On August 28th, 2014, Joan Rivers walked into a clinic in New York for what seemed like a routine throat procedure. She was still the Joan Rivers the public knew, sharp, fearless, always ready to turn anything into a joke. But just a few hours later, her heart stopped. The woman who had once used her voice to pierce through all of Hollywood was suddenly swallowed by silence itself.
It was [music] a chilling ending to a life that had never been peaceful. Joan Rivers was not only the queen of biting one-liners, she was a woman mocked for her appearance, rejected, and seen as too loud, too blunt, too difficult to be loved. But those very wounds became her weapons.
She stepped onto the stage and laughed at her own pain before anyone else had the chance to [music] do it. Behind the lights was another Joan, lonely, obsessed with aging, [music] devastated after her husband’s death, abandoned by Johnny Carson, thrown away by television, and then forced to crawl back up from the ashes on her own. She made audiences laugh until they could barely breathe, but the louder the laughter became, the more [music] clearly the tragedy of her life was revealed.
So in the end, was Joan Rivers truly a woman cruel with her words, or simply a soul in too much pain who had to use laughter in order to survive? Joan Alexandra Molinsky was born on June 8th, 1933 [music] in Brooklyn, New York. Her father, Meyer C. Molinsky, was a doctor, while her mother, Beatrice Grushman Molinsky, managed the household.
Both came from Russian Jewish families who had immigrated to America in the early decades of the 20th century. In the Molinsky [music] family, education, a stable profession, and social status [music] were considered the most important goals. That was the environment in which Joan grew up before she had any connection to the entertainment industry.
[music] Her early years were tied to the Prospect Heights and Crown Heights neighborhoods of Brooklyn before the family moved to Larchmont, a suburb north of New York City. Life there was more stable and offered more educational opportunities, >> [music] >> but Joan later often said that she never felt she was the most outstanding person in the crowd.
Friends remembered a smart, lively [music] girl who always wanted to attract attention in conversations. The feeling that she had to prove herself appeared quite early and continued to follow her through many later stages of [music] life. When looking back on her youth, Joan often referred to that period as the years when she was always trying to find her place among the people around her.
Appearance was one of the things Joan thought about most when she was young. She once said that she was overweight for much of her childhood and teenage years, and she repeatedly mentioned experiences of rejection when she first began to care about dating. Those memories appeared again and again in interviews decades later.
After she became famous, Joan often turned her own appearance into a subject of humor on stage. Many of her most famous self-deprecating jokes actually [music] came from these experiences in her youth. Film and theater entered Joan’s life very early. As a child, she created an imaginary character named Jay Sandra Meredith and spent a great deal of time building stories around that character.
Joan also often watched films and stage shows in New York, where she was especially [music] drawn to the world of performance. One memory she recounted many times was seeing child actress Margaret O’Brien on screen. While many young viewers simply [music] watched the film, Joan remembered thinking about being in that position instead of sitting in the audience.
After studying at Adelphi Academy, Joan continued her education at Connecticut College before transferring to Barnard College, the women’s college [music] affiliated with Columbia University. In 1954, she graduated with a degree in English literature and anthropology. That educational path was completely in line with what her family expected [music] of her.
However, instead of choosing a stable profession after graduation, Joan began turning her attention toward the [music] entertainment industry, a decision that quickly created tension within her family. Many years later, Joan said that her parents [music] strongly opposed her desire to become a performer. The relationship between the two sides became so strained [music] that they barely spoke to each other for about 2 years.
She also recalled that her father had once considered sending her to a mental treatment facility [music] because he believed the idea of becoming a female comedian was unacceptable for a young woman at that time. When Joan left college, she had no stage of her own, no audience, and no position in the entertainment industry.
The only thing that had been decided was that she would not follow the career path her family [music] wanted for her. After graduating from Barnard College in 1954 with a degree in English literature and anthropology, Joan Rivers entered adulthood with a resume that many middle-class American families at the time would have considered ideal.
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But instead of following the stable path her parents wanted for her, she began looking for a way to break into the entertainment industry. [music] In the early years, Joan took all kinds of jobs to support herself in New York. She worked as a secretary, an editor, a tour guide at Rockefeller Center, and a buyer for the Lord & Taylor department store chain.
By day, there were office jobs. [music] By night, auditions, small stages, and attempts to find opportunities in an industry where she did not yet know anyone. Joan’s first steps [music] into the world of performance did not take place under the lights of television, but on off-Broadway stages and in small comedy groups in New York.
