Larry King

American talk show host, radio personality and columnist, whose work has been recognized with awards including two Peabodys, an Emmy award, and 10 Cable ACE Awards. From 1985 to 2010, he hosted the worlds most potent talk show, "Larry King Live" on CNN TV. Known for its commentary and debate on contemporary events, the show tuned into more than 1.2 million American homes nightly and was beamed to approximately 200 nations via satellite. He is the author of several books including Tell It to the King (1988), How To Talk To Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere (1994), The Best Of Larry King Live (1995) and Powerful Prayers (1998). King was the second son of Russian Jewish immigrants Eddie and Jennie Zeiger. His older brother by six years died of appendicitis shortly before Kings birth and his younger brother Martin was born a few years later. His parents owned and operated a bar-and-grill in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn but sold it when the war broke out so Dad could join the war effort and work at a defense plant in nearby Kearny, New Jersey. The troubles came when Eddie died of a heart attack on the job on 14 June 1944, leaving Jennie to accept relief payments before she found work in the garment district a year later. His idolized fathers sudden death traumatized ten-year old King, whose performance in school dropped dramatically. The excellent student who skipped third grade became negligent of anything academic and earned the reputation as a troublemaker in Junior High. Graduating Lafayette High School by one point above the minimum for passing, King spent most of his time watching the Brooklyn Dodgers and listening to the radio, with Arthur Godfrey serving as his role model. While certain he wanted a career in broadcasting, King did not know how to break into it, so he spent four years after high school working odd jobs in Brooklyn. At age 23 in 1957, he boarded a bus to Miami, where he heard a neophyte could start a radio career. Working as a porter at 250-watt AM station WAHR, King was suddenly asked to replace the morning disc jockey who had abruptly quit. On 1 May 1957, having changed his name to King at the stations managers suggestion, he finally got a chance to speak into a microphone, and was so petrified he couldnt utter a sound. Turning up the music so he wouldnt have to talk, the station manager put his head in the studio and said, "Remember, this a communicating business." The terrified King let the music go down and began talking into the microphone, telling what just happened because he couldnt think of anything else to say. It was love at first "sound." King clicked with the communicating business and never suffered "mike fright" again. Soon attracting the attention of larger Miami stations, King took a job at progressive station WKAT the following year where he was given the enviable morning "drive time" slot. His innovation and creativity got him hired by Pumperniks Restaurant to serve as host for a four-hour on-location radio show designed to boost the restaurants slow breakfast business. Randomly picking guests from the restaurants clientele, King interviewed waitresses, cooks, conventioneers and the relatively unknown comedians Don Rickles and Lenny Bruce. Soon other celebrities made it a point to drop by Pumperniks, whose breakfast business was now booming. It was a turning point in the radio broadcasters career: "I found I could do more than shtick. I found I had an ability to draw people out in Read less