EPISODE 3: Jeanne Beker
On this episode of Reinvention of the VJ, Erica Ehm gets personal with Jeanne Beker about her experience in a limo with Kiss in the 80’s, the sacrifices she made to host Fashion Television for 27 years, plus the talented but troubled designer she’ll never forget.
Though Jeanne Beker would say she's gotten softer over the years compared to the feisty MuchMusic host she once was, she sits down with Erica and sounds stronger than ever.
How has she done it? By keeping her feet firmly planted on the ground and being 'down to earth'. Jeanne Beker credits her late parents for being who she is today, teaching her fierce work ethic, never to be afraid and never to give up.
Jeanne Beker paved the way for Erica and so many other women in Canadian. She’s a trailblazer, a fashion icon, a proud mom and maybe one of the hardest working women in media.
Please RATE, REVIEW and SUBSCRIBE to the show!
<h3 class="wm-accordion-start"> Show Transcript </h3>
Speaker 1:
The guys from Kiss have arrived, they snuck in the back door.
Speaker 2:
You spend your our whole life doing the first two albums and then suddenly everybody needs your attention.
Speaker 3:
Erica Ehm's; The Reinvention of The VJ. A flashback on the career that made them who they are today. On this episode.
Jeanne Becker:
Now that I'm 68 years old, and I look back at my 28 year old self it's like, "Hey, Gene` Simmons came on to me." [inaudible 00:00:28].
Erica Ehm:
Your lyrics aren't necessarily political.
Speaker 4:
We're more interested in the cause, is the reason why somebody wants to knock somebody over the head with a bottle.
Speaker 3:
This is Erica Ehm's; Reinvention of The VJ. Now here's Erica Ehm.
Erica Ehm:
Welcome to the Reinvention of The VJ podcast, I'm Eric Ehm. And today I'll be chatting with a woman who paved the way for me and so many other women in Canadian media. She's a trailblazer, she's a fashion icon, she's a proud mom, and maybe one of the hardest working women in media today. That's right, Jeanne Becker will be joining me in just a few minutes. But before we jump into the interview, if this is your first time tuning into my podcast, let me just give you a bit of background. Reinvention of The VJ is my meandering and monumental conversation with some of the quirky and beloved on-air hosts, you watch on MuchMusic. I was only at Much for just a very short time, the first decade, so many of the guests on this show, I've never actually worked with or met in person. But there's one thing that we all have in common, each of us played a small part in our country's most influential pop culture platform, MuchMusic. And then we left, at different times for different reasons, each of us off on our own next adventure.
It's that story of what happens after Much, the reinvention, the resilience, the innovation, the luck, and the struggles, that really intrigues me. And hopefully after Jeanne Becker and I chat, you will know her a little better, and maybe even see her a little differently. Most importantly, I hope this conversation resonates with you and that it helps you on your own journey, because all of us are in a state of constant reinvention. And I want you to be part of the show.
So actually right after I finished my conversation with Jeanne, I'm going to give you a phone number that you can call. And then you can tell me which Much VJ I should interview next. And you can tell us what you'd like to talk about or offer up questions or share stories, that would be really great. But hopefully, while you're listening to Jeanne and I today, you're going to find some tidbits, some insights into what it takes to get through some tough times, how to reinvent and even redefine what success is so that you can apply it to your own life. So speaking of success, I would like to introduce you to a woman I look up to, not just because of all her awards, not because she's interviewed amazing people, not because she has the best wardrobe, it's because she's tenacious, she's tough, she gets the job done, she gets a lot of jobs done. And she's freaking kind, she's generous and she's loyal. Please welcome Jeanne Becker. Jeanne.
Jeanne Becker:
Hi, I'm overwhelmed. Well, that was really nice. And you know what? I needed to hear that stroking stuff. And I don't mean that you were being patronizing or anything, but we are all going through some tough stuff, once again, these days, for various reasons. Life is taken a very strange turn and we're not as tough as we used to be, at least I'm not. I think I'm softening a bit around the edges, compared to that feisty chick that I was when I started hosting The NewMusic back in 1979.
Erica Ehm:
It's interesting to me that I reached out to a lot of people who were on Much and you were the first person to respond, and you were absolutely excited to do this for me really. And it made me think, you probably are one of the most successful of all the people, in the public eye, to have started at City and MuchMusic, and yet you are probably the most down to earth. And how have you managed to do that when you've been in the public eye, with such reverence, for so many years?
Jeanne Becker:
Yes, but darling, I don't think I ever would have lasted as long as I had, having both feet firmly planted on the ground, without having a very fierce and fabulous work ethic, thanks to my late great dad, especially who really was a worker. Boy seven days a week, 12 hours a day, years and years and years. And the upbringing that I had in general, my parents were holocaust survivors. They taught me about tenacity and fearlessness, that was the number one motto that I had in my mind, "Don't be afraid and never give up, always." Wherever I was, whether I was trying to get an interview with Michael Jackson, or running after Karl Lagerfeld or, whatever I was doing. It was like, "I got to be fearless. I got to be tenacious."
But I think if you worked that hard and if you've really seen the underbelly of these worlds of media and music and fashion, you really can't afford to be any place lofty, it's all very humbling. I feel like I've had to work for every single thing that's ever come to me. And I'm not saying that in a bitter way, I'm saying like, "Wow, what a privilege that I got to work, in doing a work that I love so much." It's exhausting at times, maddening at times. But definitely, I maintained a passion for it strangely. As many times as there were that I wanted to give up and I wanted to quit, and I cried myself to sleep in hotel rooms all around the world. It was almost like I was in my heyday, the height of my career, in the late nineties, when my marriage just totally exploded. That was a total nightmare. Because I just had to keep going, "Fashion doesn't stop for anyone. It just keeps on going."
