Mark's 11am Monologue.

Curtis continues as guest host for Mark Simone, paying tribute to two hard-working legends in the entertainment industry: the late, great Regis Philbin and talk radio icon Bob Grant. He discusses Regis Philbin’s remarkable journey through television and reflects on how Bob Grant influenced talk radio for generations of broadcasters.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now the Red Beret has returned to radio. Curtis Leewall
guest host the Mark Simone Show on sevent ten. Woor yeah,
oh boy. All these officials must cheat from one another.

(00:22):
You know Eric Adams swaggerman with no plan. Thank god,
he's gone claiming crimes at an all time load. Now,
if you're in the five boroughs of the city in
New York, you don't know what city he's in. Well,
that's right. Most times he hasn't even been in our city.
And then I heard that broadcasts about Ros Baraka, who,

(00:43):
like his father, hates cops. Who's his father is he?
I know? Look, look from West Milford. What would you know?
You know, you didn't grow up in Newark. I know
more about Newark than most people listening to this radio station.
Spent a lot of time there. But Rosbarock because father
was Lee Roy Jones. We then changed his name to

(01:06):
a mirror Baraka, poet, self described communists and hater of
everything white. If it was white, it wasn't right, and
the lifelong enemy of Tony Imperiali, who at the Northward
Citizens Association and kept that area along Bloomfield Avenue from

(01:27):
burning down during the riots. Unfortunately the rest of the
city decimated and no has not returned since crime is
high there. You want to go to Weekwake Park. You
want to go to broad and Market. By the way
broad and Market is he want you to go to
Penn Station in Newark. Yeah, they're all called Penn Station, Baltimore,

(01:49):
Penn Station, Phillip, Penn Station, Washington. I want you to
go to Penn Station in Newark. You take the Path
train there in New Jersey trans and I want you
to walk over the broad and Mind. You'll see the
goldleaf dome of City Hall there. And you need to
know they're back in about nineteen twenty twenty two on

(02:10):
the sixth floor of one of the biggest retailers of
all time, Bamburgers. Oh yeah, there used to be all
the big stores there along Broader Market, same as you
had in New York. Was where w R got its
license to broadcasts. And that's where I think the first

(02:32):
of the three Gamblings was broadcasting from six floorda no
longer Bamburgers, obviously. And to tell you how bad things
are in Newark, don't listen to Rasbaraka. He hates cops.
There used to be more Cadillac dealerships in Newark than
any other city in the nation, more than even in Detroit,

(02:54):
where the Cadillacs were coming off the assembly line. And
we'll go right into the some we'll go right into
the showcased halls, and you could get a Cadillac cheaper
there than anywhere. And my uncle's on the Italian American side,
the Bianchino side. They all love Cadillacs back then, or

(03:17):
Italian guys. That was the sign of success in El Dorado, Fleetwood, Seville,
you know where they went to buy their Cadillacs and
then trade it in every year for a new Cadillac. Newark.
Then the riots hit. You can't even buy or used
Cadillac anywhere in Newark now, So stop this nonsense. Oh no,

(03:37):
it's safer than it's ever been. New York City, safer
than it's ever been. Who knows more about both those
cities than me? Yes, truly, Curtis Sliwa, Get out of here.
Rose Baraka, the evil seed did not fall far from
the rotten tree of leit Roy Jones aka Emira Baraka

(03:59):
a selfish describe communists. You know how that's been thrown
around Zoron Mondami. You know Kami Mondam. He's not a communist,
he's a socialists. But Leroy Jones was a communist. And
we'll get one guarantee. If you were white, you were
not right. All right, Just a little side note there.

(04:20):
I want to get back on track though, because we
are doing homage, as oftentimes Mark Simone would do. Nobody
knows more about television, movies, radio and its history than
Mark Simone. But I was sitting with Tom Cuddy yesterday
after the show and the name of Regis Philbin popped up,

(04:43):
and without a doubt, Regi's Philbin was the hardest working
guy in all of television. And I know for a
lot of people, they don't even think about Regis Philbin anymore.
Shame shame on you. Local guy, Bronx kid van Nass
not far from Morris par Arc went to Cardinal Hayes,
a Hayesman by the way, like Bernard McGirk, who I'll

