``The King'' was a Dodgers-worshipping kid from Brooklyn who went on to star in his own TV and radio call-in talk show. In this capacity he has had the opportunity to chat with baseball greats Jackie Robinson, Stan Musial and Joe DiMaggio, as well as with notables of stage, screen, politics, finance, law, organized crime, literature, etc.thousands of names spanning the world of celebrity. King attributes his success to the curiosity he expresses in an interview situation: ``What made you decide to . . . ?'' From more than 30 years' accumulation of interviews, the authors here assemble a host of anecdotesilluminating, embarrassing, hilarious, poignantinvolving the likes of Lenny Bruce, Don Rickles, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Hubert Humphrey, Jacqueline Susann and Judith Krantz (``a little mouse''). King retains a boyish admiration for an earlier broadcaster, his acknowledged mentor Arthur Godfrey, about whom he says, ``The best thing he did was that he did himself.'' The same can be said for the King. First serial to Playboy and Ladies' Home Journal; BOMC alternate. (May)
Library Journal
A broadcaster for almost 30 years, King has spent the past ten as host of a late-night interview and call-in show on radio; he also has a television show on cable TV. The Peabody Award winner is a skilled interviewer, and his book, written in a casual, breezy style, is filled with stories about guests on his shows and his experiences in broadcasting. Naturally, the tales are about famous people King has interviewedranging from movie and TV stars to political and religious leadersand his friends. Most of the anecdotes are amusing, and some funny enough to make the reader laugh aloud. This book can be enjoyed even by people who don't know who King is. Good for public libraries. Rebecca Wondriska, Trinity Coll. Lib., Hartford, Ct.