Larry King: Beyond the Mic

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- [Director] Larry, do you mind just clapping on camera just so we get sound?

Perfect.

Thank you.

- I know the bit.

Oy.

(Crew laughing) - [Director] We're rolling, whenever you're ready.

- All right.

- We grew up in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn by the sea, about 10 minutes from Coney Island.

We lived in a third floor attic because we were very poor, so it was a three-family house with like an attic on top, two small bedrooms and little kitchen, bath.

My mother, after my father died, my mother and my brother and I lived upstairs, but I had a cousin lived across the street.

Herbie lived two blocks away.

We were typical kids.

There wasn't a bad kid among us.

We were little troublemakers.

Herbie was a troublemaker, but Herbie was a negotiator, so he got you into trouble and got you out.

We were the Warriors.

We played at the Jewish Community House, played basketball.

We participated in all the things that, you know, "You coming home, Larry?

You coming home, Herbie?"

Our mothers yelling.

I was the only kid without a father.

I left Brooklyn, but Brooklyn never left me.

I'm still, it's still in my soul.

There was a bond in Brooklyn.

Something about Brooklyn.

Now I hear that Brooklyn has gone through the roof.

Property values, Williamsburg is suddenly a hip place to live, which I can't believe.

I told a joke the other day.

I had a friend that couldn't get an apartment in Brooklyn so he had to move to Park Avenue.

(Director laughing) (Jazzy music) (Plane engine humming) - Okay, here it is.

"Hey Spark, we did okay, didn't we?

Love, Plug."

This is, Larry sent me this.

(Upbeat jazzy music) - We welcome to this program an old dear friend of mine, Herb Cohen, the renowned negotiator, bestselling author.

His new book, "Negotiate This!"

His first book, "You Can Negotiate Anything," a runaway bestseller on the New York Times.

- [Herb] Larry went back to Bensonhurst and he was with a photographer.

This is my building, I lived in.

Second floor, Larry would come here.

Here's Larry in Coney Island.

We'd go there a lot.

(Upbeat jazzy music continues) - [Larry] Herbie Cohen, who "Playboy Magazine" called "The World's Best Negotiator."

- By the way, I'm not the world's best negotiator.

In fact, the best negotiators are people a little crazy.

Second best are people that are irrational.

Third best are dumb people!

I met Larry when we were 12 years of age.

Larry passed away at 87, so that means we were friends for 75 years.

I think that's probably pretty long.

- My friend Herbie Cohen is here.

We shared a lot of adventures together and Mario Cuomo said to us once, "I don't know what it is about Brooklyn.

I'm from Queens.

Queens ain't the same."

- Sure isn't.

- "Brooklyn is different."

- This is my building on the left.

See, where they have, right here, see this corner here, second floor?

My father used to look out that window right at the corner.

We didn't have any air conditioning, by the way.

Larry would go around the corner here and call me in my kitchen window.

He'd be standing here calling up, "Herbie!

Herbie!"

His nickname was Zeke the Creek, the Mouthpiece.

That was his nickname because he would talk a lot.

- [Larry] Well, my birth name was Larry Zeiger.

And when my father died, I was only 9 1/2, and I moved to Bensonhurst.

- This is Larry.

He's walking up the steps to his apartment to where he lived.

Many a day I spent on the third floor.

This was not much of an apartment that he had.

He did not grow up in luxury.

- [Larry] New York City, bought my first pair of glasses.

I never forgot that I was on relief.

- This is the corner we hung out at.

Here's Larry.

He's holding a lamppost.

And the guys who hung out there were like Sandy Koufax, Fred Wilpon, the owner of the Mets, Peter Max, the artist.

My sister did not approve of my friends.

Larry, she didn't like.

She called all of us Neanderthals because all we do is play ball.

We played punch ball, stick ball, square ball.

We'd make up games.

Soh-bockey, which is a combination of soccer and hockey.

This is the Jewish Community House, the JCH, which is like a JCC, and that's Larry.

We played basketball and hung out here.

Larry and I were on a team called the Warriors, which we called the Social Athletic Club, but our friend Bernie, who was known by the name of Hoo-Ha would always say, "Yeah, but we don't do anything social."

("Take Me Out to the Ballgame") (Energetic music) We were fanatical baseball fans.

We saw 40, 50 games a year and now you may say, "Well, gee, how'd you afford that?"

We didn't pay for it.

We went Police Athletic League.

They thought we were both hoodlums and so they gave us tickets and we went to the game.

(Crowd cheering) Baseball is based upon performance.

All our lives, both Larry and I were concerned with the ability of people to achieve.

We were in a class together and the teacher asked, "What were the three major religions of the world?"

And there was silence.

No one had an answer.

And finally, Larry reluctantly put up his hand and said, "I know two."