(05:06):
be talking about tomorrow doing my annual tribute. But I
got to tell you, Regis Philman his father, Irish, named
him Regis because he wanted him to go to Regis
High School in Manhattan, which is the elite Jesuit high
school can't be elite if Fauci went there from Benson
Hurts and he is Udscratziata. He will burn in hell,

(05:27):
if nothing more for what he did in sending beagles
over to Tunisia, third world country, to experiment on them
at our taxpayer's expense and torture them for no purpose
other than he's probably a satist, but anyway, just to divert.
So Regis got his name Regis because his father said, Oh,

(05:47):
you're gonna go to Regis High School in Manhattan, the
elite Jesuit high school. And I would always say to
Regi's guys, because I went to Brooklyn Prep, where they
kicked me out my senior year, you're not a real
high school because you don't have a football team. And
they didn't and they still don't. So he grows up
in the Bronx, goes to Cardinal Hayes and the most

(06:09):
in I think the interesting thing is he surfaces in
nineteen sixty seven with a member of the rat Pack.
Remember the rat Pack. Oh you're all aware of that.
If you didn't grow up with them, you probably saw
the movie Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Junior, Peter Lawford,
and Joey Bishop. Joey Bishop, who I think had a

(06:29):
couple of call fe in the Bronx, was born there,
but I think grew up most of his life in Philadelphia.
By the way, that's where Dick Clark get it. Notice
how the synergy here. It's a stream of consciousness Dick
Clark American Bandstand, which eventually led to what you just
heard about, ABC's Dick Clark's New Yorkers Rocking Eve. You

(06:55):
know with Ryan Seacress. Knew Dick Clark, Ryan, you know
Dick Clark, although he has worked radio Ryan Seacrest, but
he's milk toast. As you know, I don't have time
to be watching milk Toast. Regis, on the other hand,
was always a Wisenheimer, will always slip you a mickey,

(07:17):
and I first remember watching him on the Joey Bishop Show.
I'm sure some of you did. He in competition, remember
with Johnny Carson, and his sidekick was Ed McMahon. By
the way, great actor, great actor. Does anybody out there
know was probably the very first vigilante movie about the

(07:37):
subways before there was Death Wish with Charles Bronson. I
mean it was a classic and Eddery McMahon had a
great party in it, great actor. He was a barker
on Atlantic City. He came up, became a sidekick for
Johnny Carson, you know the rest of that history. And
then of course you wanted him to come to your

(07:59):
door the public clearing house. I don't know if it
was a battle they were elbowing one another. Was it
Dick Clark or was it Ed McMahon, But anyway, because
then if you bought all the magazine subscriptions you might
become a millionaire. Oh, by the way, that was another
show that Regis Philbin hosted later on You Want to
Be a Millionaire? Who was that it came to your door?

(08:20):
Was that Dick Clark? Was at Ed McMahon. So anyway,
it was Joey Bishop and sidekick was Regis Philbin, and
Regis was good. It was a good combination. And then
all of a sudden Regis Philbin was no more, you know,
because those shows they come, they go, and all of

(08:41):
a sudden, Regis Philbin showed up on a TV station
in Los Angeles midday. I think it was Channel thirteen
or Channel nine. They have like these independent stations there
they all have talk shows, they do news many more
than we have. And you know who he replaced. He

(09:05):
replaced the king of talk radio, Bob Grant, who was
on television at that time. Oh no, no, no, there's so
much more to delve into. We ooh, but this is
a stream of consciousness, I said Dick Clark, if I
remember correctly, Dick Clark was from Mount Vernon, went to
high school in Mount Vernon. Radio guy was up there
in Utica, you know, with the brewery and the little

(09:26):
mafia there. It was a mafia town. And they went
to Syracuse University did radio there. Then all of a sudden,
he goes outside of Philly. He's on a radio station.
They're experimenting with like an American Bandstand format on the radio,
and the host goes on vacation, gets busted for duy

(09:46):
chrunkin driving and guess who takes over the show if
you're there at the right time, in the right place.
Dick Clark, and they also had an affiliate TV station,
and that's how I'm American Bandstand came about. And boy,
that was the time Philly was king. Oh man was
Philly King? Remember Mike Douglas Show, Mike Douglas. Roger Ailes

(10:11):
was the producer. They filmed that. It was late afternoon.
That was in Philadelphia. I remember watching Mike Douglas. I
think it was nineteen seventy two for a full week.
You know who co hosted with Mike Douglas, John Lennon
and your co owner four a full week. This is
mid afternoons. They had forty million viewers when the population