So, I don't know, I just feel so blessed that I've had the chance to live this extraordinary life, and that you, who I adore, and I always said, [inaudible 00:07:11] look as this little sister, "Who is this hip little chick that's coming to work with us?" That you would reach out to me for my stories, because I think our stories are the most important things that we can give one another, the very best gifts we can give one another. If it's not about the stories, what is it about? You've got to be able to reach as many people, touch as many people, move, motivate, inspire. So I'm just, again, privileged to be able to be here with you today.
Erica Ehm:
You're literally giving me goosebumps as you're talking. If you were in the same room, you would see, because you are the real deal. And it's interesting how back in the day... So let's go back to almost 1979, when you first started at City, there was no such thing as MuchMusic at the time.
Jeanne Becker:
There was no such thing as MTV at the time.
Erica Ehm:
Of course.
Jeanne Becker:
We did it before the Americans did it.
Erica Ehm:
But Moses tended to hire people who were the real deal. He didn't look for slick, he looked for passion and people who are tenacious. So tell me, what was Jeanne Becker or who was Jeanne Becker in 1979, that allowed you to score the coolest job in the country, in the music business?
Jeanne Becker:
Okay. So you have to understand some of the history of what got me, even in front of Moses in the first place. I was working in St. John's Newfoundland for CBC radio. Before that, I had been an actress, a mime artist. I started in showbiz when I was 16 years old, professional showbiz. So, I was a showbiz kid, a professional. I had my actor card. I spent three years working at the CBC in St. John's, Newfoundland, doing arts, reporting and documentaries. And this was back in the day when there wasn't a lot of that going on at CBC radio. So again, I was very privileged to get in on the ground floor of all that. When I moved back to Toronto in 1978, I had a big stash of reels of tapes under my arms that I could...
I felt empowered. I had all this experience and here I was in the big city. Okay. I had paid my dues in Newfoundland. I was going to try to make it. And I knocked on every radio station door, like 20 times, and very few people really responded. But JR Wood, who was the brilliant program director of CHUM radio, at the time, saw me and thought there was something there, and gave me an audition and said, "Okay." And brought me on board 1050 CHUM as a good news girl. Now this is the top 40 station that I grew up listening to, my transistor radio under the covers, back in the sixties. So wow, this is exciting stuff for me. They didn't really know what they wanted to do with me. They thought, "Okay, we like your energy. You've got a young sounding voice. You've got tons of experience." So they just put me on as this good news reporter. Well, serendipity, hooray for serendipity, that was the year that CHUM radio bought City TV. So they had this plan to cross promote some of their CHUM personalities, onto the TV side of things.
And they decided that they would send me, because I was their good news girl, and I was this chick that had visual media experience, from my old days in television, by old days back in the sixties when I was acting professionally. And they took me and they took the boss jock, JD Roberts, who was this adorable Ken doll looks kind of guy. Basically we were two kids from the suburbs at the end of the day, they would take us and cross-promote us on television by giving us a show to host called The NewMusic, which was the brain child of one of the true geniuses that I have had the incredible pleasure and luck to work with in my life, the late great John Martin. He had pitched this show to Moses, this rock and roll magazine show where, "It's going to be really in your face and ballsy, and it is going to be smash and grab. And we're going to go into the hotel rooms with the rock stars. We're going to ride on the tour buses with them and we're going to go backstage with them."
And it was wonderful because up until then, the only TV shows to do with music were Hullabaloo or Shindig or Dick Clark's American Band Stand, where the band would come on and perform, and maybe answer a few questions, and that was it. But we were going to live with these people. We were just going to visit them where they were at. And it was a brilliant concept. And JD and I got thrown into the role of co-host of the show. I had done, just prior to that, because they knew they wanted to cross promote us in some way. They'd given me a kind of audition to go out and do like, I didn't know what the hell I was doing. I took a camera man, and we went down to some sailing school at Harbor Front. And all I knew is that I better look hot on cameras. So I wear this fabulous vintage sailor jacket that I got at the army Navy surplus, and this really sexy little T-shirt underneath my boobs were out there. And I just thought, "Okay. I got to give these people eye candy." Because I didn't know what I was really auditioning for, except to be on City TV in some capacity.
And Yvonne [Fitzjohn 00:13:03] was the news director at the time actually, the audition was specifically for him. But then he must've showed it to Moses. And then they decided to take me and put me into this rock and roll show that they were going to do. Much to John Martin's chagrin, because he had a girlfriend at the time that he really wanted her to be the co-host, too bad, too bad. So after having been good news girl reporter on CHUM radio for about a year, all of a sudden I got onto this TV show and it was like manna from heaven, wonderful working with JD. I've got actually this wonderful story about the first time we met John Martin at a Montreal bistro. And he was trying to figure out in his mind, what was the chemistry going to be like between JD and Jeanne, and how was he going to figure it out? Anyway, it's all just such great stuff. But I was in the right place at the right time. What could I tell you? But I had paid my dues.
Erica Ehm:
Exactly. We are all in the right place at the right time, no one offers us anything. You still have to put yourself out there and you did the work to get there. So I joined the team in 1981 and I was kind of your assistant. I would book the shoots, tell you where you're going, answer the phones, that kind of thing. And it was chaos in there. What is your memory of the direction that you were given in terms of being able to create The NewMusic as an innovative new show?
Jeanne Becker:
Not much direction really, we were flying by the seat of our pants, we we're doing something that no one else had done before. So there were no models to follow, I didn't have a role model. That's what it's always pissed me off with me, sweet young girls would say, "I want your job." And it was like, "Get your own job." This job didn't exist before I started doing it. And whether it was right or wrong, listen, I'm sure that we were not appreciated by the music cognizant, let's say, early on for sure. JD, he was a disc jockey from the suburbs and not really very, I don't think he'd read very many books at the time. He was just a gorgeous guy, smooth as silk, had all that going for him. I was just this big mouth, big nose chick with an irritating kind of voice that, I think people were like, "What the hell does she know about music?" And what the hell did I know about music? You didn't have to know about music in that way, I don't think, to do the kind of show we were doing. Because we were strangers in a strange land to a certain degree. And I think that was part of the appeal of the show. We would take viewers each week into that crazy world of rock and roll and examine it as fans, as [inaudible 00:16:05] almost-
Erica Ehm:
So this was in the seven... This started in '79 and when I arrived, it was 81. You, in so many ways, have been and were, and continue to be a trailblazer. In one particular case, you're a trailblazer for women in media, you were a woman working in the rock and roll music business, which was absolutely a man's world. What was that like for you to work in that world when you were never taken seriously? Partly because you're a woman.
