October 24, 2025 • 33 mins
Over 30 people, including NBA players, have been arrested on federal gambling-related investigations. Mark takes your calls! Mark interviews comedian and writer Mark Malkoff. Mark has a new book out called " Love Johnny Carson". The book highlights moments from Johnny's life on The Tonight Show and off-air action.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is seven tor Boy. The Mark Simoon Show starts now.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Well, it's Friday. Tomorrow, the election begins. The mayor all
election begins tomorrow. Early voting starts tomorrow and goes for
ten days. The election itself is a week from Tuesday.
It's almost here. Andrew Cuomo has picked up steam. He
had a good debate performance, which is unusual. He usually
(00:33):
is pretty bad in those debates. But some people think
he got shot up with some of that Joe Biden injection.
You'll suddenly give him some energy, some speed, and so
he was pretty good in that debate. Curtis most just
about everybody agrees won the debate. On content, on issues,
(00:54):
Curtis the winner. But but Cuomo energetic for the first time,
actually able to talk smoothly for the first time. Not great,
not great. The mom Donni still a better debater, But
since then, Clomo's picked up a little steam. I don't
know if it's enough. It may be way too late.
Eric Adams has endorsed Cuomo. Why does Eric Adams suddenly
(01:18):
endorse Cuomo? He just five minutes ago was calling him literally,
called him a snake and a liar. Well, as you know,
there were billionaires, zillionaires, big big, big, big money donors,
trying to help Cuomo like crazy, trying to bribe Curtis
out of the race, trying to bribe Eric Adams out
of the race. A lot of money being offered to
(01:39):
a lot of people to help Cuomo. And suddenly Adams
is endorsing Cuomo. I don't know anything, you do the math,
But there was Eric Adams yesterday endorsing Cuomo.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Well, you criticize Andrew and you call them names, you
know what, and he called me names. But you know what,
now it was time to fight for the family. And
I'm a fight for the family with Andrew Cuomo as
the next mayor of the City of New York.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
I'm fighting for the family of New York.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
That's why I'm here today to endorse Andrew Cuomo to
be part of this fight.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
All right, all right, yeah, I guess that's true. Cuomo
did call him names. And the fact that Adams kept
calling Cuomo names, called him a snake and a liar.
That's really not that unusual in politics. It happens all
the time. I remember George Bush calling Reagan all kinds
of names in the primary Voodoo Economics all that stuff,
and then when he got chosen as the running mate,
(02:36):
you forget about all that. It happens all the time,
all the time, even Trump. You know, when he was
in the primaries, he was calling Rubio names. Rubio called
him names. Same thing with just about everybody in the
in the primary. So you forget all that when it
comes time for a general election. But Cuomo, I don't
(02:58):
know he thinks. I don't know how much Eric Adams
helps him. He is voting. His numbers were single digits,
so there's not a lot of votes there. But they
stood there. They even hugged each other.
Speaker 5 (03:10):
I don't want to thank Mayor Adams for his support,
but more than for his support, the mayor put his
own ambition aside because he cares more about New York City.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
I see a little shot at Curtis there.
Speaker 5 (03:27):
New Yorker's vote, I win. New Yorkers reject this socialism,
reject the vision. If New Yorkers vote, I win.
Speaker 6 (03:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
No, he's back to the slow talking a little. Did
Curtis Curtis sliwa? We think Curtis would make the best mayor.
Curtis Sliwa? Did he want adams endorsement?
Speaker 7 (03:52):
I know they're going to be celebrating today, But when
I look at them today, two corrupt birds of a
feather flock together, they deserve one another.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
No, he didn't want adams endorsement.
Speaker 8 (04:04):
The rough birds of a feather flock to get I'm
not worried about that.
Speaker 7 (04:08):
Anybody who was going to vote Ferrick Adams I have
to wonder with.
Speaker 8 (04:13):
They've been these last four years because he is the
most corrupt man in the history of New York. So, hey,
Andrew Cuomo, you can have whatever votes he had. I
don't ever want Eric Adams.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Votes now again. Early voting starts tomorrow, so it's just
about over. But you know, there's still a week and
a half and they're trying to push Curtis out of
the race. Those same big money donors. They have this
fantasy that if Curtis dropped out, the votes would go
to Cuomo. Most people think that's ridiculous. Most of these
(04:48):
SLIWA voters hate Cuomo. Jimmy Faylor put it best. It
stead of like if the Yankees lose and the Red
Sox win and go on to the World Series, they
Yankee fans don't start rooting for the Red sox doesn't
just doesn't work that way. Well, get back to the
mayoral race. Lots to get to there. Leticia James, our sleezy,
dirty attorney General, is in Virginia right now. She's about
(05:11):
to go into court this morning. Looks like she will
be indicted for mortgage fraud if you look at the documents.
We assume the documents are all authentic, and if they are,
it looks like she's pretty guilty of mortgage fraud, deceiving
the bank. Now when you watch the reports, all you
hear about is Trump targeting, is targeting, is political enemies. Uh,
(05:34):
when Letitia James was inviting indicting here, you never heard
one person say she's targeting her political enemies. You never
heard the same anchors say that Governor Kathy Hogel jumps
in to defend Letitia James. You know, there's a lot
of sleezy deals around the whocal world. That stadium deal,
that virus testing deal, a lot of people that was
(05:56):
really sleezy. She didn't need anybody looking into That might
be one reason she's being so supportive of the attorney general.
But here she was defending Letitia James. The whole bunch
of slimy Jerry Nadler type democrats on stage with her.
Speaker 9 (06:10):
If they can do this to an attorney general of
a state like New York, heaven helped the.
Speaker 10 (06:16):
Rest of us, because they can come after anyone.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Well, actually they do all the time. People do get
arrested and indicted for this exact same crime, this mortgage fraud.
And this is not like what Trump did. You know
what they accused Trump of doing overvaluing his apartment, which
first of all, he didn't. If you look now at
the comparable you know, that's what they do in real estate,
you look at the comparable apartments and what they sold for.
He was pretty much right with his evaluation. But if
(06:44):
you look at his case, the crime, there was no crime.
He couldn't possibly have committed a crime because he knew
the bank knew, everybody knew that whatever evaluation he put
would never be seen by the bank. They would never
look at it. It says right in the documents, we're
not to look at your numbers. We won't use your numbers.
It says right in his document, don't use this number,
(07:05):
do your own. But they all know the bank doesn't
look at your number when they want to give you
an eight hundred million dollar loan. They send a team
of appraisers, they'll come decide what the number is. They
never even look at your number. Never. Now, in the
case of Letitia James, this is a crime that it's
easy to commit because the bank only looks at your number.
(07:28):
And in the words, if you say it's going to
be my primary residence, they take your word for it.
They don't follow you around for a year. They take
your word for it. And the reason she said it
was her prime going to be our primary residence. She'd
get a much better mortgage rate, she'd get a much
better tax rate. She was saving a lot of men.
So it was clearly when you do something like this,
it's clearly to defraud the bank, and you're on your taxes.
(07:52):
So she is going to have a problem today in court.
Now they're trying to go after the prosecutor who what
I was I believe a Trump attorney at one point,
But that's not unusual. Many times somebody's president and their
attorney or their legal team people like that all get
appointed as US attorneys. And then they attack her by saying,
(08:13):
even Hockel did that, she's a US attorney who has
no experience as a prosecutor. Well, that's pretty common. That
happens a lot. Chris Christy's a good example. He had
absolutely no experience as a prosecutor. I don't think he'd
ever even been in a courtroom before. But he'd been
a huge fundraiser for George W. Bush, so they appointed
(08:35):
him US attorney. Now, there's a lot of US attorneys
who are very experienced prosecutors, but there's a lot of
them get that appointment and they've never been a prosecutor.
