Larry King from 2013
Marc:So Larry King, I get an opportunity to interview Larry King.
Marc:Larry King is Larry King.
Marc:Larry King's like it's like a basic element.
Marc:He's a basic media element.
Marc:It's like he's one of the things that seems to have always existed as he is.
Marc:He's he's pure.
Marc:He's Larry King.
Marc:I got the opportunity.
Marc:I figured, okay, I'll do it.
Marc:Is he coming over?
Marc:No, he's not.
Marc:I got to go to his house.
Marc:Okay, I'll go to his house.
Marc:It didn't really turn out the way I wanted it to for reasons that will become clear.
Marc:I don't think he knew who I was, and that's fine.
Marc:Look, I'm humble.
Marc:I get it.
Marc:A lot of people don't know who I am, but I was going to his house.
Marc:and there was an issue when i got to his house and uh this is what happened uh at the door hello how are you how are you mr king late what do you mean it's supposed to be 10 o'clock i had 10 15. i was gonna do an hour but you don't all right
Marc:Sorry.
Marc:Whatever you want.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:If you're not into it, I don't have to do it.
Marc:Five minutes.
Marc:So that's what I was dealing with.
Marc:That was that was the tone of the situation.
Marc:Yeah, I wasn't late.
Marc:I got the information.
Marc:But like right away, I was like, oh, man, you know, we can do this another time or not at all.
Marc:If that's what you want.
Marc:You know, I just want to have a conversation.
Marc:So that's what I dealt with at the door.
Marc:And now and then I was sitting in his living room.
Marc:I was just sitting there and just waiting for him.
Marc:I set up, took me the few minutes that I told him it would take him, and I'm just sitting there.
Marc:And here was, and some of you know, I'll talk to myself if I'm in the car and I got the mic on or I'm in someone's living room waiting to talk to them.
Marc:So here's me talking to me, apparently, while I was waiting for Larry.
Marc:Fuck.
Marc:So I'm sitting here in Larry King's house.
Marc:He thought I was supposed to be here at 10.
Marc:I came at 10.15 because that's what I had and he was mad.
Marc:So I told him it would take me five minutes to set up.
Marc:That was five minutes ago.
Marc:So I don't know what's going to happen here.
Marc:But I guess we'll see.
Marc:I'm just waiting.
Marc:I told him we didn't have to do it.
Marc:but that's that's where I'm at right now I don't know if he's making me wait as punishment but I don't know that this is if this is going to work out
Marc:Because I'm you know.
Marc:I can get angry too.
Marc:Hello, sir.
Marc:I apologize for the miscommunication.
Guest:It is Mark here sure.
Guest:Okay.
Marc:It's nice to meet you.
Guest:Same here.
Marc:And I apologize for being late.
Marc:It's all right.
Marc:It's all right?
Marc:Uh-huh.
Marc:We're going to be all right?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So as a guy who interviews people, I'm a guy who interviews people, and I don't have a particular style, but for you, what is it that you're looking for immediately?
Guest:Information.
Guest:Yeah.
Yeah.
Guest:I think the purpose of an interview is to draw the guest out.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Listen to answers.
Guest:I think listening is as important as the question you ask.
Guest:I think you have to be intensely curious.
Guest:I can't give someone curious.
Guest:I couldn't teach interviewing.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:You have to be intensely curious to begin with.
Guest:I'm insatiably curious.
Guest:Been that way all my life.
Guest:When I was a kid, I'd get on a bus and ask the bus driver why he wanted to drive a bus.
Guest:You don't want to sit next to me on an airplane.
Guest:I'm asking questions all the time.
Guest:So basically, my 56 years in the business, they're paying me for what I would be doing anyway.
Marc:So you were the kind of kid that, you know, you walk down the street, you'd see a guy just working or you walk into a diner and you want to know what... Why they do what they do.
Guest:I was a why kind of person, who, what, where, when, why.
Guest:I listened to answers.
Guest:I left my ego at the door.
Guest:I think if my whole career, if I use the word I...
Guest:five times it would be a lot i i never felt i was important i except as a transmitter i was a conduit to the audience i try to ask the kind of questions that people i thought would be interested in i um when did you realize that though when did you understand that about yourself that you were we're going to let your ego get out of the way
Guest:I don't know when it happened.
Guest:I thought I'd be a sports announcer.
Guest:I was always an avid sports fan.
Guest:I wanted to be a broadcaster all my life.
Guest:I never wanted anything else.
Marc:When did you first realize that?
Guest:I think when I was six years old.
Guest:I would listen to the radio and imitate radio announcers.
Marc:Who was your favorite radio announcer?
Guest:oh i liked red barber doing the dodgers i thought godfrey was a hero i got to work with both of them later in life and where'd you grow up i would brooklyn yeah and i would go around to radio stations i would go on watch radio shows i used to pretend i was an announcer yeah honestly i would go into elevators in buildings where there were radio stations and i would say to the elevator operator you know third floor please and
Guest:I just wanted to be an announcer.
Guest:I had a bunch of odd jobs until about age 22 when a friend recommended I go to Miami.
Guest:I thought it'd be a sports announcer.
Guest:I was a disc jockey newsman, started on a small station.
Guest:And then one day, I was hired to do a show at a restaurant, Pumper Lake's Restaurant.
Guest:I did my own disc jockey show, and then I'd go to the restaurant and do an hour show from the restaurant.
Guest:And one day, Bobby Darin walked in.
Guest:and mac the knife was the number one song in america i had no idea he would be coming yeah and uh so i couldn't plan for him and i got to like that i liked the impromptiveness of it i liked uh off the top of the head i i like being to start the cold i would like to do interviews where someone walked into the room i didn't know who they were sure and then famous people started to come in jimmy hoffa
Guest:Jimmy Hoffa.
