“I still can't believe its 50 years, because I remember my first day like yesterday. I never thought I'd be on all over the world. All I wanted to do was be on,” Larry King said to CNN Anchor Anderson Cooper in an interview about his 50-year broadcasting career, which is being celebrated on CNN.
In 1957, after changing his last name from Zeiger, Larry King began his broadcasting career as a radio DJ at Miami, Florida's WAHR-AM. A year later, he hosted a live audience interview show at Pumpernik's Restaurant in Miami.
Over the next two decades, King worked as a newspaper columnist, writer, publicist for a racetrack and freelance broadcaster before beginning "The Larry King Show," a nationally syndicated late-night radio talk show, in 1978.
On June 3, 1985, "Larry King Live" premiered on CNN. Then-New York Governor Mario Cuomo was his first guest. Today the show is seen in more than 200 countries and is the cable channel’s longest running interview program.
Anderson Cooper recently sat down with the host of CNN's "Larry King Live" to ask him about guests who have fascinated and intrigued him over his 50-year career; the secret to asking a good question and where his trademark suspenders came from. Read interview.
If he had to choose from the over 40 000 interviews he had done, Larry King says his best guests of all time were Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Frank Sinatra.
According to an interview he did with USA Today, King’s single most memorable career moment was during an interview with singer and comedian Danny Kay. He tells the story: “Danny Kaye is talking to the mother of a sailor killed in Korea. She called in to my radio show to tell him how much her son loved Danny and how she dusted Danny's picture next her son's picture on her television set every day. Danny sang Deenah to her.”
In 1987, Larry King awoke in the Intensive Care Unit of a New York hospital after undergoing successful quintuple bypass heart surgery. While Larry was recovering from his operation, he made a promise to himself to help others who may not be as lucky as he was to have medical insurance. The Larry King Cardiac Foundation (LKCF) was established in 1988.
At present, he is married to singer, Shawn Southwick and has two sons Cannon (6) and Chase (8). “Having youngsters is the ultimate joy” King (73) says.
For the record, Larry King has been married seven times (incl). All his children are, Andy, who is 50; Larry Jr., 45; Chaia, 39; Chance, 8; and Cannon, 6.
CNN has released Larry King Live: The Greatest Interviews, a three-disc DVD collection containing more than nine hours of King’s most compelling interviews with movie and television stars, comedians, talk show hosts, presidents and newsmakers. Get this at Amazon.com.
Presidents, politicians, stars, heroes and villains – the interviewed them all. Scroll through some highlights of Larry King’s 50-year career.