"Yes, Lawrence, what are they?"

He said, "Jewish and Italian."

What is fascinating is no one in the class laughed.

In fact, people said, "Hey, that's good, two outta three, you know."

We didn't know so much about the world.

I thought about defending people who were innocent so I wanted to be a lawyer.

Larry wanted to be a radio announcer.

(Jazzy music) He's standing on a corner announcing the passage of cars.

"Oh, here it comes, ladies and gentlemen.

A 1946, brand new Hudson, you know, with running boards."

And my father said, "Larry, get a job."

Larry said, "Well, I want to be on the radio."

My father says, "You're no Arthur Godfrey.

You'll never be Arthur Godfrey."

- I was five years old, I would listen to the radio, I would imitate radio announcers.

I'd listen to The Shadow or the- - Yes, same here.

- Inner Sanctum.

I would remember, I'd go into the bathroom and I'd close the door and I'd go, "A tale well calculated to keep you in suspense."

- Larry at that time knew he was going to be famous, because he always practiced signing his name.

Larry Zeiger.

Larry.

He would practice giving autographs to himself.

Larry was bright.

He had a great memory.

He was a great storyteller.

- We're in class and Gil Moppo did not come to school.

His name was Gil Mermelstein, but he had hair like a mop and so his name was Gil Moppo.

He didn't come to school, so Herbie, Brazie and I, three guys who would later do pretty well in life... - You know, Larry tells it brilliantly.

Larry was part of our lives.

Every wedding of our children, Larry was there, and he was there for Bar Mitzvahs.

In fact, at Richard's, Larry, of course, was there.

My wife, had her put a scrapbook together and found that there was no pictures of her and myself, but there were a lot of pictures of me and Larry.

Larry and I dancing.

Larry and I drinking.

Larry and I palling around.

This is me and Larry, and undoubtedly this was taken at some wedding or something.

And we would dance, just the two of us, no women.

You know, we'd do we'd do a Jackie Gleason dance.

There was a time when I think Larry really needed me because I was a good friend.

He had so many bumps on the road to success.

He had setbacks, a lot, and I was there for him.

I was very supportive.

- [Larry] I never forget where I came from.

Old friends are the best.

My friends Herbie and Hoo-Ha, we shared a lot of adventures together.

- [Director] When was the last time you spoke to Larry?

- It was about a month ago I last spoke to him on the phone.

And what I did mostly, I tried to encourage him.

I remember saying to him, "Larry, you have had every disease, illness, known to mankind and you survived and you're going to make it."

- [Larry] I don't want to leave the earth.

I don't want to not exist.

But I'm so curious that I think, "God, if I, if I depart, who's going to win the World Series?"

- I do miss Larry.

Life is short.

There's an eternity that came before us.

There's an eternity after us.

We're just a blip on the radar screen of eternity.

All of this is a game.

- Nobody plays it better than Herbie.

I don't know of a more worthwhile book and not another 23 years before the next one.

- Thank you, Larry.

- Herb Cohen, the renowned negotiator, good friend, bestselling author.

"Playboy Magazine" called him the world's greatest negotiator.

His new book, "Negotiate This!

: By Caring, But Not THAT Much," available everywhere.

We'll be back after this.

You would not bet that the two of us in life would be successful, right?

- No.

- Would you bet at age 14?

We weren't scholars.

- No.

- Definitely were not scholars.

We weren't bad kids.

- No, no we weren't.

- We weren't bad kids.

We were good kids.

We did some stupid things.

- We played ball all the time.

- We had a club, we had the Warriors, we had jackets, reversible jackets, satin on one side, wool on the other, reversible jackets.

- Very important.

- We had the JCH institution and sports was our livelihood.

We dreamt and lived sports.

We argued.

The only fist fight I've ever had my entire, maybe, we're both over 81, was with him and it was over at a Yankee Dodger argument in which he was preposterous.

- No.

- He was preposterous.

You were a control freak.

- Eh.

- Ehhh.

You were control freak.

It was Herbie's way or the highway.

- Well, no, I had a feeling about justice.

I believed all these things I heard about, you know, in America, justice, fairness, opportunity.

- Herbie had a kind of Batman complex.

- Yes.

(Gentle piano music) (Doorbell ringing) - Well, Herbie.

- Hello.

- How are you?

- Nice seeing you.

- Welcome to Tampa.

Thank you for coming.

- Well, it's a pleasure.

It's a pleasure, particularly in the winter, warm climate.

- Yes, don't you like this?

- We go in here.

- Right, everything's 30 degrees, but here, as you know, in Florida, it's beautiful.

Look at this, before we go up the elevator, this was commissioned for my birthday.

I just turned 60, and one of the members, we're going to see the club later.

One of the members of the club did that of dad.

- That's really nice.

- So I get to see him every day coming in.

