CBS makeup artist Riccie Johnson’s brush with fame

Mo Rocca’s been talking to a member of our “Sunday Morning” family who’s had more face time with familiar faces than anyone we know:

It’s “Sunday Morning” on CBS. But before our beloved host Charles Osgood greets the millions of you out there, he spends time with makeup artist Riccie Johnson. For more than 20 years our beloved Riccie has been making up Charlie.

“And Riccie’s sort of the last person you’re chatting with before you go on air?” asked Rocca.

“Yes,” Os good replied. “And we’re chatting about any number of things.”

“I’m guessing your rapport relaxes you with her?”

“Absolutely. Absolutely.”

But Riccie’s career with CBS long predates this show. Among the titans she’s touched up: Morley Safer, Ed Bradley, Harry Reasoner, Walter Cronkite, and that pioneer of television news broadcasting, Edward R. Murrow.

So what was he like? “He was very busy, smoking and working and writing. And not sociable -- I mean, you know, to me,” Johnson said.

And after almost 65 years -- yes, 65 years! -- at work, Riccie Johnson is a master at reading the room.

“Most of the time we talk,” she said. “We talk about, you know, what movie did you see, or have you been to the theatre or, you know, how’s the family? So we do chat. But sometimes Charlie’ll come in and I can tell from the look on his face that something’s going on, and so I don’t say anything. Give him a chance to work it out!”

Makeup may in fact be superficial, but its impact is deep. Richard Nixon’s biggest mistake, after Watergate? Probably his decision not to wear makeup in his presidential debate with John F. Kennedy, a decision which made him look sweaty and nervous.

“Makeup shows up in history books when it comes to that 1960 election,” Rocca said. “Now, you made up Richard Nixon when?”

“After he left office,” Johnson said. “I made him up twice, actually. He was very gracious and certainly took makeup!”

“’This time, I’m accepting makeup’?”

“Yes, this time, absolutely!”

Florence Riccobono began working in TV right around when TV began. An art school graduate and aspiring actress, Riccie (she got the nickname in college) got her start doing makeup on Sid Caesar’s “Your Show of Shows” and “The Milton Berle Show.”

“A show like that was watched by millions of people,” Rocca said. “So did you think, ‘Okay, I’ve gotta get this right, because about a third of the country is gonna be watching this’?”

“No, I really never thought about it,” she replied. “It was my job. I did the best I knew how to do. But I never really thought about the historical significance of it. It was just, like, something you did!”

And she liked doing it so much, that even after marrying and having seven children, she kept on working.

Riccie keeps track of all the newsmakers she’s made over in a spiral notebook. Under M: “There’s John McEnroe right about Margaret Mead (“She was lovely!”). Mickey Mantle. The Monkees. Zubin Mehta. The McGuire Sisters (“All of them?” “Yeah.”) Roger Mudd. Dudley Moore. (“Did you have to use a booster seat? Rocca asked.)

And then there are those four guys from England, the ones who in 1964 played “The Ed Sullivan Show,” where Riccie worked at the time.

“I heard all this din outside,” she recalled. “And I looked out the window, and I saw all these young people. And I talked to the doorman. And he said, ‘Oh, some group from England.’ I said, ‘Wow. This looks serious!’ So I called home, and I said to my husband, ‘I can get the children in to a dress rehearsal.’ The children didn’t want to come. So of course, now they’re very sorry about that!”

Riccie knew just what those pop upstarts needed to pop on TV during that now-legendary broadcast.

“I used a little eyeliner,” she said.

And why did she use eyeliner? “Because it was black-and-white television. They were a music group. You want to see their eyes, and you want to see their mouth. that’s what’s important.

“I met Paul McCartney maybe eight years ago. And I told him who I was. And he said, ‘You used pancake makeup and eyeliner. And when we asked you about the eyeliner, you said, it’ll be fine.’” She laughed.

And it was!

Over the decades Riccie has drawn close to more than a few of her colleagues here -- friendships that mattered dearly after her husband, Jay, passed away in 1999.

“I was devastated,” she recalled. “I thought maybe I shouldn’t go back to work. I didn’t know how I could. And Mike Wallace came to the funeral home. And Mike took me by the hands, and he looked me in the eyes, and he said, ‘You’re coming back to work.’ And I said, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing.’ He said, ‘You are coming back to work.’ And so, he gave me courage, you know?”

It wouldn’t be right to end this tribute without pointing out that Riccie Johnson, the woman who’s made thousands of other people look good, looks pretty damn great herself.

Rocca asked, “Are you ever gonna retire?”

“I don’t know, Mo,” Johnson replied. “I love what I do. I work with the top people in the industry. And they still like what I do. 

“So should I just sit here and read a book?” she laughed.