Editing Barbara Walters (section)

== Early life ==
Barbara Jill Walters was born on September 25, 1929,<ref>{{cite web |title=Massachusetts, U.S., Birth Index, 1860-1970 |publisher=Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. |url=https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/3928/records/4942118 |quote=Name: Barbara Walters; Birth Date: 1929; Birth Place: Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Volume Number: 2; Page number: 79; Index Volume Number: 125; Reference Number: F63.m362 V.125 }}</ref>{{efn|Walters later claimed 1931 as her birth year in an interview.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M7pYKYu8-w#t=138 | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211030/7M7pYKYu8-w| archive-date=October 30, 2021|title=Barbara Walters Interview Part 1 of 4 – EMMYTVLEGENDS.ORG |via=YouTube |date=August 28, 2009 |access-date=April 17, 2016}}{{cbignore}}</ref>}}, in [[Boston]], Massachusetts, the daughter of Dena (née Seletsky) and [[Lou Walters]] (born Louis Abraham Warmwater);<ref>{{cite book |last=Walters |first=Barbara |title=Audition: a memoir |year=2008 |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |location=New York |isbn=978-0-307-26646-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_B004FR2X2W/page/9 9] |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_B004FR2X2W |url-access=registration }}</ref><ref>Stated on ''Finding Your Roots'', PBS, April 1, 2012</ref> her parents were children of [[Russian Jewish]] immigrants.<ref name="Walters3">{{cite news |last=Quinn |first=Sally |title=Television Personality Looks Anew at Religion |newspaper=The Washington Post/[[Newsweek]] |date=December 22, 2006 |url=http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2006/12/television_personality_looks_a.html |access-date=December 22, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070106163807/http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2006/12/television_personality_looks_a.html |archive-date=January 6, 2007 }}</ref><ref name="Audition">{{cite book |title=Audition: A Memoir |last=Walters |first=Barbara |year=2008 |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |location=New York |isbn=978-0-307-26646-0 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_B004FR2X2W/page/7 7]–13 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_B004FR2X2W |url-access=registration }}</ref> Her paternal grandfather, Abraham Isaac Waremwasser, was born in the Polish city of [[Łódź]] and emigrated to England where he changed his surname to Warmwater.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2012/03/23/149222907/helping-celebrities-find-their-roots|title=Helping Celebrities Find Their Roots|website=NPR.org|publisher=NPR|access-date=April 2, 2018|archive-date=October 16, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191016062728/https://www.npr.org/2012/03/23/149222907/helping-celebrities-find-their-roots|url-status=live}}</ref> Walters' father was born in London in 1898 and moved to New York City with his father and two brothers on August 28, 1909. His mother and four sisters arrived there the following year.<ref>{{cite book |last=Walters |first=Barbara |title=Audition: a memoir |year=2008 |publisher=Knopf |location=NY |isbn=978-0-307-26646-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_B004FR2X2W/page/10 10] |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_B004FR2X2W |url-access=registration}}</ref>

During Walters' childhood, her father managed the Latin Quarter nightclub in Boston, which was owned in partnership with E.&nbsp;M. Loew. In 1942, her father opened the club's [[Latin Quarter (nightclub)|now-famous New York location]]. He also worked as a [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] producer and produced the ''[[Ziegfeld Follies]] of 1943'';<ref name="Walters2">{{cite news |title=Lou Walters, Nightclub Impresario and Founder of Latin Quarter, Dies |page=36 |website=The New York Times |date=August 16, 1977}}</ref><ref>{{IBDB name|id=7381|name=Lou Walters}}</ref> he was also the entertainment director for the [[Tropicana Resort and Casino]] in [[Las Vegas]]. He imported the ''Folies Bergère'' stage show from Paris to the resort's main showroom.<ref>[http://www.a2zlasvegas.com/hotels/history/h-trop.html Tropicana – Las Vegas Strip] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180419211549/http://www.a2zlasvegas.com/hotels/history/h-trop.html |date=April 19, 2018 }}. A2zlasvegas.com. Retrieved October 27, 2011.</ref> Walters' older brother, Burton, was 14 months old when he died of [[pneumonia]].<ref name="Conaway">James Conaway, "[https://www.nytimes.com/1972/09/10/archives/how-to-talk-with-barbara-walters-about-practically-anything-roy.html How to talk with Barbara Walters about practically anything] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221231133722/https://www.nytimes.com/1972/09/10/archives/how-to-talk-with-barbara-walters-about-practically-anything-roy.html |date=December 31, 2022 }}", ''The New York Times'', September 10, 1972, page SM40, 43–44</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Barbara|last=Walters|title=Audition: a memoir|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|year=2008|page=16|isbn=978-0-307-26646-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/auditionmemoir00walt/page/16/mode/1up?view=theater|url-access=registration|via=[[Internet Archive]]|access-date=January 4, 2023}}</ref> Her elder sister, Jacqueline, was born with [[Disabilities affecting intellectual abilities|mental disabilities]] and died of [[ovarian cancer]] in 1985.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.dailybreeze.com/2008/05/01/journalist-barbara-walters-admits-past-affair-with-married-senator/ | title=Journalist Barbara Walters admits past affair with married senator | date=May 2008 | access-date=December 31, 2022 | archive-date=December 31, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221231041835/https://www.dailybreeze.com/2008/05/01/journalist-barbara-walters-admits-past-affair-with-married-senator/ | url-status=live }}</ref>