So it's not unusual at all. But this is the
double standard the media Democrats are famous for. Another good
example is this what they're calling BDS. BDS is the
new disease. It's ballroom derangement syndrome. Liberals media melting down
(09:02):
over the ballroom, the construction which has taken place fourteen times,
the same exact corruption construction with the with the wrecking
ball and the cranes at fourteen times it's been done
at the White House. You know what's interesting the ballroom.
Have you seen the pictures of it. It's spectacular. This
Versailles like ballroom is absolutely enormous, spectacular, ornate, luxurious, three
(09:27):
hundred million. When Obama did his construction, he tore out
the was it the tennis courts? He tore out the
tennis courts and built a basketball court. He spent three
hundred and seventy six million, which is about four hundred
and fifty million in today's dollars. So the media totally corrupt.
(09:50):
Not one reporter, anchor media writer New York Times, nobody
has started to ask why would a basketball court, which
is just a slab of concrete, why would a basketball
court cost fifty percent more than this ballroom? It should
cost one fiftieth of what the ballroom costs. Not only
did it cost off more than the ballroom, Obama built
(10:13):
it to the tax beyers. In this case, Trump is
having it, he's paying for it, and some donors are
paying for it. So total total corruption on the part
of the media, never asking anything they should be asking, Hey,
that NBA scandal. A lot of arrests, reputed mobsters, thirteen
reputed mobsters busted alongside NBA stars, sweeping historic gambling bust
(10:40):
and the NBA terrified of this. They're tangled up in it.
Players throwing games, all sorts of stuff. Four teams, four
mob families, millions and millions and millions of dollars. It's
hard to believe anybody would fall for this, though. They
get a couple of famous athletes to lead high rollers
into this poker game where everything is real. The card
shuffler is rigged, the deck is rigged, everything is rigged.
(11:05):
This is like a real, uh, Henry Hill, Jimmy Burke
kind of a card game. Now what was his name
of the movie, Jimmy Conway, Remember Goodfellas, Henry Hill, Jimmy
Conway with that poker game. So why would you if
you're a big NBA star and these guys, If you
look at these guys, they've each made like one hundred
and fifty million, two hundred million, you're multi, multi, multi millionaires.
(11:28):
Why would they get involved in something like this? Well,
it's usually two reasons. One, they're in debt to the mob,
the gambling debts, or something in debt somehow. But again,
if you're worth one hundred and fifty million, it's hard
to believe they're in debt to the mob. It could
be that could be it, or it could be they
were involved in something else, some other total sleazy, dirty,
(11:50):
bad behavior. Something they were doing that the mob knew
about or had something to do with it, and are
blackmailing him into this. It could be that too, who knows.
But the bust was pretty pretty big yesterday. Here's a
cash pttel FBI director on it.
Speaker 10 (12:08):
It's not one hundreds of dollars. It's not thousands of dollars.
It's not tens of thousands of dollars. It's not even
millions of dollars. We're talking about tens of millions of
dollars in fraud and theft and robbery across a multi
year investigation.
Speaker 11 (12:23):
Yeah, the sports books themselves are victims in this case.
Speaker 12 (12:28):
They at themselves did not.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
As far as our.
Speaker 11 (12:32):
Investigation has concluded, they did not perpetrate anything unlawful.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Yeah, now you gotta wonder a big high roller players,
what are they doing in this kind of game? You
know you can bet anywhere now? They got legal betting,
They got those betting sites. You can go to Las Vegas.
You don't need to go see Jimmy Conway and Henry
Hill here.
Speaker 11 (12:48):
Once the game was underway, the defendants fleeced the victims
out of tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars per game.
The defendants used a variety of very sophisticated cheating technologies,
some of which were provided by other defendants in exchange
for a share of the profits from the scheme.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
It does sound pretty good. This is going to be
one big movie one day.
Speaker 11 (13:12):
Between December twenty twenty two and March twenty twenty four,
these defendants perpetrated a scheme to defraud by betting on
inside non public information about NBA athletes and teams. The
non public information included when specific players would be sitting
out future games or when they would pull themselves out
(13:36):
early for purported injuries or illnesses.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
All right, but that's gone on before. We've seen that
through the years, and in the age of Twitter and
social media and TikTok and all that stuff, you'd think
that information would fly around a lot more than it
even does now.
Speaker 13 (13:51):
Cash Betel, not only did we crack into the fraud
that these perpetrators committed on the grand stage the NBA,
but we also entered and executed a system of justice
against La Caasanoshra to include the Bonano, Gambino, Geneveci and
New Chase crime families.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
La Coosa and Nostra. When is the last time you
heard that phrase.
Speaker 10 (14:16):
This is an illegal gambling operation and sports rigging operation
that spanned the course of years. The FBI let a
coordinated takedown across eleven states to arrest over thirty individuals
today responsible for this case, which is very much ongoing.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Yeah, pretty amazing. It's quite a story. The only problem
I wish this would happen in a few weeks from now.
The only problem with this case, it's grabbing all the headlines.
It's covering up the Letitia James indictment. In fact, the
James indictment last night, if you were watching the news,
it was like fifteen minutes into the news because this
thing took up the whole first ten minutes. But sometime
(14:52):
this morning we'll hear that Tish James was indicted. But
this NBA thing looks like over thirty people so far
have been indicted. You'll see more names added to that.
This will grow and mushroom and anyway, Hey, we got
a lot to get to. Hey, we'll get to Johnny Carson.
It's the one hundredth birthday of Johnny Carson, the greatest
talk show host ever, the greatest late night host. We'll
talk about him in a few minutes. Oh, we'll take
(15:14):
some calls. Next eight hundred three to two one zero
seven ten. Is the number eight hundred three to two
one zero seven ten.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Give WR a bre said on the iHeartRadio app to
hear Mark Simone and all the WR hosts in an instance.
Now back to the Mark Simo Show on WR.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Hey, Well, let's take some calls. Let's go to Frank
in Phoenix. Frank, how you doing?
Speaker 14 (15:42):
Hey, Mark, how's it going?
Speaker 4 (15:43):
Mark?
Speaker 14 (15:44):
I have a question for Vincent.
Speaker 6 (15:47):
The question is.
Speaker 14 (15:49):
Scandal now with the mafia with this bedding, going back
as far as Luciano and what see, youse guys have
always had an ability to make millions of dollars. Listen,
do you think these guys have done the same kind
of business if they were straight and narrow?
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Now, it's why would you tie Vincent to this kind
of stuff? Anyway, we'll see if he calls. Let's go
to Kathy North Carolina. Kathy, how you doing?
Speaker 9 (16:12):
Oh I good morning, Good morning, Vincent. That's a good question.
By the way, there's so many important topics that I
want to talk about. Kiss because I heard your interview
with Scott Shannon, the Fabulous DJ, and he brought up
that Ace Frayley had died recently, which I didn't know
until I heard your show. That's so great you're getting
(16:35):
pardon no, that Ace Frayley died.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
That's great.
Speaker 9 (16:39):
No, it's not great. It's great that I learned it
from you. Thank you for I'm sorry.
Speaker 14 (16:44):
That was awful.
Speaker 9 (16:45):
They're getting, you know, nominated, or they're for the Lincoln
Center thing. But anyway, I wanted to give you my
quick Ace Frayley story because he did want and it
was fabulous. Scott Shannon told a great story. But they
were just they eat, breathed, and ate, you know, rock
and roll all night and party every day. I spent
a weekend with them.
Speaker 14 (17:03):
On tour too.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
You spent a weekend with kiss Huh yeah, I.