During this period, she used [music] the stage name Pepper January, a name her manager at the time believed was more suitable for the entertainment industry. Performing work brought Joan to nightclubs, bars, and low-budget variety stages. Not every night had an audience, not every night came with pay. There were times when she was asked to leave the stage halfway [music] through, places that did not pay her, and performances that ended with Joan quietly packing up her things and looking for another place to start again. While Joan was struggling to
survive, Greenwich Village [music] was becoming one of the most vibrant creative centers in America. Many young artists appeared there and quickly found their footing. Names such as Woody Allen, George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby, and Barbra Streisand [music] were all building their careers during the same period.
Joan stood in the middle of that environment with a feeling of being both inspired and [music] pressured. She saw the people around her continuously moving forward, while she herself still had to worry about rent money and temporary jobs to keep her life going. Also, during these years, Joan became involved in New York’s improvisational comedy environment and came into contact with artists connected [music] to the Second City system.
This was where she learned how to react quickly to an audience, adjust the rhythm of a story, [music] and handle unexpected situations on stage. The world of comedy at that time was almost entirely dominated by men. Joan repeatedly spoke about the feeling [music] of having to create opportunities for herself in in environment where women were often not seen as the center of stand-up comedy acts.
Observing her colleagues, rewriting material, and constantly experimenting gradually helped her form her own style. One of the most important jobs before she became famous was writing for Allen Funt’s program Candid Camera. This work gave Joan a more stable source of income and was also the first time she came into direct contact [music] with television production.
Writing short comedic situations, building reactions, and observing human behavior became an important part of the development of her professional skills. However, even after she had work in television, Joan still could not make a breakthrough as a performer. For many years, Joan’s biggest goal was to appear on Johnny Carson’s The Tonight [music] Show.
She tried many times but was repeatedly rejected. According to Joan’s later accounts, she was turned down again and again. The bookers believed her style was too sharp, too direct, and often [music] touched on subjects that women at the time were not encouraged to speak about publicly. While others gradually found opportunities, Joan continued to wait.
At one point, her manager returned her file and told her that she would never succeed in the entertainment industry. The turning point came on February 17th, 1965. After many failures, [music] Joan finally went on the air on The Tonight Show. She walked onto the stage with very little expectation beyond completing her performance, but the audience’s reaction was completely different from anything she had [music] experienced before.
When the act ended, Johnny Carson turned to her and said, “You’re going to be a star.” Decades later, Joan still remembered that moment clearly and often repeated it in interviews. The woman who had just heard her manager say that she would never succeed suddenly became a name noticed by producers [music] and television programs.
The phone began to ring. Invitations to appear on television started coming one after another. After more than 10 years of doing all kinds of jobs to earn a living, performing on small stages, [music] and waiting for an opportunity, Joan finally had the thing she had been pursuing since leaving college. The road ahead was still very long, but for the first time, she no longer had to stand outside watching opportunities pass her by.
What happened after that night in February 1965 felt like the change Joan had been waiting for over many years. The Tonight Show quickly became the biggest launch pad of her career. After her first appearance, Joan was repeatedly invited back to the program. Audiences began to remember the woman with the fast-speaking [music] pace, the sharp jokes, and the ability to turn everyday subjects into laughter.
[music] Each appearance before millions of national television viewers brought her name one step further forward. The professional relationship between Joan Rivers and Johnny Carson [music] also grew increasingly close during this period. Carson was not only the most famous [music] television host in America, but also one of the few people who publicly supported her at a time when many producers were still doubtful about whether a female comedian could succeed.
[music] Joan said many times that simply being introduced and trusted by Carson opened doors that had always been closed to her before. For many years, The Tonight Show continued to be the place where the public [music] saw her most often. Her regular appearances on national television quickly took Joan beyond the world of comedy clubs.
She began appearing on a series of well-known programs, such as Hollywood [music] Squares, game shows, and variety entertainment programs that were dominating American television at the time. Audiences no longer saw Joan merely as an emerging face from New York. She gradually became a familiar figure on the small [music] screen, appearing in many different program formats, and proving that she could work beyond the stand-up comedy stage.
Also during this period, Joan Rivers’ style began to take clear shape. Instead of building a perfect image like many female performers of the same era, she often brought her own insecurities onto [music] the stage. Appearance, age, dating, marriage, sex, [music] and the pressures women faced became familiar material in her acts.