According to Walters, her father made and lost several fortunes throughout his life in show business. He was a booking agent, and (unlike her uncles in the shoe and dress businesses) his job was not very stable. During the good times, she recalled her father taking her to the rehearsals of the nightclub shows he directed and produced. The actresses and dancers would make a huge fuss over her and twirl her around until she was dizzy, after which she said her father would take her out to get hot dogs.<ref name="Walters, Barbara 2008">Walters, Barbara (2008). ''Audition: A Memoir''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf</ref>

Walters said that being surrounded by celebrities when she was young kept her from being "in awe" of them.<ref>{{cite web |first=Ramin |last=Setoodeh |url=https://variety.com/2014/tv/features/barbara-walters-tells-variety-shes-leaving-the-business-on-her-own-terms-1201153821/ |title=Barbara Walters on Her Retirement and Big Changes at ABC's The View |work=Variety |date=April 8, 2014 |access-date=December 31, 2022 |archive-date=January 25, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180125170829/http://variety.com/2014/tv/features/barbara-walters-tells-variety-shes-leaving-the-business-on-her-own-terms-1201153821/ |url-status=live }}</ref> When she was a young woman, her father lost his night clubs and the family's [[Penthouse apartment|penthouse]] on [[Central Park West]]. As Walters recalled, "He had a [[Mental breakdown|breakdown]]. He went down to live in our house in Florida, and then the government took the house, and they took the car, and they took the furniture. [...] My mother should have married the way her friends did, to a man who was a doctor or who was in the dress business."<ref name="Bumiller">Elisabeth Bumiller, "So Famous, Such Clout, She Could Interview Herself", ''The New York Times'', April 21, 1996, page H1</ref> During her childhood in [[Miami Beach]], she briefly lived with the mobster [[Bill Dwyer (mobster)|Bill Dwyer]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Capó |first=Julio Jr. |title=Welcome to fairyland: queer Miami before 1940 |date=2017 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-1-4696-3521-7 |location=Chapel Hill |page=254 |oclc=1005354248}}</ref>

Walters attended Lawrence School, a public school in [[Brookline, Massachusetts]]; she left halfway through [[fifth grade]] when her father moved the family to Miami Beach in 1939.<ref>{{cite book|first=Barbara|last=Walters|title=Audition: a memoir|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|year=2008|page=29|isbn=978-0-307-26646-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/auditionmemoir00walt/page/29/mode/1up?view=theater|url-access=registration|via=[[Internet Archive]]|access-date=January 4, 2023}}</ref> She continued attending public school in Miami Beach.<ref name=cbsmiami_12302022>{{cite web|title=Legendary journalist Barbara Walters has passed away at 93|date=December 30, 2022|work=CBS Miami|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/legendary-journalist-barbara-walters-has-passed-away-at-93/|access-date=January 4, 2023|archive-date=January 4, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230104065531/https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/legendary-journalist-barbara-walters-has-passed-away-at-93/|url-status=live}}</ref> After her father moved the family to New York City, she spent [[eighth grade]] at the private [[Ethical Culture Fieldston School]],<ref>{{cite book|first=Barbara|last=Walters|title=Audition: a memoir|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|year=2008|pages=39–40|isbn=978-0-307-26646-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/auditionmemoir00walt/page/39/mode/1up?view=theater|url-access=registration|via=[[Internet Archive]]|access-date=January 4, 2023}}</ref> after which the family moved back to Miami Beach.<ref>{{cite book|first=Barbara|last=Walters|title=Audition: a memoir|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|year=2008|pages=50–51|isbn=978-0-307-26646-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/auditionmemoir00walt/page/50/mode/1up?view=theater|url-access=registration|via=[[Internet Archive]]|access-date=January 4, 2023}}</ref> She then went back to New York City after [[tenth grade]], where she attended [[Birch Wathen School]], another private school.<ref>{{cite book|first=Barbara|last=Walters|title=Audition: a memoir|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|year=2008|pages=54–55|isbn=978-0-307-26646-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/auditionmemoir00walt/page/54/mode/1up?view=theater|url-access=registration|via=[[Internet Archive]]|access-date=January 4, 2023}}</ref><ref name="New York Magazine">[https://nymag.com/news/features/28519/index1.html "Can Barbara Walters's Career Survive Rosie and Donald's War?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191031224208/http://nymag.com/news/features/28519/index1.html |date=October 31, 2019 }} ''New York'' (March 5, 2007). Retrieved October 27, 2011.</ref><ref name="New York Times">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/03/25/books/and-now-back-to-you-barbara.html |work=The New York Times |title=And Now Back to You, Barbara |first=Maureen |last=Dowd |date=March 25, 1990 |access-date=April 26, 2010 |archive-date=February 14, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110214021157/http://www.nytimes.com/1990/03/25/books/and-now-back-to-you-barbara.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1951, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from [[Sarah Lawrence College]] in [[Yonkers, New York]].<ref name="biography.com">{{cite web |title=Barbara Walters Biography |date=May 13, 2021 |publisher=biography.com |url=http://www.biography.com/people/barbara-walters-9523127 |access-date=March 10, 2013 |archive-date=April 3, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190403103540/https://www.biography.com/people/barbara-walters-9523127 |url-status=live }}</ref>