Guest:Ed Sullivan.
Guest:Oh, Danny Thomas.
Guest:A slew of famous people.
Guest:And then the Miami Herald started to write about it.
Guest:So I fell into interviewing.
Guest:I never really thought about my style much.
Guest:I never said to myself, I'm going to leave my ego at the door.
Guest:I just felt that I was so curious about what the guest was, that the guest counted to me.
Guest:I wasn't irrelevant, but I'd be there tomorrow.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:My name was on the show.
Guest:So the guests counted.
Marc:Did you ever get intimidated or frightened at times during interviews where you didn't know if it was going your way or where you felt like you were?
Guest:The only time I was ever intimidated was the first time I did Frank Sinatra because I'd been such a fan of his and Jackie Gleason arranged for the interview and I was nervous.
Guest:But I got over that in a minute, in a minute.
Guest:First time in the White House.
Guest:A little kind of in awe of the White House.
Guest:But that goes away because I learned a long time.
Guest:In fact, I learned my first day on the air that the person whose show it is is in control.
Guest:So whether I'm at the White House, whether it's the president or the mayor or...
Guest:or the carpenter or Frank Sinatra, I'm in control.
Guest:You're in control of this interview, not me.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So once you know that, once you know you're in control, there's nothing to be nervous about.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Okay, because you're in control.
Guest:Right.
Marc:And also, don't you find that when you talk to people that they become people very quickly, despite what you may think of them or their public personality?
Guest:Oh, sure.
Guest:The mic disappears.
Guest:The camera disappears.
Guest:I never thought about how am I doing.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I never thought about yesterday's show or tomorrow's show.
Guest:Today, I go always in the moment.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I felt right in the moment, the moment I was doing it.
Guest:The first day I was on the air, I was very nervous.
Guest:and nothing was coming out of my mouth and i can remember it to this day it was may of 1957 really morning and i couldn't think of anything to say and i thought my whole career was over and the general manager kicked open the door and he said this is a communications business yeah you better communicate and what i did was swear to god i turned on the microphone right and said yeah this is my first day on the air
Guest:i've wanted this all my life i've been sitting here for three four minutes scared to death yeah so i just want to let you know that i'm nervous so what i did then yeah this is in retrospect right i brought the audience into my dilemma sure okay then nothing could go wrong after that because if i miscued a record yeah goofed up a commercial right it's my first day
Guest:Right.
Guest:And they knew it.
Guest:So once they know that.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:What am I going to be nervous about?
Guest:Right.
Guest:Because I've taken them into my situation.
Guest:Right.
Marc:And that was like the last time you used I. That was it.
Guest:That was one of the last.
Guest:And also, I've never after that, I was I got to say I was never nervous again.
Guest:My first day on television, I wasn't nervous.
Guest:I do a lot of speaking.
Guest:I do comedy tours.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I saw some comedy.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I tell funny stories.
Guest:I I like all of it.
Guest:And I've never gone on a stage frightened because I know from that first day it ain't brain surgery.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:If the story is funny, they're going to laugh.
Guest:Right.
Guest:They're not going to laugh.
Guest:It ain't the end of the world.
Guest:that's a hard one to learn no no i mean i don't know that you learned it i just i i just you were able to frame it that way i don't have the confidence in life that i have in broadcasting or on a stage because i think it's a control issue i have two young boys here 14 and 13 one just started high school one's still in junior high school yeah i had to get up this morning and take one to work and one didn't want to have breakfast and i had to drop them off
Guest:And now I don't know what my wife's going to say today.
Guest:And then I got a lunch to go to.
Guest:But I can't control that.
Guest:However, if I were broadcasting today, I can control that.
Guest:So the best part of my day is when I'm working.
Guest:The easiest part of my day is by far when I'm working.
Guest:Because I can't control life, but I can control the situations of radio, television, speaking.
Guest:I'm in control.
Marc:How is it for you now bringing up young kids?
Guest:Well, I have three grown.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I have a stepson.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then I have two children.
Guest:I'm the age of a grandfather.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But I'm a father.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So I go to go to baseball games.
Guest:I got to take kids to school.
Guest:Grandfathers don't do that.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Someone said the best part about being a grandfather is you get to go home.
Guest:You don't get it.
Guest:I don't get to go home.
Guest:Is this the most hands-on you've ever been with all your kids?
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:Absolutely.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:Because I have more time with them.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Is it rewarding?
Guest:I'm not running around making it.
Mm-hmm.
Guest:Well, there's a good and bad to it.
Guest:The great part is to watch them grow and to see they're both very athletes and both kind of bright, very different night and day, except for being good athletes.
Guest:There's not one thing they have in common.
Guest:Definitely.
Guest:Not one.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then you think of your age, you know, and we go to all the Dodger games and sitting the other night with my son and I had a vision that he'd be playing with the Dodgers and he's 14.
Guest:And then I was thinking to myself, oh, wait a second.
Guest:Logically, if he went in after high school and he played a couple of years in the minors, maybe he'd come up to the majors when he 24.
Guest:yeah i would be then going to be 90 so my fear was would i be around right and so you had the problem of aging is you want to be around to see him grow up yeah i hope you're going to be around yeah was it was your choice to to have kids at this age i didn't think i'd have i just married a younger woman and uh she's much younger than i and children develop you know children came but it's a gift
Guest:It is a gift, and I watched both born.
Guest:I didn't watch my other children born.
Guest:They didn't allow you in.
Marc:Didn't you have a son that you didn't really meet for a long time?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Oh, that was a great story.
Guest:Yeah?
Guest:What happened?
Guest:Yeah, well, I was married to this woman for a short period of time, and we broke up.
