Joyce Davidson

Career

She was a member of CBC Television's Tabloid, a current affairs program with a light entertainment format, in the 1950s.

Davidson caused controversy while the Canadian media were reporting the upcoming visit of Queen Elizabeth II in 1959. Davidson was on a trip to New York City when she was interviewed by Dave Garroway on NBC's Today show on 18 June 1959. She said on-camera, "Like most Canadians, I am indifferent to the visit of the Queen." Davidson was lambasted in the Canadian press and by many indignant Canadians for her comment. Within a few days, she resigned from CBC's Tabloid series. A subsequent Gallup poll showed that 64% of Canadians disagreed with her, although 48% of respondents considered themselves significantly interested in the royal visit.

Davidson moved to the United States and was hired by Westinghouse Broadcasting to be the sidekick of Mike Wallace on a new talk show he was hosting titled PM East/PM West. The five-night-a-week series, which featured Wallace and Davidson in New York and Terrence O'Flaherty hosting a separate segment in San Francisco, lasted from June 1961 to June 1962. Fans of occasional guest Barbra Streisand made and saved audiotapes of some of her appearances. Davidson can be heard talking for only a few seconds on that audio. A long segment with Davidson interviewing Boris Karloff survives in the sole videorecorded episode, which is available for viewing at the UCLA Film and Television Archive. Telecast on television stations owned by Westinghouse and in a few other cities on 12 February 1962, the episode does not include Streisand. Westinghouse designed PM East/PM West to compete with The Tonight Show, which was then hosted by Jack Paar, but Paar and his network, NBC, attracted many more viewers.

In 1964, Davidson began working as co-producer of a television talk show titled Hot Line that was broadcast locally in New York. The producer, David Susskind, also appeared on-camera, but Davidson did not. The host was Gore Vidal, and Dorothy Kilgallen appeared on most episodes. Hot Line was a different show from Susskind's nationally known Open End talk show. Hot Line was the first television show to use the recently invented ten-second broadcast delay to amplify viewer phone calls on the air. Davidson screened the viewer phone calls. She also made the first approach to some of the people who appeared as guests on Hot Line, including Malcolm X, whom she invited for Hot Line immediately after he gave a speech at The Town Hall. The Hot Line telecast of 2 February 1965 turned out to be Malcolm's final television talk appearance during his lifetime, although he and his wife can be heard talking twelve days later on locally telecast newscast reports of the bombing of their home.

Late on Sunday night, 6 June 1971, an American talk show titled Joyce and Barbara: For Adults Only made its debut in syndication. The program fared poorly and disappeared several weeks later despite three advantages. Davidson's husband's nationally successful talk show served as a lead-in for it, her co-host was Barbara Howar and Bette Davis was the guest on the premiere.

Davidson hosted an eponymously titled Canadian weekday afternoon talk show on CTV Television Network for the 1977–78 season, and her theme song was "Breezin'" by George Benson.

Personal life

Davidson had two daughters by age 20 from a marriage in Canada that ended in divorce. She married David Susskind less than two years after they began working together on Hot Line. They divorced in 1986.