THE GREATEST ENTERTAINERS OF ALL TIME ... JACKIE GLEASON AND FRANK SINATRA

Larry King, Jackie Gleason, Frank Sinatra Story

 

By Trey Rusk 

Frank Sinatra (L) and Jackie Gleason 

When I was a young patrol officer, I was assigned graveyards for my first year.  Subsequently, I would ride around listening to the AM radio.  I listened to Larry King.  This is a story I read today that Larry King told as his career on radio was winding down.  I still watch Jackie Gleason and listen to Frank Sinatra on YouTube.  What Frank said about the media during the interview is truer today than when he said it.  Enjoy! 

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June 5 at 11:00 PM  · 

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

Larry King: “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 do a three-hour radio show every night, from nine to twelve, a very popular local radio show. Sinatra is opening at the Eden Roc. Frank Sinatra to do my radio show for three hours.’ Now, this is 1965 and there is no bigger person in the world than Frank Sinatra in 1965. Capitol, Reprise, the whole thing; he is 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 said, ‘Jackie, can I go on the air tonight and say that next Monday I'll be having Frank Sinatra on my show?’ ‘Go ahead.’ So I go back on the air, I say, ‘Frank Sinatra next Monday night.’ Now the station calls me in. They asked, ‘Are you sure?’ I said, ‘Jackie says so.’ I told the story. Now it's Friday, and they're taking full-page ads in the Miami Herald announcing this, but they're also saying they've left messages at the Eden Roc, and nobody's returning their calls.

Anyway, it's now Monday night. Nobody went home. The secretaries all stayed. It was on at nine o'clock. At about two minutes to nine, this limo pulls up, and out comes Sinatra. We had little stairs to walk on. It was a very beautiful radio station. He walks up the stairs and everybody's standing there, and he goes, ‘Who's Larry King?’ I go, ‘Me.’ He says, ‘Okay, let's go.’

I never was nervous on the air except my first day and that day. We sit down, and - my truism 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 a lot of 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 over and did an hour. I walked him out to his car, and I leaned in, and I said, “I owe you one.” Now in Miami, I get a message to call Jackie, and I call Jackie, and all he says is, “This is the one.”’

It turned into a wonderful interview. There was a PR guy who came along with him, who said, ‘I don't know how you got this, but do not mention the kidnapping, because he doesn't want to talk about that, and he'll walk off.’ But what happened was, the interview went so well that in the course of it, all I said was, ‘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 he went through the whole thing. He hated the press, and he hated tabloids. He gave me a great quote. He said, ‘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 conduct over the next quarter century. They became friends and King would be the one to conduct Sinatra’s final major interview in 1988.

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