I see from the comments for the online version of my Sunday magazine interview/profile of Oprah Winfrey that a certain urban myth about an encounter between her and Frank Perdue in the 1970s refuses to die. You can read my 3,500-word piece on Winfrey's early career in Baltimore here.
I don't want to insult folks who say they saw and heard something that didn't happen, but if you are insulted by facts and historical truth, brace yourself.
I interviewed Richard Sher, Winfrey's co-host on WJZ'as "People Are Talking," about the origins of this myth, because Sher was there to witness the event that gave birth to it.
The core of the myth involves a young Winfrey interviewing the chicken magnate on WJZ and allegedly saying to him at one point, "You know, you do look like a chicken." He is supposed to have said that she looked like another kind of animal, and that led her to storm off the set.
Here's Sher on the myth:
"You know, the Frank Perdue story that everyone says they saw, when Oprah supposededly said, 'You know, you do look like a chicken?'" Sher asked. "And he supposedly said to her, 'Well, do you know look like a gorilla?' And she was supposed to have stormed off the set?"
"Now everybody in town says they saw that," Sher continued. "It became a legend. But the fact of the matter is it never happened."
According to Sher who was there on-scene for the interview of Perdue by Winfrey, "What did happen was that Oprah said to Frank Perdue, the late Frank Perdue, 'Did anyone ever tell you that you look like a chicken?' And he said, 'Well to tell you truth, I sell 3 and 1/2 million of my chickens a week, so I don't mind looking like them.'"
Sher insists, "And that's the end of the story. The rest of it is all b.s."
No "gorilla" talk, and no storming off the set by Winfrey.
I'll take it one click further than b.s. I think there is some prejudice and, perhaps, even racism behind that legend -- and the persistance of it.
Telling that story with the make-believe gorilla line put in the mouth of Perdue is a way for people telling the story to try and insult Winfrey, who is now one of the richest, most successful and powerful people in the world.
I think racism and the resentment of Winfrey's tremendous success are two of the reasons people keep telling this false story. Sadly, I suspect some of them want it to be true so badly that they have actually come to believe they saw and heard Perdue say the insulting words.
I asked Sher about that explanation.
"Well, when she came her in '70s, this wasn't a great racial market," he said. "There weren't a lot of African-Americans on television."
