Della Reese

In her two-hour interview, Della Reese (1931-2017) speaks about her start as a singer at age thirteen touring with gospel legend Mahalia Jackson. She talks about the struggles in her early career (and such highlights as touring with Nat King Cole). She touches upon her first appearances on television, notably on The Ed Sullivan Show, on which she appeared 17 times. She talks about her appearances on The Merv Griffin Show and The Mike Douglas Show, and how both hosts broke barriers for African Americans in television. She speaks in great detail about her own talk/variety series The Della Reese Show, commenting on markets the show played in and listing memorable guests. She describes her roles on the sitcoms Chico and the Man and Welcome Back, Kotter, joining both series mid-run. Reese recounts the time when, in October 1980 during a taping of The Tonight Show, she suffered a brain aneurysm. She describes her work as a regular on the series The Royal Family and relates the story of the tragic demise of series star Redd Foxx, after a collapse on the set. Finally, she discusses the series with which she is most identified, Touched By An Angel, elaborating on the spiritual nature of the show, identifying memorable guest stars, and commenting on how CBS viewed the show. Beth Cochran conducted the interview on June 13, 2008 in Los Angeles, CA.