Speaker 9 (17:07):
Know that's but anyway, but for but in memory of Ace,
my story is that I was I was, uh, we
were trying to figure out what to do for the
weekend because they go, we.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Gotta we gotta get right to the story. We don't
have this kind of time.
Speaker 9 (17:19):
Okay, So anyway, I said, let's go to Disney World.
It's you know, rides, and it's going to be too long.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
We'll never get to this just get right to the
good part.
Speaker 9 (17:28):
He said, Baby, I am Disney World anyway, long live.
Speaker 12 (17:31):
Yes, there you go, Baby, I.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Am Disney World. I don't know. I mean, I met
the guy a few times. He didn't look like maybe
maybe great adventure. I don't think he was Disney World,
but who knows. Let's go to Mike and Florida. Mike,
how you doing?
Speaker 14 (17:48):
Wait a minute, this is gonna be go ahead, Good morning, Hi,
Buck kissed too.
Speaker 12 (17:54):
The question about I want to ask you about heavy Como.
I was from the stumbled course to of my favorite
songs by him, Round and Round the best.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Hey, you know what you you have to calls back.
Not your fault, something screwed up with it. We have
these we have these digital phones. That's why sometimes it
sounds so sped up. Let's go to Oh there is
Vincent and Brooklyn Vincent, how you doing?
Speaker 4 (18:16):
Good morning? Mark? Can you hear me? Okay? Yeah, okay, you.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Know it's always that line line eight. It's always on
that line where that stuff happened.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
Yeah. I called once. I called a couple of minutes
ago and immediately dropped and I called back from christ book. Mean,
I don't know what this world is coming to Jesus Christ.
Can't these guys even just be honest gangsters in payout?
And I say that because fifty years ago, back in
the day I ran a gambling joint. I'm shocked, and
(18:46):
there was there was none of those shenanigans going on.
In fact, I would even fund one of usually one
of the players at one of the tables was funded
by me. And what we would do is whatever I
would get sixty percent, I would give him forty percent.
But there was no cheating, none of those, none of
(19:07):
those shenanigans going on. I checked everybody when they came
in for weapons and stuff. I made the god the
women opened their pocketbook to see if they had anything
in there. And as long as long as you were
playing in my place, the food that drinks.
Speaker 6 (19:22):
Everything was the Executive Game, Yeah, exactly, every Saturday night
at twelve o'clock, and it was you had to be
You couldn't just come, you had to be a member.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
And it was like Tony Soprano with the Executive Game.
But let me ask you a question. If you just
did a normal poker game like Tony Sopranos or Henry Hill,
and you would make a nice profit, wouldn't you.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
Yeah, because I got a cut on every on every pot,
I got a cut. So I got a cut no
matter what I see your plate.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Why do you need to cheat?
Speaker 4 (19:54):
Then that's what I'm saying. I don't know, that's what
I'm saying. It's it's not. I knew a woman up
the street and when I was a kid, I used
to deliver the food to her house. She had a
game where people would come from all over and she
would pay This was before ubers that lift. She would
(20:15):
pay your cost service or the limousine to take you
to the game because you had to have so much
to sit at the table. And the game went on
all night and food and drink, everything was free as
long as you were playing, and she paid out. You know,
none of the shenanigan because they're making it. I was
(20:38):
making it out no matter what I was making it
that I got a cut of every part that was playing.
So I hadn't coming and going, so there was no
need to do stuff like that. And I don't need
thatound if somebody found out somebody was cheating, I don't
want nobody a shot or stamped in front of my place.
(21:00):
Oh uh No, it was to all the people I
know did it on me. I even had a game
in a hotel, the Hotel Saint George that mare knows.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
That's where the executive game was Tony Soprano.
Speaker 6 (21:13):
Remember it was in a hotel exactly every week it
changed up, Yeah, changed the room, and I would pay
off the house sticks that.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
They old day me and every very good vincent.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Excellent call, very informative. Hey, we got to take a
break for the news. But coming up, it's Johnny Carson's
one hundredth birthday. There's all kinds of celebrations and in
honor of that, a new book is out. It is
the definitive book on Johnny Carson. It is the most detailed,
fascinating book. We'll talk to the author next on seven
(21:45):
to ten W or.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Marximon on sevent ten WR.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Well, Hey, if you're a big Johnny Carson fan, listen carefully.
First of all, this is a thing called the Carson Podcast.
It's excellent. It's everything you could ever know about Johnny Carson.
Mark Malkoff the host, He's done like six hundred episodes
interviewing everybody that was ever on the Tonight Show, worked
at the Tonight Show. Listen, start listening to it the
Carson Podcast. Now that all turned into a book. It
(22:13):
just came out this week. The book is called Love
Johnny Carson. It is the most detailed, fascinating, never before
told story of Johnny Carson The Tonight Show. It's called
Love Johnny Carson. You can order it right now. Here's
the author, Mark Malkoff. Mark Malkoff, how you doing, Mark?
Speaker 12 (22:34):
It is so good to talk to you. Thanks for
having me on. And I have to tell you. Your
expertise on this book. I mean, you're very generous. You
say that you knew everything about Johnny Carson, and I
was the one person that presented all these new things
to you and some other people. But your expertise on
Carsons this dounds me. I'm grateful for your help in
(22:54):
this book, and you're all over the book with your
quotes and you've added so much to it. So thank you.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
I knew everything you could know about Johnny Carson. I
started listening to your podcast. I learned like twenty seven
thousand more things I didn't know now. But you're a
young guy, so you were not really around in the
original days of Carson. How did this love of Johnny
Carson start with you.
Speaker 12 (23:14):
You know, I was like five or six years old
and my dad would let me stay up on Friday
nights and watch Johnny and then they would do these
primetime anniversary shows every October, and I just the clip
shows were the best because I would watch Johnny with animals,
with kids, with senior citizens, the sketches, and he'd be
so funny and so witting. It was like this adult party,
(23:36):
and the politics at that time was over my head.
But you know, I was sixteen when he went out
the air on May twenty second, ninety two, and I
just missed him, like the nation missed him. And there
were just so many questions I had about the show.
Who was holding the curtain open for Johnny behind the scenes,
what was it like for a guest to be on
the show? So I just started this podcast and I
(23:59):
interviewed something like sixty or seventy Carson staff members. It
was with Irving Davis, the guy who held the curtain
open for Johnny for twenty years, to find out what
was going on behind the scenes, and it was just
this whole different world for me. It was amazing.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
So besides the funny and the guests in the entertainment.
There was something about Carson for a little kid, I
kind of the same thing. He would kind of like
teach you about how to be an adult, how to
have a personality, right, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 12 (24:26):
I think. So Johnny was really on the show all
about manners. He would say though the one time he
was knock good with his manners manners and he talked
about it on the shows and he struggled with this
was his drinking. He would stay on the show when
I drink, I have one extra drink, I would turn
into a table of the hunt. But he was all
about manners and he was really really good with his guests.
He never made fun of the people with some top
(24:48):
show hosts will try to get a laugh at the
expense his rule. Peter less Sali, Johnny's producer, told me uniquely,
Johnny was always make the guests look good. It was
not to get a laugh for himself. And just the
way he handled himself, the way he dressed, class that
he had I think really separated himself. And when you
were a kid, you're impressionable, and there was just something
really about him that was special.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Yeah, it's different when you look back now because it's
so many years, but at the time he was a
very cool guy too. You learned how to be cool watching.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Him with Oh.
Speaker 12 (25:18):
I mean, it's really interesting in the sixties, especially because
back then, you know, they go to Hollywood for these trips,
because the show is based in New York, and it's
the smoking and the drinking and the suits, and it's
like people like Dean Martin and Buddy Hackett and Rickles.
