Upside down
Boy, you turn me
Inside out
And round and round
Upside down
Boy, you turn me
Inside out
And round and round
(From the song “Upside Down,” from Diana Ross’ album
Diana, 1980, composed by Nile Rodgers/C. Max)
I had never
seen Susan Lucci before she made her guest appearance on my show, because All My Children aired opposite The Young and the Restless, my favorite
soap opera of all time. Susan was promoting a hair product when I learned she
would be my guest. I wanted to learn as much about her as possible, so I
researched all the soap magazines and called my soap-watching friends for help.
I was ready when “Erica Kane” hit the QVC Fashion Channel stage. She laughed
and flirted when she arrived, making me feel at ease. I announced, “I’d like to welcome back the gracious Susan
Lucci, who would travel through rain or snow to be on my show today.”
“Nothing could keep me from being with you
today, Dale,” Lucci assured, giving me one big ol’ hug and kiss.
“I met your husband, Helmut, outside of
the studio today, and he introduced himself as the ‘real’ husband,” I
joked. “I did not see him in the
studio yesterday, but he keeps walking back and forth today.”
“That’s because yesterday he saw the two
of us on camera,” Susan suggested, seductively.
I enjoyed the comments from viewers who
responded favorably to seeing me on-air with Susan. It had always been my secret dream to appear on a soap opera,
and I wanted so much to ask her to pull a few strings. I never did, but later I learned that
some of the QVC hosts had made guest appearances on All My Children. This
was not a door open to QVC Fashion Channel hosts. The hosts on the QVC main
channel were seen by more viewers nationally, thus they could attract more
viewers when appearing as daytime television guests. They had more celebrity guests on their shows, got to travel
to location shoots, and vendors were always trying to court them with new
products to sample. Fashion channel hosts were limited to dealing with fashion,
jewelry, and cosmetics vendors only. We did not get many celebrity guests on
our shows, because many of them figured the limited exposure we had did not
merit the time it would take for them to walk across the hall from the main
channel to our set. Susan fortunately did not take this kind of attitude. She
would spend the entire weekend on the network’s soundstages and make
appearances on the shifts of every host who was working. When she came to my show, Susan
had just lost another Daytime Emmy.
I said to her, “By tomorrow, people will forget who won the Emmy. But because you have lost so many
times, you will always be remembered.”
It sounded clumsy and awkward, but she understood
what I meant and knew that it was coming from my heart. The night she finally
did win the Emmy, I cried as hard as I did when Halle Berry won the Best
Actress Oscar for Monster’s Ball. Susan’s win was even more personal
because she was someone I knew, even if it was only as a celebrity guest.
Since I had already welcomed one beautiful
diva to my show, I sought to bring on the ultimate diva, Diana Ross. In 1993,
she released a collection of her hits on the album Forever Diana: Musical Memoirs, and a book of memoirs called Secrets of a Sparrow. With her two new products on the
market, I thought it would be my opportunity to interview the famous Supreme
herself on QVC. I checked with the
network’s book and music buyers, and we had indeed received an advance copy of
both Diana’s book and her four-disc CD collection. I petitioned management to
host a show with her, and was excited about the possibility of appearing with
my favorite icon. I thought that surely
QVC would have to let me do the interview, because no one knew Call Her Miss Ross, (Diana’s 1989
unauthorized biography), better than I did. It was going to be my dream come
true. Then the bubble burst. The Ross people were happy to sell the book on the
air, but she would not make a personal appearance. QVC knew that without Diana,
the viewers would not be interested.
Dayeem! Dayeem! Dayeem! A few weeks later, Diana Ross and one of her
daughters, Rhonda, appeared on The Oprah
Winfrey Show. Oprah was gushing and asking all the questions I had wanted
to ask.
