60 minutes rewind
what else do george bush bill clinton and ross perot have in common
larry king live larry king actually larry zeiger now 58 not of washington dc but originally a
kid from brooklyn without a college degree his interview show on cnn the past seven years and
his late night radio show on mutual the past 15 reach a mere four to six million people
every night but in this political year of 1992 larry king has suddenly become a household word
look what happens when he gets off the plane in the heartland of america wichita kansas
and look what happens when people get close to him
biggest pleasure in my life to be able to meet you and see alive
listen would you take a picture of me and let my husband get it so much i love you to dance well
our camera cruiser followed you around people say hey there's larry king there's larry king
i shouldn't use the word star big deal different uh kooky
little scary i i you know mike i really believe this no baloney i'm a guy who asks questions i'm a
guy who asked questions that's all i'm a guy who's curious and these things have happened to me but
of course you didn't expect to be a star but the nightly news is out and larry king is in why what
happened in this political year of 1992 to make people suddenly say did you watch larry king last
night parole happened the 15th caller has now said mr pro i admire you a great deal there's a
twinkle in his eye i see the twinkle and something led me to say by the way is there any scenario in
which you would run for president can you give me a scenario in which you'd say okay i'm in
if you're that serious you the people are that serious you register me in 50 states and there
it was back on february 20th perrault told king that he was in the race we maybe had three million
viewers that night but by the time the next day wrote about it the next day and then he
came back and then he goes on other shows and he mentioned our show and then it spun off and
this is a spin-off business and by the time it reached the climax probably 80 million
people have now said i saw that interview with ross so ross perot's in your will
tell me something yeah maybe i'm in his too larry king is the man the candidates want to talk to
for they've discovered what movie stars already knew that larry king live is an unedited hour
with this witty chummy interviewer who frequently asked simple questions others wish they'd thought
bottom line he makes his guests comfortable comfortable enough for an anti-abortion vice
president to talk about his daughter and abortion what if your daughter grew up had a problem
came to you with that the problem all father's fear how would you deal with it obviously i
would counsel her and talk to her and uh support her on whatever decision she could and if the
decision was abortion you would support her as a i'd support my daughter news is made on
larry king live and the candidates know it clinton and gore took him on their bus tour
george bush said yes to two interviews larry got in the white house we didn't feel strong
well he just keeps coming back for more new york city for ross perot hello hello larry yep mike
wallace what is it that you get on the larry king show mr pearl that you don't get on face
the nation or or meet the press or the brinkley show is it the is it the softballs that my friend
larry throws at you mike wait a minute i've got missing teeth for being on the show with larry
this nose wasn't broke until i met larry but here let me tell you what we get
we get to talk to the american people i just adore it you're a patsy oh that's that's the wrap
yeah i know i don't think you're a patsy you get information your way i get information my way
but the rap on king is that he's a patsy he will never ask a hard question i'm larry
i'm larry of the corner honest to god that's where i feel that's in me i never got brooklyn
out of me it's still in me and when we were on the corner i was the kind of kid who used to say
why do you want to ride a bus why do you want to drive the bus wait a second why do you want
to drive a bus why do you put your hand in the coin box and take out one out of every
three quarters now you would ask that right and i would say are there temptations as a bus driver
to take coins out and he would say temptations no and you would say oh and go on to the next
one you mean there's no temptation to ever lead down what i would not do what i would
not do because it's not my style is say you've taken quarters i've gotten confronted
sometimes with racists which really gnaw at me but basically my style is one of utter
it's almost i don't want to say naivety i'm curious i want to know why where is that where are
we what he hears what he reads what he knows larry says is his only preparation for his interviews
blue cards from his staff suggest issues and topics but no questions executive producer
tammy haddad whispers last minute notes in his ear before each broadcast that bush said today and no
more he said definitely i'll never do it again tammy has been with him for 12 years she's his
alter ego who will be giving me cities i will give you cities i'm the only person you talk to i will
give you time i don't really need a floor manager okay okay we're gonna have a floor manager i've
got it all taken care of larry's cool tammy is the effective maniac in charge we are not doing it now
get your blue lights ready jer no more let me see the two shot please and a little more preacher she
does it all dude okay he's on the air radio and television 46 hours a week with repeats and one
thing or another yeah with repeats yeah oh yeah it's 46 hours one you're obviously underpaid
grossly in the area of two to three million dollars right make a lot of money but he doesn't
spend a lot of it the jets and the limos are paid for by cnn or the people who pay him for speeches