It was definitely this hip party and then, as you've
mentioned many times, in New York, it's this very high
(25:38):
brows show with you know, people like Jimmy Breslin and
Gorda Badal. At the same time, he could have the
funniest people like Rodney Dangerfield on, and I mean, I
think he just had such a good variety of guests.
His one only crack here for a guest was excellent.
If you were good at what you did, it didn't
didn't have to be Johnny's taste in music or whatever
(25:59):
you did, and he wanted you on. The show was
about excellence.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Yeah. Now, the book, you should get the book. It's
called Love Johnny Carson. It's a massive book with great pictures.
Everything you would want to know about Johnny Carson is
called love Johnny Carson, but he was also I was
a little kid. You know, he was the guy that
introduced us to everybody. He's the one that introduced you
to Don Rickles and Buddy Hackett and all those guys.
Speaker 12 (26:22):
But tell us about that part of it, yeah, I
mean definitely. In terms of the comedians. The one thing
that I that I really stuck out to me when
I talked to famous comedians especially is there was the
introducing of comics. I would talk to people like Drew Carrier,
talk to people like Bob Saget, and they would highlight
their TV guide when a comic would be on, and
(26:43):
it would be their introduction. And you know, everyone was
making their debut, everyone from Flip Wilson who said Johnny
did more for comedians than anybody I know. I mean
Flip ended up with his own show on an NBC
and his winning Emmys, David Letterman for appearances and his
guest hosting the shown Before he Knows It launches his career,
and it was just it was uniquely Johnny. I mean,
(27:05):
even people like Jimmy Buffett who told me he was
so excited to talk to me. I said, mister Buffett,
why would you be excited about to me? And he said,
going on Carson was the biggest break of my career.
And no one has ever asked me about it, no journalist,
no one has ever had And it was one of
those things where he introduced music, He introduced people like
Ross Perrot, the first billionaire. He was in New York
(27:26):
and they had him on, and that was he showed
up without any security. He showed up for his pre interview,
and that was his introduction to so many people that
became iconic.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Yeah. Well, obviously Ed McMahon a big part of the show,
no longer with us. But Doc Severnson is alive, isn't he?
Speaker 12 (27:44):
Doc has He's in Tennessee. We've talked on the phone
a bunch of times, and he's been on the Carson podcast.
And yeah, Doc, you know, I don't know if he's
still you know, unfortunately, you know, Carson's no longer with us.
He would have been one hundred years old yesterday. But
I think I can still get the sense talking to
Doc that he just how much he misses Johnny. I
don't think that hurt ever went away. I mean they
(28:05):
were really close. Now, Ed McMahon would say that that
him and Johnny were close, and they definitely had a bond,
but you know, Johnny and Doc would go on vacation
with the wives. Where Ed and Johnny were tight back
in the New York days, especially when they were hosting
an ABC show called Who Do You Trust? On forty
fourth Street which is now the Helen Hayes Theater. They
go to Sarti's in between shows, but they kind of
(28:26):
grew apart a little bit. Yeah, when they moved to Burbank.
But Doc, his memory, his recall is unbelievable. I mean
Doc was with Steve Allen. I mean he and Peter
Lesally are really build the lone people that are still
with us, Thank goodness.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Yeah, if you listen to the Carson podcast, which you should,
how many you did like three four episodes with Doc
telling all his stories.
Speaker 12 (28:46):
Yeah, it was with Doc a bunch of episodes, and
we are actually going to be releasing some new conversations
on the Carson Podcast. We did almost four hundred episodes
and then I did a lot of additional episodes or
in reviews for the book. People like Jane Lenno, people
like Mario Andretti who taught Johnny Carson how to drag
race in Indianapolis Speed Highway in the sixties when Johnny
(29:07):
did a big stump which was fun. So a lot
of new interviews, but yeah, I just I tried to
talk to as many people and then we're going to
be talking to a lot of new people as well.
That it's going to be on the Carson Podcast, so
stay tuned for that. But yeah, the stories are to
be told. I mean, the people that just tell me
it was the greatest time of their life. Yeah, there's
just it's endless.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
People pick on today's late night shows, but not to
pick on the host. But it's not their fault. The
bigness is gone. It's no longer a massive audience, no
longer these huge, big name stars. What do you think
the future is of late night It may not last
much longer.
Speaker 12 (29:44):
I'm going I don't. I just the business model seems
network TV. The ratings just keep going down every year.
I just don't think it's probably sustainable. I mean, let's
let's look at this. Johnny at one point was what
twenty five percent of all of the NBC's profits. I mean,
he was doing an hour in forty five minutes when
he started in New York. I mean he became NBC's
cash cow.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
This was a guy.
Speaker 12 (30:05):
When he started that the critics were like, is he
gonna last? Or we're going to is NBC going to
bring merv Griffin? And there were rumors Jack Parr was
going to come back. And Carson didn't even have his
own bathroom in his office at NBC when he started,
in his dressing room, he had to go to the
men's room with the key and was with all the employees.
They did not treat him like a star. So he
about nineteen sixty ford he breaks Judy Garland's record at
(30:28):
the Sahara Hotel in Vegas. He starts to get more power,
and once he starts to get more power and creative
power from the network and just became NBC's cash cow.
The tie change. By nineteen eighty he gets the ownership
of his show, which was completely unheard of, and NBC
is essentially working for Johnny. It's the polar opposite and
just that domination of a network. I don't think we'll
(30:51):
see that again.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Hey, we don't have much time with David. You mentioned
it's the hundredth birthday of Johnny Carson. What is going
on to celebrate that?
Speaker 12 (31:00):
Yeah, yesterday they did a big thing a Johnny's alma
mater at Lincoln I'm in the University of Nebraska. They
had some former Carson guests. They had Marilyn May who
went on the show a lot, who was a singer.
They had a comedian named Pat Hazel who was on
Carol Lee for Lance Burden maybe had an amazing Carson
debut as a magician. So they have that going on.
And I did a nice book signing last night. We
(31:21):
have We were packed signing books uptown in Manhattan. So yeah,
I've been just seeing so many people posting about Carson,
about the centennial, just about how much he's missed. And
the official Johnny Carson YouTube channel has over a million subscribers,
and it just tells you how much people miss this man.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Yeah, it's great stuff on YouTube. We're out of time,
but we'll do this again soon. But everybody love that Mark.
Speaker 12 (31:43):
Thank you for your generosa. You've been such a palent,
great phone.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Everybody get the book. Ordered the book. It's called Love
Johnny Carson. It's a long detail, it's everything you'd want
to know. About Johnny Carson. It's fascinating. It's called Love
Johnny Carson. And listen to the Carson Podcast, undreds of episodes.
You'll love this podcast. And Mark Malcoff, thanks for the book,
Thanks for the podcast.
Speaker 12 (32:06):
Thanks Mark for everything, Thanks for your support. We'll talk
to him.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Thank you all right, take care, Yeah, get the book.
Speaker 4 (32:11):
You'll love it.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Hey, coming up at noon today, don't forget. It's Buck
and Clay, excellent show every day at twelve noon. Sean
Hannity at three, the most listened to radio show in America.
Jesse Kelly at six, Jimmy Fayala at nine o'clock. Excellent
show every night nine o'clock on seven to ten WR.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
He's more Mark So mark'simone show on seven TENR.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Well, Hey, it's gonna be a nice weekend. I mean,
it's not summer anymore. It's pretty obvious, but it's just
like a fall weekend, like upper fifties. And actually the
leaves are right about peak. This is like the peak
weekend around here for leaf watching if you like staring
at leaves. But a lot of people do. So we
got a lot to get to in the next hour,
(32:58):
and we'll get to it. Right after the news. We're
here every day ten to noon On seven ten Woir
This is seven tor Boy. The Mark Simoon Show starts now.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Well, it's Friday. Tomorrow, the election begins. The mayor all
election begins tomorrow. Early voting starts tomorrow and goes for
ten days. The election itself is a week from Tuesday.
