- Taught himself how to speak Swahili before going on trips to Africa during his retirement.
- Was a member of the exclusive Hollywood Gourmet Poker Club with fellow card players Chevy Chase, Martin Short, Steve Martin, Carl Reiner, Barry Diller and Neil Simon.
- When he announced his impending retirement, there was fierce competition between David Letterman and Jay Leno to be his "Tonight Show" successor. Leno eventually won the coveted spot, and an angry Letterman moved over to rival network CBS to host a competing show. In addition to his walk-on appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman (1993) stage, he also appeared on another episode in a filmed segment where Letterman has car problems while visiting Hollywood and Carson drives past, shaking his head in disapproval. Many, including Leno, took Carson's walk-on appearance on Late Show with David Letterman (1993) as a signal from Carson that he preferred Letterman to Leno.(Carson never appeared on Leno's show.).
- When he retired in 1992, he held the record for hosting the same network series for the longest time: 29 years, 7 months, 21 days. The record was broken by Bob Barker on The Price is Right (1972) in 2002.
- In January 2005, one-time Late Show with David Letterman (1993) producer Peter Lassally revealed that Carson occasionally contributed material for Letterman's monologues. What he missed most in retirement was performing his own "Tonight Show" monologues, according to Lassally.
- Celebrated New Year's Eve once in his teens by shooting off his father's rifle at midnight, accidentally taking out the family water heater.
- During one live dog-food commercial on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962), when a stunt dog failed to appear on cue, Johnny came out on all fours, panting and licking announcer Ed McMahon's hand, to keep the commercial going.
- "I'll be right back" -- Carson's response, when asked what he'd like for his epitaph at a press conference after he'd accepted Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Club Man of the Year Award in 1977.
- According to the PBS series American Masters (1985), Carson was seen by more people on more occasions than anyone else in American history.
- The first guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962) was Groucho Marx, who introduced the host (reacting to the ensuing applause, Carson said, "Boy, you would think it was Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson"). Carson's last guest was Bette Midler, who sang him out.
- The story goes he met his last wife, Alexis Mass, when he saw her strolling along the beach near his Malibu home holding an empty wine glass. He left his house and offered to fill the glass up for her.
- While serving in the Navy (1943-45) on the USS Pennsylvania during WWII, he filled in for an absent Rita Hayworth during a USO performance by Orson Welles's "Mercury Theater Wonder Show" in which he had to be sawed in half by Welles. In the Navy, he was also an undefeated amateur boxer, posting a record of 10 wins.
- First wife, Joan "Jody" Morrill Wolcott, was his college sweetheart. They divorced and in 1990 she lost a suit trying to increase the alimony that she was receiving. Their son, Richard Wolcott Carson, was killed on 6/21/91 after his car plunged down a steep embankment along a coastal road. The accident apparently occurred while he was taking pictures along a paved service road off Hwy. 1 near Cayucos, north of San Luis Obispo (CA). Carson had two other sons: Christopher and Cory Carson.
- Once appeared on American Bandstand (1952) and stood in for a drummer.
- At the tenth anniversary party for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962) on 9/30/72, he announced that he and former model Joanna Holland had married that afternoon, shocking friends and associates.
- After a protracted divorce from his second wife, Joanne Carson, she got nearly $500,000 in cash and art and $75,000 a year in alimony for life.
- Co-wrote "Johnny's Theme" with Paul Anka when he signed on in 1962 as the new host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962).
- In 1949 he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in radio and speech (with a minor in physics) from The University of Nebraska. He was a member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity.
- He made one foray into movies--he played himself in Connie Francis's Looking for Love (1964). The MGM flick didn't do that well, and Carson was never seen in movies again, except for films in which his show is playing on a TV set during a particular scene.
- Although he announced on The Last Tonight Show (1992) (his final episode) that he hoped to return soon with a new project, he chose to fully retire from the public eye instead and declined invitations to appear on talk shows and NBC anniversary specials. He did made a few exceptions over the years: He provided a guest voice for Krusty Gets Kancelled (1993), and he brought the house down with a brief, surprise appearance on Late Show with David Letterman (1993) to congratulate Letterman on his new show.
- Lived in Norfolk, NE, for a decade from the age of eight until his induction into the US Navy in 1943. He made donations totaling nearly $5 million to causes and organizations there, including the Carson Regional Cancer Center (named after his parents), the high school's Johnny Carson Theater, the Norfolk Public Library, the Norfolk Arts Center, the Elkhorn Valley Museum and Research Center, and the Lifelong Learning Center at Northeast Community College. He last visited Norfolk in 1997 when he attended his former penmanship teacher Fay Gordon's 100th birthday party.
- Having smoked four to five packs of Pall Mall cigarettes a day, he began to suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by the late 1970s, but continued to smoke heavily. On 3/9/99 he underwent emergency quadruple bypass surgery at Santa Monica Hospital (CA) after suffering a severe heart attack.
- Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992.
- Had a lifelong interest in magic and sent away for a mail-order magic kit when he was 12. Soon he started performing for bridge clubs and church socials as a 14-year-old magician/comic, under the name "The Great Carsoni." Plied his magic tricks in early performing days of the 1950s in places like the Seven Seas Lounge in Omaha, NE.
- Son of Homer Carson, who was manager of the Iowa-Nebraska Light & Power Company, and homemaker Ruth Carson. Brother of Dick Carson, and Catharine Carson. Uncle of Jeff Sotzing. Former stepfather of Joe Holland. His brother Dick Carson was at one time producer/director of The Merv Griffin Show (1962) in the 1970s and produced/directed over 3200 episodes of the network and syndicated versions of Wheel of Fortune (1983).
- Was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1987.
- One of his early jobs was as a ventriloquist.
- In April 1967 he walked off The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962) convinced that NBC had violated his contract by showing reruns during an AFTRA strike. He refused to go back to work when the strike ended and won a new contract that reportedly guaranteed him an income in excess of $4 million for the following three years.
- Interviewed in "The Great Comedians Talk About Comedy" by Larry Wilde.
- Mill Creek Entertainment has issued a four-DVD boxed set called "Johnny Carson: Late Night Legend", consisting of more than 23 hours of shows culled from his late-night talk show, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962).
- On 3/8/83 Joanna Holland filed for divorce. Under California's community property laws, she was entitled to 50% of all the assets accumulated during the marriage, even though Carson earned virtually all of the couple's income. During this period, he joked on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962), "My producer (Frederick De Cordova) really gave me something I needed for Christmas. He gave me a gift certificate to the Law Offices of Jacoby and Meyers". The divorce was settled in 1985 in an 80-page settlement, Holland receiving $20 million in cash and property.
- Received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1993.
- Inducted into the Nebraska Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame in 1987.
- Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith. Pg. 95-97. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387
- Graduated from Norfolk Senior High of Norfolk, Nebraska.
- He was of English, along with smaller amounts of Scots-Irish/Northern Irish, German, Dutch, French, and Scottish, descent.
- Mentioned in End in Sight (1978).
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