European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 23, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Of i we of jew Larry King i like to be surprised. My dream show would be where i Don t know who the guest is at Larry the King of live interviews by Jill Lawrence the associated press he world has yet to come up with some thing that bores the everyman of inter viewing. From thigh Cream to Street crime from Bill Cosby to Bill Clinton Larry King wants to know All. Does that Cream truly make your thighs shrink Why Are our kids killing each other what s Sharon Stone really like How does Bill Clinton think he s doing after year one top . Officials visiting foreign dignitaries politicians celebrities doctors authors soldiers every body stops these Days to Chat with Larry either on can s Larry King live or his Mutual radio show. And he s still curious after All these years 37 of them in radio. I m the kind of person you Don t want to sit next to on an air plane King says and launches into Astory about flying from Europe on the concorde. The pilots were fans and they invited me to sit up front with them he said. I sat up there for the whole three hours and 30 minutes. When i got out of there i could see them looking at each other like never again will we invite this Guy up front what s this what s that Why you doing this who you talking to now what s Over there what s Down there Ive always been that Way. I never six times a week he s on can with his hour Long interview and Call in show seen by about a million people a night in the United states and is available in 140 million households in 200 countries around the world. He does a daily three hour show on Mutual radio carried by 400 stations. He gives a couple of speeches a month at $50,000 each. He writes books. Once a week Usa today publishes a Potpourri of his thoughts on Hollywood Broadway sports politics restaurants and life. The array of subjects is dizzying. The Day King did thigh Cream and the importance of looking Good on the evening to show his afternoon radio pro Gram featured James Earl Jones and a woman who started a Campaign to give food vouchers to the homeless and a Treasury department official Dis cussing taxes on gun dealers. Then the phone lines opened up for questions on anything. There s Only one Way to fit All this in without undue preparation. I always Wing it King says. I like to be sur prised. My dream show would be where i Don t know who the guest is at All. The curtain opens up the guest comes through the this approach occasionally leads to a Pivotal moment but often the results Are less than penetrating. King opened and closed a recent show on violence for example by asking attorney general Janet Reno what s going on Here and what Are you going to take away from Here tonight a sense of Hope she replied to the latter. The softball questions usually lobbed by King and his callers make journalists gnash their Teeth. But guests love it. People Are comfortable coming Here. They know they re going to gel asked Good questions in a comfortable atmosphere. They re not out with someone who wants to hit them Over the head King explains. And i m not interested in slime. I Don t care who someone slept with last night unless they wrote a Book about it and Wanna talk about it As the subject of their King s musings in print have the same feel. One recent us a today column featured a department of Vel Ting to announce his daughter had been admitted to an Honor society. He has raved about a new York eatery s swordfish Steak to die for and wondered if any Doc tors still say take two aspirin and Call Rne in the one column concluded i just realized that i be read every Book Dick Francis has All right All right. We All have our bad Days. And King has had some pretty spectacular Days. Few thought he could top 1992, when he functioned As the presidential Campaign s master of Cere monies. Ross Perot virtually declared his candidacy. On the show. Clinton was on. So was president Bush. But 1993 was even better Clinton in june. Hillary Rodham Clinton in october. Margaret Thatcher Mikhail Gorbachev Michael Keaton Michael Jor Dan and Michael Durant the Pilot shot Down in so Malia All in one week in november. Then came the highest moment of All the de Bate Between Ross Perot and vice president Al Gore of the North american free Trade agreement. They were followed a couple of weeks later by of All people the head of the Cia. What s in store for 94? King says a Friend has a modest proposal we go to Bosnia and bring peace and they sign the agreement on Larry King King is the first to say he aspires to entertainment rather than journalism. He even docs a Mca culpa in his latest Book on the line for letting Dan Quayle get away with an impossible explanation of Why president Bush agreed to a tax increase in 1990. Cynical he is not. He has Good things to say about everyone. I m not jaded he says. You gotta be what you in sometimes jarring displays of on the air pal Hood King Calls guests by their first names. The at Torney general is the vice president is the governor of new York is it s hard to switch to governor on the air King says. Same with or. Vice president. I know Gore 15 years King says. He s always been be sides he says they All Call him Larry. 1 who is Larry this Man in his trademark spectacles shirtsleeves and suspenders he was born Larry Zeiger in Brooklyn. His father died when he was 10 his Mother was on welfare and worked in a sweatshop. He never went to College. One of his first radio jobs was As a sportscaster. King s can office and suburban Virginia Condo Are plastered with pictures of himself with the greats. But the Condo is modest and the office is downright tiny. What s More he shares it with one of his producers she works Days he works nights. His tastes Are unabashedly main Street and he is upfront about his attitudes toward Money and celeb Rity and attention. He likes them. A lot. His radio show is easy and the Money is Good he says and he does t mind Reading the commercials that come with the territory. King s close friends and associates Are tremendously protective of him. Even competitors Don t be grudge him Success that took a Long time to arrive. Big time wealth and Fame have come late to Larry King. It did t happen to him when he was 26. He s an inspiration to All of us says fellow talk show Host Phil Donahue who is 58. King is 60 and has two grown children. He has been through five divorces a heart attack a triple bypass even a bankruptcy. In december he lost a close Friend his longtime agent Bob Woolf. It made him think about slowing Down. He s planning to quit radio when his contract is up in october. I Wanna travel More. I Wanna seen Ore things says King. I Wanna have More of a january 23, 1994 sunday Page 11
