Kathie Lee Gifford Recalls Sending Letter to Walt Disney When She Was Young

Kathie Lee Gifford stopped by the Bobby Bones Show to talk about her newest passion projects.

She wrote a book with Rabbi Jason Sobel called The God of the Way that will drop on August 30th. The book explores key Biblical figures and how they continue to shape us today. Along with the book, it's companion film The Way releases on September 1st with Gifford as the narrator, a symphony orchestra and cast of musical stars like Jimmie Allen and BeBe Winans bringing to life the biblical stories over the course of 4 movements. Originally they were set to shoot the project in Israel, but couldn't go back to there due to the pandemic. So they shot the film out in Utah and Gifford loved the visuals it gave them. She's excited for people to see both of these projects, adding that she just wants to change people's lives of all ages.

Before finally getting to explore her passion projects, Gifford had her big break at 22-years-old. She was cast to play the lead singer on Name That Tune. After being cast, she had to learn 200 songs in 5 days. She had always wanted to be a singer, much like Barbara Streisand. Her mom sang and her dad was a musician, but at the time her sister was a better singer than her. Even her sister's vocal coach told Gifford to focus on harmonizing rather than being a lead vocalist. It didn't stop Gifford from pursuing singing, she just pushed herself to learn to be a better singer. As she got older, Gifford wanted to make movies. She wanted to be in a Disney project so bad, she wrote Walt Disney a letter and told him that he needed to meet her. She told him her dreams of making movies and that she wanted to be in his movies. She actually got a letter back from him that was a "form" letter to all fans, but in it said "maybe someday you and I will work together." It's almost as if Gifford manifested it because she did go on to work with Disney. The Regis and Kathie show was co-owned by them and Disney. And she was in 5 different Disney movies. Her son also made his acting debut in a Disney movie called Model Behavior.

Throughout all of her success, Gifford is still human and makes mistakes. She admitted to Bobby Bones that she's had some awkward interactions with massive celebrities. She asked James Taylor how Alex was doing to which he had to respond to her that "Alex is dead." Then a few years ago, she asked Marty Short how his beautiful marriage was going during the live show. After the show he went up to her and told her that his wife died of cancer the year before, but he didn't want to correct her on the show.


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