Surprisingly, I was happy that Oprah was
seeing her dream come true in meeting Diana Ross. I felt strangely connected to
the experience because I had known Oprah before she moved to Chicago. In the
early ‘80s, Oprah had been a reporter on the local WJZ channel in
Baltimore. I was a front desk
agent at the Hyatt hotel downtown, and Oprah was often at the hotel on
business. I would arrange to have
her car spotted out front so that she would not have to park in the garage. She
was always kind to me, and we would often run into each other at the Downtown
Athletic Club. One time, Oprah
called me at the hotel to say that she wanted to reserve a room to get away for
the weekend. With the hotel almost sold out, I pulled some strings and saved
her a nice harbor view suite.
Later that day, singer and Broadway actress Melba Moore showed up with
her child and asked for a room, without a reservation. She was very popular in
the Baltimore/D.C. area at that time, since her song “Lean on Me” was a big hit
on the radio. However, I told my
friends, “I turned Melba away so my girl Oprah could have a room!”
Now my
girl Oprah was interviewing my diva,
Diana Ross. Even though I was happy for her, I still screamed at the
television, “That should have been MY interview!”
Working on-air at the QVC Fashion Channel,
I became more expressive about my image and felt much more like myself. Female
hosts were required to wear many of the clothes they sold, but since we sold
very few men’s fashions, I could wear whatever I pleased. I already assumed that women viewers
would find me a credible fashion expert, since I had acquired knowledge of
fashion through designing clothes and producing fashion shows. However, I also
received comments on my personal wardrobe. I might dress up a suit with a
colorful vest, or throw on an Afro-centric handkerchief. Sometimes, I would
design and wear a multi-colored, African patterned tie, just to make a
statement. Although my attire was a hit with the audience, my fashion choices
often conflicted with management’s idea of how a host should dress. The big wigs upstairs thought that
viewers would be distracted by what I was wearing and would not focus on the
products I was trying to sell:
“Thank
you, caller, for buying our beautiful crocheted vest today. I am sure you are
going to look lovely in it.”
“And
may I tell you, Dale, how much I enjoy watching what you wear.”
“Well,
thank you. I get memos on what I wear all the time.”
“You
wore a stunning black and white outfit when you were on with Susan Lucci last
week.”
“Funny
you say that, because the last memo I got was on that very same outfit.”
“Well,
you tell the powers that be that we enjoy watching you as much as we enjoy
buying their products.”
“Thanks,
I’ll let them know.”
It was natural for me to express my
African heritage through my dress, since I had been a storyteller. Afro-centric awareness was also at its
height around the early ‘90s. I
was keenly aware at that time that QVC did not court African-American
consumers. One executive let it
slip to me that QVC saw its audience as “mid-west, trailer park conservative,”
and very white. The suits at QVC did not believe that black people shopped on
television, but they would never admit it. The channel offered shows themed around regions like Ireland
or the South Dakota Black Hills, but the rich African culture was ignored.
Around that time, Andre was getting bored
and antsy. He needed something to do, something other than taking care of me.
We received an invitation to an AIDS benefit in Baltimore and were asked to
bring a gift for the auction. I decided to create a pair of dolls using
leftover African fabric I had used in making costumes for Umoja SaSa!
Diana Ross’ character in Mahogany designed fashions for herself,
drawing inspiration from Chinese images. I was inspired to create a line of
dolls with an Egyptian influence. Egyptian art and profiles had always
fascinated me, so I drew a silhouette of a body profile then made a pattern and
stuffed it with cotton. I then stitched little “doll versions” of the costumes
I had created for my storytelling troupe. I sewed in artificial hair that was
braided or styled in an elaborate head wrap. Although Andre was a big man with
big hands, he seemed to master creating small jewelry. This he did for his contribution to the
dolls.
An idea was born out of my need to
showcase products that appealed to people of color. I wanted to sell more
African-themed products on the Fashion Channel, so I took the idea of an
African / African-American themed show to QVC management. I was surprised that they were
receptive. They agreed to let me do the show, as long as I co-hosted with the
other black, male QVC host, Clarence Reynolds, on the main channel. I was thrilled, because Clarence had
navigated me through the process of pitching my show idea to QVC.