Many of the subjects Joan addressed [music] at that time were still considered sensitive on American television. This made [music] some viewers uncomfortable, but it also helped her create a distinction between herself and hundreds of comedians working during the same period. In 1968, Joan published her first book titled Having a Baby Can Be a Scream.
The book continued to explore a humorous perspective [music] on family life and women’s experiences. This was also the period when she began expanding her work beyond the stage, gradually building an image not only as a comedian, but also as an author and an influential television personality. [music] As the 1970s began, Joan appeared more and more on television specials, >> [music] >> nationally broadcast comedy performances, and major American talk shows.
[music] Her quick improvisational ability, her willingness to [music] say what others avoided, and her energetic storytelling helped her become a guest loved by producers. Joan’s fame at this [music] point was no longer limited to the comedy world. She had become a familiar television face to millions of viewers. In 1978, Joan tried a new role when she [music] wrote and directed the film Rabbit Test.
Although the film did not achieve major commercial or critical success, her decision to become more deeply involved in the production process showed that Joan did not want to limit herself to the role of performer. By the time the 1970s came to an end, Joan Rivers had become one of the most famous female comedians in America.
She constantly [music] toured, appeared on television, and maintained a prominent position in the entertainment industry. What had once been seen as her greatest obstacle, being a woman in a comedy world dominated by men, had now become part of her professional identity. In the early 1980s, Joan’s range of activity continued to expand.
In 1983, she began hosting The Joan Rivers Show, marking an important step from being a frequent guest to becoming the host of a program carrying her own personal brand. This was no longer about appearing on someone else’s show. Joan had now become the center [music] of a program bearing her own name. Also in 1983, NBC appointed Joan Rivers as the permanent guest host of The Tonight Show.
This was a position very few [music] people had ever held for a long period, and it was even rarer for a woman. In the eyes of many people in the industry, Joan at that time was the most natural [music] candidate to inherit Johnny Carson’s legacy in the future. After nearly two decades since she first stepped onto the stage of The Tonight Show, she was no longer someone searching for an opportunity.
Joan Rivers had become one of the most powerful and influential faces on American television. In 1986, Joan Rivers faced the biggest decision since the night Johnny Carson introduced [music] her to America more than 20 years earlier. At that time, Fox was still a young television network trying to compete with long-established [music] giants such as NBC, CBS, and ABC.
To attract public attention, [music] Fox made an offer that very few television performers could ignore. Joan would have her own late-night program titled The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers, along with a contract that the press at the time reported to be worth about $15 million over several years. This offer did not only carry financial meaning.
For the first time in American television history, a woman was given the opportunity to host a late-night program on a major television network. >> [music] >> For many years, Joan had built her position in the male-dominated world of late-night television. Now, she would no longer be someone appearing on another person’s program.
She would become the one sitting in the central [music] chair. Before officially accepting the offer, Joan said the first person she wanted to inform was Johnny Carson. Many years later, she recalled that she called Carson to tell him the news. According to Joan’s version, the conversation [music] did not unfold as she had expected. Carson hung up.
She called a second time, but still received no response. That was the beginning of the collapse of a professional relationship that had lasted more than two decades. The two never truly reconciled. For Joan, this was one of the greatest losses of her [music] career. For Carson, the decision to move to Fox was seen as a direct act of competition against his program.
When The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers went on the air in the fall of 1986, media attention was almost entirely focused on the program. The fact that a woman had stepped into the world of late-night television was already enough to create debate. Newspapers constantly tracked [music] the ratings, compared Joan with Carson, and predicted the future of Fox.
>> [music] >> In the first months, the program was not the disaster that many people later imagined. In fact, its viewership reached a level sufficient for Fox to continue investing [music] in it. However, the pressures behind the scenes began to appear almost immediately. One of the biggest problems lay in the role of Edgar Rosenberg.
Not only was he Joan’s husband, [music] Edgar was also involved in running the program as a producer. Managing a late-night television program on a newly established network placed him in an extremely high-pressure environment. The relationship between Edgar and Fox’s [music] leadership grew increasingly tense.
Disagreements over the direction of the show, the budget, and control of production kept appearing. Rupert Murdoch and the executive team wanted the program to operate in one direction, while Edgar tried to protect the decisions he believed were necessary for Joan and the crew. Meanwhile, Joan still had to face the pressure of appearing before the public every night.
