Dick Cavett

Early life and education[edit]

Cavett was born in Buffalo County, Nebraska,^[4] but sources differ as to the specific town, locating his birthplace in either Gibbon,^[5][6] where his family lived, or nearby Kearney,^[7] the location of the nearest hospital. Cavett himself has stated that Gibbon was his birthplace.^[8][9]


His mother, Erabel "Era" (née Richards), and his father, Alva B. Cavett, both worked as teachers.^[10] When asked by Lucille Ball on his own show about his heritage, he said he was "Scottish, Irish, English, and possibly partly French, and ... a dose of German." He also mentioned that one grandfather "came over" from England, and the other from Wales.^[11] Cavett's grandparents all lived in Grand Island, Nebraska. His paternal grandparents were Alva A. Cavett and Gertrude Pinsch.^[12] His paternal grandfather was from Diller, Nebraska, and his paternal grandmother was an immigrant from Aachen, Germany, which is why he also speaks fluent German. His maternal grandparents were the Rev. R. R. and Etta Mae Richards. The Rev. Mr. Richards was from Carmarthen, Wales, and was a Baptist minister who served parishes across central Nebraska. Cavett himself is a self-described agnostic.^[13]


Cavett's parents taught in Comstock, Gibbon, and Grand Island,^[14] where Cavett started kindergarten at Wasmer Elementary School. Three years later, both of his parents landed teaching positions in Lincoln, Nebraska, where Cavett completed his education at Capitol, Prescott, and Irving schools and Lincoln High School. When Cavett was ten, his mother died of cancer at age 36. His father subsequently married Dorcas Deland, also a teacher, originally from Alliance, Nebraska. On September 24, 1995, Lincoln Public Schools dedicated the new Dorcas C. and Alva B. Cavett Elementary School in their honor.^[15][16]


In eighth grade, Cavett directed a live Saturday-morning radio show sponsored by the Junior League and played the title role in The Winslow Boy. One of his high-school classmates was actress Sandy Dennis. Cavett was elected president of the student council in high school, and was a gold medalist at the state gymnastics championship.^[17][18]


Before leaving for college, he worked as a caddie at the Lincoln Country Club. He also began performing magic shows for $35 a night under the tutelage of Gene Gloye. In 1952, Cavett attended the convention of the International Brotherhood of Magicians in St. Louis, Missouri, and won the Best New Performer trophy.^[18] Around the same time, he met fellow magician Johnny Carson, 11 years his senior, who was doing a magic act at a church in Lincoln.^[19]


While attending Yale University, Cavett played in and directed dramas on the campus radio station, WYBC, and appeared in Yale drama productions.^[20] In his senior year, he changed his major from English to drama (graduating in 1958). He also took advantage of any opportunity to meet stars, routinely going to shows in New York to hang around stage doors or venture backstage. He would go so far as to carry a copy of Variety or an appropriate piece of company stationery in order to look inconspicuous while sneaking backstage or into a TV studio.^[21] Cavett took many odd jobs ranging from store detective to label typist for a Wall Street firm, and as a copyboy at Time magazine.^[22]