It's almost here. Andrew Cuomo has picked up steam. He
had a good debate performance, which is unusual. He usually
(00:33):
is pretty bad in those debates. But some people think
he got shot up with some of that Joe Biden injection.
You'll suddenly give him some energy, some speed, and so
he was pretty good in that debate. Curtis most just
about everybody agrees won the debate. On content, on issues,
(00:54):
Curtis the winner. But but Cuomo energetic for the first time,
actually able to talk smoothly for the first time. Not great,
not great. The mom Donni still a better debater, But
since then, Clomo's picked up a little steam. I don't
know if it's enough. It may be way too late.
Eric Adams has endorsed Cuomo. Why does Eric Adams suddenly
(01:18):
endorse Cuomo? He just five minutes ago was calling him literally,
called him a snake and a liar. Well, as you know,
there were billionaires, zillionaires, big big, big, big money donors,
trying to help Cuomo like crazy, trying to bribe Curtis
out of the race, trying to bribe Eric Adams out
of the race. A lot of money being offered to
(01:39):
a lot of people to help Cuomo. And suddenly Adams
is endorsing Cuomo. I don't know anything, you do the math,
But there was Eric Adams yesterday endorsing Cuomo.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Well, you criticize Andrew and you call them names, you
know what, and he called me names. But you know what,
now it was time to fight for the family. And
I'm a fight for the family with Andrew Cuomo as
the next mayor of the City of New York.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
I'm fighting for the family of New York.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
That's why I'm here today to endorse Andrew Cuomo to
be part of this fight.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
All right, all right, yeah, I guess that's true. Cuomo
did call him names. And the fact that Adams kept
calling Cuomo names, called him a snake and a liar.
That's really not that unusual in politics. It happens all
the time. I remember George Bush calling Reagan all kinds
of names in the primary Voodoo Economics all that stuff,
and then when he got chosen as the running mate,
(02:36):
you forget about all that. It happens all the time,
all the time, even Trump. You know, when he was
in the primaries, he was calling Rubio names. Rubio called
him names. Same thing with just about everybody in the
in the primary. So you forget all that when it
comes time for a general election. But Cuomo, I don't
(02:58):
know he thinks. I don't know how much Eric Adams
helps him. He is voting. His numbers were single digits,
so there's not a lot of votes there. But they
stood there. They even hugged each other.
Speaker 5 (03:10):
I don't want to thank Mayor Adams for his support,
but more than for his support, the mayor put his
own ambition aside because he cares more about New York City.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
I see a little shot at Curtis there.
Speaker 5 (03:27):
New Yorker's vote, I win. New Yorkers reject this socialism,
reject the vision. If New Yorkers vote, I win.
Speaker 6 (03:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
No, he's back to the slow talking a little. Did
Curtis Curtis sliwa? We think Curtis would make the best mayor.
Curtis Sliwa? Did he want adams endorsement?
Speaker 7 (03:52):
I know they're going to be celebrating today, But when
I look at them today, two corrupt birds of a
feather flock together, they deserve one another.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
No, he didn't want adams endorsement.
Speaker 8 (04:04):
The rough birds of a feather flock to get I'm
not worried about that.
Speaker 7 (04:08):
Anybody who was going to vote Ferrick Adams I have
to wonder with.
Speaker 8 (04:13):
They've been these last four years because he is the
most corrupt man in the history of New York. So, hey,
Andrew Cuomo, you can have whatever votes he had. I
don't ever want Eric Adams.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Votes now again. Early voting starts tomorrow, so it's just
about over. But you know, there's still a week and
a half and they're trying to push Curtis out of
the race. Those same big money donors. They have this
fantasy that if Curtis dropped out, the votes would go
to Cuomo. Most people think that's ridiculous. Most of these
(04:48):
SLIWA voters hate Cuomo. Jimmy Faylor put it best. It
stead of like if the Yankees lose and the Red
Sox win and go on to the World Series, they
Yankee fans don't start rooting for the Red sox doesn't
just doesn't work that way. Well, get back to the
mayoral race. Lots to get to there. Leticia James, our sleezy,
dirty attorney General, is in Virginia right now. She's about
(05:11):
to go into court this morning. Looks like she will
be indicted for mortgage fraud if you look at the documents.
We assume the documents are all authentic, and if they are,
it looks like she's pretty guilty of mortgage fraud, deceiving
the bank. Now when you watch the reports, all you
hear about is Trump targeting, is targeting, is political enemies. Uh,
(05:34):
when Letitia James was inviting indicting here, you never heard
one person say she's targeting her political enemies. You never
heard the same anchors say that Governor Kathy Hogel jumps
in to defend Letitia James. You know, there's a lot
of sleezy deals around the whocal world. That stadium deal,
that virus testing deal, a lot of people that was
(05:56):
really sleezy. She didn't need anybody looking into That might
be one reason she's being so supportive of the attorney general.
But here she was defending Letitia James. The whole bunch
of slimy Jerry Nadler type democrats on stage with her.
Speaker 9 (06:10):
If they can do this to an attorney general of
a state like New York, heaven helped the.
Speaker 10 (06:16):
Rest of us, because they can come after anyone.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Well, actually they do all the time. People do get
arrested and indicted for this exact same crime, this mortgage fraud.
And this is not like what Trump did. You know
what they accused Trump of doing overvaluing his apartment, which
first of all, he didn't. If you look now at
the comparable you know, that's what they do in real estate,
you look at the comparable apartments and what they sold for.
He was pretty much right with his evaluation. But if
(06:44):
you look at his case, the crime, there was no crime.
He couldn't possibly have committed a crime because he knew
the bank knew, everybody knew that whatever evaluation he put
would never be seen by the bank. They would never
look at it. It says right in the documents, we're
not to look at your numbers. We won't use your numbers.
It says right in his document, don't use this number,
(07:05):
do your own. But they all know the bank doesn't
look at your number when they want to give you
an eight hundred million dollar loan. They send a team
of appraisers, they'll come decide what the number is. They
never even look at your number. Never. Now, in the
case of Letitia James, this is a crime that it's
easy to commit because the bank only looks at your number.
(07:28):
And in the words, if you say it's going to
be my primary residence, they take your word for it.
They don't follow you around for a year. They take
your word for it. And the reason she said it
was her prime going to be our primary residence. She'd
get a much better mortgage rate, she'd get a much
better tax rate. She was saving a lot of men.
So it was clearly when you do something like this,
it's clearly to defraud the bank, and you're on your taxes.
(07:52):
So she is going to have a problem today in court.
Now they're trying to go after the prosecutor who what
I was I believe a Trump attorney at one point,
But that's not unusual. Many times somebody's president and their
attorney or their legal team people like that all get
appointed as US attorneys. And then they attack her by saying,
(08:13):
even Hockel did that, she's a US attorney who has
no experience as a prosecutor. Well, that's pretty common. That
happens a lot. Chris Christy's a good example. He had
absolutely no experience as a prosecutor. I don't think he'd
ever even been in a courtroom before. But he'd been
a huge fundraiser for George W. Bush, so they appointed
(08:35):
him US attorney. Now, there's a lot of US attorneys
who are very experienced prosecutors, but there's a lot of
them get that appointment and they've never been a prosecutor.
