My Remarkable Journey

"Before Larry King befriended presidents and iconic entertainers, he was Larry Zeiger, the son of Jewish immigrants, whose nickname was Zeek the Creek the Mouthpiece because he never stopped talking. After the painful loss of his father when Larry was nine years old, the Zeigers were forced to go on Relief and the government purchased Larry's first pair of glasses. Determined to fulfill his dream of working in radio, Larry left home as a young man and moved to Miami where, through sheer persistence and luck, and with a little help from Frank Sinatra and Jackie Gleason, the unparalleled career of "Larry King" began." "n My Remarkable Journey , Larry delves deeply into his extraordinary professional and personal odyssey. As host of CNN's Larry King Live, the first worldwide phone-in TV talk show, as well as with his own all-night Mutual radio show, he has shaped the course of broadcast history by interviewing every U.S. president since Richard Nixon (and their wives); an abundance of world leaders from Vladimir Putin to Nelson Mandela; controversial figures such as O.J. Simpson, Monica Lewinsky, and Tammy Faye Bakker, and countless sports stars, entertainers, and eyewitnesses to historical moments." "King's off-camera life was often filled with very remarkable events as well. Married eight times to seven women, Larry didn't actually meet the son who'd been named after him until Larry King, Jr. was thirty-three years old. He once got into a traffic accident with John F. Kennedy and into trouble when Richard Nixon asked if he could do Larry a favor. He has been fired, incarcerated, struggled with a three-pack-a-day smoking habit, been down to his last $2 when he won an $8,000 trifectaat the racetrack, had a heart attack and quintuple bypass surgery, and founded the Larry King Cardiac Foundation with Larry King, Jr. A father, a grandfather, and a great-grandfather, Larry has been through it all; most recently he was ejected from a Little League game for arguing with the umpire. At 75, he wakes up every morning with the same enthusiasm he had as a kid who announced cars passing on the streets of Brooklyn." Surprising and candid, moving and entertaining, My Remarkable Journey will be devoured by Larry King's millions of fans worldwide.

For a half-century the worlds most influential figures have been telling their stories to incomparable TV-host Larry King. Now the man in suspenders shares his riveting and inspiring storyfrom his humble roots in Depression-era Brooklyn to the heights of celebrity as host of CNNs Larry King Live.

Publishers Weekly

In this humorous, anecdotal account, King at 75-plus marvels good-naturedly at his staying power for a half-century as a talk-show host for radio and TV. Born in Brooklyn in 1933 to Jewish immigrant parents, young Larry Zeiger was profoundly influenced at age nine by the untimely heart-attack death of his father and by the medium of radio. Rejected by the army for bad eyesight and uninterested in going to college, he got his break filling in for a deejay at a radio station in Miami, where he took the name King in a pinch. His early scrapes are hilarious, especially with women (he married eight times), and he had an uncanny ability to snag famous personalities like Jackie Gleason, Frank Sinatra and Richard Nixon to be interviewed on air. By simply being curious and unassuming, King could make anyone seem fascinating, from a plumber to the famously laconic Robert Mitchum. Despite being fired in 1971 for financial shenanigans, King swept back on the air in Washington, D.C., before being hired to host a show for Ted Turner's fledgling CNN in 1985, where he has been following current affairs for the past 25 years. King, writing with Fussman (After Jackie), has produced a cultural history as much as a personal testimony, touching on world-shaping events over the last 50 years and sharing, with inimitable humor and grace, some quirky POVs from King's family and friends. (May)

LARRY KING is the host of CNN's Larry King Live, the first worldwide phone-in television talk show and the network's highest-rated program. The Emmy-winning King has been dubbed "the most remarkable talk-show host on TV ever" (TV Guide) and "master of the mike" (Time). King also founded the Larry King Cardiac Foundation, which has raised millions of dollars and provided lifesaving cardiac procedures for nearly sixty needy children and adults.