COLLIN RICHIE
QUALITY OF LIFE
Taris Savell in her living room
Stories from the stars
By CHRISTINA LEO
CELEBRITY JOURNALIST TARIS SAVELL BRINGS HER HOLLYWOOD HISTORY FROM ONE SMALL TOWN TO ANOTHER reclusive author, whom she met at a 1963 book tour reception in Pensacola. “But I said to her, ‘I feel like I’m related to you—I grew up in Selma.’ Then she turned around. ‘You’re from Alabama?’ she said. ‘Okay, you can interview me.’ And it was a very good interview.” Say her name in Pensacola, and Savell may need no introduction, a beloved TV and radio journalist whose local celebrity nearly approached that of her subjects. But in Baton Rouge, where her cousins Richard and Susan Lipsey relocated
her after a recent leg injury, she jokes about missing the clout of her old reputation. “You know, I went to LSU with Joanne Woodward,” she says. “She got Paul Newman, and I got a broken femur.” But as evidenced by her cover star status on magazine clippings, the drawers full of memorabilia, and a collage of photographs where Savell poses with people like Doris Day and John Wayne, this savvy reporter still has a lot of stories up her sleeve.
“I was one of the first female newscasters in northwest Florida,” says Savell, who for decades worked at the Pensacola News Journal in the city she had called home since the sixth grade. From there, based in a metropolitan area whose population hardly competes with Los Angeles or New York, Savell interviewed some of the most famous celebrities of all time, from Bette Davis to Elvis Presley. “We were friends,” she says of Davis. “I’m not saying we talked every night or anything, but I do have
inRegister.com • May 2016
PASSING BY A framed magazine cover emblazoned with her own headshot, Taris Savell walks over to the bookshelf in her Baton Rouge living room and pulls out a decadesold copy of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Above the title is a line about its Pulitzer Prize, beneath it a screenshot from the 1962 movie, and inside the front cover, a short inscription in handwritten ink: “To Taris, With my very best wishes, Harper Lee.” “She had said no to all interviews,” says Savell of the famously
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QUALITY OF LIFE handwritten letters from her.” The unusual camaraderie between Savell and her interview subjects—Bob Hope recognized her each of the six times they met—can perhaps be accredited to the easygoing nature with which she conducts herself, even on the other side of the recorder. Unlike the flashy clothes or personalities worn by broadcasters today, Savell earned some of her toughest celebrity encounters by simply being amiable. “Here’s a classic case,” she says, launching into the nth story of her adventures. “The opera singer Beverly Sills had come to Pensacola for a concert, and I had set up an interview with her through her manager. But when I met her at the hotel, she said she didn’t do interviews on performance nights.” Since Savell and her camera crew had already set up in the hotel room e across the hall, she said they would coffee with Ru Savell shares years before l ra ve se an wait there for one hour in case Sills McClanah biggest the actress’s Golden Girls, changed her mind. s. es cc show-biz su Issue May Adhour, proofshe#1 “FiveDate: minutes to the • Please respond by e-mail fax with yoursays. approval or minor revisions. showed up and said orOK,” she • AD WILL RUN AS IS unless approval or final revisions “Iare just always wanted to make sure received by the close of business today. • Additional revisions must be requested and may be subject to production fees.
“Bob Hope was wonde rful,” says Sa times. “He did vell, who m et him seve and he brou a big show on a carr ral ie ght with hi m people lik r in Pensacola once, Taylor, Barba e Sammy D ra Mandrel avis, Elizab l and Jonath was the on eth ly person al an Winters low .H view every one of them ed backstage, and th e told me I at I could in .” ter-
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A photo of Savell and Harper Lee is kept close to a treasured copy of To Kill a Mockingbird inscribed by the author.
that my subjects actually enjoyed themselves as much as I did.” Still, the success of some interviews depended on dumb luck, like when her interview with U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick was cancelled—until Savell stumbled upon Kirkpatrick’s husband in a coffee shop and rearranged it, that is. Others bring with them the touch of tragedy. “I was the last person to interview Jayne Mansfield before she was killed,” Savell says. “I went late to her cottage in Biloxi and we ordered pizza, I interviewed her, and the next day she died.” Many still twitch with humor. “I first interviewed Elvis Presley when ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ came out,” she says. “He was so nervous and nice and sweet. Then a few years later I was in California chaperoning a beauty contestant winner and ended up on the set of Blue Hawaii.” Savell says Presley recognized her and asked if he could take the beauty queen out on a date. Savell shrugged. “That’s fine,” she said, “but I’ll
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inRegister.com • May 2016
have to go, too, since I’m chaperoning.” In Savell’s story, Presley storms off with his entourage, a much different person than the shy 21-yearold she had met before. “I couldn’t let her out of my sight so she could go with Elvis Presley of all people, my God!” she jokes. “She might’ve come home a drug addict.” But Savell has learned how to handle mishaps and disappointments. “I’ve never taken myself seriously,” she says. “I’ve taken what I do seriously. I know how to laugh at myself.” Perhaps this sentiment holds the secret to her success, a journalist unconcerned with scandal and celebrity, but keen on connection— a perfect fit, however unfamiliar, with the small-town soul of Baton Rouge. “The most important thing about me is other people,” she says. “The people I’ve met have made me who I am. And I have a story for everyone.”
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COLLIN RICHIE
QUALITY OF LIFE
Savell stands in front of her bookshelf, which contains several books autographed by interviewees.