Larry King: The kid from Brooklyn became the mouthpiece who roared

Iconic talk show host Larry King, one of the most recognisable figures on US television, has died aged 87.

Larry King died aged 87.

Two years ago, Larry King was early out of the blocks to attack Australia’s draconian freedom-of-speech laws, saying he would “react with violence” if police raided his home in an effort to identify the source of a story.

The American broadcaster instructed Scott Morrison to legislate to protect whistleblowers and journalists. He believed them to be the cornerstone of a democracy.

King could not comprehend that Australian Federal Police had raided the home of a News Corp reporter to seek the identity of her sources: “I am not a violent person but if that had happened to me, I would have reacted with violence.”

King, who died at the weekend aged 87, was, until just a few years ago, the most powerful voice in US broadcasting.

You knew you’d made it if you were the sole guest on Larry King Live. People who had made it included Bill Clinton, Yasser Arafat, the Dalai Lama, Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin, George Bush, Elizabeth Taylor, Bill Gates, Mikhail Gorbachev, Muammar Gaddafi, Margaret Thatcher, Nelson Mandela and Bob Hope.

Larry King (right) speaks as Donald Trump is honoured with a star on Hollywood Boulevard in 2007. Picture: AFP

Tributes from the media, ­politicians and Hollywood stars poured in, led by Putin, who hailed the interviewer’s “great professionalism and unquestioned journalistic authority”.

There are rules in broadcasting. but King broke them all. Not for nothing is the ­midnight-to-dawn radio called the graveyard shift, yet from 1978 to 1994, King turned it into the most listened radio in the US, with more than 500 stations subscribing to his long blocks of interviews — another radio no-no — and calls from listeners.

Most of Australia’s top radio hosts have teams of producers preparing background of guests and the issues on which they wish to speak. King would have none of it. He wouldn’t listen to a rock star’s record, or read an author’s book.

He wanted to approach the ­interview from the position of his listeners. He’d get the title wrong, or mispronounce it, be corrected by his subject, and then ask: “What’s your favourite chapter?”

Larry King (left) shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Picture: AFP

He was never a tough interviewer. He chose that not to be his style. It was always a chat.

Which is how he had so many influential people sit opposite him, usually separated by a theatrically antique microphone. And he was always a hit with the women, many of whom he married.

Born in Brooklyn as Lawrence Harvey Zeiger in 1933, he once ­described himself as “an acne-faced, overweight Jewish kid whose father died, who was on welfare (and) whose mother spoiled him”.

As a child, he was nicknamed Mouthpiece, and was convinced that some day people would listen to him. He recalled standing on a neighbourhood street corner doing an imaginary radio broadcast: “Here comes a Dodge, now, folks. A big Dodge with whitewalls, New York plates, man in a suit at the wheel and a woman with a hat beside him, yes!”

Later, chancing upon a radio executive, he was directed to Florida, where there might be some broadcasting opportunities. He went south where he found himself interviewing people in a diner. Day one it was the waitress. On day two, singer Bobby Darin walked in. He was on his way.

(Larry King and his wife Shawn Southwick. Picture: AFP