So it's not unusual at all. But this is the
double standard the media Democrats are famous for. Another good
example is this what they're calling BDS. BDS is the
new disease. It's ballroom derangement syndrome. Liberals media melting down
(09:02):
over the ballroom, the construction which has taken place fourteen times,
the same exact corruption construction with the with the wrecking
ball and the cranes at fourteen times it's been done
at the White House. You know what's interesting the ballroom.
Have you seen the pictures of it. It's spectacular. This
Versailles like ballroom is absolutely enormous, spectacular, ornate, luxurious, three
(09:27):
hundred million. When Obama did his construction, he tore out
the was it the tennis courts? He tore out the
tennis courts and built a basketball court. He spent three
hundred and seventy six million, which is about four hundred
and fifty million in today's dollars. So the media totally corrupt.
(09:50):
Not one reporter, anchor media writer New York Times, nobody
has started to ask why would a basketball court, which
is just a slab of concrete, why would a basketball
court cost fifty percent more than this ballroom? It should
cost one fiftieth of what the ballroom costs. Not only
did it cost off more than the ballroom, Obama built
(10:13):
it to the tax beyers. In this case, Trump is
having it, he's paying for it, and some donors are
paying for it. So total total corruption on the part
of the media, never asking anything they should be asking, Hey,
that NBA scandal. A lot of arrests, reputed mobsters, thirteen
reputed mobsters busted alongside NBA stars, sweeping historic gambling bust
(10:40):
and the NBA terrified of this. They're tangled up in it.
Players throwing games, all sorts of stuff. Four teams, four
mob families, millions and millions and millions of dollars. It's
hard to believe anybody would fall for this, though. They
get a couple of famous athletes to lead high rollers
into this poker game where everything is real. The card
shuffler is rigged, the deck is rigged, everything is rigged.
(11:05):
This is like a real, uh, Henry Hill, Jimmy Burke
kind of a card game. Now what was his name
of the movie, Jimmy Conway, Remember Goodfellas, Henry Hill, Jimmy
Conway with that poker game. So why would you if
you're a big NBA star and these guys, If you
look at these guys, they've each made like one hundred
and fifty million, two hundred million, you're multi, multi, multi millionaires.
(11:28):
Why would they get involved in something like this? Well,
it's usually two reasons. One, they're in debt to the mob,
the gambling debts, or something in debt somehow. But again,
if you're worth one hundred and fifty million, it's hard
to believe they're in debt to the mob. It could
be that could be it, or it could be they
were involved in something else, some other total sleazy, dirty,
(11:50):
bad behavior. Something they were doing that the mob knew
about or had something to do with it, and are
blackmailing him into this. It could be that too, who knows.
But the bust was pretty pretty big yesterday. Here's a
cash pttel FBI director on it.
Speaker 10 (12:08):
It's not one hundreds of dollars. It's not thousands of dollars.
It's not tens of thousands of dollars. It's not even
millions of dollars. We're talking about tens of millions of
dollars in fraud and theft and robbery across a multi
year investigation.
Speaker 11 (12:23):
Yeah, the sports books themselves are victims in this case.
Speaker 12 (12:28):
They at themselves did not.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
As far as our.
Speaker 11 (12:32):
Investigation has concluded, they did not perpetrate anything unlawful.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Yeah, now you gotta wonder a big high roller players,
what are they doing in this kind of game? You
know you can bet anywhere now? They got legal betting,
They got those betting sites. You can go to Las Vegas.
You don't need to go see Jimmy Conway and Henry
Hill here.
Speaker 11 (12:48):
Once the game was underway, the defendants fleeced the victims
out of tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars per game.
The defendants used a variety of very sophisticated cheating technologies,
some of which were provided by other defendants in exchange
for a share of the profits from the scheme.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
It does sound pretty good. This is going to be
one big movie one day.
Speaker 11 (13:12):
Between December twenty twenty two and March twenty twenty four,
these defendants perpetrated a scheme to defraud by betting on
inside non public information about NBA athletes and teams. The
non public information included when specific players would be sitting
out future games or when they would pull themselves out
(13:36):
early for purported injuries or illnesses.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
All right, but that's gone on before. We've seen that
through the years, and in the age of Twitter and
social media and TikTok and all that stuff, you'd think
that information would fly around a lot more than it
even does now.
Speaker 13 (13:51):
Cash Betel, not only did we crack into the fraud
that these perpetrators committed on the grand stage the NBA,
but we also entered and executed a system of justice
against La Caasanoshra to include the Bonano, Gambino, Geneveci and
New Chase crime families.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
La Coosa and Nostra. When is the last time you
heard that phrase.
Speaker 10 (14:16):
This is an illegal gambling operation and sports rigging operation
that spanned the course of years. The FBI let a
coordinated takedown across eleven states to arrest over thirty individuals
today responsible for this case, which is very much ongoing.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Yeah, pretty amazing. It's quite a story. The only problem
I wish this would happen in a few weeks from now.
The only problem with this case, it's grabbing all the headlines.
It's covering up the Letitia James indictment. In fact, the
James indictment last night, if you were watching the news,
it was like fifteen minutes into the news because this
thing took up the whole first ten minutes. But sometime
(14:52):
this morning we'll hear that Tish James was indicted. But
this NBA thing looks like over thirty people so far
have been indicted. You'll see more names added to that.
This will grow and mushroom and anyway, Hey, we got
a lot to get to. Hey, we'll get to Johnny Carson.
It's the one hundredth birthday of Johnny Carson, the greatest
talk show host ever, the greatest late night host. We'll
talk about him in a few minutes. Oh, we'll take
(15:14):
some calls. Next eight hundred three to two one zero
seven ten. Is the number eight hundred three to two
one zero seven ten.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Give WR a bre said on the iHeartRadio app to
hear Mark Simone and all the WR hosts in an instance.
Now back to the Mark Simo Show on WR.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Hey, Well, let's take some calls. Let's go to Frank
in Phoenix. Frank, how you doing?
Speaker 14 (15:42):
Hey, Mark, how's it going?
Speaker 4 (15:43):
Mark?
Speaker 14 (15:44):
I have a question for Vincent.
Speaker 6 (15:47):
The question is.
Speaker 14 (15:49):
Scandal now with the mafia with this bedding, going back
as far as Luciano and what see, youse guys have
always had an ability to make millions of dollars. Listen,
do you think these guys have done the same kind
of business if they were straight and narrow?
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Now, it's why would you tie Vincent to this kind
of stuff? Anyway, we'll see if he calls. Let's go
to Kathy North Carolina. Kathy, how you doing?
Speaker 9 (16:12):
Oh I good morning, Good morning, Vincent. That's a good question.
By the way, there's so many important topics that I
want to talk about. Kiss because I heard your interview
with Scott Shannon, the Fabulous DJ, and he brought up
that Ace Frayley had died recently, which I didn't know
until I heard your show. That's so great you're getting
(16:35):
pardon no, that Ace Frayley died.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
That's great.
Speaker 9 (16:39):
No, it's not great. It's great that I learned it
from you. Thank you for I'm sorry.
Speaker 14 (16:44):
That was awful.
Speaker 9 (16:45):
They're getting, you know, nominated, or they're for the Lincoln
Center thing. But anyway, I wanted to give you my
quick Ace Frayley story because he did want and it
was fabulous. Scott Shannon told a great story. But they
were just they eat, breathed, and ate, you know, rock
and roll all night and party every day. I spent
a weekend with them.
Speaker 14 (17:03):
On tour too.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
You spent a weekend with kiss Huh yeah, I.
Speaker 9 (17:07):
Know that's but anyway, but for but in memory of Ace,
my story is that I was I was, uh, we
were trying to figure out what to do for the
weekend because they go, we.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Gotta we gotta get right to the story. We don't
have this kind of time.