Guest:She said she was pregnant.
Guest:I didn't know if it was mine.
Guest:Mm-hmm.
Guest:And then years later, I learned I had a child, and he was in his early 30s.
Guest:And we got to meet, and he's as if I raised him all my life.
Marc:Really?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:So there was no contention initially?
Guest:No, it was amazing.
Guest:And he met his brother and sister.
Guest:And he grew up with my name, Larry King Jr.
Guest:He grew up in Miami.
Guest:He watched me broadcast Dolphin Games.
Marc:Before he knew you were his father?
Guest:Oh, he knew he was my father, but he had a stepfather.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Why did he wait so long to meet you, do you think?
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It just happened.
Guest:Then his mother was dying, and she called and said, you know, you have a son.
Guest:You ought to meet him, and he's about to get married.
Guest:And I went down to Florida.
Guest:I then was living in Washington.
Guest:I sent a lawyer down first, you know, and he called me up and he said, you can take a DNA, but you're going to be throwing away money because this is your kid.
Guest:And I went down.
Guest:Obviously, he was my kid.
Guest:Now he's...
Guest:You know, it's like nothing.
Guest:I feel like I raised him.
Guest:So it's a great story.
Guest:And it's one, I don't know if I'm proud of it, but I, you know, did I shirk responsibility?
Guest:I wasn't sure I even had a kid.
Guest:But she said, actually.
Guest:But you didn't know.
Guest:I know the new, not new.
Guest:Right, right, right.
Guest:And does he have kids now?
Guest:Oh, yeah, I have three grandchildren.
Guest:He has twins.
Guest:That's a good idea.
Guest:And then my son has, my daughter's not married.
Guest:How did you grow up?
Guest:My father died when I was nine and a half.
Guest:I grew up with a bunch of friends, three of whom are still my best friends.
Guest:I grew up in Brooklyn, went to Dodger games.
Guest:Jewish neighborhood at the time?
Guest:Yeah, Jewish and Italian.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:We didn't know what a Protestant was.
Guest:Were you religious?
Guest:The family?
Guest:I was bar mitzvahed.
Guest:My mother kept a kosher home.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:But I lost that a long time ago.
Guest:My father's death changed my life.
Guest:I was very close to him, and then I lost interest in school.
Guest:I never went to college.
Guest:My younger brother went through law school.
Guest:Is he still around?
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:He's 76.
Guest:The guy's got good genes.
Guest:Surprisingly, because my father died at 46 of a sudden heart attack, and my mother lived to 76.
Guest:I always thought that I would die at 46, because he died at 46.
Guest:He smoked.
Guest:I smoked.
Guest:Oh, isn't that interesting when you were young?
Guest:I had a lucky heart attack.
Guest:I was 53.
Guest:I was smoking three packs a day.
Guest:You miss them?
Guest:The cigarettes?
Guest:No.
Guest:No.
Guest:But if I had an hour to live, I'd smoke, because it was a great habit.
Guest:However...
Guest:I got scared to death and never smoked again.
Guest:I had a heart attack in February of 1987.
Guest:And through this driving home, my daughter drove me home from the hospital.
Guest:And the cigarettes that I'd gone to the hospital with that were in my pocket, I threw into the Potomac River and never smoked again and never reached for a cigarette, nor wanted one.
Guest:Now, a psychiatrist friend of mine told me that what happened to me, fortunately,
Guest:was I got scared to death, so much so that if I had, I never chewed gum or held toothpicks, that if I had a desire, the fright in me was so great that it went away.
Guest:So I didn't reach for cigarettes in my pocket.
Guest:That's spectacular.
Guest:It was unbelievable.
Guest:I don't even take credit for it.
Guest:It was by osmosis.
Marc:The heart attack.
Marc:I mean, you had the bypass and everything else?
Guest:Five months.
Guest:I had the heart attack in February and the bypass in December.
Marc:What was the feeling after you get a bypass?
Marc:It seems like, I don't know anyone that's had one, but there's a vulnerability that you feel, a fragility.
Guest:Well, you feel a...
Guest:First, the amazing thing is you have the weeps because a stranger moved your heart.
Guest:That's a real thing.
Guest:Yeah, they move your heart because they put you on a heart-lung machine.
Guest:The whole process of it, now a lot of it's much simpler.
Guest:This was 1987, but I'm still close with my surgeon.
Guest:I started the Larry King Cardiac Foundation.
Guest:We help people who can't afford to get heart help.
Guest:And he's the same surgeon.
Guest:He did Letterman, Cronkite.
Guest:He did Regis.
Guest:But you get choked up about things?
Guest:No, what happened is, after a couple weeks, I went down to Florida.
Guest:And this was funny.
Guest:I was on the plane with Alexander Haig.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And we're in the first class and he had had heart surgery.
Guest:And I started to cry.
Guest:I didn't know I was crying.
Guest:And the stewardess came over and he just said, don't pay any attention.
Guest:It's the weeps.
Guest:And it must be the vulnerability.
Guest:What happened was, and then I got real healthy.
Guest:I lost weight.
Guest:Most people, when they stop smoking, gain weight, I lost weight.
Guest:I took care of myself.
Guest:I watched what I ate.
Guest:Still?
Guest:Yeah, I don't exercise as much as I used to, but I walk a lot.
Guest:Any chance I get to walk, I walk.
Guest:And the food, you're careful with food?
Guest:I'm not super careful, but I'm 5'11", I weigh 160.
Guest:That's good.
Guest:I was 190.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That's the most that weight was 190.
Guest:I think when I had the heart attack, I weighed 190.
Guest:Did you stop going to the deli?
Guest:I have my own, we have our own bagel store now.
Guest:It's called Brooklyn Water Bagel.