- It has a feel of him.

- It does.

- I think it's really good.

- Thank you.

Thank you, I thought it was really cool, too.

Guess it was about four years before dad passed on, he came to Tampa, and I showed him a box that my mom kept.

She kept a record because she was always worried, what was I going to be asking?

Because she knew the marriage was over.

She was pregnant, she was going to give birth, they were getting divorced, but that was the woman he met in 1957 when he came to Miami.

That was Annette when he met her, but that's one of the best pictures I have of my mom and dad back in the day.

- Okay, I'm going to do a Herbie intro here.

Herbie and I grew up together.

How did we meet?

In the principal's office.

We were brought in as two reprobates.

Herbie and I became fast friends and for many, many years that friendship has lasted.

He's one of the best.

He's a great friend.

He's a great American.

Here's Herbie.

- Your father usually confided almost everything to me, but there was sometimes he did not tell me what was going on.

I was married to one woman for 57 1/2 years and appeared to be somewhat stable and maybe a little critical.

I would say to him, "Are you out of your mind?"

You know, "Like, what are you crazy?"

(Larry King, Jr. laughing) You know, so I never knew that he had a son.

He never told me that because I would've probably said, "Then why aren't you with him?"

(Gentle music) - I met my dad for the first time when I was 31, so he was close to 60.

Unfortunately, it was my mom's finding out she had cancer that brought us together.

My mom named me Larry King, Jr.

He said, maybe to spite me, but in other words, just to make sure I always knew who my father was.

- I met Larry's mother years ago.

We got married.

It wasn't a long marriage.

I was told there was a child born, never heard again.

Didn't hear from Annette, the mother, and went on.

- I was actually born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger, Jr., and then he changed his name in 1962 legally to Larry King and my mother then changed my name to Larry King, Jr. She would give me notes and cards that they had when they were married to show me, "Okay, this is your father, but I am not gonna bring you guys together until I feel you're both ready to go."

There were many times in my life where I'm going, "Come on, mom."

- [Larry] Time out, Miami seven, Oakland nothing.

Better believe it folks and hang on.

- When I was eight years old, the Dolphins start taking off and my father is calling the games, and I was sitting on the 30 yard line in the Orange Bowl and I would look up and he would yell, "Touchdown Dolphins!"

I was going to the game with my father on transistor radio.

I just listened to him.

(Jazzy music) My father's career in Miami was as big as he was in the world at the end of his life.

He was on the radio.

He was writing for the "Miami Herald," "The Miami News."

My father was called "Mr.

Miami."

That's what he wanted to be.

He would take any job anywhere, he loved it that much.

He was everywhere.

So I'd start asking, "Well, why isn't he calling me?

Why isn't he calling me on my birthday?

Why isn't he here?"

My mom, she had to explain to me that the person that I am seeing on TV, listening to on the radio, is not the same individual behind the scenes.

Money was not a friend for my father.

My mom would show me the furniture.

This got repossessed.

"You know what that's like, Larry?

Do you know your dad would write me checks and it's bouncing?"

- He always used to say to me, "Herb, am I ever going to learn about managing money?"

And I said to him, "No!

In fact, you're so bad, Larry, (Larry King, Jr. chuckling) if someone gives you a dollar bill, you'll color it with a Crayola."

- 1971, my mom gives me "The Miami News" and she goes, "This is why you don't need to be close to your father right now."

I read this, I was 10.

"King's last marriage ended in divorce six months ago.

Former close associates who know said King had been married at least six times, including two marriages to Alene, one marriage was annulled, they said, and one of the others 'Larry would just soon forget about.'"

I don't know if that's my mom, I have no clue, but as a kid, when you read your father, what happened to your father.

- Your mother was an unbelievable person to raise children under these circumstances, not knowing, ambiguous.

Larry at that time was involved in so many things.

- Yeah.

- That was a tough time, I remember, in his life.

- Oh, I was on such an ego trip in this town and I got carried away, man.

I had to have the Cadillac and I had to look good and I had to tip good and I had to loan money because that's good too.

You're borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.

You pay Paul, then there become nine Peters and six Pauls and five Peters get paid, and eventually you can't bounce the balls anymore.

I always felt inside of me somewhere I'd come back, and what I told myself was, "If I came back, I sure was going to make the attempt not to let that happen again."

- The end of 1993, my mom finds out that she is dying of brain cancer.

She wrote a letter to my father, "I'm not gonna make it.

I need you to recognize your son."

And he chose Herbie to be the guy to kind of clear me, is the best way I could say it.

He was not only a friend that he would kibbitz with, but he would call him when he was in trouble.

That's the person he called.

That transcended any of his marriages, anything.

- The first time I heard about this, he said, "Herb, I have someone who claims to be my son."

I said, "Is he your son?"