Every change in the ratings became a newspaper headline. Every decision was compared with Carson. Instead of being seen as a new program, The Late Show was often judged through the confrontation between Fox and NBC. The prolonged pressure made internal conflicts become increasingly serious. By the middle of 1987, Fox’s leadership decided to change direction.
According to many documents and Joan’s later accounts, she was [music] given the choice to stay on the condition that Edgar would no longer be involved with the program. Joan refused. That decision quickly led to an outcome that few people would have imagined only 1 year earlier. The woman once seen as the future of late-night television was fired from the very program that carried her own name.
In only a short period of time, she lost her position at Fox, lost [music] the support from NBC, and also lost her relationship with Johnny Carson. Many doors that had once opened wide in the television industry began to close. After more than 20 years of building her name in order to step into the center of the late-night world, Joan suddenly found herself standing [music] outside the system she had spent her entire career trying to conquer.
As 1988 [music] began, Joan Rivers almost had to start over from the beginning. Only 2 years earlier, she had still been seen as one of the most powerful [music] figures on American television, and as someone who could possibly succeed Johnny Carson in the future. Now that position was gone. Her departure from Fox, the broken relationship with Carson, and the controversies surrounding The Late Show made many people in the industry believe that Joan’s career was over.
Offers to appear on television dropped sharply. The doors that had once opened easily in the previous decade were no longer the same. Joan did not disappear from the public eye, but she was forced [music] to accept opportunities that only a few years earlier she might not have considered. Instead of being at the center of late-night television, she returned [music] to daytime programs, interviews, guest appearances on television, and stand-up comedy tours.
Joan later referred many times to this period [music] as a time when she had to find every possible path to keep appearing before audiences. The work was no longer as glamorous as before, but it helped her maintain her presence in the entertainment industry [music] at a time when many people had already begun thinking of another name for the future of American television.
One of the most important projects of this period was The Joan Rivers Show. The daytime television program helped her rebuild her connection with audiences in a way that [music] was completely different from the late night world. Joan no longer appeared as someone [music] competing with Johnny Carson or the major television networks.
She became a host who talked with audiences about everyday subjects, popular culture, and social issues that were drawing public attention. Through each season, the program gradually built a stable audience. In 1990, that effort was recognized when Joan won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host.
It was the first major award of her television career after the upheavals of the late 1980s. [music] In her acceptance speech, Joan was emotional when mentioning Edgar Rosenberg. The predictions that Joan Rivers would disappear from television did not come true. >> [music] >> Recognition also came in 1989 when Joan received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
This was an honor given to artists who had made long-term contributions [music] to the entertainment industry. For Joan, it came at a special [music] moment. While the public saw her name carved into the Walk of Fame, she herself was still trying to rebuild a career that had been badly damaged only a few years earlier.
Those two images existed side by side throughout the early 1990s. In the following years, Joan maintained a packed [music] work schedule. She continued touring with stand-up comedy across America, appeared on talk shows, joined many television programs as a guest, and kept searching for new projects. This was no longer the explosive period of the late 1970s [music] or early 1980s.
Instead, it was a process of maintaining her presence and [music] proving that she could still attract audiences even though she was no longer at the center of the late night world. >> [music] >> In 1994, Joan shifted toward the Broadway stage with the play Sally Marr and her escorts.
In this production, she portrayed Sally Marr, the mother of comedian Lenny Bruce. The role brought Joan some of the most positive praise of her [music] stage career and earned her a Tony Award nomination for best leading actress. By the middle of the 1990s, Joan Rivers no longer held the position she had once had before moving to Fox.
The television world had changed. New faces had appeared and the debates about Johnny Carson’s successor no longer mentioned her name the way they once had. However, what Joan regained was something many people had once thought she would lose completely. She was still appearing on television, still touring, [music] still writing, still working, and still being recognized by the public.
In 1996, [music] Joan Rivers appeared on E! Entertainment with the program Live from the Red Carpet. Before Hollywood’s major award ceremonies, she stood behind the press barrier and spoke with actors, singers, and models as they entered the events. While most red carpet questions still revolved around films or awards, Joan often asked about outfits, [music] designers, and the fashion choices of the guests.
The question, “Who are you wearing?” quickly became a familiar part of live television broadcasts from the Oscars, the Emmys, and the Golden Globes. The red carpet broadcasts increasingly attracted viewers. Designers began to be named on television in front of millions of people. Outfits worn at award ceremonies became topics discussed [music] in newspapers the next day.