Everyone thought it would be a great idea
if I made a limited collection of my dolls to sell on-air during the new show.
I believe only Kathy Levine had ever sold a product directly associated with
her on the network. Our new show
was originally called African Marketplace,
but after two airings it was renamed Destination:
Africa. This was because of a
dispute over title credit -- a vendor of one of the show’s products claimed
that she had given the network the idea for the title African Marketplace.
Clarence and I shot the promotional spots
for the show in his home, complete with John Hall playing a jimbe drum in the
background. Since John had turned me on to the
hosting job with the Fashion Channel in the first place, it felt
good to include him in the project. I felt like, in some small way, I was
paying him back. If John had not of brought my attention to that ad, I would
not have been seen by millions of viewers. Now I was making a cultural
statement through my dolls and promoting Umoja SaSa! at the same time. Life was good, and it was getting
better.
The mechanics of creating five hundred
handmade dolls almost made me lose my mind! Andre and I took out a business loan to cover the costs
associated with manufacturing. My friends and family in the Philly area helped
me with the sewing. My attic became a sweatshop with three machines going at
all times. At last, five hundred dolls were packaged and shipped to the QVC
warehouses, according to specifications that required boxes, labels, and
certificates of authenticity.
Our two-hour showcase debuted on February
24, 1993. It moved like a dream. Clarence and I opened the show, and then
alternated back and forth selling products on different sets. It was as if we were seasoned
reporters. When it was time to sell my dolls, we shared the set. I explained the origin of the African
names given the dolls, and displayed the certificates of authenticity. It was a
great teaching moment and a great selling moment. My dolls sold out in five
minutes. The rush of accomplishment and success that I felt filled me with
enormous pride. The experience of hosting that show was my Emmy, Grammy, and
Oscar, all rolled up into one.
The original show generated $311,000 in
sales and brought in 221 new QVC members. This was very successful for a new
show. QVC wanted to repeat our success and air the show as an annual Black
History Month event, but I tried to convince them to honor black culture all
year. I would host four more of the Destination:
Africa shows by the time I left QVC.
The final show I hosted alone, as a
three-hour event, and had a real African princess from Ghana as my special
guest. The final, total sales from the show were over a million dollars, and
the show had brought more than 2,000 new viewers to the shopping channel. Ebony
Man magazine even did a piece on Destination:
Africa, and included a picture of Clarence and me. It was my shining moment -- the fashion
channel guy had gone over to the big channel and had shown them his stuff.
To gain greater exposure, I traveled to
Black Expo USA shows around the country, selling dolls, signing autographs,
generating my own press, and getting recognition. I persuaded QVC to pay for a
trip to New York, where Clarence and I did promotions for the channel and made
contact with viewers. New York was one of the few markets that aired both QVC
channels, so I was finally being recognized. And it felt good!
Meanwhile, around that time, Barry Diller
became CEO of QVC. He had formerly
been Chairman of Paramount Pictures and had organized the Fox Broadcasting
Company for Twentieth Century Fox.
When Diller left Fox in 1992, he purchased a $25 million dollar stake in
QVC. Diller is the man who tries
to get Diana Ross to leave the stage after the rainstorm begins during her
famous concert in Central Park. He
takes off his white blazer, and she wears it over her wet body suit.
When Diller took control of QVC, everyone
feared change coming. We didn’t know what he was going to do with the QVC Fashion
Channel. The channel was not a big revenue maker, nor was the network actively
trying to break the little channel into new markets. When I first met him,
Diller congratulated me on the success of Destination:
Africa, but did not comment on my work on the QVC Fashion Channel. I had
heard that he was gay-friendly, so I took a bold step -- I wrote him a letter
explaining that my partner and I had been in a committed relationship for four
years, and asked if Andre could have the same benefits extended to him as any
heterosexual husband or wife. Within days, I got a call from the QVC human
resources department, on behalf of Mr. Diller, requesting documentation to
verify that Andre and I shared bank accounts and household bills. After providing the necessary
information, Andre was immediately included in all my benefit plans. I was
pleased that I could do that for my stay-at-home husband. I was told by other gay employees that
it was the first time QVC had ever granted partner benefits.
