What You Didn't Know About Barbara Walters' Father, Lou Walters

Lou Walters' biggest claim to fame was his chain of Latin Quarter nightclubs, particularly the one in Manhattan. Opening in 1942, it held 600 people and attracted such top-notch acts as Sophie Tucker, Frank Sinatra, and Ella Fitzgerald. "My father was like Ziegfeld," Barbara Walters recalled on PBS's "Finding Your Roots." She elaborated, "He did beautiful shows. Great costumes. He always spent too much money, everything had to be perfect."

At show rehearsals, the actors and dancers doted on Walters; this comfort level with performers gave her the confidence to break into journalism. "I was never in awe of celebrities, because they worked for my father," Walters told Variety. "I was curious. Even today, if I go out to dinner and I'm sitting next to someone and I ask questions, they'll say, 'Oh, you're interviewing me.'"

In August 1977, Lou Walters died at age 81, just nine years after the club closed, per The New York Times. Sadly, Walters wasn't able to put a memorial on at the time. "I was here alone," she recalled to The New Yorker, referencing her first tough year at ABC News. "I wouldn't have known who to call even to arrange a memorial. It was a terrible year for me." Lou's legacy was later memorialized by former NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who had 48th Street and Broadway named after him. "When you see 'Lou Walters Way,'" Walters said in her PBS interview, "just know that this was where the most famous nightclub in America was...and it's very much a part of my life."