I don't know about you but when I awoke this morning to the news that there was no more Larry King, my first thought was of a friend of mine who said, about thirty years ago, "I just want to be important enough in this world to be interviewed by Larry King." To the best of my knowledge, he didn't manage that.
Neither did I. Possibly, neither did you. None of what I'm writing here should be taken as any sort of insult or demeaning of Mr. King but that was a very low bar to clear. Those of us who never made it are in the minority in this world. My gardener was probably a three-time guest on Larry King Live.
I'm sorry Larry King is no longer Live. There was a time I couldn't venture into Beverly Hills without seeing Larry King. My two favorite places to eat there — both of them, like him, gone — were Nate 'n Al's Delicatessen and Wolfgang's Steakhouse. Any time I went to either one, there was Larry King.
You couldn't miss him. He looked like Larry King and he dressed like Larry King (with the braces) and he had that loud way of always making it The Larry King Show around him, talking to whoever was at his table and to everyone at surrounding tables. (Another person who was like that was Tom Snyder. Something about hosting interview and phone-in shows must make men like that.)
After two or three times at Wolfgang's of finding the impossible-to-tune-out Mr. King at the table next to me, the following happened. I arrived there early to meet a young lady with whom I had an appointment to dine. I checked in with the reservations lady who asked me if I had a seating preference. I said, "Let me have the table that's not next to Larry King." She laughed because, I guess, that was not the first time she'd heard that and assured me that Mr. King did not have a reservation that evening.
She seated me. My date arrived. We ordered. And then a party of eight came in and was seated at the table next to us. Larry King was in the party of eight and he got the chair closest to mine.
The hostess ran over, apologizing, saying she didn't know he was in that party and offering to reseat us. But it was fine. Larry King was always entertaining.
He was also always available…one of those celebrities who only declined an invite to appear before a camera or audience if he was already committed to appear before a different camera or audience.
The one time I was backstage at Craig Ferguson's show, I heard someone ask someone, "What do you do if a guest cancels at the last minute?" The answer was "We do what everyone does. We call Larry King." He was as good a guest as he was a host.
And yes, he never prepared and it showed. And yes, he sometimes asked questions that made you wonder why anyone would want to know that. And yes, there seemed to be no product he wouldn't sell, no conversation into which he couldn't inject the name of Frank Sinatra, no woman he couldn't marry and no person he wouldn't interrogate except me and maybe you. He was still a great host. Even if the only thing he ever asked me was, "What's that you're eating?"