From John Travolta sobbing at the Emmys to 'The Tonight Show' secrets, ex-NBC Page reveals untold celebrity stories

If you're fascinated by television history and stories about celebrities from John Travolta to Johnny Carson, Shelley Herman's "My Peacock Tale: Secrets Of An NBC Page" is one of the most engaging, witty and revealing books you can read.

As the title suggests, Herman began her career in the famed NBC Page program in Burbank, Calif., and the now Emmy-nominated TV writer is revealing all the secrets behind-the-scenes of some of the most infamous NBC shows in the '70s.

"I would say the only good thing to come out of the pandemic was me being kind of forced into writing the book because of my friends," Herman told Yahoo Canada in a phone interview last month.

Herman is still close with a "core group" of former NBC Pages and as they started connecting over Zoom when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, they would share old stories.

"Throughout this process, people kept saying, 'somebody should write a book,'" Herman explained. "I'm a writer. I never really considered writing a book because I thought only really smart people wrote books and I figured, well, I'll give it a crack and try it."

Herman's writing is smart and conversational, which makes the reader feel like she's bringing you into this world she has inhabited for so many years. Calling "My Peacock Tale: Secrets Of An NBC Page" a memoir oversimplifies the scope of what Herman has been able to achieve. It's personal but it's also every celebrity gossip lover's dream, demystifying several decades-long rumours.

Personal moments with Travolta, Hitchcock

"My Peacock Tale: Secrets Of An NBC Page" is stacked to the brim with fascinating celebrity encounters. But there are a few moments that still stand out for Herman, particularly the 1977 Emmy Awards recounted in the chapter titled, "What You Didn't See At The Emmys."

A moment from that night that sticks out for the author is a particularly heartwarming interaction she had with John Travolta, who accepted an award on behalf of his late girlfriend Diana Hyland, after she died from breast cancer.

That night, Herman's responsibility was to help take the stars to the backstage area, where they would be met with press.

"John sat down in a metal folding chair and with his head in his hands was just sobbing," Herman said. "It was so heartbreaking to see him.

"I ran over to the makeup table and I grabbed a bunch of Kleenex real fast and I handed it to him. He looked up at me with a puddle of tears coming out of his eyes and thanked me for it, and then hugged me really, really tight. I looked at him and I said, 'You want to get out of here for a while?' He nodded and I hid him in one of the dressing rooms backstage until he could compose himself. ... Then when he was ready, he came out and I walked him down the hallway and he squeezed my hand a little bit, and he was ready to go into the press area."

But that's not even where the notable celebrity encounters ended for Herman. The author had done her senior thesis on Alfred Hitchcock and that night, she was able to meet him.

"I was helping get Mr. Hitchcock backstage ... and I wanted to talk to him desperately, but of course I was being professional, and as we're walking backstage, Hitchcock turned to me and said, 'You're doing a very good job,'" Herman shared.

'When somebody is sexually harassed on the job ... they're not asking for it'

While the celebrity gossip and riveting stories of encounters with some of Hollywood's biggest stars are enticing in "My Peacock Tale: Secrets Of An NBC Page," Herman also tackles more serious elements of her career. This includes sharing stories about the misogyny and harassment women faced in what she classifies in her book as the "boys will be boys" era.

"My Peacock Tale: Secrets Of An NBC Page" specifically details a personal moment Herman had with "M*A*S*H" star McLean Stevenson. While the full story is worth reading in totality in the book, Herman describes a time she went into Stevenson's office, which included a "secret button" under a desk drawer that slammed the door closed behind her. That led to what Herman states was unwanted advances from the star.

"I wanted to tell the McLean Stevenson story in a way that showed how, when somebody is sexually harassed on the job, how they're not asking for it," Herman stressed. "I was there in a professional capacity and I had known McLean socially, and had rejected his passes in the past."

When Herman was writing this part of her book, she wanted to do so in a way that was "cautionary," but impressively still maintains the author's comedic tone.

"I beat myself up for a while about it," Herman shared. "It took some reflection in writing the book to realize that I didn't put out mixed messages, I didn't try to do anything except my job."

"I think that because I was trying to be a part of a training program, I would try to do what the guys were doing. If the guys were sitting backstage watching how a TV show was going into production and coming up with ideas on how to pitch stories, I did the same things they did, just with a different outcome than most of them, I'm sure. ... Although there were some male pages who had men come on to them too.”

While she kept most of the book to herself before it was published, Herman made one exception. She shared pages from the novel with two of her friends in advance, which related to a particularly traumatic encounter they had with Freddie Prinze shortly before he died by suicide.

"[They] are still very saddened by what happened with Freddie and neither one of them had compared their stories with each other," Herman said. "It was kind of therapeutic for them to talk to each other and I sent them both notes saying, 'A professional journalist would never let the subject of her story be read ahead of time. Attached, here's a copy of the story.'"

"I made sure it was OK with both of them. ... One of the girls, specifically, it triggered something and she had to go back into therapy for a little while to start processing it."

Inside look at the Joan Rivers, Johnny Carson fallout

One of the most infamous Hollywood stories — still to this day — is the Joan Rivers and Johnny Carson fallout, after the late comic decided to host her own talk show.

Rivers' appearances on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" were favourites, and Herman described her as "encouraging" to the Pages. Some of the Pages would even write jokes for Rivers and she would pay them $7 a joke.

"When Joan was roaming the hallways, whether she was doing 'The Tonight Show,' or one of the game shows, she was very supportive of the Pages," Herman said. "When I wrote some jokes for her, she would look you in the eye and she would say, 'Good. I'm coming back here next week. Have some material for me.' And she pointed her finger like, 'Yes, do that,' and she was very encouraging.

"Off camera, Joan was very generous and very kind. I can only say lovely things about her and I think that the whole debacle with 'The Tonight Show' was a very bad prank gone to the extreme, and it never should have happened."

While Herman wasn't around for the moment of the big falling out, she was still very connected with everyone still working there at the time.

"Dorothy Melvin, who was Joan's good friend and was her manager at the time, saw an actual letter that had the names of potential people who could take Johnny's job when he was going to retire," Herman explained. "There was a note that said, 'You have no home here.'"

Herman went on to say that Peter Lassally, who was the "number two person" at 'The Tonight Show' and "the person who really did call the shots," swore he never saw the memo.

"It was never anything official. It never should have happened, and on the list were not the names of people like David Letterman or Jay Leno, who were the logical choices at that time to possibly take over," Herman stressed. "For whatever reason, we all still question it, she decided to go rogue and sought to get her own show.

"You can't keep a secret in this town. So when news of it broke, Peter Lassally begged Joan not to do it. ... They were very, very close friends, but she thought it was her time. 'The Tonight Show' had said to her, 'Your jokes are getting a little too edgy for our normal audiences,' and Joan liked what she was doing. She was getting good numbers. She was pulling better numbers sometimes than Johnny at the time. ... When Joan went to call Johnny to tell him about the deal, he did hang up, and they never spoke again."

We can't stress enough how thrilling "My Peacock Tale: Secrets Of An NBC Page" is as a read, but Herman's "biggest wish" is for the book to be transformed for the screen.

"I have a very good list of people that I think would be interested in it because I really do see it ... a little bit like 'Sex in the City' and 'Man Men,'" Herman said.

We couldn't agree more, so we'll keep our fingers crossed that this is something we can look forward to in the future.