Guest:Oh, that's you?
Guest:Franchise.
Guest:Well, I got the Beverly Hills franchise.
Guest:I'm their spokesperson.
Guest:So in return, I got the Beverly Hills franchise.
Guest:So you don't need to go to Nate and Al's anymore?
Guest:No, I go there once a month for some matzo rye because matzo rye was one of my favorite foods.
Guest:Did your mother make it?
Guest:Sure.
Guest:Yeah, my mother made it.
Guest:It was nothing like Jewish cooking.
Guest:In fact...
Guest:A chef was here the other day.
Guest:We did a TV show for my internet show.
Guest:Which chef?
Guest:Stone.
Guest:Chris Stone.
Guest:And he was here and he was going over all the delicacies that he cooks and everything.
Guest:And I said to him...
Guest:Are you going to cook a meat?
Guest:I said, I like it.
Guest:Well done.
Guest:And he goes, I can't cook that.
Guest:I said, well, just keep cooking it.
Guest:I can't.
Guest:I will not cook that.
Guest:I said, why won't you cook that?
Guest:Because he said, that's not food.
Guest:That's like...
Guest:You're eating a... I said, no.
Guest:It's my food.
Guest:I like... I hate red meat.
Guest:I was raised... I just raised... I can't stand to see meat that's red.
Guest:So I'm kosher cooking.
Guest:I like...
Guest:I have no religion at all.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:My wife's a devout Mormon.
Guest:Devout?
Guest:Devout.
Guest:She goes to church every Sunday.
Guest:And the children, we had an agreement when we got married since I have no religion.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That she could raise the children.
Guest:I think it's good ethics.
Guest:Is she raising them Mormon?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:My boy goes to Catholic school, Notre Dame High School.
Guest:And I'm glad to get grounded in a good faith.
Guest:I have no, I lost my faith in God a long time ago.
Guest:Why?
Guest:The more I interviewed religious people.
Guest:Yeah, but was there a moment?
Guest:I never got answers.
Guest:No, I know.
Guest:They couldn't tell you for sure?
Guest:Well, I'm a person.
Guest:I have to know no.
Guest:And if you're a messenger of God, I would ask them, all right, the old story, God gave man free will so he couldn't stop Hitler.
Guest:Okay, all right, I'll buy that.
Guest:He couldn't stop Hitler.
Guest:How about Katrina?
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:that wasn't man's wish was it man didn't start routine and they don't answer it so they always say the same uh we uh we question not the ways of the lord come on right i question the ways of the lord then i remember when i was a kid
Guest:While I'm a social Jew, I like being Jewish.
Guest:I like Jewish food, Jewish humor.
Guest:I gravitate toward Jewish people.
Guest:I like Israel.
Guest:But the God of the Old Testament, I didn't like him.
Guest:Slay my enemies.
Guest:Come on.
Guest:I thought he was barbaric.
Guest:And I didn't like him.
Guest:And he wanted me to fear him.
Guest:And you're teaching me love and fear at the same time.
Guest:And the Christian faith, I could never bar.
Marc:But what about faith without God?
Marc:Is it possible?
Marc:Faith in what?
Guest:In just a human's goodness?
Guest:Oh, I guess I wouldn't call it faith.
Guest:I think it probably came from the Bible.
Guest:The do unto others is the only law you need.
Guest:In fact, you don't need any law in the books, but do unto others.
Guest:Do unto others covers cheating, income tax, red light, murder.
Guest:Yeah, that's a good one.
Guest:Don't lie, I think, is what... Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Guest:Don't pass the red light.
Guest:Don't cheat on your income tax.
Guest:Don't screw around with people.
Guest:I think Carlin did a big bit on that.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:George was a friend of mine, and we went over that a lot about
Marc:Well, you know, there's that great joke about the rabbi, you know, in terms, because I was brought up Jewish as well.
Marc:And I don't really believe in God.
Marc:But, you know, the joke about the rabbi walking down the street and it starts raining.
Marc:And then the water is raising up about two feet.
Marc:And some guys come by and, you know, in a car.
Marc:And I get in the car.
Marc:We'll take you to safety.
Marc:The rabbi is like, no, no, God will save me.
Marc:Then the water is up to his neck and he's treading water a little bit.
Marc:And some guys come by in a boat and say, rabbi, get in the boat.
Marc:You know, he goes, don't worry.
Marc:God will save me.
Marc:And then now he can't tread water anymore.
Marc:It's so high.
Marc:The buildings are covered with water.
Marc:Helicopter comes down.
Marc:They tore a ladder.
Marc:I said, Rabbi, get on the ladder.
Marc:And the rabbi goes, no, God will save me.
Marc:And he drowns.
Marc:And he gets to heaven.
Marc:He says to God, why didn't you save me?
Marc:And God says, I sent a car.
Marc:I sent a boat.
Guest:It's a tricky thing how you interpret that stuff.
Guest:I know, but I say when your time is up, your time is up.
Guest:Well, if you're on an airplane, what if the pilot's time is up?
Guest:You know, I didn't have anything to do with that.
Guest:Jesus Christ.
Guest:You can't say Jesus Christ.
Guest:By the way, you know how he got his name.
Guest:It was in the manger, and they were trying to figure out a name.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And Joseph stood up and hit his head on the top, and he said, Jesus Christ.
Guest:That stuck.
Guest:I like that kind of rhythm.
Guest:Yeah, it does.
Guest:Got a little catch to it.
Guest:Five letters in the first word, six in the second.
Yeah.
Marc:So the bagel joint, was this a reaction to the lack of ability to find a good bagel?
Guest:They came to me and they had this idea.
Guest:They started in Florida, a very good company.
Guest:They're franchising all over the country.
