Skip to Content

Oprah Winfrey shared a video of her 1983 audition for a Chicago daytime talk show on the OWN network today.

It’s nearly impossible to believe the confident yet soft-spoken young woman in the clip below would go on to become one of the wealthiest and most admired people in America. 

The Hollywood Gossip Logo

But even thirty years ago, Oprah had undeniable camera presence.

In the audition clip she explains the story behind her first name, noting that even though Oprah is "Harpo" spelled backwards, there are no Marx Brothers fans in her family and her folks didn’t even own a TV.

Turns out the moniker that’s now synonymous with media dominance is actually a misspelling of an obscure biblical name. Who knew!

 

In introducing the clip, Oprah says she was "obsessed" with landing the hosting gig in Chicago and "stayed up all night" editing clips from her previous TV jobs to show to producers.

Amazingly, Queen O says she was forced to pull the all-nighter because was unorganized in those days and hadn’t previously created a video resume like most of her colleagues.

Well, it certainly seems like she’s got her stuff together these days. Maybe there’s hope for the rest of us after all!