Speaker 9 (17:19):
Okay, So anyway, I said, let's go to Disney World.
It's you know, rides, and it's going to be too long.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
We'll never get to this just get right to the
good part.
Speaker 9 (17:28):
He said, Baby, I am Disney World anyway, long live.
Speaker 12 (17:31):
Yes, there you go, Baby, I.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Am Disney World. I don't know. I mean, I met
the guy a few times. He didn't look like maybe
maybe great adventure. I don't think he was Disney World,
but who knows. Let's go to Mike and Florida. Mike,
how you doing?
Speaker 14 (17:48):
Wait a minute, this is gonna be go ahead, Good morning, Hi,
Buck kissed too.
Speaker 12 (17:54):
The question about I want to ask you about heavy Como.
I was from the stumbled course to of my favorite
songs by him, Round and Round the best.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Hey, you know what you you have to calls back.
Not your fault, something screwed up with it. We have
these we have these digital phones. That's why sometimes it
sounds so sped up. Let's go to Oh there is
Vincent and Brooklyn Vincent, how you doing?
Speaker 4 (18:16):
Good morning? Mark? Can you hear me? Okay? Yeah, okay, you.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Know it's always that line line eight. It's always on
that line where that stuff happened.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
Yeah. I called once. I called a couple of minutes
ago and immediately dropped and I called back from christ book. Mean,
I don't know what this world is coming to Jesus Christ.
Can't these guys even just be honest gangsters in payout?
And I say that because fifty years ago, back in
the day I ran a gambling joint. I'm shocked, and
(18:46):
there was there was none of those shenanigans going on.
In fact, I would even fund one of usually one
of the players at one of the tables was funded
by me. And what we would do is whatever I
would get sixty percent, I would give him forty percent.
But there was no cheating, none of those, none of
(19:07):
those shenanigans going on. I checked everybody when they came
in for weapons and stuff. I made the god the
women opened their pocketbook to see if they had anything
in there. And as long as long as you were
playing in my place, the food that drinks.
Speaker 6 (19:22):
Everything was the Executive Game, Yeah, exactly, every Saturday night
at twelve o'clock, and it was you had to be
You couldn't just come, you had to be a member.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
And it was like Tony Soprano with the Executive Game.
But let me ask you a question. If you just
did a normal poker game like Tony Sopranos or Henry Hill,
and you would make a nice profit, wouldn't you.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
Yeah, because I got a cut on every on every pot,
I got a cut. So I got a cut no
matter what I see your plate.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Why do you need to cheat?
Speaker 4 (19:54):
Then that's what I'm saying. I don't know, that's what
I'm saying. It's it's not. I knew a woman up
the street and when I was a kid, I used
to deliver the food to her house. She had a
game where people would come from all over and she
would pay This was before ubers that lift. She would
(20:15):
pay your cost service or the limousine to take you
to the game because you had to have so much
to sit at the table. And the game went on
all night and food and drink, everything was free as
long as you were playing, and she paid out. You know,
none of the shenanigan because they're making it. I was
(20:38):
making it out no matter what I was making it
that I got a cut of every part that was playing.
So I hadn't coming and going, so there was no
need to do stuff like that. And I don't need
thatound if somebody found out somebody was cheating, I don't
want nobody a shot or stamped in front of my place.
(21:00):
Oh uh No, it was to all the people I
know did it on me. I even had a game
in a hotel, the Hotel Saint George that mare knows.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
That's where the executive game was Tony Soprano.
Speaker 6 (21:13):
Remember it was in a hotel exactly every week it
changed up, Yeah, changed the room, and I would pay
off the house sticks that.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
They old day me and every very good vincent.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Excellent call, very informative. Hey, we got to take a
break for the news. But coming up, it's Johnny Carson's
one hundredth birthday. There's all kinds of celebrations and in
honor of that, a new book is out. It is
the definitive book on Johnny Carson. It is the most detailed,
fascinating book. We'll talk to the author next on seven
(21:45):
to ten W or.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Marximon on sevent ten WR.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Well, Hey, if you're a big Johnny Carson fan, listen carefully.
First of all, this is a thing called the Carson Podcast.
It's excellent. It's everything you could ever know about Johnny Carson.
Mark Malkoff the host, He's done like six hundred episodes
interviewing everybody that was ever on the Tonight Show, worked
at the Tonight Show. Listen, start listening to it the
Carson Podcast. Now that all turned into a book. It
(22:13):
just came out this week. The book is called Love
Johnny Carson. It is the most detailed, fascinating, never before
told story of Johnny Carson The Tonight Show. It's called
Love Johnny Carson. You can order it right now. Here's
the author, Mark Malkoff. Mark Malkoff, how you doing, Mark?
Speaker 12 (22:34):
It is so good to talk to you. Thanks for
having me on. And I have to tell you. Your
expertise on this book. I mean, you're very generous. You
say that you knew everything about Johnny Carson, and I
was the one person that presented all these new things
to you and some other people. But your expertise on
Carsons this dounds me. I'm grateful for your help in
(22:54):
this book, and you're all over the book with your
quotes and you've added so much to it. So thank you.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
I knew everything you could know about Johnny Carson. I
started listening to your podcast. I learned like twenty seven
thousand more things I didn't know now. But you're a
young guy, so you were not really around in the
original days of Carson. How did this love of Johnny
Carson start with you.
Speaker 12 (23:14):
You know, I was like five or six years old
and my dad would let me stay up on Friday
nights and watch Johnny and then they would do these
primetime anniversary shows every October, and I just the clip
shows were the best because I would watch Johnny with animals,
with kids, with senior citizens, the sketches, and he'd be
so funny and so witting. It was like this adult party,
(23:36):
and the politics at that time was over my head.
But you know, I was sixteen when he went out
the air on May twenty second, ninety two, and I
just missed him, like the nation missed him. And there
were just so many questions I had about the show.
Who was holding the curtain open for Johnny behind the scenes,
what was it like for a guest to be on
the show? So I just started this podcast and I
(23:59):
interviewed something like sixty or seventy Carson staff members. It
was with Irving Davis, the guy who held the curtain
open for Johnny for twenty years, to find out what
was going on behind the scenes, and it was just
this whole different world for me. It was amazing.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
So besides the funny and the guests in the entertainment.
There was something about Carson for a little kid, I
kind of the same thing. He would kind of like
teach you about how to be an adult, how to
have a personality, right, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 12 (24:26):
I think. So Johnny was really on the show all
about manners. He would say though the one time he
was knock good with his manners manners and he talked
about it on the shows and he struggled with this
was his drinking. He would stay on the show when
I drink, I have one extra drink, I would turn
into a table of the hunt. But he was all
about manners and he was really really good with his guests.
He never made fun of the people with some top
(24:48):
show hosts will try to get a laugh at the
expense his rule. Peter less Sali, Johnny's producer, told me uniquely,
Johnny was always make the guests look good. It was
not to get a laugh for himself. And just the
way he handled himself, the way he dressed, class that
he had I think really separated himself. And when you
were a kid, you're impressionable, and there was just something
really about him that was special.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Yeah, it's different when you look back now because it's
so many years, but at the time he was a
very cool guy too. You learned how to be cool watching.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Him with Oh.
Speaker 12 (25:18):
I mean, it's really interesting in the sixties, especially because
back then, you know, they go to Hollywood for these trips,
because the show is based in New York, and it's
the smoking and the drinking and the suits, and it's
like people like Dean Martin and Buddy Hackett and Rickles.