Joan did not only interview guests, she also gave immediate comments on the way they dressed. Her compliments, criticisms, and sharp jokes made her name closely connected to red carpet culture for many years. Television work was not Joan’s only activity during this time. From 1997 to 2002, she hosted a program on WOR Radio in New York.
Her work schedule was still maintained with stand-up comedy tours, television appearances, and publishing projects. While many colleagues of her generation gradually reduced their workload, Joan continued to appear before the public almost year-round. Also during those years, she began [music] expanding into business through QVC.
Joan personally introduced lines of jewelry, fashion [music] accessories, and beauty products carrying her own brand. Audiences [music] who were used to seeing her on stage or television now encountered her in shopping programs that lasted for many hours. This activity [music] continued to grow for many years and became an important part of her work.
The product lines bearing the Joan Rivers name were continuously expanded and maintained large sales on QVC. Many later reports said that the accumulated sales [music] from her business activities had surpassed the $1 billion mark. By the early 2000s, Joan was appearing at the same time on Entertainment Television, radio, touring stages, and live shopping programs.
The name Joan Rivers was no longer tied to only one job. She appeared in many different areas of the entertainment industry [music] and continued working with an intensity that had almost not changed compared with previous [music] decades. In 2009, Joan Rivers appeared on The Celebrity Apprentice, the reality television program hosted by Donald Trump.
[music] At the time, she was over 75 years old and was one of the oldest contestants [music] of the season. Throughout the program, Joan competed against actors, athletes, and television personalities from many different generations. After many weeks of challenges, she won the overall competition and donated all of the prize money to the charity God Love We Deliver.
This victory brought Joan back into the center of media attention [music] at a time when many people had once seen her as a figure belonging to an earlier generation. Also during those years, Fashion Police continued to expand its audience. The program had developed from red carpet [music] fashion commentary, but gradually became its own brand on E.
Together with Kelly Osbourne, Giuliana Rancic, George Kotsiopoulos, and later many other faces, Joan turned discussions about celebrity clothing into entertainment content that attracted millions of viewers. Her blunt, sometimes controversial remarks remained her familiar trademark. For a portion of younger viewers, this was the first time they came to know [music] Joan Rivers, not through The Tonight Show or the comedy clubs of the 1960s, but through cable television and the celebrity culture of the 21st century.
Her television work continued alongside other activities. Joan kept touring with stand-up comedy across America, appeared on interview programs, released new books, and took part in producing many television [music] projects. While many artists of her generation had retired or greatly reduced their workload, her schedule was [music] still filled with tapings, flights, and live performances.
Joan once said that she did not know how to live without working, and the final years of her life reflected that [music] very clearly. In 2012, she won the Grammy Award in the category of Best Spoken Word Album for the recording of her memoir Diary [music] of a Mad Diva. This was the first Grammy in Joan’s decades-long career.
To the public, she was still a comedian, host, and fashion commentator. But at nearly 80 years old, Joan continued adding new milestones to her already very long professional record. In early 2014, a particularly meaningful event took place when Joan Rivers appeared on The Tonight [music] Show starring Jimmy Fallon.
This was the first time she had returned to the program after nearly three decades. The studio was different. The host was different. And most of the audience also belonged to a different [music] generation. But for Joan, this was still the place connected to that night in February 1965 when Johnny [music] Carson first introduced her to America.
When she walked onto the stage that evening, the audience stood up and applauded to welcome her. >> [music] >> Joan told stories, joked, and talked with Fallon as if the long stretch of time between the two appearances had never existed. It was not a comeback meant to launch a new chapter [music] in her career.
After nearly half a century of working in front of the public, Joan no longer had anything left [music] to prove. But returning to The Tonight Show brought her back to the place where everything [music] had once begun. Where a young female comedian had once received the affirmation that changed her entire life. Only a few months after that appearance, Joan Rivers’ career, which had lasted nearly six decades, would enter its final days.
Throughout the years when the public followed Joan Rivers’ successes, [music] controversies, and returns on television, another part of her life was also constantly [music] changing behind the scenes. Family relationships, marriages, and private losses repeatedly affected Joan’s career decisions in ways audiences could not always see.
Joan Rivers’ first marriage took place long before she became a familiar face on American television. In 1955, she married James Sanger. That marriage ended after only a few months through an annulment. Joan rarely mentioned this period in later years, but she once admitted that it was a painful experience.
