ARUN RATH, HOST:
Here's another name you might not recognize - Myrtle Young, who died this year the age of 90. But if I say potato chip lady, I bet many of you flashed back to a classic moment on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson.
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JOHNNY CARSON: Well, we have a - we have a little more time left here. Now, what are some of your prize ones on this?
MYRTLE YOUNG: Well, I have a dirty sweat socks.
CARSON: Potato chips, folks, if you just joined us.
YOUNG: Yes.
RATH: Myrtle was a potato chip inspector from Fort Wayne, Indiana. She had amassed a collection of unusually shaped chips - potato chips that looked like animals, fruits, celebrities.
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YOUNG: I have Rodney Dangerfield.
CARSON: Hold it. That's it. Look at that. We can get a shot.
YOUNG: Rodney Dangerfield.
CARSON: There's Rodney Dangerfield.
(LAUGHTER)
RATH: When she appeared with Johnny Carson to show off her collection, it had all the makings of a pretty hokey, forgettable talk show segment.
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YOUNG: Here's a camel - a camel.
CARSON: That sure is. There's no doubt about that.
YOUNG: And the pair is rather perfect.
RATH: But Carson knew how to make memorable TV. Myrtle was being set up.
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YOUNG: I have a lot of apples and pears and pumpkins - potato chips.
CARSON: Potato chips, OK.
RATH: We're about to see Carson display skills he'd acquired as a magician. Ed McMahon, able sidekick, supplies the misdirection.
ED MCMAHON: Look at this one, John.
RATH: Myrtle looks away. And on the offbeat, as magicians say, Carson slips his hand away from her collection, reaches behind his desk to switch in a normal potato chip and pops it into his mouth.
(LAUGHTER)
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RATH: You can tell right away he's scared he's gone too far.
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CARSON: No, I didn't...
RATH: Carson turns on a dime from prankster to comforter.
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CARSON: Gee, poor Myrtle thought I was eating her collection.
(LAUGHTER)
CARSON: No, they had a bowl back year of just regular chips, and I had one of those. I wasn't...
RATH: Myrtle's immediately in on the joke and laughing with everyone.
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CARSON: Excuse me. You really had a start there, didn't you?
YOUNG: Yes, I heard that crunch.
CARSON: You heard that crunch, and you thought I was eating your act. OK.
RATH: Such a beautiful human moment that even though Myrtle Young died in August, she long ago achieved television immortality. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
