BURBANK, Calif. — The goal to make it big in the entertainment business has been an aspiration of many a candidate and NBC’s page program since 1933. A new memoir titled “My Peacock Tale: The Secrets of an NBC Page” is written by a former page who got her start at the Burbank lot on Alameda Avenue back in 1976. Author Shelley Herman joined Lisa McRee on “LA Times Today.” 

Herman got the idea for her book during the pandemic and recruited her fellow former pages to help her flesh out the stories. She explained what the page program entails. 

“The 30 Rock page program, which is celebrating its 90th year this year, still has the tours, ushering the TV shows and the internships where people can kind of learn the ropes of what’s going on at NBC. For 18 months, they have to try to meet as many people as they can, establish themselves and hopefully get that next leg up in the business. On the West Coast, because NBCUniversal is now one big conglomerate, the tours don’t exist for the pages to do anymore, but we still have the internship programs where pages go to different departments,” she said.

Herman recounted her experiences seeing stars like Johnny Carson, John Wayne and Dean Martin while giving studio tours. She also recalled sitting in on tapings of shows. 

“Midnight Special was taping there, and we got to hear all these wonderful rock and roll bands and we were getting paid to be there to listen to all of this fabulous music. We have so many opportunities. And I’m so happy to say that so many of my friends, even the ones that didn’t pursue the entertainment industry, took those experiences out into the private sector, and they all just thrived in the careers that they had,” Herman said.

But, Herman said, decades before for the Me Too movement happened, she did have to contend with sexism and inappropriate behavior.

“Starting to compare stories of what happened with some of the other women, we realized that it was something that was kind of systemic. There was one instance where an executive had said to me, ‘If you sleep with me, you can have the job.’ I happened to know his girlfriend at the time. So I went to her and told her what he said and she never spoke to me again,’” Herman recalled.

Overall, Herman called her experience as a page the “last great ride” during a particularly fun time to be in show business.

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