24 Facts About Sally Jessy Raphael

Sally Jessy Raphael attended and graduated from Easton Area High School.

Sally Jessy Raphael spent time in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where her father, Jesse Lowenthal, was in the rum exporting business and her mother, Zelda Lowenthal, ran an art gallery.

Sally Jessy Raphael spent some of her teenage years in Scarsdale, New York, where one of her first media jobs was at the local AM radio station, WFAS.

Sally Jessy Raphael studied acting under the tutelage of Sanford Meisner at New York City's noted Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre.

Sally Jessy Raphael graduated from Columbia University in New York City.

Sally Jessy Raphael took her mother's maiden name of Raphael as her professional last name and used the theatrical surname of Jessy from her father's family to use as a distinguishing middle name.

Sally Jessy Raphael obtained considerable experience in the media in Puerto Rico, where she worked in both radio and television.

Sally Jessy Raphael worked at 24 various stations, and was fired from 18 of them.

Sally Jessy Raphael told numerous reporters over the years that she bounced around from station to station in both Puerto Rico and the United States, working as a disc jockey, news reporter, and the host of a show where she interviewed celebrities.

Sally Jessy Raphael's husband Karl Soderlund assumed the role of her manager, and was a partner in her two biggest successes.

Sally Jessy Raphael hosted a radio call-in advice show distributed by NBC Talknet that ran from 1981 to 1987, but she is best known for hosting the television talk show The Sally Jessy Raphael Show, which ran in first-run syndication from October 17,1983, to May 24,2002.

Sally Jessy Raphael's encouragement led to a tryout on television, where producer Burt Dubrow gave her a chance to be a guest host on his talk show.

Sally Jessy Raphael was not very polished, but people who had loved her radio show were very positive about her being on TV.

The Sally Jessy Raphael Show was only a half-hour, but it was the beginning of her successful career as a talk show host.

Sally Jessy Raphael became known to television viewers for her oversized red-framed glasses, a trademark that began entirely by accident.

Sally Jessy Raphael had difficulty reading the teleprompter and, with five minutes before air time, quickly went to a store across the street from the studio to purchase a pair of reading glasses.

Sally Jessy Raphael was already having problems with her syndicator: she believed that USA Networks Inc was more interested in doing promotion for Springer, whose show was more popular than hers, and for Maury Povich, who had recently left Paramount Television to join USA's syndication arm, than they ever were for her own show.

Sally Jessy Raphael celebrated her 3,500th episode in early 1998.

In 2002, Sally Jessy Raphael was named by Talkers Magazine to both their 25 Greatest Radio Talk Show Hosts of all time, and the 25 Greatest Television Talk Show Hosts of all time.

Sally Jessy Raphael was one of only three personalities to make both the radio and the TV lists.

Sally Jessy Raphael abruptly ended the Talknet program July 7,2008.

Sally Jessy Raphael offered to induct conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh, into the Radio Hall of Fame when he was voted into the Hall in 1993.

In 2024, Sally Jessy Raphael cameoed in the Everybody Still Hates Chris episode "Everybody Still Hates Drew's Brother".

Sally Jessy Raphael was married for the first time in 1956 to Andrew Vladimir; they divorced seven years later.