Guest:And they said, we make the water.
Guest:New York City is the best water in America.
Guest:And they make the water in a lab.
Guest:You see it in the restaurant.
Guest:They show you the machines.
Marc:Oh, really?
Marc:To match the New York water?
Guest:To match the New York water.
Guest:So they can boil the bagel in there.
Guest:Which is the equivalent.
Guest:And the water is the difference.
Guest:That's right.
Guest:The theme is the difference is in the water.
Guest:So the bagel, everyone who comes in says, they're back in Brooklyn.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Yeah, it's great bagels.
Marc:Great bagels.
Marc:It's nice to know that.
Marc:Do you think, and now this is the question, do you think that because your father passed away at such a young age that part of your interest and need to connect with people and know about them was some sort of search for that?
Guest:That might be true.
Guest:I never questioned that psychologically.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:i uh i know i lost something in not having a father because all my friends had fathers and i was like the boy without a father so maybe that led to the need for so i don't know where it came from the love to broadcast did not because i wanted to be a broadcaster before he died and your first job was just on a radio was it a music show
Guest:it was a i was a disc jockey it was an all kind of station small station we had news sports i did everything but i did i did a disc jockey show in the morning and then i did in the afternoon i did sports and news and you know you learn the business from the ground up yeah and then i got this interview show at a restaurant about two years later and that's when i started were you one of those guys that had to go all over the country at times to chase the work it was all in miami
Guest:My whole career was 20 years in Miami.
Guest:Then I got the national radio show.
Guest:We were the first network talk show.
Guest:And then I always did local television.
Guest:I did television as much as I did radio.
Guest:Probably two years of radio and then television started.
Guest:And I always did both.
Guest:And then Ted Turner came along and I interviewed him a few times.
Guest:And he liked my work.
Guest:And he had CNN when they were five years old.
Guest:I started on their fifth anniversary.
Guest:And he liked me and hired me, and I didn't know what CNN was.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I didn't have it in my home, but it sure took off.
Guest:And that was it?
Guest:That was the game changer, huh, for you?
Guest:Oh, sure.
Guest:Well, the radio was a kickoff, because I got a lot of good write-ups and a lot of stories about that radio show, and that was...
Guest:Why did you get so much attention?
Guest:Because it was the first national network talk show, and I was the beginning of talk radio.
Guest:I get a lot of credit as the beginning of talk radio in America.
Guest:You like what it evolved into?
Guest:No, because it became a soapbox, screaming, yelling idiots, and a lot of what I hear is pop nonsense.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Political crazies.
Guest:Yeah, no real discussion.
Guest:Political crazies.
Guest:You know, NPR is good radio.
Guest:But, you know, the Limbaugh's and these guys are just playing with a loose deck.
Guest:And a lot of it's an act.
Guest:Oh, I know.
Guest:Yeah, they're hot stars.
Guest:There's some of Goodbrook.
Guest:I came to respect Howard Stern.
Guest:Yeah, sure.
Guest:I used to, when I was earlier on, I didn't buy a lot of that act, but now I...
Guest:I understand his maturity, and he's matured.
Guest:Yeah, I think so.
Guest:I think that's true.
Guest:He's a very good broadcaster.
Guest:But I was raised by the Godfrey's.
Guest:Whenever someone curses on the radio, it still drives me nuts.
Guest:Does it?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It just doesn't fit right, right?
Marc:It's like a violation.
Guest:Can we pause a second if I had to go to the men's room?
Guest:Go ahead.
Guest:Okay.
Marc:When you're older.
Marc:I'm looking forward to it.
No, don't.
Guest:Okay, good.
Marc:I think what I want to talk about a little bit is your relationship with Jackie Gleason.
Marc:How did he change your life?
Guest:When Jackie moved down to Miami to broadcast, I went up to New York and came down on the train with him and did interviews with him on a train and
Guest:And then we had a big welcome Jackie to Miami dinner, and I MC'd it.
Guest:So I sat up on the dais with him, and we got to be friendly.
Guest:And he'd call into my radio show, and then he came on my television show.
Guest:And he didn't mentor me, but he liked me.
Guest:And I made a big switch.
Guest:I went from Channel 10 to Channel 4.
Guest:Went from the ABC affiliate to the CBS affiliate.
Guest:And he did all my promos.
Guest:I mean, he was just terrific to me.
Guest:He got Sinatra for me.
Guest:Sinatra owed him a favor, and that was the return of the favor.
Marc:He was a pretty huge personality, right?
Guest:He was larger than life.
Guest:Everybody was pal.
Guest:Hey, pal, I'm down.
Guest:He was at his house, and he was gregarious.
Guest:He called himself a roaming Catholic.
Guest:He thought a lot about death, and the night before he died, I got a call from his PR guy, and he made a list of people to call and say goodbye, which was very touching.
Guest:He had... Jackie understood...
Guest:human behavior he liked my curiosity and he he he was a compelling person to be around because he understood poor he understood being down understood being broke and he lived life larger than life and he uh
Guest:I loved the moment.
Guest:I loved being live in the moment, and he appreciated that.
Guest:He worked live most of his life in television.
Guest:I worked live most of my life in broadcast.
Guest:Anyway, they were doing a Honeymooners once, a live musical for an hour at the Miami Beach Convention Center.
Guest:And it was Saturday night, and I was in the wings watching this show.
Guest:And he comes off stage for a minute, and he says to me, call Raimondo's and tell him I want the spaghetti, but I want the La Dolce spaghetti.
Guest:And the guy yells, 10 seconds.
Guest:He says, I want that wine.
