Beverly Johnson talks about bringing her groundbreaking modeling career to the stage

Beverly Johnson made her splash onto the fashion scene when she became the first-ever Black model to be on the cover of Vogue in 1974.

And now, 50 years later, Johnson is bringing her life to the stage in her one-woman off-Broadway show, "Beverly Johnson: In Vogue," which reveals an intimate look into her journey as a supermodel, her relationships, and her involvement in the #MeToo movement.

The play began on Tuesday and will run until Jan. 28.

Johnson recently spoke with ABC News' Linsey Davis about the show and her career.

ABC NEWS LIVE: Fifty years. I kind of had to do a double-take when I saw the numbers and did the math. Half a century ago.

JOHNSON: Half a century ago.

ABC NEWS LIVE: How does that feel when you think about it? I'm sure you still remember the moment you got there.

JOHNSON: The moment. The moment. Oh, it's like it was yesterday. But I can't really get wrapped around the 50 years, but when I think about my grandchildren, it makes it a little easier.

ABC NEWS LIVE: I know that right before COVID, you started doing this in California. You had the show. What made you decide, 'You know what? Let's take this on the road. Let's go to New York and do this right off Broadway?'

JOHNSON: So it's very interesting. We did a workshop in West Hollywood and it just moved. Then I got laryngitis because now I'm learning how to breathe when I speak, and then, COVID hit, so it was down. And then I'm up in Palm Springs and somebody showed me this, cultural center. I said, 'This is perfect.' It had three theaters, a 100-seat, and a 500-seat, and they gave me the 500-seat. I said, 'Where am I going to get the butts go into seats?' But we did, and it was just really wonderful.

And Josh Ravitch, who created Carrie Fisher's "Wishful Drinking" and Dick Van Dyke's [show] he's a one-man expert, [a] one-woman expert show. I said, 'What am I going to do to celebrate the 50 years of that cover?' I have to do something.

ABC NEWS LIVE: What would you say was the hardest part of your life to revisit?

JOHNSON: Always losing the custody of my daughter. I'll start crying right now, even if I just think of it. That was a life wake-up time for me.

I'm just this little small-town girl from Buffalo, New York. [I] went to Northeastern University, [and] wanted to be a lawyer, and this modeling thing came out of left field. And then, the world opened up to me because of that historic Vogue cover. And along with that came meeting people and not --- being very green.

ABC NEWS LIVE: You said that, in fact, you didn't realize you were the first Black woman [on the cover], right? And you really weren't all that aware of racism at the time.

JOHNSON: Exactly. And I was fascinated because my father and I, we would watch the news together. That was one of our little things. I'd be practicing my flutter kicks watching a black and white television and the civil rights movement. And I remember them getting arrested and the hoses and at that moment, that little 8-year-old, that little 9-year-old, I was saying, 'I'm going to grow up, I'm going to be a lawyer. I'm going to be able to get them out.' And that's when I made a decision that I wanted to be a lawyer.

And so…I'm the middle child and my mom and my dad, and everybody went to college and finished except me. But, they had something more in line for me to do. And it was this calling, I guess. Actually [it was] my parents. The cost of living is going up and they're making the same money. And so when I found out that this whole modeling thing that everybody's talking about made $75 an hour -- my father made that in a week.

ABC NEWS LIVE: Wow.

JOHNSON: I said, 'I think I want to investigate that.' And that's how the whole thing came about. And so a lot of that is also in the show.

ABC NEWS LIVE: And I just have [to say] you look great. I mean, 50 years on a magazine. I can't even imagine you're older than 50 years old.

JOHNSON: Me too.