Jeanne Becker:
Well, it was still fun, at times. There were times when that not being taken seriously or, just not having the credibility was painful, of course, because people wrote bad things about me, and I'm a very sensitive person. And I really do believe... They say that, "To be in this business, then you got to be tough. You got to have a suit of armor." But I thought, "Man, if my suit of armor is too thick, how am I going to be sensitive enough to be a great interviewer? How am I going to be sensitive enough to these people? I'm here to tell people's stories." So, I didn't really quite know about how tough I really wanted to be, back in the day-
Erica Ehm:
But you had to be.
Jeanne Becker:
But you had to be, but you had to let things roll off your back. The brilliant Stan Klees' and Walt Greali's, the two guys that started the Juno Awards all those years ago, became friendly with me. They were older guys, of course, I looked up to them. They were like uncles, just the coolest guys. I love, love, love them to bits. And a Stan said to me once, "You'll be really great at this job. You'll be really good in this business. As long as you don't take yourself too seriously." And that is still the best advice I would give anyone in any situation, just, "Don't take yourself too seriously, let it roll off your back."
So then fast forward to all these years later, and the stories with the hashtag me too movement, blah, boy, Erica, and I'm sure you have a few gems you could tell too. And I was coming up through the ranks here at a time when the whole second British invasion, new wave, punk scene was really bubbling up. And there were some nasty characters who had never really even been on TV in that way before, they may have been on TV performing on top of the pops, but they never really had a crew in their hotel room. And they never had a chick like me. And I was kind of foxy, I think, I wasn't a great beauty or anything, but I had a sense of style, I think. I wore those tight vinyl jeans better than anyone. And these guys, they'd be rude, arrogant. Some of them were coming on to you. And you had to obviously, be cool, because you didn't want to piss them off and you didn't want to have to forfeit the interview, but you had to play them along. So it was a brilliant education about how to play men, in a way. I know that sounds so cheap and trampy of me to say, everyone just assumes that I was in bed with all these guys.
Erica Ehm:
Yes.
Jeanne Becker:
I wasn't. But you had to be "Tee hee", play cute, play maybe a little dumb. You couldn't act the way I would act today, the way I would expect my daughters to act, that was happening, you had to play the game.
Erica Ehm:
I played the game to a certain degree, but when I became a little more confident I stopped playing it and I started calling out the bands. I remember telling Kiss, the band Kiss, "You're misogynists. What are you doing?"
Jeanne Becker:
Well, I tell you my story about Kiss. Gene Simmons in the back of a limo, showing me his tongue, ad nauseam, saying, "Why won't you go out with me? I'm a nice Jewish boy." And I was like, "Oh, wait, this guy went out with Diana Ross. That's sort of cool." And then on the other hand, "But he's a creep." No offense. Maybe he's a nice guy, he did marry Shannon Tweed.
Erica Ehm:
I don't think he's a nice guy.
Jeanne Becker:
He, in those days that was like, Ugh. This sounds so shallow of me too, maybe to say, but you know, now that I'm 68 years old, and I look back at my 28 year old self. It's like, "Hey, Gene Simmons came on to me. Iggy Pop..." But that's a whole other story. How rude and horrible he was to me. That was kind of mental abuse. But before that night, did he ever come on to me? Like gang busters, I have it on video tape in my sizzle reel. There's Iggy pop, trying to suck up to me. It's sort of cool on some levels that you felt wanted, but on another level, it's absolutely disgusting and it's terrible. And I hope, and I pray that it's changed a lot now. And that young musicians aren't doing that with the rock journalists that try to interview them. Because obviously that would never fly, but-
Erica Ehm:
Yeah, it wouldn't fly. And so in that way you were a trailblazer because you showed that women can do the job, and also showed that women can stand up. And it just teaches you to be so strong, obviously it's something that your parents instilled in you. You then moved on to MuchMusic. So I was talking about The NewMusic and then you scored the job of the Rock Flash host. And you were only on MuchMusic for a short period of time, but it was tumultuous at that time when we were first starting. Do you remember? The beginning of Much?
Jeanne Becker:
Oh, I remember well, I remember the first night, that wonderful first night. Eugene Levy was there, and it was just such a... Getty Lee interviewing all these great people coming into the old City TV building. And I was there wearing this... I always remember what I was wearing-
Erica Ehm:
I'm noticing that.
Jeanne Becker:
A fabulous, kind of Michael Jackson style, admiral jacket, that Pat McDonagh, late great Pat McDonagh had designed with, these big [inaudible 00:22:45] and it was just a very, very cool night. JD and Christopher Ward came blasting through a screen and I was there, and Denise Donlon had just come on board, as well, because I remember her being there that night. But I was the one running around with the microphone, interviewing everybody at the party and thinking, "Wow, this is fabulous." But you must understand that by that point, was that... Not 1983.
Erica Ehm:
1984.
Jeanne Becker:
Okay. Whatever, we launched Fashion Television a year later. So I obviously had my sights set on other heights, let's say. By that point I felt, "I've interviewed Rod Stewart a thousand times, how can I be doing this anymore?" Not that I didn't love Rod Stewart, and it was always fun interviewing him, but how many more times am I going to interview Sting? And I'd already met most of my rock idols that I had grown up with.
Erica Ehm:
So what was the transition like? Between Much or Rock and Roll and FT. How did that happen? Did you go for the job? Did someone offer you the job?
Jeanne Becker:
Oh, did I go for the job or was I... No. Seriously, nothing comes easy in this life. Trust me, really, at the end of the day. No, you got, If you see something you want, you must go for it.