It was definitely this hip party and then, as you've
mentioned many times, in New York, it's this very high
(25:38):
brows show with you know, people like Jimmy Breslin and
Gorda Badal. At the same time, he could have the
funniest people like Rodney Dangerfield on, and I mean, I
think he just had such a good variety of guests.
His one only crack here for a guest was excellent.
If you were good at what you did, it didn't
didn't have to be Johnny's taste in music or whatever
(25:59):
you did, and he wanted you on. The show was
about excellence.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Yeah. Now, the book, you should get the book. It's
called Love Johnny Carson. It's a massive book with great pictures.
Everything you would want to know about Johnny Carson is
called love Johnny Carson, but he was also I was
a little kid. You know, he was the guy that
introduced us to everybody. He's the one that introduced you
to Don Rickles and Buddy Hackett and all those guys.
Speaker 12 (26:22):
But tell us about that part of it, yeah, I
mean definitely. In terms of the comedians. The one thing
that I that I really stuck out to me when
I talked to famous comedians especially is there was the
introducing of comics. I would talk to people like Drew Carrier,
talk to people like Bob Saget, and they would highlight
their TV guide when a comic would be on, and
(26:43):
it would be their introduction. And you know, everyone was
making their debut, everyone from Flip Wilson who said Johnny
did more for comedians than anybody I know. I mean
Flip ended up with his own show on an NBC
and his winning Emmys, David Letterman for appearances and his
guest hosting the shown Before he Knows It launches his career,
and it was just it was uniquely Johnny. I mean,
(27:05):
even people like Jimmy Buffett who told me he was
so excited to talk to me. I said, mister Buffett,
why would you be excited about to me? And he said,
going on Carson was the biggest break of my career.
And no one has ever asked me about it, no journalist,
no one has ever had And it was one of
those things where he introduced music, He introduced people like
Ross Perrot, the first billionaire. He was in New York
(27:26):
and they had him on, and that was he showed
up without any security. He showed up for his pre interview,
and that was his introduction to so many people that
became iconic.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Yeah. Well, obviously Ed McMahon a big part of the show,
no longer with us. But Doc Severnson is alive, isn't he?
Speaker 12 (27:44):
Doc has He's in Tennessee. We've talked on the phone
a bunch of times, and he's been on the Carson podcast.
And yeah, Doc, you know, I don't know if he's
still you know, unfortunately, you know, Carson's no longer with us.
He would have been one hundred years old yesterday. But
I think I can still get the sense talking to
Doc that he just how much he misses Johnny. I
don't think that hurt ever went away. I mean they
(28:05):
were really close. Now, Ed McMahon would say that that
him and Johnny were close, and they definitely had a bond,
but you know, Johnny and Doc would go on vacation
with the wives. Where Ed and Johnny were tight back
in the New York days, especially when they were hosting
an ABC show called Who Do You Trust? On forty
fourth Street which is now the Helen Hayes Theater. They
go to Sarti's in between shows, but they kind of
(28:26):
grew apart a little bit. Yeah, when they moved to Burbank.
But Doc, his memory, his recall is unbelievable. I mean
Doc was with Steve Allen. I mean he and Peter
Lesally are really build the lone people that are still
with us, Thank goodness.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Yeah, if you listen to the Carson podcast, which you should,
how many you did like three four episodes with Doc
telling all his stories.
Speaker 12 (28:46):
Yeah, it was with Doc a bunch of episodes, and
we are actually going to be releasing some new conversations
on the Carson Podcast. We did almost four hundred episodes
and then I did a lot of additional episodes or
in reviews for the book. People like Jane Lenno, people
like Mario Andretti who taught Johnny Carson how to drag
race in Indianapolis Speed Highway in the sixties when Johnny
(29:07):
did a big stump which was fun. So a lot
of new interviews, but yeah, I just I tried to
talk to as many people and then we're going to
be talking to a lot of new people as well.
That it's going to be on the Carson Podcast, so
stay tuned for that. But yeah, the stories are to
be told. I mean, the people that just tell me
it was the greatest time of their life. Yeah, there's
just it's endless.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
People pick on today's late night shows, but not to
pick on the host. But it's not their fault. The
bigness is gone. It's no longer a massive audience, no
longer these huge, big name stars. What do you think
the future is of late night It may not last
much longer.
Speaker 12 (29:44):
I'm going I don't. I just the business model seems
network TV. The ratings just keep going down every year.
I just don't think it's probably sustainable. I mean, let's
let's look at this. Johnny at one point was what
twenty five percent of all of the NBC's profits. I mean,
he was doing an hour in forty five minutes when
he started in New York. I mean he became NBC's
cash cow.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
This was a guy.
Speaker 12 (30:05):
When he started that the critics were like, is he
gonna last? Or we're going to is NBC going to
bring merv Griffin? And there were rumors Jack Parr was
going to come back. And Carson didn't even have his
own bathroom in his office at NBC when he started,
in his dressing room, he had to go to the
men's room with the key and was with all the employees.
They did not treat him like a star. So he
about nineteen sixty ford he breaks Judy Garland's record at
(30:28):
the Sahara Hotel in Vegas. He starts to get more power,
and once he starts to get more power and creative
power from the network and just became NBC's cash cow.
The tie change. By nineteen eighty he gets the ownership
of his show, which was completely unheard of, and NBC
is essentially working for Johnny. It's the polar opposite and
just that domination of a network. I don't think we'll
(30:51):
see that again.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Hey, we don't have much time with David. You mentioned
it's the hundredth birthday of Johnny Carson. What is going
on to celebrate that?
Speaker 12 (31:00):
Yeah, yesterday they did a big thing a Johnny's alma
mater at Lincoln I'm in the University of Nebraska. They
had some former Carson guests. They had Marilyn May who
went on the show a lot, who was a singer.
They had a comedian named Pat Hazel who was on
Carol Lee for Lance Burden maybe had an amazing Carson
debut as a magician. So they have that going on.
And I did a nice book signing last night. We
(31:21):
have We were packed signing books uptown in Manhattan. So yeah,
I've been just seeing so many people posting about Carson,
about the centennial, just about how much he's missed. And
the official Johnny Carson YouTube channel has over a million subscribers,
and it just tells you how much people miss this man.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Yeah, it's great stuff on YouTube. We're out of time,
but we'll do this again soon. But everybody love that Mark.
Speaker 12 (31:43):
Thank you for your generosa. You've been such a palent,
great phone.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Everybody get the book. Ordered the book. It's called Love
Johnny Carson. It's a long detail, it's everything you'd want
to know. About Johnny Carson. It's fascinating. It's called Love
Johnny Carson. And listen to the Carson Podcast, undreds of episodes.
You'll love this podcast. And Mark Malcoff, thanks for the book,
Thanks for the podcast.
Speaker 12 (32:06):
Thanks Mark for everything, Thanks for your support. We'll talk
to him.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Thank you all right, take care, Yeah, get the book.
Speaker 4 (32:11):
You'll love it.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Hey, coming up at noon today, don't forget. It's Buck
and Clay, excellent show every day at twelve noon. Sean
Hannity at three, the most listened to radio show in America.
Jesse Kelly at six, Jimmy Fayala at nine o'clock. Excellent
show every night nine o'clock on seven to ten WR.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
He's more Mark So mark'simone show on seven TENR.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Well, Hey, it's gonna be a nice weekend. I mean,
it's not summer anymore. It's pretty obvious, but it's just
like a fall weekend, like upper fifties. And actually the
leaves are right about peak. This is like the peak
weekend around here for leaf watching if you like staring
at leaves. But a lot of people do. So we
got a lot to get to in the next hour,
(32:58):
and we'll get to it. Right after the news. We're
here every day ten to noon On seven ten Woir
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