The Crazy Reason Lola Falana Was Banned By Johnny Carson

During the 1970s, Lola Falana seemed to have it all. She was a triple threat: this lady could sing, she could act, and beyond that, she was intelligent and articulate with a keen sense of humor and beauty to match. So, why would she end up on Johnny Carson’s banned guest list?

Though Lola is well known for her appearances in movies like Lady Cocoa and The Klansman, music is where she first made her mark. Discovered by Sammy Davis Jr., he cast her in the Broadway production of Golden Boy and then helped her get signed to Mercury Records. Regardless of what she was doing, Lola was truly a memorable entertainer. And, from time to time, the woman known as the “Queen of Las Vegas” found herself as a guest on The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson.

Each visit was fun and entertaining; the two really seemed to enjoy being with each other, and Lola, well, she could definitely hold her own when chatting with Johnny. But then, Lola’s manager made it publicly known that they had been told that she was no longer welcome on The Tonight Show when Johnny was hosting.

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It turns out that Lola was banned because of a friendship. Hard to believe, but true, and there are plenty of articles out there to back up the story. An article that appeared in the Lexington Herald on February 4, 1981, says that Lola was banned from the show because of Johnny’s feud with her very good friend Wayne Newton.

Apparently, Wayne had recently beat Johnny out of buying a hotel in Las Vegas, but the feud went back even further, to when Wayne charged into Johnny’s office one day and demanded that he knock it off with the jokes about the singer’s masculinity.

Lola and Wayne weren’t the only ones on that infamous banned list. In an article that surfaced shortly after Johnny’s death, Carson biographer Laurence Leamer shared how little it actually took to end up banished from Johnny’s show. Barbra Streisand allegedly found herself banned for a while because she canceled and provided Johnny with what he thought was a lame excuse. Charles Grodin was there because he teased Johnny about not being invited to a card game. And comedian Rich Little, while not completely certain, always believed that he had been banned due to Johnny not liking an impression that he had done of him.