Erica Ehm:
So did you hear that Jay Levine was planning on launching this MN, what did you do?
Jeanne Becker:
Jay Levine was a promotions producer at City TV, and he got this great idea that he thought fashion was very sexy. He grew up reading his mother's fashion magazines. He was going to put fashion on TV and some designers were even producing fashion videos at the time, hoping that fashion videos would do for the fashion industry, what music videos had done for the music industry. But they didn't realize that there weren't really any vehicles for these fashion videos. And they were so seasonal and short lived. However, there was this material that was coming into the station. Actually, I remember at the time Daniel Richler and I were co-hosting The NewMusic, and we did put a couple of those fashion videos on The NewMusic, but it didn't really feel right, and anyway, Jay Levine had the great idea of, "Let's do a show, a fashion video show, and I'm getting a really hot young model to host it, of course. A fashion VJ, we'll call her." And I remember Christopher Ward was going out with Atlanta Black at the time.
Erica Ehm:
Atlanta Myles.
Jeanne Becker:
Atlanta Myles at the time. And he lobbied for her to get the job. And, there were a lot of other chicky-poos, I'm sure, that wanted that job, but this chicky-poo just thought, "This is a kind of show that I would like to do, except more than just showing these fashion videos. I'd like to really meet the designers behind the labels and maybe talk to them." In a way that JD and I had been talking to the rock stars for all these years. Because designers were becoming the new rock stars, Elton John and Versace were hanging out, and Gucci and Madonna were hanging out. And it was a moment. Cherry Mugler and David Bowie. So I pitched that, when I heard that the show was going on, they went, "No, we don't want to do that kind of show at all. It's just a sexy fashion video show." And one day I walked into the 299, 99 Queen Street. Because it was-
Erica Ehm:
The original building, yeah.
Jeanne Becker:
It was still the original building on Queen Street East. And I walked in and the lobby was filled with models, these gorgeous, hot, young girls. And it was like, "What's going on?" And somebody goes, "Oh, they're auditioning for the pilot of that fashion television show that they're doing." They were going to call it FTV at the time, like the takeoff on MTV. And I went, "They are?" And I marched right up to... Dennis Fitzgerald was the station manager at the time, I marched right up to his office and I knocked on the door and I said, "So that show that you're talking about doing, I really think I should be given the chance to host it. I see you're auditioning all these models, but come on. I've paid my dues here. You owe me at least that. You got to let me, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." The next thing I knew, they were saying, "Okay, Jeanne, you can do it."
Erica Ehm:
You can do the show or you can audition?
Jeanne Becker:
No, I didn't have to audition. By that point, I'd already been working at a City TV for nine years.
Erica Ehm:
But what changed their mind? Because that's a big shift to go from like a tall, sexy, young, ingenue model, to a seasoned broadcaster.
Jeanne Becker:
I don't know who twisted whose arm. I don't know if it was because... Listen, I don't know, speculation, maybe it had something to do with the... I was originally hired by the Waters family who were still in control of City TV. And they were big fans of mine, which is very nice. I'm not sure. I think Moses, obviously, thought I deserved a crack at it. I don't think anything really happened there unless Moses wanted it to, back in those days for sure. And I think maybe they thought that I could possibly bring something more to it and that the show did have the potential to be something more than just sexy eye candy. Anyway, it worked out, but boy, I really petitioned for that job.
Erica Ehm:
So you did that job for 27 years, and I read this quote that I have to read, because I think it really encapsulates everything about you. "Jeanne reported from the shows with the same intensity as if she was a war correspondent preparing and reporting from the front lines." I thought that was-
Jeanne Becker:
Brad Goreski, fabulous Hollywood stylist, brilliant style reporter. Brad Goreski wrote that in his autobiography. And I cried when I read that because he got it. He was this, young gay guy growing up in Port Perry, Ontario. And like so many gay people, all across the nation and around the world, who grew up really longing for some world that was filled with possibilities, we opened a window onto that world and onto those possibilities with our show. So he was greatly inspired by that. And we probably inspired a whole generation of fashion arbiters now in all different aspects of fashion. But yes, for me, it was about passion, always. That ultimately at the end of the day, if you're not going to be passionate about it, don't do it, it's not worth it. It's not worth the pain that you're inevitably going to go through. It's not worth the heartache. It's not worth the effort, the work that... I don't want to live a passionless life, not ever. So because I was just passionate about... I don't know what it was that drove me to care so much about the fashion scene and being in the trenches, but it's a very people-driven business. It's something to do with demystifying who these larger than life characters are. It's something to do with understanding the nature of ego and the creative process.
Erica Ehm:
I totally get that. Because when I worked on Much, that was what I wanted to talk about with all the artists. How is it that you're capable of making this amazing magic? And so it's that same curiosity about artists really, that seems to drive that passion in you and to connect, you are such a connector of people, emotionally. What was the most challenging part of the job for you over those 27 years?
Jeanne Becker:
Having to grovel. Having to grovel and lick people's designer boots. I didn't literally lick people's designer boots, but it felt like it some times. Again, it was a big fight for credibility, for me. Especially in the early days, television wasn't a medium that these fashion editors welcomed. These editors that took themselves very seriously. The print people thought, "Well, what kind of analysis could television ever offer? Television was just there to smash and grab and capture the fluff and the eye candy."
Erica Ehm:
So you had to grovel with all the designers to get-
Jeanne Becker:
No. Not with the
Erica Ehm:
So, who?
Jeanne Becker:
The designers were brilliant. The designers were fabulous. I tell you, in 27 years, Erica, I never met a designer who was mean to me or an a-hole.
Erica Ehm:
Really?
Jeanne Becker:
No, never. But you know who the horrible people were? Sorry to all my friends out there who worked on that side of the industry, the PR people, the gatekeepers, the people that ran the PR agencies that were like the hatchet people. They were like the people that would say, "No, you're not getting it." And you'd be on the phone with them in the morning, about a fabulous fashion show, that for some reason you'd been denied access to that season. And you just knew you had to get in and you just, Please, please, please let me in."