Guest:five seconds jackie and they were doing this and then suddenly he goes what norton he went from me knew right where his line was right into the scene yeah and i went wow yeah he was just so he never rehearsed he had this big fat guy that was a friend of his that did all the scenes in rehearsals and he'd watch that
Guest:And so he knew all the movements.
Guest:So he had a guy stand in for him.
Guest:Correct.
Guest:And so when you appeared with him, the first time you saw him, like Bing Crosby said, where is he?
Guest:And he'd do a skit and then suddenly the night it's live, Jackie would appear.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And do you think he did that to keep it fresh for everybody?
Guest:Yeah, to keep it fresh, but he knew where the layout.
Guest:Couldn't speak, couldn't understand a note of music, yet conducted orchestras for those Capitol albums.
Guest:Had an instinct.
Guest:And he understood the broadcast instinct.
Marc:He sort of was a pioneer in television, I think, right?
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:The Honeymooners and those early shows that Jackie did, the characters he did, the various ones, Reggie Van Gleeson, the bartender, and the poor soul.
Guest:And he just was a tremendous guy to be around, and it was very sad when we lost him.
Guest:And the problem with this, as youth goes on, my kids don't know him.
Guest:And you mention these names to people, and anybody under 30, they don't know Jackie Gleason.
Marc:Isn't that sad and amazing?
Guest:I knew people that was before my time.
Guest:I knew the greats.
Guest:Yeah, like who are you thinking?
Guest:I knew Lowell Thomas, H.V.
Guest:Caltenborough, and Edward R. Murrow.
Guest:But these kids today, they don't know Vietnam.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:you know what i'm talking about there's no there's no real historical context anymore because of 24-hour news yeah eat it up spit it out and also the internet nothing has any context i mean it's just pictures it's just bits and pieces it's in and out and everybody's a journalist yeah everybody blogs right people i mean the twitter and yeah now there's a plus to that yeah and uh
Guest:Twitter could start a revolution.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:There's no privacy.
Guest:That's terrible.
Guest:However, the plus in that is they would have never caught the guys who started those blowups in Boston.
Marc:If it hadn't been for cameras everywhere.
Marc:Invading privacy.
Marc:Uh-huh.
Marc:Yeah, but it's a weird, slippery slope, right?
Guest:Yeah, and that's what Obama faces in that where do you draw the line between when can I know what you're doing?
Guest:It's a different world, right?
Guest:We know that somebody's going to come up with a nuclear weapon that's in your one hand and you can bring it into the country.
Guest:So what do you do about that fear while you want to uphold the Constitution?
Guest:And I'm a constitutionalist, so
Guest:I don't want you invading my privacy.
Guest:But on the other hand, see, there's always on the other hand.
Guest:However, Hitler made a famous speech in 1937 in which he said Germany was doing away with warrants.
Guest:When we come to your home, if the police come to your home, if you have nothing to hide,
Guest:What do you worry about?
Guest:But we're in great danger from enemy within in this country.
Guest:And so why not let us look in your home if you have nothing?
Guest:And the German people bought that.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I would bet that if you made that same speech in America today...
Guest:30% might say, yeah, I got nothing to hide.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I bet you're right.
Guest:You're not me.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You're not coming into my house.
Marc:Well, the one thing the Constitution protects is that no matter who's in charge, you have those rights.
Marc:See, that becomes the tricky thing.
Marc:It's like right now you've got a good guy in charge, but when they come looking for Jews again... When do you give up your rights?
Guest:Right.
Guest:That famous guy who said...
Guest:First Hitler said it was only the communists.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Then he said it was only the Jews.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then he said it was only the Catholics.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then he said it was me.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So when you.
Marc:But the weird thing is, is I went to Google the directions for here.
Marc:And because you sold the house, you bought the house that's on record as your house, you have that same problem.
Marc:It's weird, right?
Guest:Tour bus goes every five minutes.
Guest:Right there.
Guest:Tour bus goes by.
Guest:Nothing you can do about it.
Guest:Nothing.
Guest:People take pictures.
Guest:Does it piss you off?
Guest:Ellen DeGeneres lives two blocks up the road.
Guest:She had no idea about the tour bus.
Guest:She used to live way up on top of a hill.
Guest:They never got up that high.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:Now she lives on a street sort of near the flats.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And she's going nuts.
Guest:Is she?
Guest:She's furious?
Guest:Yeah, she's mad, but you could do it if it's a public street.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And they go by and they take pictures.
Guest:And I wave to them.
Guest:I'm nice and nice.
Guest:What am I going to do?
Guest:Be mad at people?
Guest:What are you going to do?
Guest:Bomb the house.
Guest:One night, my little boy, when he was 10, went out front and said, yeah, he's in the bathroom.
Guest:I want to wait a minute.
Yeah.
Guest:Did they?
Guest:They waited?
Guest:They waited.
Guest:Oh, they sometimes see my car come back and they make U-turns.
Guest:It's funny to watch this.
Guest:But that's, you know, Truman said, if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
Guest:So I chose a business in which if you do well, you get well-known.
Guest:Mm-hmm.
Guest:And you pay a price.
Guest:So I think you owe something back for that price.
Guest:In other words, the ball player owes the kid the autograph.
Guest:There's no law that says he has to give it to him, but he was a kid.
Guest:And you were a ball player because somebody gave you that talent, whether it was God or whatever.
Guest:You had this talent.
Guest:I was given this gift of this voice or this curiosity.
Guest:Who gave me?
Guest:I had this great Indian Swami tell me once.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Who gave you this gift?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Right?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So it's a good way to live.
Guest:It's impossible to live this way.
Guest:But he said, you don't have to believe in God or anything.
Guest:When you open your eyes in the morning, did you earn that?
Guest:It's a gift, right?
Guest:Give thanks to whatever.
Guest:Whether you believe it is.