his own self-indulgences are minor flocks of ties and someone to tie them i can't do this now
we're at the dimple power lunches at duke zebertz his favorite washington restaurant
there he's catered to with matzos and diet butter for his health it's hard to remember
that this guy hit rock bottom 20 years ago in miami the story will continue after this
there were four very lean years there were very lean years what happened my ego lost control of me
and uh i was making 60 000 a year and living like i was making 120 yeah and i was very well known
in miami and i was excited by being well known i was really captured by it one of the things that
didn't excite him about being well known was an indictment for grand larceny 20 years ago
on charges he pocketed five thousand dollars he'd been given to pass on to an individual
looking into the kennedy assassination so you got into money trump summoned substance was
that five thousand was never passed on i had told him i was going to use it to
pay taxes he subsidizes he got off in a technicality but he was broke
he'd lost his broadcasting jobs and by 1979 he had to declare bankruptcy to avoid paying off
over 300 000 dollars in debts but i told myself mike when i'd lost it
that if i ever got it back again i'd never lose it again yeah i would take care of my money that
i would live more responsibly because i missed it but inside of me and this i owe to brooklyn
i think was a comeuppance i was down but i knew i'd come back and now that he's back he
says he's determined to pay back every cent he owns i agree with you women women and larry king
what a saga why are you looking so serious because it's an area of my life i uh
haven't done well with with i've done you've been married how many times five some say there
were two more he doesn't talk about and it's been as betty davis said to me you know larry you're
that camera's a mistress and nobody can compete with that so your wife or your love is an intruder
is an aside you know i used to say if i came home i had two messages
your wife called urgent cnn called urgent
i'd call cnn no contest no contest we are americans first and broadcaster second no way come
on here he is at a broadcaster's convention we are broadcasters first and everything else is second
family values is sixth this is broadcasting uh he says the best advice he ever got came
from jackie gleason take off your jacket and be yourself when he did that in the white house some
critics called him rude but his shirt sleeves and suspenders play well in middle america thank you
a jew comes to wichita and uh this is a great place in the snow
wichita it's been a week here one night
this crew is from 60 minutes and
if you are here with someone you shouldn't be here with
thank you so what makes larry run before my heart attack i wouldn't have thought of doing this in
eight million years he had a heart attack and bypass surgery in 1987 now every morning at nine
he exercises he scans five newspapers he works the phones hi it's larry king i think we spoke
yesterday i spoke to al gore yesterday afternoon just he was getting on the plane and then he got
he writes his column for usa today item who has more guaranteed job opportunity dan quayle
or murphy brown my creature comforts are having a hair done every day first class travel and a
limo on the road see i think with television if we'd have had what we have now hitler wouldn't
have moved he'd have been on with us good evening adolph that lady as i told off you as last week
poland invited us in you know it takes care of me every day watches every night judges my hair grows
a way to make a living i have to like what i'm doing and i love what i'm doing the biggest truth
is i wouldn't change places with anyone i wouldn't change places with oprah i would not want to host
larry 10 in the morning with the woman and her stepmother and that's the problem the woman who
slept with her stepmother even for 30 million would not want to do it okay maybe one show
and at the end of the day five nights a week a labor of love three hours on mutual radium
here's larry thanks paul good evening everybody welcome to another edition of the larry king show
for this tuesday night wednesday morning why do you do this why do you work so hard i mean
you do the thing from nine to ten on cnn then you just come over here takes you ten minutes to drive
and you're here now until two o'clock in the morning you go home and go to sleep when i'm in
bed but i fall asleep quarter three column in usa today why why for a fellow who had a heart attack
i'm gonna think about that who's 58 years old i think i want to quit where i'm like
but he won't quit because from one to two in the morning on his radio show
this savvy street-wise democrat gets to tell you what he really thinks clinton wants to low-key him
it's the same as bush wants the low-key buchanan you want pap buchanan speaking in the harlem
the rich get a better break in america by far it's a wonderful scapegoat if you don't have an
answer blame the media the biggest hawks in this country never went into service if you
got a four trillion dollar in deficits right how are you going to reduce taxes when you go to bed
at night hello what do you worry about the only thing i worry about is dying
um i don't have any financial problems i don't have any great amount of lying
dying what do you worry about you're a boy oh boy this universe has been around a long time and
it's going to be around a long time and i'm here for a blip of it right and i want to see it all
and this year he has george bush ross perot who's become a part of my life i'm a little jewish boy
from brooklyn suddenly a texas billionaire is overwhelming me i don't know what i'm doing
ross called me this morning says where you going i said port you're on he says i'll buy it today