A unique, pioneering, and potent presence in contemporary American broadcast news, information, and just plain chat; a figure who has been admitted into the holy of holies but would sometimes just as soon worship at more earthbound sites; a woman who oddly combines a middle-aged brand of glamour with professionalism and even a certain integrity; a personality who is at once a canny, ambitious, intelligent, self-assured network figurehead and a campy, dish-the-dirt diva--all these things and more are Barbara Walters.

The daughter of the man who founded the famous "Latin Quarter" nightclubs first