European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 01, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse                                To a 18 the stars and stripes new York Larry l. King held a bottle of Beer to his Mouth. Don t say i m drink ing he said. I failed my liver test. The doctor sent me a letter. Read the letter while i was drunk. But i Don t want him to think you know that i m out drinking  he drained the bottle and held out his hand for  thought for a moment. Well just say that i had a Small  is another one who scuffled and finally made it All the Way through in perhaps the toughest game of ail making s living with a typewriter an instrument that can leave Leop Ard scratches on the inside. And now they Tell him he can t have the most fun of All drink Ingall the Way through a Success. King was at a ear across the Street from Tinel Ite Media theater on second Avenue and 12th Street where the musical comedy rewrote the Best Little whorehouse in Texas is attracting full noisy houses. In afew weeks the play moves on to Broadway where it will inject into new York s theater and thus the nations a language that has almost become extinct colourful rhythmic word choices that Delight the vascular and remain in the  was an hour before curtain and King went across the Street to the theater. The girl at Treadvance window smiled and waved her hands. All sold All  she said with her  knows Aboul As Well As anybody that there is Only one reason Why anybody writes and that is for Money. As a Newspaperman in Texas the most Money he Ever was paid was$70 a week on the Odessa american. He applied to a big City paper fort Worth an when they offered him $50, he left the news business and went Down the Block to the next Brothel Texas politics. In 1955, King went to Washington As assist ant to congressman j. T. Rutherford of Elpaso. He moved Over to Jim Wright now the House majority Leader. In 19 0, Lyndon Johnson hired King to Workin the Campaign Johnson was mapping against John f. Kennedy. Then he went int writing. He did a column and articles for Harper s Magazine and a marvelous boo called confessions of a White  it made him a prominent figure in the Northeast literary Circle. He had a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard and he taught a course at  Book did not place him in High favor with rental agents however. Confessions sold 7,-000 copies. A Man who writes a Book that Sells tint Little is better off getting a Job Reading Gas meters. So in his mid is Larry King was in that lonely dreadful business of trying to Force a Talent which is always undisciplined to focus on things of Little interest in order to satisfy daily economics. King however had perhaps the strongest thing a writer can have going for him roots that never stopped clutching. His Are i Putnam Texas population 203. He lives in Manhattan but his drawl is Putnam his phrasing is Putnam his humor to Putnam and one Day one of his stories was  wrote about this Texas whorehouse for Playboy about four years ago King said atthe bar. It was a $3,000 shot and i took k and that was h. Two years later i was doing this column for new times. I waa getting $900 a month for two columns. Me and whiskey were pretty Good friends at the time and one night i came out of the House and the Doorman gave me a letter and i read it drunk out under the Streetlight. It was from Don Larsen the editor of the Magazine. He said i was fired. The Man had been to my House i d been to his. We had dinners together. And he went and wrote me a letter to Tell me i was , in the bar King began to order another Beer and he held his breath and Grumpel asked for soda water. Six weeks after that i got a Call from Carol Hall. She s from Abilene and she writes music. She told me another actor from Texas Peter Masterson had told her that this article would make a wonderful musical comedy. I laughed. I did t even havea copy of the article around. "1 decided to see them once anyway. We met at Carol Hall s apartment. No. 830 Park ave., she being a lady of Means. Oil never Hurt nobody. Carol and Masterson wanted me to write the play with them. I said no it Ain Treal you know i got to have it in front of me. In front of me where i can see it. So they said Well would you at least put Down the rules the Madam would have for the whores working for her i went Home and began to do that. One Day i looked up and said hell i got the first scene done Here. This Ain t that hard at All. So i kept going. I did t know anything about a musical comedy. The last one i d seen was Oklahoma he spent 18 months on the play. During that time he wrote a Book with Bobby Baker the former Senate aide to president Johnson. King would write two chapters of the Baker Book turn them in for rent Money and then sneak Back to the play. One Day he would write about How Herb Kalmbach and Bebe Rebozo threatened to have Baker s parole lifted if Baker did not deliver Larry o Brien totem. The next Day. King would be writing