He said, "He probably is."

(Larry King, Jr. chuckling) So he said, "I want you to meet him."

- I got a letter inviting me up to Washington, DC and I meet Herbie at the Watergate Hotel, of all places.

Shake his hand, we sit down, and he starts telling me about my father, just giving me anecdotes, stories, asking me questions to get a feel for me.

- As soon as we got back from that meeting, Larry was all excited.

He said, "Herb, Herb, did you meet my son?"

"Yeah."

"Does he look like me?"

I said, "No."

(both chuckling) And he went... You know, he thought you would be like his reincarnation, and he was, for a moment disappointed.

I said, "But he looks like Marty did."

Marty, Larry's brother- - My uncle.

- At exactly the same age.

- Yep.

- And he started to smile.

"He does?"

"Yeah."

"Does he seem smart?"

"Yeah."

I said, "And Larry, he also seems stable.

That's the only reason why I doubt whether he might be your son."

You know, it was a little shot at Larry, but he was thrilled.

He was happy, was very happy.

Larry says, "I'll meet him."

- And then I met him at the Omni Hotel in Miami.

I was going on 31, 32, so my father at that point was just getting near 60.

I remember his back was to me, I came around, sat in a booth.

He looks at me and he goes, "How is Candy and Pammy doing?"

And I go, "Wow."

My sisters from my mother's prior marriage.

It instantly validated that he was with my mother and then he rolled right in.

"Where are you living now?

What are you doing?"

And then we started talking about sports.

- Now I know I got a son.

- Right.

- [Larry] Nobody knows about this.

I meet my daughter, I meet my son, Andy.

I tell them they have a brother.

I tell my brother I have a son.

- Yeah.

- And all of them are shocked, of course, and then they all wanna meet him.

They all got along immediately.

I gotta say, it was amazing, right?

- Yeah.

- Right into the family.

- No, it was amazing, yeah.

- They clicked.

- So I'm going, "I am Larry King, Jr." You know, there were some hard times.

In the early '90s.

I had just announced my engagement.

It was in the "Miami Herald."

Talked about my father, Larry King, and I get an anonymous letter to my house.

Who are you, really?

Well, it brought me back to when I was eight and nine and 10 and said, "Where is he and why isn't he recognizing me?"

And that hurt and that pain from that certainly was there.

We talked about that.

You can't apologize for that.

All you can do is move forward, and that's what we did, but he had to live with that one.

And for me, I did too, I did too.

As my mom used to say, "Never hate your father, because we don't get together, you don't exist.

You wouldn't be here."

She would never let me hate him, ever.

He had to sacrifice a lot.

He sacrificed a lot of personal things to chase that career.

I think he realized he missed out on his life.

- Larry was human, he made a lot of mistakes.

He trusted a lot of people he shouldn't trust.

We're all like that, only Larry played on a big stage and everyone knew about it.

He once told me this story.

He went to Israel, he went to the Western Wall.

Very religious Jews were praying by the wall.

There was one guy was wearing all black like he had just come from visiting the Baal Shem Tov, and Larry went up to the wall, put his hand on the wall, and this guy stopped praying, turned to Larry and said, "Larry, you think Perot has a chance?"

(both laughing) - That says it all.

- I don't know if you ever heard that story.

- I did not.

I love you, Herbie, thank you.

- Thank you.

- Thank you for visiting me.

- Thank you for having us.

- Thank you.

I spoke to him a month before he passed away, just to tell him, you know, love him.

We didn't talk long.

I had just started a pizza business with him here and he wanted to know how's the pizza going, and that was pretty much, you know, pretty much it.

We just tried to keep it light.

- [Larry] Hey, Lar, it's your dad, just checking in.

How you doing?

Give me a call.

Love ya!

(Gentle music) - Dad was a flip phone, big dial.

- Yeah.

- Hated, but you're into the technology.

- Yeah, no.

- No.

- No, I'm the same as thing as him.

- You have a flip phone?

- I have a phone, a cell phone.

- You have a cell phone, but is it like one of these?

Is it like this?

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- It's like that.

- I don't know what I'm doing.

I'm just like your father.

He didn't know what he was doing.

I used to speak to him.

- Yeah.

- He said, "Do you know how to use this?"

I said, "No."

(Larry King, Jr. chuckling) Please don't talk about me when I'm gone My honey, there's no reason to talk about me If you can't say anything real nice It's better not to talk at all That's my advice!

- [Announcer] This program is made possible in part by Watermark Retirement Communities.

We believe every person deserves a life filled with purpose, possibility and joy.

Learn more at WatermarkCommunities.com.

- [Announcer] LEO's!

Traditional bagels with chutzpah.

Hanover Square, New York City and beyond.

- [Announcer] Devore Realty Group Serving the real estate needs of seniors and their families since 2003.