It would be a fool's errand to count the words the Tribune has devoted to Oprah over the years. There have been, let us agree, many as the woman shot from talk show host hired from Baltimore to one-name superstar. What follows is a selection from the paper's Oprah chronicles, and what is clear is that we've been kind of shocked by her meteoric ascent too.
Created by drockett on May 19, 2011
Last updated: 07/13/11 at 03:01 PM
Tags: Oprah Oprah Winfrey Chicago Tribune The Story of O
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"A lot of us will miss having the show in Chicago. Even if she never seemed like a true resident — she always seemed to float above it — Oprah changed Chicago. Her leaving will change it, too." -- Mary Schmich
"Winfrey plans to tell viewers on Friday's show that she will retire the Chicago-based syndicated gabfest at the end of her current contract, which runs through the 2010-11 season, her 25th on national TV. It's going to be a long goodbye." -- Phil Rosenthal
"Although she began Tuesday's show by shouting 'Greatest city in the world,' Winfrey became so big, so fast, that she transcended place. (Chicago's) celebrities are athletes and newsreaders, the occasional musician. Our celebrities have two names. Winfrey is something else, the global brand that you forget is also a company with a headquarters somewhere specific. It was interesting to have her on our big street for a day, but come Wednesday morning — except on her true home, television — there'll be little trace of her." -- Steve Johnson
"One of America's best-known faces put her fame on the line in a rare dip into partisan politics Saturday, as Oprah Winfrey brought her brand name and credibility to Sen. Barack Obama's presidential bid... The one-woman media empire denied she is trying to do for Obama what her book club has done for authors." -- John McCormick
"There is no fame quite like television fame, and ("The Corrections" author Jonathan) Franzen, perhaps against his will, now is permanently paired with Winfrey in the public imagination: He's the guy who dissed Oprah." -- Julia Keller
"With so much of O, the person, on hand, O, the magazine, makes Martha Stewart look like a shrinking violet, which may be part of the plan. The magazine adds power to Winfrey's challenge of Stewart for dominance in the field of personality-driven lifestyle guidance." -- Steve Johnson
"But free speech doesn't rock for everyone, notably employees at Chicago-based Harpo Inc., the corporate parent of Winfrey's production studio operation. To work at Harpo, all employees must sign an agreement prohibiting them from talking or writing about Winfrey's personal or business life and the affairs of her company — for the rest of their lives." -- Tim Jones
"The variable-weight champion of daytime talk is undergoing a rare period of public repudiation. Her beloved big-screen movie project is getting the cold shoulder from audiences, despite a fairly positive critical reception. More starkly, her daily daytime talk show — her power and popularity base — seems to be alienating not only the predictably dyspeptic critics but even some longtime fans. They decry its new resemblance to a New Age revival tent, with Herself as the charismatic leader and a smug little coterie of self-help authors passing the collection plates and pocketing much of the proceeds. "This is strange turf for Winfrey, who has enjoyed almost unchecked exaltation from public and press alike." -- Steve Johnson
"Legally, Oprah Winfrey cleaned the cattlemen's clocks in their own feedlot. But does last week's jury verdict exonerating the talk show host of defamation charges give lasting comfort that free speech, as Winfrey declared Thursday, 'not only lives, it rocks'? Probably not." -- Tim Jones
"What began as Winfrey's effort to promote reading with a once-a-month segment on her talk show has become a double-edged sword for public libraries and bookstores nationwide. They're delighted with the influx of readers. But they often can't supply the books after Winfrey makes her announcements." -- Carolyn Starks
"Oprah Winfrey has announced her engagement to longtime companion Stedman Graham, whom she has dated for six years." -- Tribune wire services
"Having bought, designed and taken charge of her own studio, Winfrey can now rightfully consider herself a mogul. She is certainly big enough that newspapers and magazines across the country would fly their writers here to get the first peek at Harpo Studios, despite a ban on photographers and limiting the writers to a news conference instead of interviews." -- Mark Caro
"The history of Harpo Productions waits to be written. Now it exists in blueprints of the handsome production facility on West Washington Boulevard, which also will house a new studio for her TV show." -- Rick Kogan