Erica Ehm:
So how did you do it?
Jeanne Becker:
"No, not possible." It was awful.
Erica Ehm:
This is the stuff that people don't know about. They don't see it because they see you at the shoot and they see you doing the work. And that is what you're judged on, is your on-camera performance, but really its everything behind it, I think.
Jeanne Becker:
Yeah, totally.
Erica Ehm:
That is the real genie and the real trailblazer, and the kick-ass business woman is that person.
Jeanne Becker:
Well, truthfully, we did try to expose a little bit of that too. We weren't shy or embarrassed about exposing the snobs that we got, or me trying to worm my way, sneak my way, and sneak my camera man, into a show. We're trying to get an interview with someone that was really not having it. So, I think we did show a little bit of that and a little bit of the way we got treated. We didn't want to go on, ad nauseam, about it because at the end of the day, people don't really want to see other people's tsrus, that Yiddish word for troubles, people want to just celebrate the scene and see how exciting it is and how glamorous it is.
And we really wanted to pump that up because we were an entertainment show first and foremost at the end of the day. But, yeah, there's a lot, but it's like that in every single thing in life. Whether you're talking about motherhood, if anyone really understood, that isn't a mother, the shit that goes on, the heartache and the struggle of just trying to care for your kid, "Hoo." There's a lot of stuff that goes on, or you see someone with a wonderful relationship and you think, "Oh, [inaudible 00:34:08] they're in love. Isn't that great." But just the stuff that goes on behind the scenes, it's like, "You don't even want to know about it." Sure, there's always layers to these stories, for sure. That's what makes you are. What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.
Erica Ehm:
So a lot of people talk to you about the interviews that you've done, because you've spoken to so many eclectic people, over the years. What I would like to know is; is there an interview that sticks with you, that profoundly changed the way you think about life? Was there someone who really connected with you or that you connected with in a deep way that surprised you and maybe even changed the trajectory of your life?
Jeanne Becker:
Wow. I think in some ways, most of the people that I had great intimate conversations with over the years, whether it was from the entertainment music world or the fashion world, everything that was said to me, I took in. And many of those things were life lessons to me. And so the sum total of it all did change my life and the lens through which I see the world. But I had a very wonderful relationship with Alexander McQueen and I adored him and he was a Reverend and he was hilarious and he was funny. He could be a real little [inaudible 00:35:51], he loved to wind people up, and he could really be a pain in the butt when he wanted to be, he's very playful.
I don't know if you've seen the McQueen documentary that was on Netflix, I don't know if it's still on Netflix, but it's brilliant if you haven't, people should really see it. A lot of my interviews were used in that documentary and really ended up pulling certain things together, [inaudible 00:36:18] happily. Now I'm actually working with the guys that put that documentary together on another project, so stay tuned. But that experience of getting to interview an artist and not every designer is an artist for sure. I do believe that Alexander McQueen was a true artist. To be able to interview an artist of that caliber, who was going through such tough stuff himself, really hard, at a time when big business was sucking the artistry right out of fashion and changing the business in some wretched ways, really. That was very special. And he was very honest with me and always very sensitive.
And I can't remember exactly which interview with him was my favorite, but he got an honorary doctorate at the San Francisco Academy of Art, several years ago, I don't remember the exact year. But I went out to San Francisco to interview him there, and he was in a very reflective mood. He'd gone through a lot of the heavy duty, bad stuff with too many drugs and too many wild times. And he was being very reflective and he had found Buddhism and he just had this very calming thing about him. And that was a wonderful interview, how he was trying to turn his life around. And then I had dinner with him later that night. And, he talked to me about how he couldn't really trust anyone, but he had built this huge business. And all these people were depending on him, this huge company that he had created, this world that he just couldn't walk out on, how could he? He was forced to be there, but he couldn't really trust anybody. It was just so sad. To tell me about how you've been abused as a young boy. And I just saw like the psychotic guy, who's just ultimately human. And I think that's always the moment that you want to go for as an interviewer, when the curtain is pulled back and you just really see the person for who they are.
Erica Ehm:
Absolutely. And you are so generous with the way you tell your stories, you basically do that, so for example, for me right now, I feel like you're doing something like that for everybody who is listening right now. So thank you for that.
Jeanne Becker:
Mm-hmm. It's an honor.
Erica Ehm:
And I think what's interesting about your trajectory and the great success that you continue to enjoy, is that it doesn't happen unless there is risk involved. And I wonder if you can tell me what risks have you taken in order to exceed and succeed in the things that you want to achieve?
Jeanne Becker:
Starting from when? As a young girl?
Erica Ehm:
Any risk.
Jeanne Becker:
As a 16 year old, I decided I wanted to be an actress and I had absolutely no experience, but I just felt... I had taken drama lessons when I was 12 years old or something. And I heard about an open audition casting call at the CBC for the sit-com called Toby, which is kind of Canada's version of Gidget. And, I had a very dear high school friend, at the time, Marsha Rocket, said, "Jeanne," I think she was the one that told me about this casting call, "you should go and audition for that. You'd be great on the show like that." I went, "Really? Would I?"
So I just went down to the CBC, that big, ominous building. And I walked into a room filled with these people who had grown up in the business. They had been stars on Forest Ranger, all the iconic TV shows for kids at the time, these people were veterans at those shows, and I had absolutely no experience, I think I'd starred in a camp play or something. And I audition for the role and for some crazy reason, the executive producers and people putting it together liked me and they hired me. But because I had no experience, I couldn't play the lead. I was hired as her best friend. They gave the lead to someone who was very seasoned, and that was my entrée. And then I got my union card and then I got an agent. Then I could start doing commercials and all that stuff. [crosstalk 00:40:41].
Erica Ehm:
It's about putting yourself out there.