For someone who [music] had grown up in an environment that valued stability and family life, >> [music] >> that first collapse left a mark that lasted far longer than the marriage itself. The person connected to most of Joan’s adult life was Edgar Rosenberg. The two met when her career was beginning to open up its first opportunities [music] on television.
They married in 1965, exactly during the period when Joan was moving from a performer searching for an opportunity into a name known by audiences across the country. Edgar was not only her husband, he gradually became her manager, advisor, and support in almost every important [music] decision. When Joan appeared under the stage lights, Edgar was often the person behind the scenes coordinating schedules, >> [music] >> contracts, and the details the public never saw.
Three years after their wedding, their only daughter, Melissa Rivers, was born. Motherhood came at a time when Joan’s career was developing at a rapid pace. Television programs, tours, and a packed work schedule [music] often kept her away from home. Melissa grew up with a mother who was famous, but also very strict. The two went through tense periods that they later both publicly acknowledged.
[music] But time also made that relationship deeper. Their clashes did not push them away from each other, but gradually created a special bond. Family was always present in Joan’s life in many different ways. She often mentioned her mother, Beatrice Molinsky, as the person who had the greatest influence on her personality and her way of seeing the world.
Their relationship was both close and complicated. Only when she became a mother herself did Joan begin to understand more clearly the pressures [music] her own mother had once gone through. Her father, Meyer Molinsky, who had once opposed his daughter’s artistic path, still held an important place [music] in Joan’s life.
Her sister, Barbara Waxler, also remained part of the family circle [music] that she maintained for many decades. In 1986, the pressures related to The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers began to cast a shadow over the family’s private life. The program became the focus of media controversy. Disagreements with Fox became increasingly serious.
Edgar, who was involved in running the program, had to face pressure that very few viewers [music] could see behind the screen. When Joan was removed from the very program bearing her name in 1987, the shock was not only a professional failure, it directly affected the entire family. A few weeks later, Edgar Rosenberg was found dead at a hotel in Philadelphia.
He was 61 [music] years old. The terrible news came to Joan with almost no preparation. [music] The man who had accompanied her for more than 20 years, the man [music] who appeared in every major decision of her life, suddenly disappeared. Many years later, Joan still admitted that she could not understand what had happened in those first days.
She was in pain, angry, confused, and constantly asking herself whether she could have done something differently to change the outcome. The following months became the darkest period in Joan Rivers’s life. She publicly admitted that she fell into deep depression. There were days when she did not want to get out of bed.
At one point, she thought about ending her own life. Psychological problems and eating disorders continued for many years afterward. Whenever she mentioned Edgar in interviews, Joan could still break down in tears, even though the tragedy had happened a very long time before. What helped her keep moving forward was Melissa. While the whole family was trying to face the loss, Melissa became the most important loved one in Joan’s life.
Joan once said that her responsibility to her daughter was one of the reasons she continued living. Instead of disappearing from the public, Joan threw herself back [music] into work. She continued performing, continued appearing on television, and continued searching for new projects. [music] As Melissa grew up and entered the entertainment industry, the relationship between the two shifted into a different stage.
They were not only mother and daughter, but also became colleagues. [music] Melissa appeared with Joan on television programs, red carpet broadcasts, and reality projects. The public often saw them argue, tease each other, or disagree directly in front of the camera. But behind those moments were two people who had gone through the greatest [music] tragedy of their family together.
The final years of Joan Rivers’ life did not resemble the usual image of an artist already [music] in her 70s or 80s. While many people of her generation chose to rest or only appear occasionally in public, Joan still maintained a packed [music] work schedule. She continued touring with stand-up comedy across America, filming Fashion Police, [music] appearing on QVC to introduce products carrying her own brand, writing books, >> [music] >> and taking part in many different television programs.
In interviews, Joan said many times that she did not know how to live without working. The stage, [music] the camera, and the audience were still part of her daily rhythm even after she had entered her 80s. Work continued at its familiar pace in the months that followed. In late August 2014, Joan went to a clinic in New York to undergo a procedure [music] related to her vocal cords and upper airway.
On August 28th, during the procedure, she suffered serious complications. According to medical reports released afterward, Joan experienced prolonged oxygen deprivation, leading to severe brain damage. She was rushed to Mount Sinai Hospital and quickly fell into a coma. In the following days, her family and the public [music] continuously followed updates about her health condition.