Guest:You have the right to open your eyes in the morning.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So give thanks for that.
Guest:And then give thanks for everything that happens to you during the day.
Guest:So if it's raining, so what?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You woke up.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Life's a gift.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Gratitude.
Guest:So if I can have the skill to hit a baseball.
Right.
Guest:And someone's paying me $5 million to hit a baseball.
Guest:And a nine-year-old wants me to sign an autograph.
Guest:I'm too busy for that?
Guest:Are you crazy?
Guest:So I'm not going to smile for a tour bus when I'm living in this freaking house that if my mother and father saw this house, they would faint?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You've never forgotten.
Guest:That's what I liked about Jackie.
Guest:Gleason told me a great story once.
Guest:The first appearance Elvis Presley ever made was on the Jackie Gleason summer rerun show hosted by Tommy Dorsey.
Guest:And in order for an act to appear on the show, Gleason wanted to see them.
Guest:So Presley came in, like audition, and he called him over and he said, listen, kid, you're going to be famous.
Guest:You're going to be real big.
Guest:I want to give you a bit of advice.
Guest:Go out.
Guest:Don't stay in.
Go out.
Talk to people.
Guest:Because if you stay in, you're going to be the loneliest guy in the world.
Guest:Jackie went out.
Guest:Always socializing.
Marc:Hello, how are you?
Marc:Presley hid in the house.
Marc:And look what happened.
Marc:Died on the toilet.
Marc:Alone.
Marc:Sad.
Marc:Jackie went out.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:He had a good time, Jackie.
Guest:jackie lived jackie had a good time jackie he knew how to drink and he knew how to he wasn't a carouser like with women and stuff like that he was but he was you like to stay up and party
Guest:Yeah, he was genuine.
Guest:He was afraid to fly.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But he flew to work with Laurence Olivier in London.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:They did a two-character show for HBO.
Guest:I wonder why HBO doesn't show it more often.
Guest:Great story.
Guest:I'm trying to... Gleason loved the script.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Olivier played an Englishman whose wife had just died.
Guest:Right, right.
Guest:I kind of remember this.
Guest:And the American, Gleason, went over for the funeral, and Gleason had had a 25-year affair.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:with that man's wife and they're in a bar yeah and the whole hour is just the two of them was it great no it was great and that's why he flew oh yeah to work with olivier yeah out of all the people that you've known in your life and talked to who outside of gleason who do you who do you find yourself thinking about and missing the most
Guest:oh I'm not missing I've interviewed so many seven presidents and Sinatra was a lot it was interesting to be around because he was so complicated oh yeah oh Frank was did he not have a good time Frank was unhappy yeah why because there was never enough nothing satisfied him when he was in a sad moment like he said to me once he said you know all my friends are dead
Guest:All my friends are dead.
Guest:It was so sad.
Guest:Oh, God.
Guest:But he was never totally happy, except when he was on stage.
Guest:Yeah, you don't think about it.
Guest:You don't think about it.
Guest:And his understanding, his phrasing.
Guest:If he liked you, you could do no wrong.
Guest:And if he didn't like you, you could do no right.
Guest:There was no grays.
Guest:Life was black or white.
Mm-hmm.
Guest:And I was looking up that he liked me.
Guest:That's what Rickles would say.
Guest:I said to Don, what if he didn't like you?
Guest:And Don would go, you have relatives in New Jersey?
Guest:He's great.
Guest:How's he doing?
Guest:Are you personal friends?
Guest:Rickles is all right.
Guest:Yeah, I talk to him every once in a while.
Guest:I'll see him every six months or so.
Guest:We run into each other.
Guest:He's an old dear friend.
Guest:He's still working.
Guest:He's 86 years old.
Guest:His son died.
Guest:I was sad.
Guest:Yeah, I heard about that.
Guest:Larry.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:But Don...
Guest:Don and Mel Brooks and all of them.
Guest:I interviewed Mel.
Guest:That was great.
Guest:I was at Cesar's house a couple weeks ago.
Guest:Mel was there.
Guest:Cesar's not talking.
Marc:So you're one of the guys that goes up there to Cesar's house?
Guest:Mel goes.
Guest:I don't go.
Guest:No?
Guest:Mel and Carl Reiner have breakfast every day at the same restaurant in Westwood.
Guest:And they're still a riot together.
Guest:Oh, that's great.
Guest:A 2,000-year-old man is still the funniest album.
Guest:Still happens.
Guest:They're living it now.
Guest:Yeah, they are.
Guest:They're...
Guest:Mel is the funniest person I've ever known.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because he's the classic.
Guest:Woody Allen is in that, but not as broad.
Guest:Mel is the classic Jewish humorist.
Guest:Oh, absolutely.
Guest:A 2,000-year-old man, if you listen to it carefully, was genius.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:I played it with him once.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I went up to the New York World's Fair in 1964.
Guest:The World's Fair was in New York.
Guest:In Flushing, right?
Guest:Flushing, Brooklyn, Queens.
Guest:And I interviewed Mel there.
Guest:That's where I met him.
Guest:And we played the 2,000-year-old man.
Guest:And he'd go into it like that.
Guest:I said, do you want to play 2,000-year-old man?
Guest:You just improvised it?
Guest:Oh, I just said it.
Guest:We're here at the World's Fair.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:What do you think?
Guest:You're 2,000 years old.
Guest:He goes, fair.
Guest:I go, fair?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Look at all you see.
Guest:That's fair.
Guest:Then he said to me, were you with the first fair?
Guest:No.
Guest:The first fair, 183 people came, the whole world.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And we held it in a ravine, in a ravine, at the bottom of a ravine, and people rolled into the fair, which was one of the exhibits.
