JOHN RAITT - INSCRIBED ORIGINAL ART SIGNED CO-SIGNED BY: BARBARA WALTERS - HFSID 298379

JOHN RAITT and BARBARA WALTERS

Original portrait of Walters, drawn by John Raitt, signed by both!

Original Art inscribed and signed: "To John/With my/warmest wishes,/Barbara /Walters", 5½x8½. Pencil drawing also signed by the artist "Raitt". One of television's most acclaimed journalists, Walters received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in May 2000. The groundbreaking broadcaster boasts a host of firsts: first female co-host of the Today show (NBC, 1974); first female network news anchor (ABC, 1976) at a then record-breaking salary of $1 million annually; first to arrange a joint interview with Egypt's President Anwar Sadat and Israel's Prime Minister Menachem Begin (1977) and first to present an hour-long primetime interview with Fidel Castro. She has also arranged exclusive interviews with personalities from General Colin Powell to David Geffen (his first television interview) and the principals in the O.J. Simpson trial. Walters has won two Emmys (1976 and 1983) and numerous other awards for her work, which included hosting the ABC news magazine 20/20, her Barbara Walters Specials and co-hosting (and co-executive producing) The View. Her memoir, published in 2008, was titled Audition because, despite her great success in TV journalism, Walters never got over the anxious feeling that she was auditioning for the job.While in college in the 1930s, JOHN RAITT began drawing portraits of famous people. He sent his artwork to each subject with a request that it be autographed and returned to him. Two horizontal folds. Otherwise, fine condition.