"Yes, Oprah Winfrey refills the toilet paper in the bathroom at her new River North eaterie. Yes, she peels potatoes in the kitchen. And, yes, she eats. "Spooning deep into a chocolatier glace ($3.25 for a goblet of frozen chocolate), the rookie restaurateur proclaimed it 'wicked.' Winfrey made it clear that she is not going to be one of those celebrities with a passing fancy in her cafe, the Eccentric, 159 W. Erie St., the 28th and newest restaurant in Rich Melman's Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises." -- Barbara Mahany
"The new Oprah is authoritative rather than fun-loving. She still is loud and self-involved and overweight, but now gives the impression she has worked that out, and will interrupt almost any guest to tell us how much she has learned in the process... "Of course, the new Oprah is as much an exhibitionist as the old, though her parading is now more high-toned, replacing talk of diets with how she sent Phil Donahue champagne or bought her mother a fur coat. Somebody probably told her she is a role model. So, instead of being 'natural,' Oprah is being 'successful,' and, my, she does let us know." -- Alan G. Artner
"She can exhibit a giddy tendency towards shameless self-promotion; she is her own best fan. On a recent show featuring actor Danny Glover, Winfrey showed a film clip from 'The Color Purple.' The clip featured Glover approximately 20 percent of the time; Winfrey the other 80 percent. And during a show on which short men talked about how insensitively they are treated by society, Winfrey just happened to drop the information that her current beau is 6-feet-6."-- Marcia Froelke Coburn
"When I have children, I want to teach them: That you are responsible for your life. A really great evening to me is: Ordering in some pasta, opening up a great bottle of wine and then getting into bed with a terrific book. If I could change one thing about myself, it would be: My hips. People who knew me in high school thought I was: An Oreo. It was 'in' to hate white people, but to me, color never mattered. "I knew I was a grown-up when I: Started to pay my bills on time. "The best time of my life: Now. I'm comfortable with myself, and life is good and getting better." -- Winfrey's responses in "Vital Statistics" column, Tribune Sunday Magazine
"Saying Oprah Winfrey is hot is like saying Refrigerator Perry is big. Everyone wants her, from Life magazine to 'Entertainment Tonight.' And everything she wants, from her part in 'The Color Purple' to a pair of shoes, comes her way …. "Channel 7 may be surprised at Winfrey`s phenomenal success, Phil Donahue may be in shock, but Winfrey? Not her. Her self-confidence is as big as her, uh, heart. 'I was like a hit album waiting to be released,' she says. 'I knew my day would come.'" -- Cheryl Lavin
"The price tag still clinging to the dusty tea kettle on Oprah Winfrey's kitchen stove was the first clue that she doesn't do much cooking. Winfrey prefers to eat out in Italian restaurants... But just one stint in the kitchen a week should prove an interesting challenge for the woman who says she hasn't cooked a meal in eight months and 'becomes overwhelmed with all the choices' every time she steps into a grocery store." -- Marla Donato, "At Home With Oprah"
"Pulling off her first national TV outing with aplomb, WLS-TV's morning tornado Oprah Winfrey swept onto NBC's "The Tonight Show" and challenged ‘designated guest host' Joan Rivers to a duel. She'll lose 30 pounds if Joan loses 5." -- Jon Anderson
"Winfrey is about as unspontaneous as, say, a charge up San Juan Hill. ...On- and off-screen, her presence is undeniable, despite her short Chicago track record: three months. She is greeted by strangers on the street, recognized in restaurants and once was driven to work by a policeman when she was late and couldn't get a cab." -- Jon Anderson
"Oprah Winfrey, who succeeded Robb Weller as the host of ‘A.M. Chicago' on WLS, has pulled the show into a virtual dead heat with WBBM's Phil Donahue on the strength of several phenomenally popular episodes." -- Eric Zorn
"Start the Day with a New Face. Say hello to AM Chicago's fresh new hostess. She's vivacious. Interesting. Exciting. And fun. She's Oprah Winfrey. And you're gonna love her." -- WLS advertisement in Tribune
"Channel 7 got a city parade permit to welcome Oprah Winfrey, ‘A.M. Chicago's' new host, in style. State Street, between Lake and Randolph Streets, will be blocked off from 8:45 to 9:15 a.m. Monday." -- INC. column
"Despite the fact that ('A.M. Chicago') has been doing better without a host than it did with Robb Weller, Oprah Winfrey was named Thursday as the show's host." -- INC. column
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