Vanna White recalls how she unexpectedly landed the co-host job on 'Wheel of Fortune': "I had a..."
Vanna White has come a long way in her television career with more than four decades on "Wheel of Fortune," and she had expressed her intention for being on the show for good, early in her career. But she knew that the small screen was her calling ever since she watched her uncle star in the 1966 drama series "The Rat Patrol." “I was in the third grade and I just had my appendix out, so I'm lying on the sofa watching TV and 'The Rat Patrol' comes on,” White told Parade in an exclusive. “My mother is in the kitchen cooking and she says, ‘That's your uncle, Christopher George on TV.’ I had an uncle on TV! I want to be on TV! That's really when it started.” She left North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to chase her goal in Los Angeles in 1980, and after two years of struggle, White landed her dream job as a co-host on "Wheel of Fortune."
Before landing her coveted role on the hit show, White revealed that she went to several auditions and took acting classes to hone her skills. Additionally, she disclosed that her anxiety peaked while attending job interviews with 50 other people. "But I never gave up. And that’s what I tell everybody—never give up,” she recalled. “You can do it. If I can do it, you can do it.” White then mentioned how her luck changed after attending a Merv Griffin show in 1982. “I was in the audience at a taping of Dance Fever, which was a Merv Griffin show. He also owned Wheel of Fortune at the time. And I was friends with a dancer on the show," she revealed.
White then persuaded her friend to introduce her to Griffin in order to bag the audition spot. "I said, ‘I hear they're looking for a replacement on Wheel of Fortune. Who do I need to talk to?’ She introduced me to Merv’s right-hand man,” she recounted. “He said, 'Here's my card. If we haven't made the decision by Oct. 5, 1982, you can come in and audition.’ So I called him at 10 o'clock in the morning on Oct. 5.” White was pitted against two other beautiful women, Summer Bartholomew, who was Miss USA 1975, and model Vicki McCarty, who happened to be her close friend. She acknowledged enjoying the audition because it included dressing in style like a runway model on the podium, rearranging letters on the puzzle board, and creating a sizzling chemistry with host Pat Sajak.
White remembered being a nervous wreck despite the easy task at hand, “It was between the three of us, and Vicki is actually a good friend of mine and the complete opposite of me. She was a brunette, spoke so clearly, and she was prim and proper and just perfect. And I was so nervous when I auditioned, I just thought, There's no way I'm going to get this job. My knees were shaking. My mouth was quivering. I just could hardly do it. I wanted the job so bad." However, a week before Thanksgiving, she was shocked to learn that she got the job. “When I asked Merv, ‘Why did you choose me?’ …he said ‘You turned the letters better than anyone else,’” white mentioned.
