grant, Joan Crawford, Lucille Ball, John Wayne, Richard Nixon and more.

“It is pretty amazing that he interviewed all those people,” Chidester said.

Videos offer capsule images of the then-new comics, such as Gary Shandling and Jerry Seinfeld, as well as top musical performers on the show, from The Jackson 5 to Judy Garland, Roy Orbison and k.d. lang, and Liza Minnelli to Tony Bennett.

“Tony Bennett was the musical guest on the very first show,” Oct. 1, 1962, Chidester said. “He was there to promote his newest single, a song called ‘I left My Heart in San Francisco.’ Now we have heard that song everywhere.”

Here is Carson’s director’s chair, and there, his old makeup kit with a stash of his favorite Wint-o-Green Life Savers. There is the dead rubber chicken that Carson would bring out when one of his jokes fell flat.

“It was always on the prop table behind his desk,” Chidester said.

Reproductions of famous paintings and movie posters made by the show’s art department can be seen. Also, Carson’s famous card Roladex is here, with the names and personal phone numbers of hundreds of show guests. It is a sign of the great power Carson enjoyed that he was welcome to call any of them at any time.

Bandleader Doc Severinsen loaned the museum a black jacket with rhinestone-studded lapels as well as original sheet music for that familiar “Johnny’s Theme No. 2.”

Among the highlights is a reproduction of a 1970s show set with a replica of Carson’s desk, the interview chair and adjacent sectional. Museum visitors can sit there to have their photos taken.

“They can be Johnny or they can be the interview guest,” Chidester said.

The favorite items might be the character costumes Carson wore for various bits: the black spinster dress and hat of the dear, lovable — and old — Aunt Blabby; the loud jacket of the smarmy huckster Art Fern; and the plaid hunting coat of Floyd R. Turbo, American, who had opinions on every social issue of the day.

These and Carson’s turbaned alter ego, the Great Carnac, will spark fond memories of funny bits for those who watched “The Tonight Show.”

“This is a fun show,” Chidester said. “It will take many people for a walk down memory lane,”

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IF YOU GO

What: “Here’s Johnny – The Making of the Tonight Show.”

When: Noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays, Sundays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays and noon to 8 p.m. Thursdays, May 30 through Aug. 16

Where: Fullerton Museum Center, 301 N. Pomona Ave.

Cost: $4; $3 for seniors and students

Information: Cityoffullerton.com or (714) 738-6545

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FULLERTON MUSEUM HISTORY

The Fullerton Museum Center was built at the corner of Pomona and Wilshire avenues as a library in 1941. The Works Project Administration (WPA) building was designed by a local Spanish Colonial specialist, architect Harry Vaughn. Interior features include elegant archways and pillars, as well as Italian tile and stained glass windows.

The city library moved to more modern digs in 1973, and a newly formed museum association took over the old building, opening in 1974 with a collection of bones from the La Brea Tar Pits, according to the City of Fullerton website. After a renovation in 1985, the museum reopened as the Fullerton Museum Center with an emphasis on history, science, art and modern culture.

In 2006, the museum opened its permanent Leo Fender gallery to honor the legendary guitar maker’s 1946 business founding in Fullerton.

The museum mounts four exhibits each year, planning two to four years ahead. There are original, and often eclectic locally produced shows, as well as exhibits rented from other venues, such as the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

Recent exhibits have included comic book art’s “Heroes and Villains”; a showing of “Big Eyes” paintings timed to coincide with a film about the artists starring Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz; a retrospective look at the musical “British invasion” of the 1960s, featuring album covers and photos; and a special show of the editorial cartoons of Pat Oliphant. Oliphant attended the opening night reception and demonstrated drawing techniques.