Melissa Rivers became the family’s representative during this time. A series of artists, colleagues, [music] and fans sent prayers as well as messages of encouragement. However, Joan’s condition did not improve as hoped. After a week of intensive treatment, the family had to face the reality that the damage was too severe. On September 4th, 2014, Joan Rivers died in New York at the age of 81.
The cause of death was determined to be brain damage caused by lack of oxygen after her heart and respiratory [music] system stopped functioning during the medical complication. Her passing quickly became major news across America. Television networks, newspapers, and entertainment [music] programs devoted significant time to looking back on the life and career of the woman who had been connected to the entertainment industry for more than half [music] a century.
Joan’s funeral was held at Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan. A large number of famous figures from the worlds of media, film, television, and comedy were present to say goodbye to her. Among those who attended were Barbara Walters, Oprah Winfrey, David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel, [music] Howard Stern, Whoopi Goldberg, Sarah Jessica Parker, Rosie O’Donnell, Jimmy Fallon, Kathy Griffin, >> [music] >> and many other long-time colleagues and friends.
Melissa Rivers stood at the center of the service, [music] representing the family on the day they said farewell to her mother. In the days that followed, tributes appeared throughout American media. Many artists referred to Joan [music] as someone who had opened the way for women in comedy and television. Colleagues remembered a person who worked without rest and always prepared carefully for every appearance before the public.
People who had worked with her recalled that Joan kept files for almost every act, every performance, and every project across many decades. Even after achieving fame and success that very few artists ever reached, she still worked with the mindset of someone trying to win the next opportunity. [music] From the small clubs of Greenwich Village to national television, from stand-up comedy stages to the Hollywood [music] red carpet, she continued appearing before the public until the final weeks of her life.
When Joan died, there was no retirement period behind her. The work simply stopped because her life had [music] reached its end. Joan Rivers did not leave behind a single program that could represent her entire career. Across nearly six decades [music] of work, she constantly changed roles, changed environments, and many times had to rebuild her position from the beginning.
Audiences knew Joan through The Tonight Show, daytime television, the Broadway stage, >> [music] >> red carpet broadcasts, and Fashion Police. Each period carried a different image, but amid all those changes, one thing remained the same. >> [music] >> Joan almost never accepted being removed from the game.
When she was a young performer in New York, it took her many years to get the chance to appear on national television. [music] Two decades later, she lost the late-night program that carried her name, lost her relationship with Johnny Carson, and watched much of what she had built begin to collapse. [music] After Edgar Rosenberg’s death, many people believed Joan would never find her old position again.
But every time she was pushed out of the [music] center of the entertainment industry, she appeared somewhere else. Not always in the highest position, but enough to keep existing and to keep being seen by audiences. Joan’s influence on American comedy does not lie in the fact that she was the first woman to step onto a stage.
[music] What made her different was that she belonged to a very small group of women who turned stand-up comedy into a national-scale career during a period when the field was almost entirely dominated by men. The subjects she brought onto the stage, such as appearance, age, [music] marriage, social pressure, and women’s private lives, gradually became a familiar part of modern comedy.
Many generations of female comedians who appeared after her entered an environment that was more open than it had been when Joan began. Her mark also appeared in places not directly connected to comedy. Before Joan Rivers, the red carpet was mostly seen as the opening part of an event. >> [music] >> After many years of her appearances on E!, conversations about fashion, public image, and clothing choices became entertainment content with its own audience.
One generation of viewers came to know [music] Joan not from the Johnny Carson era, but from live broadcasts before the Oscars, the Emmys, and the Golden Globes. Awards and recognition appeared throughout her career: a Daytime Emmy, a Grammy, a Tony Award nomination, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the Television Academy Hall of Fame.
But those honors reflect only part of the story. What makes Joan Rivers continue to be mentioned many years after her death perhaps lies somewhere else. In an industry that is always searching for new faces and often quickly forgets the old ones, she repeatedly found a way to return every time people thought her story had ended.
From the small stages of Greenwich Village to The Tonight [music] Show, from the rupture with Johnny Carson to the years connected to the Hollywood red carpet, Joan Rivers’ life constantly changed direction in ways even she could hardly have imagined when she was [music] young. There were great successes, public failures, and losses that never truly disappeared.
But until the final weeks of her [music] life, Joan was still doing the work she had pursued since leaving Barnard College many decades earlier. If she had to start all over again one more time, would Joan Rivers have chosen any other path?