I continued to travel to trade shows on my
days off from the Fashion Channel to promote my dolls. And as a result of my own
self-promotion, I was asked to host special events on QVC. I hosted numerous
doll-collecting shows on the main channel, and was very happy when I did a show
on Singer sewing products. I was very confident in my hosting skills. Viewers recognized my expertise and
wrote letters asking why they did not see more of me. They didn’t realize the preparation it took to speak off the
cuff about a new product -- it was like studying for an oral exam on a new item
every time you arrived at work.
I was approached by Macy’s in Pentagon
City to do an in store event with my dolls, and to do a performance with Umoja
SaSa! Storytellers. It was wonderful to reunite with my former troupe. Virginia
Commonwealth University also invited me to speak to a class of students about
television retailing, and explain how I had conceived of my African-themed
shows. My visit had me on the front page of The
Richmond Times. Rumors of cancellation
of the QVC Fashion Channel were starting around that time. I was certain that,
with the publicity I was generating for QVC, management would find a way to
keep me. I was sadly mistaken.
Instinctively you give to me
The love that I need
I cherish the moments with you
Respectfully I say to thee
I’m aware that you’re cheatin’
When no one makes me feel like you do
One day, I received an invitation to a
producers’ meeting to explore more Afro-centric marketing. I wanted to host a
show with jazz legend Nancy Wilson, who had already been on the main QVC
channel to promote Flori Roberts skin care products. One producer turned to me and said, “Isn’t she one of the
Supremes?”
I answered, “No, that’s Mary Wilson.” I
thought to myself, “White people -- they think we all look alike.”
As I approached my fourth year at the
network, the decision finally came down from Diller to shut down the QVC
Fashion Channel. He had already started to make subtle changes in the
programming and sets of the main QVC channel, but there had barely been any
changes going on at the Fashion Channel.
So we all saw the writing on the wall. A new, hip channel called “On Q”
would replace the Fashion Channel completely. All the Fashion Channel hosts were led to believe that we
had a chance of hosting on the new channel, but were expected to audition. A number of us found this extremely
insulting. Regardless, I put on my
most youthful pair of hip jeans and showed up for the Saturday group audition.
Management videotaped the entire process, during which they put us through a
number of theater games; this allowed them to see how fun and youthful each
host could be, and whether or not we possessed that “reality show” quotient.
Diller was obviously skewing for a younger audience, and he ended up hiring
young, MTV-like hosts. The On Q channel was to be headquartered in New York,
and I heard later that Tracee Ellis Ross, one of Diana Ross’ daughters, was
hired as a model.
As for the rest of us, Diller forced us
out with severance packages that offered us some money. But the longer we delayed at signing
the severance agreement, the less money we would receive. At the same time, even if we signed the
severance agreement, we were required to work until the channel was officially
off the air. That was also a big slap in the face.
In a last ditch effort to salvage my job,
I put together a detailed proposal to create year round, culturally themed
programming that would air once a month as a special event on QVC. Many of the producers and product
buyers for the network offered suggestions and support, and many people felt
that if anyone had a chance of moving back to QVC, it would be me. Then I made
a fateful walk-on appearance on the Fashion Channel, during host Phyllis
Lampkin’s show.
“Dale,” she asked
me, “What do you have coming up on your show?”
“Phyllis, I have
some lovely silver heart pendants coming up in my jewelry hour.”
“That’s wonderful. Hearts are still wonderful gifts,
whether it is Valentine’s Day or not.”
“That’s right, Phyllis. But let’s not forget the St. Valentines
Day Massacre, too.”
I was joking, referring to the fact that
it had been on Valentine’s Day that management had told us our channel would be
cancelled permanently.
“Dale, you are a bad boy!” Phyllis blurted
out, laughing. She immediately got
my joke.