about a much higher class of people a Houseful of prostitutes waiting to take on the Winner of the Texas Texas at a thanksgiving Day classic. When the play was finished it was first Luton at the Acton studio with $9,000 of Lee Strasberg s Money. A Nice woman named Steve Philips of Universal pictures saw it and urged her studio to buy it and put it on first As a Broadway musical and then a movie. The proceeds in a matter such As this cannot be counted. One reason i want the Money aside from crass greed la 1 Don t have to go to Harvard and Princeton anymore King says. I Don Flower in their presence. You think the government is screwed up spare me Man fro faculty fights. I be watched professors wives at supermarkets not talking to each other. Isaid Chey i played this thing in the House and Senate on Capitol Hill. I Don t like seeing it inthe minor leagues. And i can t take those random Campus poets who come by with shoe boxes full of free verse. Or some novel about the Long suffering loser in a Campus Triangle. I told one professor you re doing a disservice to these  pm go Home and pull Teeth or work in their daddy s Bank. The publishing houses of America will be overrun with these silly Campus triangles it was almost show time and King went Over to the theater. Walter Kerr. The big critic was on the sidewalk. King was introduced to him. Then King walked  fool Larry was told you re in politics half your life and you Don t even try Roget the Man s  Larry shrugged. This is a whole other business. You know what they did Here open ing night a half hour before the curtain  got on the stage and held hands in a Circle. I thought it was a Cross Between Vince Lom Bard and Norman Vincent Peale. What do i know whatever Good for them let  inside a band started playing Texas music and the audience began to warm and As the show went on the crowd roared and clapped in time to the music and in the Back of the the Ater pacing and smoking cigarettes Larry King booted his Winner Home. It looks like an other writer has come out of the loneliness and made it. C not York Hatnot Octye trl Buo. 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Town you one 27 nun. 21 herring sauce 22 word comb Fonn Zuj minus particle24 wearied m biblically in 27-bene28 leak 29 withered11 cast 14 made Low sounds 15 soaks17 stately tree m City i France 19 orchestra instrument 4 Small particle 41 French Girlfriend 44 poet s today crossword answer to saturday s panic. 45 Angler s need arid 47 Cardina number cog of or a Landers dear readers the results Eltham sex test for teenagers 1978 style really rattled or molars. Even though it Watt written by me the Collaborator were five teenagers three Guh and two boys who attend a pay Cugh school in Dayton i Akerill have known better. I suspected k Bat what i got was a few i snakes. Here Are few printable samples from the Day s mad and they were cleaned up a Ute by yours truly. Dear Ann i am a 17-year-Oldhigh school senior who actor ing to that nutty sex test to fas Erious trouble and plenty messed  any kid in this Dayan age who has t done soot drugs and tried sex la Apt Normal. . I just looked at your picture and you need new dentures Benton Harbor dear Ben your letter is so Avuonal evidence that you Art messed  maybe be paper needs a new picture. Tin choppers Are my own Ann Landers you re not dear to me. Every kid in our class took that 1978 sex test and15 out of 26 Are according to the score guide damned fools an freaked  How can this be we demand a new test with More realistic scoring. Grossed Outin Honolulu dear grossed the searing looked of to me. I suggest thai those 15 kids with the High icons take a Good look at Tenud vhf and the direction in which they seem to be heading. I am also grossed  Ann Landers you idiot my Mother and father asked me to Lake the sex test and Tell Ibe How i scored. Well i wanted to be honest and it turns out that missed being Normal i decent by two Points. They anvers upset with me and i would like to wring your neck. I m sigh ing this a former fan from Monterey  former read on. Yoo i got a twin someplace in Stam Ford Conn. Dear Ann Landers my Mother asked me if i was Normal and decent according to the sexiest those morons in Dayton put together. I told her no a missed it by two Points. She is making an appointment with Meto see our minister tomorrow and i will never read your column again As Long As i live. Stamford  Stam sorry you wont see this but thanks for letting me know. Dear Ann Landers my room mate and i Are 18 years of age coeds at Tufts in Boston. We Bot scored Well Over 12 and therefore according to your standards we re not Normal and  we d like you to know that we Donot hop in bed with every Guy who comes along but we Beli Evett is useful for a girl to Nave a variety of sexual experiences so she will know when the right Ger comes along. Fed up with Square old Yoo dear fed if my re leaking ctr the right any Jim i better Stop deeping Arend. He s not Apt to he interested u yen. 1c a l Feu