Larry King’s recently published autobiography gives us an interesting insight into the “remarkable journey” of one of the world’s most famous talk show host. One wonders how he found the time to write this book when his cell phone rings about twenty times every hour. This surely explains why Cal Fussman, author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller, “Double or Nothing”, helped him co-write the book.
Larry King is seventy-seven; his contract with CNN is up in 2011, but he still wants to go on. “I still get good ratings,” he says. And even when he is asked about death, he answers with his trademark humor that he is not afraid of death, “I just don’t want to be there when it happens.”
Larry King never forgets a joke or a funny story and making people laugh is still his biggest kick. This life story reflects an infectious optimism and most of all an incredible charisma that makes people open up so easily during an interview. However, success did not come easily-his father, Eddie Zeiger, died when King was nine, which forced his family to accept welfare.
“When you were on relief,” he says, “you were inspected to make sure that you stayed poor. My mother was a great seamstress. She would take in dresses to hem from people on the block for a little extra cash. We weren’t supposed to have extra money. If people downstairs saw the inspectors coming, they’d run to tip us off and we’d scurry around and hide the clothes that my mother was altering. When you come up poor, those are the little things you remember.”
Larry Zeiger officially changed his name to King in 1959. The general manager of a small radio station in Miami who offered him his first job in 1957 chose his new name. When he finally got on the air, for the first time in his life, he could not speak. He tried three times in a row and each time, he could not utter a single word. At that point, the general manager came storming in the studio, screaming out “This is a communications business!”
Shaken up, Larry King leaned in to the microphone and simply told the listeners the truth: “This is my first day ever on the radio. I’ve always wanted to be on the air. I’ve been practicing all weekend. My mouth is dry. I’m nervous and the general manager just kicked open the door and said, ‘This is a communication’s business!’”
From that first day, he realized that the best way to communicate is simply to be yourself. King, who has never been to college, is always honest and even candid about himself. His friend Herbie sums up this sentiment with a touch of humor: “Everybody else on TV is a know-it-all, but not you,” he said to King. “You’re dumb. So you say to your guest, ‘I don’t know. Explain this to me. Help me.’ You create a vacuum and then you fill it.”
Larry King always asks short and simple questions which he doesn’t plan in advance. He never knows what he is going to ask at the beginning of the program and he always wants to be surprised every night. “When I’m surprised, that’s when I know I’m doing my job right,” he says. Larry King has interviewed about 40,000 people including eight US presidents. He never understood how Nixon reached the greatest heights without being likable: “Not only was he not likable, I really don’t think he liked other people, either”. Just before he died, he had agreed to do a show with Larry King and that was the last appointment written on the late and disgraced president’s notepad.
It turns out that the most interesting place he’s been to is a nuclear submarine, because, he says, the food is great. He would love to talk more about sports, he hates hypocrisy and his ideal guest is someone who can explain what he does and has a passion for it, a sense of humor and a little chip on his shoulder.
This book is as entertaining as his live TV shows on CNN. When you have finished “My Remarkable Journey,” you are already looking for more anecdotes about his famous guests. He surely has a lot more to say. “Larry King Live” is still running after twenty-five years and the best has yet to come.
He is remarkably open but he never gives his opinion during the show. Even when he strongly disagrees with a guest, he will go beyond his feelings and seek the best answers. Incidentally, a poll in Miami asked people to guess if he was a Republican or a Democrat, the results was split fifty-fifty.
His natural ability to draw people out makes the guests feel very comfortable and free to express themselves. Anyone famous or in the news ends up on CNN’s, “Larry King Live,” the first worldwide phone-in TV talk show. He has not only interviewed but also befriended every president since Richard Nixon. King has never stopped giving. His biggest legacy is the Larry King Cardiac Foundation, which provides lifesaving cardiac procedures for people all over the world. His son, Larry King, Jr. believes his father has already left a legacy in journalism. In thirty years no one will see Larry King on CNN but everyday his Foundation will still be responsible for saving someone’s life. King has interviewed about 40,000 people including eight US presidents.
He never understood how Nixon reached the greatest heights without being likable: “Not only was he not likable, I really don’t think he liked other people, either”. Just before he died, he had agreed to do a show with Larry King and that was the last appointment written on the late and disgraced president’s notepad.
It turns out that the most interesting place he’s been to is a nuclear submarine, because, he says, the food is great. He would love to talk more about sports, he hates hypocrisy and his ideal guest is someone who can explain what he does and has a passion for it, a sense of humor and a little chip on his shoulder.
This book is as entertaining as his live TV shows on CNN. When you have finished “My Remarkable Journey,” you are already looking for more anecdotes about his famous guests. He surely has a lot more to say. “Larry King Live” is still running after twenty-five years and the best has yet to come.
Interestingly enough, Larry King has always been around famous people even when it had nothing to do with work. Soon after he got his first job in Miami, he took three disc jockeys from the little radio station to see Palm Beach. At a light, he did not stop quickly enough and bumped into John F. Kennedy’s car. John.F. Kennedy came over and said:
“How? How could you hit me? It’s ten o’clock in the morning. It’s clear. There’s nobody on the road. I’m the only car.”
“I said, ‘I’m sorry, senator would you like to exchange licenses?’”
“He said, ‘I’ll tell you what. Raise your right hands. Say, ‘I swear to vote for John Kennedy in two years.’’”
“I solemnly swore, and with a smile he drove off. But before he did, he said, ‘Stay a distance behind me.’”
Years later when Larry King heard the news of Kennedy’s assassination, he recalled this incident. It was the 60s the most amazing decade in American history, there would be two more high profile killings: Martin Luther King Jr’s and Bobby Kennedy’s assassinations. He was doing a good job on the radio and was climbing to the top of the ladder in local television but his social life and finances were out of control. Larry King has been married eight times and has always had problems with money. If someone asked him for money that he didn’t have, he would borrow money and give it. He also lived beyond his means: “I should have owned a Chevy. I drove a Lincoln. A new Lincoln . . . All I can tell you is the bigger I got the more money I owed”.
Eventually, he got someone to manage his finances but he still lost $2.8 million in the Ponzi scheme run by Bernard Madoff.
