FamVibes

In early 1965, Larry King was at a party at Jackie Gleason’s house when Gleason suddenly asked his guests, “What in your profession is impossible? What will never happen?”

Larry recalled: “We had a doctor there, and he said, ‘They will never make blood in a laboratory. They will never manufacture blood that you can transfuse into someone. That will never happen.’ Then he went to another guy, and then he came to me. I said, ‘I do my television show and I write my column, but I also do a three-hour radio show every night, from nine to twelve—a very popular local show. Sinatra is opening at the Eden Roc. Frank Sinatra to do my radio show for three hours.’ Now, this is 1965, and there was no bigger person in the world than Frank Sinatra. Capitol, Reprise, the whole thing; he was opening at the Eden Roc with Joe E. Lewis. Jackie asked, ‘What night is he dark?’ I said, ‘Monday.’ And Jackie said, ‘You got him next Monday.’”

“So I asked, ‘Jackie, can I go on the air tonight and say that next Monday I’ll be having Frank Sinatra on my show?’ He said, ‘Go ahead.’ So I went back on the air and said, ‘Frank Sinatra next Monday night.’ Then the station called me in. They asked, ‘Are you sure?’ I said, ‘Jackie says so.’ I told them the story. By Friday, they were running full-page ads in the Miami Herald, but they were nervous—they’d left messages at the Eden Roc, and nobody was calling back.”

“Monday night came. Nobody went home. Even the secretaries stayed. The show started at nine. At about two minutes to nine, a limo pulls up, and out comes Sinatra. We had these little stairs leading into the station—it was a beautiful place. He walks up, everyone’s staring, and he says, ‘Who’s Larry King?’ I say, ‘Me.’ He says, ‘Okay, let’s go.’”

“I was never nervous on the air except my first day—and that day. We sit down, and my rule in life was, ‘Never lie to your audience, and it ain’t brain surgery, so go to the moment.’ So all I said was, ‘Why are you here?’ I didn’t go through ‘my friend Frank Sinatra’ and all that baloney. He said, ‘Five or six years ago, I was singing at Ben Maksik’s Town and Country in Brooklyn, and I had laryngitis—it was closing night—and I called Jackie. I said, “Jackie, could you come over and do a show?” And Jackie came and did an hour. I walked him to his car, leaned in, and said, “I owe you one.” Now in Miami, I get a message to call Jackie, and I call him, and all he says is, “This is the one.”’”

“It turned into a wonderful interview. There was a PR guy with him who said, ‘I don’t know how you got this, but do not mention the kidnapping—he won’t talk about it, and he’ll walk off.’ But the interview went so well that, at one point, I just said, ‘The thing between you and the press—have you been bum-rapped, or is it overblown?’ And he said, ‘It’s probably overblown, but I’ve been bum-rapped, too. Take the kidnapping.’ And then he told the whole story. He hated the press—especially the tabloids. He gave me a great line: ‘These people live off the real or imagined fortunes or misfortunes of those with much greater talent than them.’”

It was the first of several Sinatra interviews King would do over the next 25 years. They became friends, and King would later conduct Sinatra’s final major interview in 1988.

Larry King: “As a kid, I’d stand outside the New York Paramount and wait in line to see him. I think he was the greatest singer of my time.”

Was it fate or friendship that made Sinatra honor a promise only Jackie Gleason could have called in?

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