“Phyllis, all I am saying is that we need
some love year round, not just on Massacre Day…I mean…Valentine’s Day.”
Phyllis could not stop laughing and
neither could I. The producers
also caught the joke, and they had to laugh to keep Phyllis and me from crying.
The QVC suits did not see the live broadcast, but they did see it air during
the early morning repeats. Phyllis and I received reprimands and had to sign a
written warning. I thought, “Okay, you are firing me in a couple of months, but
now you are reprimanding me. So if I get three warnings before you officially
fire me, does that mean an early termination?
On April 26, 1994, I got a
letter from Doug Briggs, President of QVC:
Mr. Diller passed your recent letter on to me and
asked me to respond. As you know,
we do not have a “permanent host” for the Destination: Africa program.
In fact, there are only a few shows on our schedule for which we use the same
host each time they air. You were considered as a possible host, on a freelance
basis, for upcoming programs. After considering your proposal, as well as
monitoring your appearances on the Fashion Channel and discussing your
performance with management, it was decided that your freelance proposal is not
the best for us.
That correspondence confirmed the fact
that I would be leaving QVC. Some
of us banded together and hired a lawyer in an attempt to negotiate our
termination agreements, but it did little good. We were still required to stay
until the channel officially shut down a month later. It was like being fired
while still having to smile on camera. By the time we were in the last few
weeks of the QVC Fashion Channel, it was like hosting a bargain basement, going
out of business sale. Each show, every hour, had the same products from the day
before. You did not even have to show up early to your shift because you knew
exactly what was going to be on your show. I was sick to my stomach and
depressed whenever I went into the studio. On July 24, 1994, I was one of the
last hosts to sign my severance package.
After getting away from QVC, I was
determined to take both the good and the bad that had come out of the
experience and move on. But
sometime later, when I was no longer with the network, I received a second slap
in the face.
“Chile, are you watching QVC?” a friend of
mine asked one evening, calling to give me a heads up.
“You know I don’t watch QVC when I’m not
there,” I reminded her.
“I think you might want to tune in. Kathy
Levine is hosting your Destination:
Africa show.”
I turned on the television and watched in
what could only be described as horror. Kathy was indeed hosting the show and
was interviewing the guest, Princess Asie Ocanssey of Ghana. It was like watching Joan Rivers
interview rap artist 50 Cent at the Grammy Awards. The regal Princess Asie was
dressed in her African splendor, trying her best to explain to Kathy the origin
of a product.
“So, you call this kente cloth?” Kathy
asked.
“No, Kathy,” the princess said. “That is a mudcloth.”
“Oy vey!” Kathy exclaimed. “Well, whatever it is, it is beautiful.
I really believe you can be Jewish and still appreciate this!”
I couldn’t watch any more. I turned the
television off. It was like the feeling you get when you watch an all-star
black movie written and directed by a white person. Something is missing. What
is it? Soul. A white shopping
network trying to sell black products without having a black host seemed fake
and insincere. I heard they tried one more time using one of my former,
African-American Fashion Channel models, Rene Ellison, but the show lost
audience support.
I
was determined not to go down in a cloud of smoke. I tried very hard to be picked up by other networks as a
regular host and figured it would be simple. There were so many new channels
starting. I had a wealth of experience and four years of tapes -- four hours a
day, five days a week -- and thought that someone would have to recognize that
as solid experience. I submitted to every channel I could think of. After very few responses and a couple
of rejection letters, something slowly leaked into my consciousness -- there
was no respect for shopping hosts outside of shopping networks.
Theater
people look down on movie actors, movie actors look down on TV actors, and
prime time actors look down on soap opera actors. In the cable-shopping
industry, hosts are not recognized as “real talent” because we sell fake
diamonds. I’d had a faint hope that the entertainment industry would start
welcoming shopping hosts with more recognition and give them greater
credibility. But when it was all said and done, the world viewed me as just a
glorified retail clerk. Mike Rowe
and Clarence Reynolds were probably the only two hosts I know of who went on to
have successful television careers outside the world of home shopping. Clarence
became a popular anchor in local news, and Mike went on to host the popular
show Dirty Jobs on the Discovery
Channel. They both told me that they removed home shopping from their resumes.
