LARRY KING CALLS HOWARD STERN SMOCK

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In this weeks issue of Steppin' Out magazine, celebrity journalist Chaunce Hayden features a very intimate and candid chat he shared with CNN's Larry King about his future successor, the death of his father, being stupid and why the ladies love him.
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Larry King


ON HIS REPLACEMENT NOT BEING HOWARD STERN:


Chaunce Hayden: Would Howard Stern be a good replacement for you?

Larry King: No and I wouldn't want to be compared to Howard Stern. I was much more like Arthur Godfrey. I was a humorist and a satirist. I made fun of commercials, I played records at the wrong speed but I always had taste, unlike (Howard) Stern who has no taste. There's nothing wrong with him being on the air with all those gimmicks but he's not tasteful at all. I had taste even with Lenny Bruce coming on my show once a week.


Chaunce Hayden: Did Lenny Bruce have taste?


Larry King: Lenny was brilliant. I mean Lenny's I.Q. was probably a hundred points higher then Howard Sterns. When Lenny said something it was memorable even when it was dirty, whereas Howard just isn't that funny. But Lenny was hysterical. Talent is when you're creative and new. I mean you go to the least common denominator and that's Howard Stern. He would even like the conversation you and I are having right now because he would like you to print that I called him a smock. No matter what you say about him its fine. You could call him a rapist in tomorrow's paper and that would be fine. Somebody like that is nothing more than a gimmick. Its almost like being a parody of ones self. Therefore, I regard Howard Stern as worthless.


ON NEVER GETTING OVER HIS FATHER'S DEATH:


Chaunce Hayden: Is it true that you never got over your fathers death when you were just 10 years old?


Larry King: Yes. I was very close to him. I also had a six year old brother who died before I was born. Therefore, my father was very close to me and I to him. We also both suffered heart attacks. So there is a filter through my father and me almost daily. I also believe that the loss of a father early in life cant be measured. James Agee wrote a book called “A Death In The Family” which was turned into a play called “Dark at the Top of the Stairs” which deals with the death of a father of a ten year old. Ten years old is a very unique age; its the age where you come to know that there is no Santa Claus, that Grandma didn't go away...she died. You're just getting into that age of understanding death; like for example, I know that I took my fathers death with anger. I didn't even go to the funeral. I saw my fathers death as a form of desertion. by the way, those feelings occur even with older people. You go through all sorts of emotions when someone dies including anger. There's some anger, like you left me. I took out a lady to dinner a couple of weeks ago who was recently widowed. She loved her husband but there are days that she's so mad at him. You know, the insurance wasn't enough, didn't he know he was sick, that sort of thing.


ON BEING STUPID:


Chaunce Hayden: You never prepare for interviews and sometimes it shows on the air. Why not do research before an interview?


Larry King: Why is being stupid an insult I've been in many situations where I've said to guests before we go on the air that this is a subject that I don't know anything about; like ballet for example. You don't have to know about ballet to be a good interviewer of ballet dancers. Why would you have to know about ballet? My purpose is to learn about ballet. You see, the interviewing is a learning process. Of course you have to have some intelligence but most importantly, you have to be intensely curious.


ON HAVING SEX APPEAL:


Chaunce Hayden: You have a reputation for being a ladies man. What is it about you that women find so appealing?


Larry King: I don't know. I like ladies. I'm a confirmed heterosexual. I've been in love a few times in my life, but I guess its because I'm funny, I'm bright and I meet great people. But I guess you would have to ask the ladies.


ON BEING REMEMBERED:


Chaunce Hayden: A hundred years from now how would you like history to remember Larry King?

Larry King: He made a difference.

Photo By: Sara De Boer/Retna

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