Jeanne Becker:
Right, yeah. I moved to New York when I was 19 years old to study acting. And all I had with me was a $500. I had worked all summer to save that money up and my mother sewed it into my panties, because she said, "They'll never find it in there. Take your $500." I hopped on a Greyhound bus and went to New York city. I did not know anybody there. I had the names of someone that someone knew that maybe would have mercy and take me in. But they told me to go to the actor's union and try and find a roommate on the bulletin board. And I did that, 19 years old, first time I left home. And then a couple of years later, I did the same thing. I went off to Paris to study mime. I couldn't really speak French, I guess, as a mime artist, maybe you don't have to speak too much. But it was scary not knowing exactly what I was getting myself into or where I was going and what I was doing. But, you just got to go for it, if you have a dream. Because what's the worst that could happen? Your dreams going to get squashed? You're going to get run over by a bus? That could happen anywhere, in the most innocent situation, you could step out of your house and that could happen. So, no-
Erica Ehm:
I have a confession. When you and I were working, or when I knew you, when we were in the same building together, you were pregnant. And I didn't really think about the ramifications of that on your life. Only after I had kids of my own, did it really hit me. How the hell did you manage to birth two children and maintain an on-camera career in a time when women really were not supposed to show their pregnancy? You had a lot of travel, you were hardworking. It's like you never dropped the ball.
Jeanne Becker:
And I wasn't allowed to, because I was told that there was a lineup of a 20 year old girls outside Moses' office, that would get my job. These were the days when you couldn't take a mat leave for [inaudible 00:42:55] guaranteed of your job. Even if you took the three months or something that you could take, you were not promised the same job when you came back. And I had worked so hard for my job, Fashion Television had just started to take off as my first born, Becky, was born in 1987. So Fashion Television had just been on the air for two years and it was really going great guns, and I thought, "There's no way I can take off. Moses is going to give my job to somebody else."
Erica Ehm:
So what did you do? What did you do?
Jeanne Becker:
So two and a half weeks later, I came back to work. Yeah.
Erica Ehm:
Wow.
Jeanne Becker:
And I did that with child number two as well, because by that time, Joey was born in 1989, the show was really... Are there people out there listening to this, going, "Ah, what a horrible mother." I don't know, maybe it was, I don't know. I don't know. I guess you have to ask my kids.
Erica Ehm:
I was going to say-
Jeanne Becker:
Did they suffer for it? Maybe, I'm sure they have. I tried to make it up in other ways. I tried to be there for them in so many other ways, but that was the reality of having that career at that time in this country, in those conditions. I don't think there could have been another way and I don't think I could have, "Well, I'll take off for a few years." As I had some dear friends that did, "I'll take off for a year or two, and then I'll just get back into something." I didn't want to get back into something. I wanted to do what I was doing. I just loved it, loved it, loved it. So I started traveling. My ex husband and I bought a cottage, became absolutely the center point of our lives. Most important sanctuary. You can imagine where... I would never travel on a weekend. Even if I was coming back from Russia, or Brazil, or Sydney, Australia, wherever I traveled in the world, my husband would pick me up at the airport with the two kids and the two cats and the turtle, Sheldon the turtle, in the car, and we would drive to Muskoka to this golden little place, it's a fabulous, tiny little old, 1930s cottage on a sparkling lake.
And we didn't entertain there, the kids missed out on a lot of birthday parties because of the 48 weekends a year for 10 years. That was our life, that cottage the most important thing. So, because I had all that great concentrated time, I thought, "Okay. So during the weekend..." And my ex-husband was a Morning Man DJ. So he didn't, thankfully, ever have to travel. And my mom was around, and the nanny was there and this is how we did it. And did I cry myself to sleep in hotel rooms all around the world? Abso-freaking-lutely. And any working mother today, I'm sure can relate to that. You're torn and it rips you to shreds.
But I remember one night I was going to leave for Paris yet again, and I was tucking the kids in, and they were in the same bedroom and reading them a story and they said, "Oh, mum, do you really have to go to Paris again tomorrow?" And I thought, "I can't take this anymore." And I looked at them and I said, "Guys," and they must have been maybe like four and six at the time. I said, "Guys, if you really don't want mommy to go to Paris, I'm going to quit my job right now because you guys are the most important things of my life." And I swear to you, Erica, I really felt I just had it, I thought, "That's it. I just I'm going to do it. That's it. I'm going to..." And Becky, in all her brilliant wisdom said, "Oh, no mommy. You can't lose your job. You've got the best job, you can't leave your job. It's okay. We'll be okay. We understand. We'll see when you get back in a few days."
And this was the days before FaceTime, Skype, before email. This was, if you wanted to communicate with your kids, we had a cell phone and you would fax, the kids would draw pictures and they would fax me at my hotel, but I couldn't see them on a phone and a kiss them goodnight in that way. But I had my cell phone on 24/7. And even though there was that time difference, I would be running after Karl Lagerfeld at a show in Paris, and at two o'clock in the afternoon and Becky's getting ready to go to school, "Mommy, I can't find my purple sweater. Can you help me [inaudible 00:47:26]", "Okay, I'm sorry, Karl, I've got a call." And I did, I had that phone beside me, by my bed, on, in my pocket, wherever I was, because I thought anyone, if they really need me, I'm going to be there for them.
Erica Ehm:
It's the motherhood juggle. And it is part of the constant change in who we are and shifting who we are. And I find it fascinating that you have these on-camera skills, and the next thing you know, you're the editor in chief in a digital magazine where, to me, you don't have credentials or skills, you weren't taught to do it, but you have all these transferable skills that you're able to apply.
Jeanne Becker:
Listen, they used to say in the old days, "Jack of all, trades master of none." That has totally gone out the window. The more things you can do, the more skills you cultivate, the better you'll be. I wanted to cultivate my writing skills from early on. I always loved writing, I did it and I did it on my own. It wasn't like I went to take a course or... My sister was a professional print journalist, and she was wonderful. But for me, I didn't really have that experience, but I just started to write, write and write and write. I started to write journals and diaries. And pretty soon I found myself writing a column for Flare Magazine under Bonnie Brooks, who was editing at the time. And after doing the successful regular column in that for many years, I pitched myself to the newspapers and I was writing for the National Post for many years. And then I was writing for The Globe and Mail, and then The Toronto Star, then I went back to the Globe and Mail. Also, during that time, I had the opportunity to edit a magazine called FQ, Fashion Quarterly and [SER 00:04:15] a big, glossy, gorgeous magazine. And I did that for six years and that was great.