A friend once asked me if I enjoyed working for QVC. I had to answer that I loved it and hated it at the same time. I loved the fame it brought me. I loved that when I went out in public, people recognized me. However, I hated what I did. I hated that I peddled products to people who were starving for a connection with someone. And they were willing to spend money on useless products to get it.
A friend once asked me if I enjoyed working for QVC. I had to answer that I loved it and hated it at the same time. I loved the fame it brought me. I loved that when I went out in public, people recognized me. However, I hated what I did. I hated that I peddled products to people who were starving for a connection with someone. And they were willing to spend money on useless products to get it.
In a 1998 Eddie Murphy movie, Holy Man, Jeff Goldblum plays Ricky, the
head producer of a shopping network that has been turning out horrible sales
numbers. By accident, he and his girlfriend nearly run over the spiritually
enlightened “G,” played by Eddie Murphy.
After Ricky and his girlfriend take G home with them, G offers to help
save Ricky's job; Ricky then puts G the air as a spiritual, home shopping
guru. Although G’s behavior
initially gets Ricky into trouble, sales numbers start to go up and G becomes a
star in the world of home shopping. Eventually, when Ricky decides to give up home
shopping in the name of love for his girlfriend, he convinces G to leave the
exploitation of the business and go about his spiritual journey. Clarence Reynolds even makes a cameo as
a shopping channel host!
The film didn’t do well at the box office,
but for me it brought back memories.
Moreover, its message resonated with me in a profound way. I knew deep down that home shopping
exploited the shopping addictions of its customers. I also knew people would
spend their entire days and nights watching us sell fake diamonds and the
latest George Foreman grill or the latest celebrity hair product. I had heard
stories of people who watched the show for so many endless hours that the QVC
text burned into their TV screens.
Another familiar story I heard over and over again was that of a family
member going in to clean the home of a deceased loved one, just to discover
dozens of brand new QVC boxes, unopened.
What did I feel when I heard those
stories? Sadness. Frustration.
Guilt. Did I sell out my own standards by working on a shopping network? Was my
quest for job security and fame so strong that I’d convinced myself we were
friends to those lonely people at home watching QVC and buying products they
didn’t really need or want? I had
actually written to a number of talk shows, asking them to address why people
shop on television and the psychology behind it. I thought that home shopping
was a unique topic to examine in film or on TV. Unfortunately, none of the talk shows ever responded.
I was proud of my Destination:
Africa show because it was a first. It had given African-Americans an
opportunity to see their products in a venue that had previously been
unavailable. I had been proud to showcase our culture and beauty, and to talk
of Africa’s rich heritage. Destination:
Africa to me was more than a shopping show; it was my prime-time special,
my shining moment on television. I sat beside a real African princess adorned
in gold leaves. I received an invitation to go to Ghana and participate in an
African naming ceremony, only to be disappointed when QVC refused to let me go.
QVC helped me see my dreams of being a
name on television. The little boy who played with dolls as a child had grown
up to sell dolls successfully on television. QVC had not found a use for me
when the Fashion Channel ended, but while I was there I got as much out of the
experience as possible.
Rather than going through the hoopla of
saying goodbye to everyone in those final days at the Fashion Channel, I called
off sick for the last two weeks and left for New York to work as an extra in
the movie To Wong Foo Thanks For
Everything, Julie Newmar. The
next chapter of my life was beckoning, and I teased my wig for my next role…a
drag queen.
Upside down you’re turnin’ me…
Round and round you’re turnin’ me…
“We are always selling something in our lives. Will you be proud of
what you have sold, or ashamed? Are you selling knowledge, wisdom, and pride,
or fake diamonds and sequined sweaters?”
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