(10:36):
was a lot less than it is now. I remember
there was George Carlin was on, Ralph Nader, the Black
Panther Leader there, Bobby Seal I think he sells barbecue sauce. Anyway.
The point was it was so good, and then the
FBI Jay Gil Hoover muscled the Mike Douglas and said,

(10:58):
uh hmm, you don't want to be putting on television
enemies of America, especially when he heard him sing that song,
which I think he sang. I remember as a kid,
imagine nineteen seventy two. By the way, John Lennon used
to listen to talk radio. That's right ento Dakota. He

(11:21):
would listen to the old talker WMCA. That's where our
own Mark Simone got his start. So let it be
listened to the King of talk radio, Bob Grant and
go Nuts because obviously their politics couldn't be any more different.
And at times he would walk over. And this is

(11:41):
when you had celebrities walking all over New York City
on their own. They didn't have an entourage, no bodyguards.
I saw Mickey mantlehalf in the bag walking around in
the streets. For that broke my heart. I saw will
Clyde Fraser walking around on his own. I mean, you
got to see so many people and then all of
a sudden, you know, when Lennon was killed, that era

(12:02):
ended quick. But anyway, before that, he'd be listening to
WMCA all the way down on the dial. Now it's
like owned by Salem Communication, where you got to pay
if you're a holy roller or a preacher a dollar
a holler. Oh, they'll take your money and then they'll
put you on. But anyway, that was the big talk station,
our Peter Strauss ellen Strauss family owned. I believe that's

(12:26):
where Mark Simone got to start. That's where he met
Bob Grant. They were like ammonium bleached. They did not
get along, but I will tell you they had some
of the greatest radio of all time. So all of
a sudden you have John Ranny going over and I
think these studios at WABC at that time was right

(12:46):
across from Carnegie Hall. No security at that time. He
walk upstairs, he'd knock on the door and he go,
I want to go on and I want to contradict
what Bob Grant said. And the board operator would look
at it, Hey John Lennon and go back to the hosts,
and the host nah, come on, what are you half

(13:07):
in the bag? What are you dropping? LSD very popular
at that time. LSD, you know Tim Leary, and he
would come in and he would rant about Bob Grant.
See that's when you could do that. No security, you
don't have to provide identification. Remember it was John Lennon

(13:27):
who got in trouble when he said, you know, the
Beatles are more popular than Jesus Christ. Oh they were.
Radio stations wouldn't play Beatles music at that time, Remember
how popular. Remember, and the guy would be listening to
talk radio. Do you want to be a bird? Remember

(13:48):
that song from Easy Rider? I wonder if any of
you know that was the theme song to the guy
at night that he would listen to who was a radical,
the complete op a Bob Grant in the afternoon drive time.
He was a total radical who when the Simbionese Liberation
Army SINQ General General Liscimo Sinque declared war in America

(14:14):
and either kidnapped Pathy Patty Hurst or Tanya joined them,
he was praising them on the air. Yeah at the
old WMCA. Let's see if we can sort of massage
any of your memories can get back to our tribute
to the hardest working guy ever in TV, Regis Philmin

(14:36):
and the hardest working guy ever in radio talk radio,
Bob Grant. I'll conflate both of them as we do
our homage to the greats, the iconic figures who paved
the way for all of us, and little of any
tribute has ever made to how important they were to
this thing of ours. I will never forget, I know,

(14:58):
Mark Simon, never forget. Unfortunately, there are a lot of
people in our business who get their paycheck and they
either don't know, or if they do know, god forbid
they give any credit to these people. I'll tell you
this much, Bob Grant. You know who grew up listening
to Bob Grant. The rock grabbed all American Conservative voice.

(15:20):
Reason from Franklin, Long Island, Sean Hannity, you said him
many times, and you catch him in the afternoon drive
here wor seven ten Bill O'Reilly. Oh, he says it
many times, Mike Levin. When Bob Grant was exiled at
WWDB in Philadelphia. I'll get into that coming up next.
They all attribute this now, how it start to Bob Grant?

(15:43):
How come now little, if any attention is paid to
these folks who really paved the way, took a lot
of risks, got fired many times for taking a principal stand,
took a licking, only to come back ticking on. Number
is one eight hundred three two one zero seven ten.

(16:05):
That's one eight hundred three two one zero seven ten.