I was also the very first person to have a fashion site on the internet. The very first in 1994, MCI in the States, they knew Fashion Television because it was playing on VH1. They came to me and they said, we want you to be the cyber host of a digital... I didn't know what the hell they were talking about, a magazine, it's going to be on the internet. I went, "Internet?" I didn't know what the internet was. They said, "Yes, we have to get more women using the internet. So we're going to put some of your fashion content. You can write stories about the people you're interviewing and give us pictures and present fashion trends on the internet." We did the site called [At fashion 00:05:02], 1994, there was no other site on the internet that had anything to do with fashion.
Erica Ehm:
It seems to me-
Jeanne Becker:
So I thought, "Wow, I got a chance to do some cool stuff."
Erica Ehm:
Yeah. And it seems to me that when people approach you to do new cookie things, do you always say yes? What would stop you from doing something? Because you're constantly part of interesting projects.
Jeanne Becker:
Well, you have to be careful not to spread yourself too thin.
Erica Ehm:
Oh, come on. How can you even say that? You're doing like 18 things.
Jeanne Becker:
Especially now that I've met the love of my life and have this wonderful relationship for the past five years, I've been in heaven with a fabulous guy. And that's important. And that takes a chunk of you. And you've got to be careful that you pay attention to that. And I still want to be involved with my kids and I've got...
But I do believe in open heart and open mind, and embrace things that appeal to you, because we're not given a second chance at many of these things. It's not like, "Oh, well, I'm not too busy for it now. I'll think about it next year." If something appeals to you, a lot of it has to do with the people that are pitching you the concept. I only want to work with people I like. I'm sorry to say it. The days where I was like, "I'll bite the bullet. The guy's a creep, but I'm going to go for it because I need the job." You know what? There is a time in your life when you might have to do that a lot, and a lot of people do that. Hats off to everyone that's suffering in that way, working with people that really are dragging them down. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet. But now, thank God, I feel like I'm in a point in my life where I do not have to do that. That's one of the sweetest things about getting older and getting established and finally feeling that security. So yeah, that's important. And if I like the people and if it sounds like fun, and if it's not going to drain me too much, sure, I'll try, I'll explore it.
Erica Ehm:
I have a few questions from viewers or listeners. So let me throw a few of them at you. Pearl asks, aside from your parents, who else had the biggest influence on you?
Jeanne Becker:
And it's funny because I joke sometimes, Oh, I've had a love-hate relationship with him, but I think Moses Znaimer certainly had a profound influence on me, and the way I approached my work and the way I understood the medium that I was working in. And so much of what I became known for, was associated with his vision and the style that he inspired. So there's one for you.
Erica Ehm:
Nat wants to know, what key pieces in one's wardrobe should one invest in?
Jeanne Becker:
Seriously, are we still talking about... No, I'm kidding. Listen, I love talking about trends. I do that on my weekly show Style Matters on TSC and that's great because that's really where we do live, in our closets, in our wardrobes, in our suitcases. And, yeah, it is important to us. But what key pieces? For me right now, and I think for a lot of us that have been going through this age of COVID, less, is more. I value pieces that are of the highest quality. So those pieces in my wardrobe that I've had the longest, that still fit me. And I say, "I've just gone on a diet to try and get into some of these old gems." Those are the ones, those classic well-made high quality garments that really fit well. Those are the ones I treasure. So you have to have a great blazer and I don't care if it's from 10 years ago. If you still feel good in it, hallelujah, A great pair of pants that just fit you great, that you feel good in.
You have to have accessories too. I think accessories, uber all us, really. Accessories are the key thing for me. I have this one wonder woman cuff. It's an Elsa Peretti cuff from Tiffany's that I absolutely adore. And the minute I started wearing it, I started feeling very empowered. It was given to me actually as a gift, shortly after my marriage broke up and I entered into a relationship with the new fellow that helped scrape me off the floor. And I finally, I don't know, I just started feeling strong and powerful. So still to this day, I wear that cuff just about every day. And it does wonders for me. So accessories are key pieces, this ring, this tiny little ring that I'm wearing, the signet ring, was given to my mother by her brother in 1939 in Poland, the day the war broke out. And it's the only material thing that survived the holocaust with her.
Erica Ehm:
Wow.
Jeanne Becker:
Because she was on the run the whole time. So the moment my mum died and I took it off her finger and I put it onto mine. And I wear this every day because it's a symbol of resiliency and survival. And the fact that life just marches on.
Erica Ehm:
Don wants to know, what advice do you have for young women looking to evolve into their bad-ass selves?
Jeanne Becker:
Well, stop caring so much about what others think of you. Number one, most important, listen, we have to be conscious of our public image to some degree, for sure, especially in certain occupations or careers that we may choose. But you have to always try to remember who you are really deep down, inside and tap into your inner child. And I'm not suggesting, be a bad-ass for the sake of being a bad-ass, but if it's something that's going to make you feel better and that's not going to hurt anybody else, I say don't even think twice, just go for it.
Erica Ehm:
Ellen asks, "Do you experience ageism?"
Jeanne Becker:
Oh, okay. Here I am, the denier in me will come out and say, "Oh no, it's all cool these days." Yeah. I have experienced ageism. I do experience ageism. Ageism is a very real thing in this world, just like racism is, just like a lot of horrible social conditions are. There's no question, especially in this business, that's all about image or largely about image. Is it changing? Maybe a little bit, you could say is racism in fashion changing? Maybe a little bit. There's some wonderful people who are being given the opportunity to do some amazing things and that's great. But there's not enough of them especially... Well, so when I'm talking about age-ism now. Okay, well, there's Iris Apfel, there's Maye Musk, there's... You can count them on your fingers, practically, the women that have been allowed to surface or continue working. So yeah, there's a lot of that ageism, but I don't want to be all negative about it because I want everybody to look forward to getting older because it's the sweetest thing really. If you can get older and not be bitter and just get better.