Guest:And I said, well, what could have been, look, we have a monorail.
Guest:You got a monorail?
Guest:We had the burning bush.
Guest:We thought it was a ride.
Guest:But his best line of all was, I asked him, what was the big hit of the fair in 003?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:The big hit was Moses.
Guest:Moses parted the Red Sea.
Guest:He did it two times Friday, three times on Saturday, four times every Sunday, six drachmas.
Yeah.
Guest:And he had a press agent who told him, you keep doing this, Moses.
Guest:I'll get you 10, 11 pages in the old pestilence.
Guest:And that mind that can go that quick.
Guest:Yeah, so quick.
Guest:And you not know where he's going to go.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:And so I'd watch his mind.
Guest:And he still has that.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:He still has that.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:He's very quick still.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:I love being around him.
Marc:So I guess before we wrap up, again, I apologize for the time miscommunication, but marriage, you believe in it?
Guest:Well, obviously, I've been in a six, seven marriage.
Guest:I can't even get lost out.
Guest:Eight, I think, one twice, right?
Guest:Seven, one twice.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:But...
Guest:I never lived with a woman.
Guest:I never liked spending a night with a woman.
Guest:I liked to go home.
Guest:And if I was in love, I got married.
Guest:That's where I was raised.
Guest:And I always felt when I meet people who are married like 60 years, all the compromises they had to make.
Guest:I didn't want to do that.
Guest:So what I loved at 20 is not what I loved at 30.
Guest:And what I loved at 30 is not what I loved at 40.
Guest:Sometimes I think back to people that I loved.
Guest:What was I thinking?
Guest:But I was crazy for them then.
Guest:And in that time when I grew up, you got married.
Guest:Now this marriage has lasted 16 years.
Guest:Maybe it's maturity.
Guest:Maybe the difference in ages.
Guest:The fact that she was in show business.
Guest:What'd she do?
Guest:She was a singer and actress.
Guest:She appeared in a lot.
Guest:She opened for Rickles.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:Very good singer.
Guest:So she understood that if I had to go somewhere to do an extra interview, you know, she had her own show on USA Network.
Guest:So she knew the business.
Guest:Yeah, knew the business.
Guest:It was helped.
Guest:She was a backup singer for the Osmonds.
Guest:Her father ran Capitol Records.
Guest:So even though, like, they're devout Mormons,
Guest:They're also very show bits.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And they understand.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:The business, which helps.
Guest:Helps.
Guest:Yeah, helps.
Guest:Makes life a lot easier.
Guest:And then having kids, of course.
Guest:Look at it.
Guest:I look up at that picture.
Guest:Yeah, it's adorable.
Guest:Yeah, that's when they were three and two, I guess.
Marc:Uh-huh.
Marc:So you got no regrets?
Guest:No, we go to Dodger Stadium, and they know that stadium.
Guest:They've been going there since babies.
Guest:They know it like the back of the hand.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:And then they run around.
Guest:That's great.
Guest:They go to different seats.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:They sit behind the dugout of the visiting team, and they yell at the other players.
Guest:It's great.
Guest:Great life.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Any regrets?
Guest:Regrets.
Guest:Regrets.
Guest:If I had one day back in my life, the day I started smoking.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I'm sorry I smoked.
Marc:That's not too horrible.
Marc:And out of all the powerful people you met?
Marc:Couldn't name one.
Marc:But I mean, were you ever surprised?
Marc:Let's talk presidents real quick and then we'll finish up.
Marc:Who surprised you the most as a person, both for better or worse, out of the seven or six?
Guest:I'll run them down.
Guest:Nixon, so bright.
Guest:And yet...
Guest:Hung up.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Little things.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Bug him.
Guest:George Bush, the first.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Best guy in the world.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Nicest, sweetest, care about you.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Concerned guy.
Guest:George Bush, too.
Guest:Great baseball guy.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:He invited me to the White House once.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Off the record.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:No interviews, no nothing.
Guest:We sat down for two hours to talk baseball.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Let's talk baseball.
Guest:That was it.
Guest:I had just gotten to Washington.
Guest:So he says, hey, I got to go to California.
Guest:You want a lift?
Guest:I said, no, I just got here.
Guest:He said, oh, geez, we could have talked baseball.
Marc:You love talking baseball, that guy.
Guest:Reagan for his humor.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:And the best of all, from an interview standpoint, was Clinton, a steel trap mind.
Guest:I liked Jimmy Carter for how much he cared about little things and detail.
Guest:Gerald Ford was a great guy.
Guest:just a good guy there's something to like about everyone yeah obama for his mind like obama's mind and his he's so well within himself by that i mean he he's very entered in himself he's not gonna wrap his arms around you clinton's gonna hug you yeah
Guest:So I liked them all for different reasons.
Guest:The most incredible person probably was Mandela because he was such a single, solitary, incredible figure and still around.
Guest:One of the great days of my life was...
Guest:I went to his house.
Guest:I was in South Africa speaking to her.
Guest:And I went to his house for lunch.
Guest:And I had dinner with the clerk, the man who freed him.
Guest:So here's little Larry, little Jewish kid from Brooklyn.
Guest:I went Mandela and the clerk on the same day.
Guest:But I was at Jackie Robinson's first game.
Guest:And I interviewed him.
Guest:And so I've lived through history and history.
Guest:And I've been on this journey.
Guest:I wrote a book called My Remarkable Journey, and I pinch myself every day.
Guest:I was on relief as a kid.
Guest:My father died in New York City, bought my first pair of glasses.
Guest:So I sit around and look at me, and yet I'll complain if the plane is late.
Guest:What am I doing?
Guest:I've got to run.
Guest:All right, thanks, Mr. King.
Guest:Anytime.
Guest:Yep.