I think it's really important to just really be positive about the fact that a lot of young people now, I'm finding, are very curious about the stories that we have to tell. And there is a kind of respect for experience that just, you can't get it any other way. I just did a podcast yesterday with these two young people, really wonderful people, a podcast called Elevated Grapes. And these two, I call them kids, I don't know how... They're probably in their twenties, who really love fashion and they work as stylists and they wanted to know what fashion was like back in the day, back in its golden age. And it was a delight for me to be able to regale them with all these stories about the way things were and their eyes just became all starry and that was pretty cool. There's so much that we can teach that younger generation and I think the younger generation really does respect it, but I think a lot of people in marketing, I think a lot of the problem lies with the marketers. Sorry, marketers you're brilliant and we love you and you certainly make the world go round in many ways. But marketing people just look at demographics and that kind of stuff, and yeah that pulls us back.
Erica Ehm:
Can you outline all the projects you're currently working on?
Jeanne Becker:
Okay. So, I'm the style editor for TSC and coming back with My Style Matters series in September and doing now a new podcast, that's going to compliment that, but it's not going to be about home shopping. It's just going to be about the zeitgeist and about the way we move through the world and the bigger style picture, it's going to be called Beyond Style Matters. So I'm really excited about that, that's fun. Well I was doing a lot of public speaking as well, sadly that's kind of dried up now, but we'll see, hopefully that comes back. So I write for a magazine called Living Luxe, I'm their lifestyle editor so I get to write columns for them. I do columns [inaudible 01:00:12] magazine. I'm a regular columnist, now of the wonderful country publication here out in Northumberland County where my country place is, and it goes to Prince Edward County too, called Watershed Magazine, it's a beautiful magazine and so I'm doing a column called Joie De Vivre and that's, really been great fun. And I'm working on a really big project, that I can't really talk about.
Erica Ehm:
Come on.
Jeanne Becker:
It's with... No, I alluded to it earlier, it's a documentary series that takes a very intriguing, long, hard, perhaps controversial but certainly electrifying look at that golden age of fashion as we call it. What happened to fashion and how business really changed the face of fashion as we know it. Anyway, so that's something that's definitely bubbling up, we're doing it, we have the development deal and it's happening, it's good, it's great. That could be very wonderful for me, I care a lot about our archives, the Fashion Television archives and the old music archives in my old early days of The NewMusic archives and all that stuff. I'm trying to find ways to give those brilliant archives, there's just such great content there. There might be another project about The NewMusic perhaps, talking about a lot of interesting possibilities. I think the documentary-
Erica Ehm:
Well, if you need an assistant, in that particular case.
Jeanne Becker:
Yes, you've proved yourself. You're a damn good assistant Erica and cute to. Listen, I would love to collaborate with you too anytime, I tell you, it's all about synergies with people that you really love and that you like and that get you and that you get them, and thank you for getting me, and I love you to bits. I think you're amazing, talk about an inspiring woman.
Erica Ehm:
Thank you, Jeanne. And just so everybody knows you were this nice back in 1982, when I first started and I was your assistant and you brought me to your house and you opened up your closet to me and you said, "Do you want to pick some clothes?" I will never forget your generosity. And it was clear during our conversation that that is still such a big part of who you are, just in the types of stories and the advice that you're sharing, your authenticity is remarkable, and you continue to inspire me.
And I'm not just saying that because we're on a podcast and there's people looking at us. I really do mean it because, you're 10 years ahead of me, so I'm walking in your footsteps to see how I can leverage what I've learned in the public eye to continually evolve and reinvent. So thank you so much for sharing so much of yourself today, and I want to continue to say that for people who are watching or listening, I'm always saying watching because of my time on TV. But I really do think that what Jeanie was talking, even from the top of the podcast, about being down to earth and not taking yourself too seriously, and to being tenacious and going for anything that you want. And I love the fact that Jeanne, as she approaches 70 years old-
Jeanne Becker:
Hold on a minute, I've still got a couple of years.
Erica Ehm:
So do I, I'm approaching 60, but we are approaching and that you still are working hard. You still are open to reinventing, you still are learning new things and trying new things. So it never is too late to make a change in your life. And I think that's a really important thing for everyone, including myself to remember, as we all continue our journey of reinvention.
And for those of you who are listening, also remember that you are such an important part of this show. And so I have set up a phone line for you to call in and you can suggest who you think I should interview next on Reinvention of the VJ. And here's the number, so write it down, it's +1 833-972-7272, actually you may not even have to put a one in front of it, so I'll give you the number again. It's (833) 972-7272 and if you miss it, I'll give you that number again in a couple of seconds, you could write it down. And when you call that number, you can share some stories about any of us. Maybe you met one of the on-air people in real life and you want to tell us about that anecdote, or you remember a specific segment or time on MuchMusic or what it meant to you. Or maybe you have a burning question that you'd like me to ask a future guest. And also you can share feedback on this episode and the concept in general, what should we improve? What should we change? I'd love to hear from you.
And if you're not a phone type person, I get it. You can still reach me on my social platforms. I'm on Instagram, I'm on Twitter, I'm on Facebook, I'm on LinkedIn, just search Erica Ehm and you can find me. So thanks again to Jeanne Becker for an incredible conversation. I hopefully we'll see you all next week with another episode of Reinvention of the VJ. And before I go, just remember here's to living a life filled with music, meaning and many reinventions.
Speaker 3:
Thanks for listening. Follow Erica Ehm's Reinvention of the VJ podcast, subscribe and follow more episodes, click to reinventionofthevj.com. Podcast produced in collaboration with, Steve Anthony Productions, editing and communication, the [inaudible 01:06:22] Copyright 2020.
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